percentage of signs resemble their referents in some way. That may be because the medium of sign, three-dimensional space, naturally allows more iconicity than oral language. In the era of the influential linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, it was assumed that the mapping between form and meaning in language must be completely arbitrary. Although onomatopoeia is a clear exception, since words like 'choo-choo' bear clear resemblance to the sounds that they mimic, the Saussurean approach was to treat them as marginal exceptions. ASL, with its significant inventory of iconic signs, directly challenges that theory. Research on acquisition of pronouns in ASL has shown that children do not always take advantage of the iconic properties of signs when they interpret their meaning. It has been found that when children acquire the pronoun "you", the iconicity of the point (at the child) is often confused, being treated more like a name. That is a similar finding to research in oral languages on pronoun acquisition. It has also been found that iconicity of signs does not affect immediate memory and recall; less iconic signs are remembered just as well as highly-iconic signs. See also American Sign Language grammar American Sign Language literature Baby sign language Bimodal bilingualism Great ape language, of which ASL has been one attempted mode Legal recognition of sign languages Pointing Sign name ASL interpreting Notes References Bibliography External links Accessible American Sign Language vocabulary site American Sign Language discussion forum One-stop resource American Sign Language and video dictionary National Institute of Deafness ASL section National Association of the Deaf ASL information American Sign Language The American Sign Language Linguistics Research Project Video Dictionary of ASL American Sign Language Dictionary American Sign Language family Articles containing video clips Deaf culture in the United States French Sign Language family Fusional languages Languages of Barbados Languages of Belize Languages of Botswana Languages of Burundi Sign languages of Canada Languages of Grenada Languages of Guyana Languages of Haiti Languages of Saint Kitts and Nevis Languages of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Languages of the United States Virgin Islands Sign languages of the United States Languages of Zimbabwe Subject–verb–object languages 1817 introductions Languages attested from the 19th century Languages of Canada Languages of the United States