Iconicity

Iconicity is an ambiguous linguistic term of art that refers to the concept of the icon within the meaning of Charles Sanders Peirce.

He referred

• In the wake of Charles W. Morris the degree of similarity (Morris: "Question of the degree of relationship ") of the iconic character with his reference object;
• The relationship between the expression and content of iconic characters. Iconicity is often translated as Denomination of linguistic expressions.

Typical examples of iconic idioms are

• Come under the knife
• Give the green light
• Sifted breathe air

Although they are metaphors, these idioms contain pictorial descriptions of the issues actually meant. The content is rendered iconic. However, the degree of imagery depends on the imagination of the receiver of the message, so that the iconicity is relative. Iconic characters such as pictures or paintings solve the viewer perception of similar reactions as the original. The blurrier or abstract it is the object shown, the more decreases the degree of iconicity.

Depending on the degree of resolution imaging techniques have deviated their representation of reality from that of the eye, such as ultrasound, X-rays, infrared images, computer tomography or micrographs a different iconicity. The same applies to the level of abstraction of pictograms.

The term is applied, for example, in the phraseology by Ken Farø.

See also: icon; Iconography, Ikonizismus