Natura języka a obrazowanie: ikoniczność i mimetyzm. Na kanwie sporu między Karlem Bühlerem a Heinzem Wernerem .......... 105

IMAGERY AND THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE: ICONICITY AND MIMESIS. SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE DEBATE BETWEEN KARL BÜHLER AND HEINZ WERNER

A historical debate between two outstanding German psychologists – Karl Bühler and Heinz Werner – serves as the point of departure for my discussion of iconicity and its role in language. Against Bühler’s position, I argue that iconic motivation is indispensable not only in language genesis since iconicity also plays an important role in shaping the „symbolic field”. Against Werner’s position, I claim that a live connection between symbolic vehicles and physiognomic perception of entities – in other words, an awareness of iconic motivation in language use – is not necessary. This debate is placed in a contemporary context of research on the evolution of language, especially the notion of „mimesis” as developed by Merlin Donald.