Figurative semograms from a typological perspective: How classifier studies have advanced our understanding of form-meaning pairings in writing systems worldwide

The aim of this paper was to propose a unified model of the types of relationships between the iconic and graphemic meanings of semograms in figurative writing systems. To this end, we show that the figure of the synecdoche is central and makes it possible, in the various ways in which it is applied, to account for all the relationships attested in figurative scripts around the world.