A renewed interest in understanding the role of iconicity in the structure and processing of
signed languages is hampered by the conflation of iconicity and transparency in the
definition and operationalization of iconicity as a variable. We hypothesize that iconicity is
fundamentally different than transparency since it arises from individuals' experience with
the world and their language, and is subjectively mediated by the signers' construal of form
and meaning. We test this hypothesis by asking American Sign Language (ASL) signers and …

We would like to recognize the support of collaborators Meike Adam and Wiebke Iversen as
well as financial support from the SFB/FK 427,“Medien und Kulturelle Kommunikation” in
Köln/Aachen for the collection of the DGS data, as well as support to Jill P. Morford to
complete portions of this research as a Visiting Scholar at the Research Centre SFB 538:
Multilingualism.