Causation and Iconicity: A Cognitive Approach

A major category of sign, for which a certain similarity between form and meaning can be claimed is called “icon”. Peirce not restrict the use of “icon” to sound-symbolic expression. Instead, he took a much wider view and extended the notion of icon to cover similarities between the structure of language and the structure of world. In cognitive linguistics, language is not considered as an objective and concrete phenomena, but it is a cognitive mental fact. Language in this approach is the product of mind which mirrors the mind. Language as a symbolic system categorizes the product of mental processes within a complex network of signs. On the other hand, causation as a cognitive system is one of the most fundamental categories in the mind or according to Lakoff a notion that exists in our thought (mind). Therefore, in this paper our concern will be primarily with the iconic relationship among causatives which have a bilateral and systematic relation with the outer world.The results indicate that the iconicity of order and distance are functioning in Persian causative constructions. The iconicity of order is illustrated by the fact that the order of constituents of a causative structure tends to reflect logical relations among their referents. In iconicity of distance, the principle is that the structure which is closely correlated mentally will also be closely associated physically. In fact, the close formal connection correlates with semantic connection. Thus, the formis said to be iconic with respect to the meaning. So, the notion of "iconicity" as a theoretical construct to explain linguistic facts (e.g. causative constructions) is functioning in cognitive grammar.