Editing Iconicity (section)

==Quantity principle==
The use of quantity of phonetic material to iconically mark increased quality or quantity can be noted in the lengthening of words to indicate a greater degree, such as "{{not a typo|looong}}". It is also common to use [[reduplication]] to iconically mark increase, as [[Edward Sapir]] is quoted, “The process is generally employed, with self-evident symbolism, to indicate such concepts as distribution, plurality, repetition, customary activity, increase of size, added intensity, continuance” (1921:79). This has been confirmed by the comparative studies of Key (1965) and Moravcsik (1978).<ref>Moravcsik (1978)</ref> This can be seen, for example, in [[Amharic language|Amharic]], where ''{{lang|am|täsäbbärä}}'' means "it was broken" and ''{{lang|am|täsäbb'''ab'''ärä}}'' means that "it was shattered".

Iconic coding principles may be [[natural]] tendencies in language and are also part of our [[cognition|cognitive]] and [[biology|biological]] make-up. Whether iconicity is a part of language is an open debate in linguistics. For instance, [[Haspelmath]] has argued against iconicity, claiming that most iconic phenomena can be explained by frequency biases: since simpler meanings tend to be more frequent in the language use they tend to lose phonological material.

[[Onomatopoeia]] (and [[mimesis]] more broadly) may be seen as a kind of iconicity, though even onomatopoeic sounds have a large degree of arbitrariness.