Jarkko Keränen

This keynote presentation is motivated by my doctoral dissertation on iconicity – understood as the resemblance-based relationship between a sign and its object – in Finnish Sign Language from a multisensory perspective, encompassing all senses (vision, smell, touch, taste, and hearing) as well as emotions (e.g., happiness and anger). While focusing on iconicity, indexicality – the contiguity-based relationship – is essential to consider as part of iconicity.

Visuocentrism – a bias that privileges vision over other senses – has been predominant in sign language linguistics, influencing assumptions, explanations, and methodologies, particularly in studies of iconicity. Consequently, our understanding of iconicity in signed language remains limited, largely due to visuocentrism. To address this gap, my PhD dissertation examined how multisensory iconicity manifests in Finnish Sign Language, contributing to the multisensory turn in sign language linguistics.

My dissertation is article-based, consisting of three sub-studies and their corresponding peer-reviewed articles, with multiple methods employed in each. Informed by the conceptual-methodological framework of Cognitive Semiotics – the transdisciplinary study of meaning – it assumes that iconicity is grounded in human experience, highlighting the need to consider both iconicity and our bodily experience, which is fundamentally multisensory.

The dissertation concludes that, since both a sign and the object it refers to are multisensory – encompassing several sensory aspects on both sides – there are theoretically multiple possible relationships between the aspects of the two. However, the findings reveal certain frequencies and patterns in accordance with both semiotic and sensory aspects. Additionally, the findings have implications for both science and society.