The application of the principle of iconicity in English syntactic teaching

Abstract. The structures of language to a great extent can not be separated from the objective world， the experience and the cognitive structures of the humans. In this experiment， the principle of iconicity is applied in English syntactic teaching， and the results show that the application of the principle of iconicity in the classes can help the students better understand the syntactic knowledge， and can improve the effect of the syntactic acquisition.

Key words： Iconicity； English syntax； cognitive structure； teaching

The syntax is one of the difficulties in English teaching， and the teaching method in the past is based on the repeated training and the simple reflection， while ignoring the students' understanding of the relation between the linguistic forms and the meaning of the expression， and the outside world. The cognitive linguistics in the syntactic study have new perspectives， which have important enlightenment to the improvement of the syntactic teaching. Lakoff thinks that it is easier to learn the rational knowledge than the arbitrary knowledge， and it is simpler to memorize and use the rational knowledge than the arbitrary knowledge. Iconicity reveals the laws of language in a certain extent， which can help the students to reduce the burden of memorizing and processing the information， so as to grasp the rules of the language. Therefore， the application of the iconicity theory to the grammar teaching is of important value.

1. Syntactic iconicity

The theory of iconicity is an important view of the cognitive linguistics. In the semiotic theory， the iconicity refers to the similarity between the language signifier and the signified， and the iconicity in the cognitive linguistics refers to the relationship between the language and the thought， that is， the language structure directly reflects the experience structure. As Yan Chensong says， "The structure of language reflects the structure of people’s experience of some kind of degree."

Studies of the cognitive linguists suggest that there are complex， but generally non-arbitrary relationships in single and indivisible language symbols. "The syntax for each language， with the help of the conventional rules， has logical iconicity in syntax"， and so is the syntactic structure. Wang Yin believes that any language has much randomicity in the level of the pronunciation and the meaning， and has more iconicity at other levels， especially at the syntactic level. The study of Haiman shows that "the sentence surface form is the semantic iconicity schema， and the linguistic structures are often similar to the non language schema of our thinking， so the language is the schema." On the syntactic iconicity， the principles that the scholars summed up include： distance iconicity， quantity iconicity， sequencing iconicity.

Distance iconicity can be considered as the close similarity， namely in the empirical structures of people， the closer the relationship between the two structures is， the smaller the distance between them is according to the cognitive Gestalt principles. Reflecting in the language structures， the distance between the linguistic notations is the same as the corresponding distance between the concepts， so the distance between the linguistic notations in the same morpheme is nearest. For example， in the English structure， the conceptual distance between the two expressions linked by "and" is wider apart than that between the two expressions of direct apposition. In the following phrases， 1 （a） refers to two ribbons of different colors， and in 1 （b） the two kinds of colors belong to the same kind of ribbon.

1 （a）. Red ribbon and white ribbon

1 （b）. Red and white ribbon

Quantitative iconicity refers to the uniformity between the number of the language symbols and the amount of concepts. The simplest concepts are expressed in general by the relatively simple forms of expressions， while the complex concepts are expressed by the relatively complex structures， and this trend reflects the parallel of the language structures and the external world it represents and the structure of the concept. The structures of some active and passive sentences can be explained by this principle.

2 （a）. John drank the beer in a hurry.

2 （b）. The beer was drunk in a hurry.

2 （c）. John drinks a lot.

In the passive sentence of 2 （b）， the passive voice omitted the action subject， and 2 （c） has omitted the object of the action. The importance of these components compared to the expression in the sentence 2 （a） is correspondingly low. The similar expressions in English include "It is said / reported that…" and so on. Because it is not important who conducted the action， the agent can be omitted.

Iconicity of order means that the marshalling sequence of the units of the language symbols is similar to the sequence of the thinking， and is inseparable from the human thought， cultural tradition and cognitive order. Many languages of the world such as Chinese， English and so on are organized basically in accordance with the sequence of "subject - predicate - object"， which reflects the human thinking order.

The time sequence is the best embodiment of the principle. The narrative order of the sentences is consistent with the time sequence of the description. For example， the sentence 3 （a） is a reflection of a series of actions of David， while the sentence 3 （b） does not follow the logical sequence.

From the above analyses of the principles of the iconicity we can see that the language structures and the thinking structures as well as the structures of the human experience cannot be separated， and the syntactic iconicity principles provide an important theoretical basis for us to have a more in-depth analysis of the syntactic structure， to have syntactic classifications and to improve the syntactic teaching.

2. The main principles of the syntactic iconicity in English

2-1. The Principle of Distance Iconicity and the grammar teaching

The distance iconicity is also called the proximity iconicity， namely the cognitive similar concepts are also close in time and space of the language forms. It is easy for us to put together to think the information whose conceptual distances are similar， and which belongs to a group or a semantic field， or the consistency is higher， and the possibility of their co-occurrence is larger， and the distance to express the time code tends to be closer. There are many such applications of this principle in the teaching of the English grammar， such as the verb-object distance， the distance of possession， the attributive clauses， and a plurality of adjectives modifying a noun and so on.

2-1-1. The verb-object distance

In the verb-object collocation， the direct collocation of the verb and the object is similar to the direct relation of the actions， while the indirect verb-object relation is similar to the indirect interaction of the actions. That is to say， the verb needs the help of the preposition to act for the patient， and the distance between the action and the object is relatively far away. For example， in explaining "know on Sb" and "know of Sb" these two phrases， the former represents the direct relation （directly know someone）， and the latter expresses the indirect relation （indirectly know Sb）. If the English teachers can analyze and explain， from the perspective of the distance iconicity， they might play a multiplier teaching effect with half the effort. Another example， in the sentences， "She gives me a pen" and "She gives a pen to me"， the former stresses to give to me， and the latter mainly emphasizes to give the pen. The teachers use the principle of the distance iconicity， and the students will understand it more thoroughly.

2-1-2. Possessive distance

2-1-3. The non-restrictive attributive clause and the restrictive attributive clause

The non-restrictive attributive clause is not only one of the most important grammar items in English， but also a grammar item which is easily confused by the students in their learning and using. In fact， the principle of distance iconicity can well explain this difference， to enable the students to master the essential difference between them， thus flexibly using them. Formally speaking， compared with the restrictive attributive clause， there is a comma between the antecedent of the non restrictive attributive clause and the clause， and the distance is relatively far away， so the conceptual distance between the antecedent and the clause is relatively far. The clause is only the further supplement and explanation of the antecedent， and the deletion of the clause does not affect the integrity of the whole sentence.

2-1-4. The marshalling sequence of multiple attributes （adjectives）

The marshalling sequence of the multiple adjectives before the English headword could reflect the distance sequence. In English， when pluralities of adjectives modify a noun， the closer the word is to the headword in the concept， the more it is the main and essential property， and the closer it is to the headword. The objective characteristics are the essential attributes of things or concepts. Therefore， they are closer to the modified headword than the subjective characteristics， so that the general order of the adjectives is： the subjective adjectives + the objective adjectives. When several objective adjectives also modify a noun， generally speaking， the source， material， and use are more important than the size， shape， color， and old and new， and are closer to the headword， so that the marshalling sequence of multiple objective adjectives is： definitive + subjective adjective + size + shape + new and old + color + nationality （source） + material + usage + headword.

2-2. The Principle of Quantity Iconicity and the grammar teaching

The quantity iconicity refers to the number of units of a language is similar to the number and the complexity of the concepts they are to express. In other words， for the information the speaker thinks important and the information that the hearer is difficult to predict， the syntactic components to express them are larger， and the forms are more complex， and the information processing requires more efforts. So there will be more number of words in the language expression. If the language symbols increase， the information that the statements transference will also increase， and the strength of the semantics will also be different. The quantity iconicity can get good use in the English grammar teaching.

2-2-1. The Emphatic Pattern

Many English beginners do not know what course to take emphasis on English emphatic sentence patterns， and they think that they are totally different from the Chinese underlined sentence structures. In fact， as long as the teachers can properly explain using the quantity iconicity， it will allow the students to click into place. Compared with the declarative sentences， the emphatic sentence has a part that needs to be emphasized， so the emphasized information is more important， and the amount of information it contains in nature is larger than the general statement， and then the number of language codes is larger than that of the statement.

2-2-2. The overlapping phenomenon

There are large quantities of overlapping phenomena in the language， which can be explained through the quantity iconicity. For example， if we compare "She jumped" with "She jumped and jumped and jumped and jumped"， the amount of information the latter represents is much larger. In many languages， when the overlapping is in the nouns， the singular will represent the plural or the collective concept. If it is in the verb， it will represent the duration or completion of the action， while in adjectives， it will represent the reinforcing of the nature and condition.

3. The design of the experiments and the data analysis

3-1. The study of the question and the procedure of the experiment

The purpose of this experiment is to understand the basic understandings of the students to the theory of the iconicity， and test whether it is valid to apply the principle of the iconicity to the teaching process of the syntax. The research questions are as follows：

（1） Whether can the undergraduates of the non English majors understand the iconicity theory？

（2） Whether is the teaching method more effective or not when applied to the iconicity principles to interpret the English syntactic structures？

The experimental subjects in this project are the undergraduates of non English majors in Anyang Institute of Technology， belonging to two classes， with a total of 117 people. Among them， the number of people in Class 1 is 58， as the experimental class， who will accept this teaching experiment. The number in Class 2 is 59， which is the comparative class to test the actual utility of this teaching method.

The experimental procedures include the following three parts. First of all， let the two classes do the questionnaire， to understand the iconicity degree of the students on the iconicity knowledge. Let the two classes do the pre-test papers， and then tot up the results， and compare and analyze the results. Check the answers in Class 2， and briefly introduce the rules of the grammar. And introduce the corresponding principles of iconicity in the experimental class， and do some training combining with the syntactic structures. For example， the English learners often are confused about the sequence of the multiple adjectives before the noun， and the principle of order iconicity can help solve this problem. According to this principle， the distance between the modified determiners and the nouns and the conceptual distance should remain the same. If the qualifier is far away from the headword， it shows that the conceptual distance between both is farther.

3-2. Statistics and analysis of the experimental data

The part of the questionnaire has the investigation on students' cognition on the relationship between the language structures and the forms of the expression， that is， the iconicity principles， and the results show that only 4% of the students think that there is no link between the language and the thinking， while 95% of the students think that the formation of a language can not be separated from the history and culture of a nation and other social factors. Although only 20% of the students have heard of the iconicity theory， more than half of the students think that there is a link between the language structures and the thinking， and there is a connection with the significance. Almost all of the students think that the tone of voice and intonations will reflect the speaker's feelings and emotions. Statistics of the pre-test papers show that the average score of the experimental class is 21.43， while that of the comparison class is 22.3. The test result of the two results of the experimental class is 26.03， higher than that of the pre-test score 21.43.

3-3. The analyzes of the experimental results

Students have not much understanding of the theory of iconicity， but only a few have heard of this concept， but most students agree that there is the relationship between the language and the thinking， and that the language is a reflection of the mode of thinking， and is inseparable with the culture and history. Although specific to the grammatical structures， this relationship is not very obvious， and is not well understood， the cognitive basis provides a favorable basis for the application of the iconicity in the syntax teaching.

4. Conclusion

Through the questionnaire and two tests， this study confirms the application of the iconicity principles to the syntactic teaching can effectively improve the teaching effect， and the students’ achievements. The subjects of this experiment have high demand in the English grammar teaching and the learning methods， and they have the basic knowledge of the iconicity knowledge. In the teaching， teachers can use these needs and the cognitive basis of the students to provide relevant knowledge for the students， to help them form related mode of thinking， arouse their enthusiasm， and speed up the process of their syntactic acquisition.

References

[1] Humboldt. On the differences between the human language structures and the effect of it on the development of the human spirit [M]， Beijing： The Commercial Press， 2001， 2， （5）： 45-47

[2] Zhao Yanfang. An introduction to the cognitive linguistics [M]， Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press， 2001， 1， （7）： 66-68

[3] Wang Yin. Semantic theory and the language teaching [M]， Shanghai： Foreign Language Education Press， 2001， 3， （1）： 13-15