Many of the signs produced across sign languages are iconic, in the sense that they resemble the concepts they represent. We examined whether location, one of basic sign parameters along with handshape and movement, is systematically used for purposes of iconicity. Our findings revealed a mapping of vertical sign space that is exploited in its entirety for encoding typical locations in natural space. In all of the twenty sign languages we analyzed, signs were more likely to have high locations with concepts typically occurring in high vs. low regions of natural space (e.g., cloud vs. root). Furthermore, the height of signs produced to identify a visual object varied depending on object position (e.g., it was higher for basketball in the basket than basketball on the floor). It thus appears that signing space is permeable to semantic and episodic features, and iconicity plays a crucial role in making signing space so adaptable.

中文翻译：

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双手表明事物在哪里：符号与自然空间之间的相似度。

在某种意义上，跨手语产生的许多符号都是标志性的，类似于它们所代表的概念。我们检查了位置（手势和动作的基本符号参数之一）是否被系统地用于标志性目的。我们的发现揭示了垂直标志空间的映射，该映射被整体用于编码自然空间中的典型位置。在我们分析的所有二十种符号语言中，符号更可能具有较高的位置，其概念通常出现在自然空间的高低区域（例如，云与根）。此外，为识别视觉对象而产生的标志的高度根据对象位置而变化（例如，篮筐中的篮球比地板上的篮球高）。