Iconicity in Discourse: The Story of Echo

A Classical Latin text, Ovid's metamorphosis about Echo, is analyzed using Givón's notion of topic continuity. The analysis reveals iconicity on the paradigmatic level of discourse. A problem encountered in applying Givón's iconicity principle is raised, and this leads to an alternative approach to iconicity in discourse, following Becker. This approach uncovers instances of another type of iconicity in the text, this time on the syntagmatic level, and leads to a discussion of the role of iconicity in the aesthetics of the text.