Woorde wat teken en be-teken - ikonisiteit in die poësie : navorsingsartikel

In hierdie artikel word verskillende aspekte van ikonisiteit as 'n eienskap van taal en poëtiese tekste ondersoek. Dit word gedoen in die lig van die oplewing in die debat oor die ikoniese aard en funksionering van taal deur te verwys na verskillende teoretiese opvattings oor ikonisiteit. Enkele verse van T.T. Cloete word na aanleiding van die ikoniese eienskappe daarin bespreek. Die belangrikste gevolgtrekkings waartoe opnuut in die artikel gekom word, is eerstens dat die funksionering en betekenisgenerering van 'n poëtiese teks nie voldoende op grond van linguistiese of semantiese eienskappe alleen verklaar kan word nie en dat betekenis in 'n gedig ook verband kan hou met die ikoniese of gemotiveerde ontstaan en argetipiese inhoude van taal; en tweedens dat die referensiële aspekte van poëtiese tekste steeds funksioneel bly en in interpretasie verreken moet word, omdat dit in samehang met die spesifieke vorms van ikonisiteit wat in die teks voorkom, die basis van betekenisgenerering en kommunikasie vorm. Words as signs and signatures - iconicity in poetic texts In this article aspects of iconicity in language and in poetic texts are discussed. The recent renewed interest in the anti-arbitrary debate is used as a point of departure in order to examine the iconic characteristics and the iconic functions of language and poetic texts. Some less known theoretic views on aspects of iconicity are mentioned and discussed. To underscore the theoretic discussion a few poems of the poet T.T. Cloete are analysed and interpreted focusing on iconicity. The most important conclusions which are once again put forward in the article are firstly that the functioning of poetic texts cannot be adequately described, analysed and interpreted according to logical semantic and linguistic systems alone and that the motivated or iconic origin and archetypical meanings in language can and may indeed play an important role in the production of meaning and secondly that the referential aspect of a text should not be neglected because text analyses of iconic poems once again underscore the view that referentiality indeed remains the basis of the production and communication of meaning.