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Chapter 7. The sensori-semantic clustering of ideophonic meaning in Pastaza Quichua

  • Janis B. Nuckolls
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Ideophones, Mimetics and Expressives
This chapter is in the book Ideophones, Mimetics and Expressives

Abstract

I formulate an approach to ideophone semantics which, though based on a corpus from Pastaza Quichua, a South American indigenous language, has potential for analyzing the semantics of ideophone systems more generally. Research on ideophones’ formal properties has preoccupied an increasing number of scholars, while systematic semantic analyses are lagging. Ideophones’ semantics pose challenges because of their intonation and gesture, sound symbolism, and sensory complexity. These qualities require an approach going beyond the traditional mono-sensory classifications, which have dominated ideophones’ semantic descriptions. Using a sensory cluster diagram featuring an implicational logic based on 10 super- and subcategories of sensory experience, this paper analyzes a sample of ideophones drawn from an online corpus featuring 500 archived ideophones.

Abstract

I formulate an approach to ideophone semantics which, though based on a corpus from Pastaza Quichua, a South American indigenous language, has potential for analyzing the semantics of ideophone systems more generally. Research on ideophones’ formal properties has preoccupied an increasing number of scholars, while systematic semantic analyses are lagging. Ideophones’ semantics pose challenges because of their intonation and gesture, sound symbolism, and sensory complexity. These qualities require an approach going beyond the traditional mono-sensory classifications, which have dominated ideophones’ semantic descriptions. Using a sensory cluster diagram featuring an implicational logic based on 10 super- and subcategories of sensory experience, this paper analyzes a sample of ideophones drawn from an online corpus featuring 500 archived ideophones.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Editors and contributors vii
  4. Abbreviations and symbols ix
  5. Introduction: Ideophones, mimetics, and expressives 1
  6. Part I. Phonology and morphology
  7. Chapter 1. ‘Ideophone’ as a comparative concept 13
  8. Chapter 2. The phonological structure of Japanese mimetics and motherese 35
  9. Chapter 3. Monosyllabic and disyllabic roots in the diachronic development of Japanese mimetics 57
  10. Chapter 4. Cross-linguistic variation in phonaesthemic canonicity, with special reference to Korean and English 77
  11. Chapter 5. Classification of nominal compounds containing mimetics 101
  12. Part II. Semantics and pragmatics
  13. Chapter 6. Towards a semantic typological classification of motion ideophones 137
  14. Chapter 7. The sensori-semantic clustering of ideophonic meaning in Pastaza Quichua 167
  15. Chapter 8. The power of ‘not saying who’ in Czech onomatopoeia 199
  16. Chapter 9. Mimetics, gaze, and facial expression in a multimodal corpus of Japanese 229
  17. Part III. Language acquisition and multilingualism
  18. Chapter 10. The structure of mimetic verbs in child and adult Japanese 251
  19. Chapter 11. Iconicity in L2 Japanese speakers’ multi-modal language use 265
  20. Chapter 12. Ideophones as a measure of multilingualism* 303
  21. Subject index 323
  22. Language index 325
https://doi.org/10.1075/ill.16.08nuc

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Editors and contributors vii
  4. Abbreviations and symbols ix
  5. Introduction: Ideophones, mimetics, and expressives 1
  6. Part I. Phonology and morphology
  7. Chapter 1. ‘Ideophone’ as a comparative concept 13
  8. Chapter 2. The phonological structure of Japanese mimetics and motherese 35
  9. Chapter 3. Monosyllabic and disyllabic roots in the diachronic development of Japanese mimetics 57
  10. Chapter 4. Cross-linguistic variation in phonaesthemic canonicity, with special reference to Korean and English 77
  11. Chapter 5. Classification of nominal compounds containing mimetics 101
  12. Part II. Semantics and pragmatics
  13. Chapter 6. Towards a semantic typological classification of motion ideophones 137
  14. Chapter 7. The sensori-semantic clustering of ideophonic meaning in Pastaza Quichua 167
  15. Chapter 8. The power of ‘not saying who’ in Czech onomatopoeia 199
  16. Chapter 9. Mimetics, gaze, and facial expression in a multimodal corpus of Japanese 229
  17. Part III. Language acquisition and multilingualism
  18. Chapter 10. The structure of mimetic verbs in child and adult Japanese 251
  19. Chapter 11. Iconicity in L2 Japanese speakers’ multi-modal language use 265
  20. Chapter 12. Ideophones as a measure of multilingualism* 303
  21. Subject index 323
  22. Language index 325
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