Article published in:
Morphology and Meaning: Selected papers from the 15th International Morphology Meeting, Vienna, February 2012
Edited by Franz Rainer, Francesco Gardani, Hans Christian Luschützky and Wolfgang U. Dressler
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 327] 2014
► pp. 303–314

Mimetic verbs and meaning

| Indiana University

This paper will discuss several lexical semantic differences between mimetic verbs and conventional prosaic verbs in Japanese, and show that meaning for mimetic verbs calls for a treatment distinct from that of lexical verbs. Taking into account the notion of ‘affect-imagistic dimension’ (Kita 1997) in which a mimetic base is represented in terms of its images, I will argue that an analysis that incorporates the basic premise of frame semantics and construction grammar can accommodate the seemingly idiosyncratic and unconventional lexical semantic properties of mimetic verbs. The wide range of semantic frames of mimetic verbs is thus fed by the numerous images of the mimetic base and the specific constructions in which they appear.

Published online: 27 February 2014
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.327.21tsu
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Cited by 7 other publications

Akita, Kimi
2017. The linguistic integration of Japanese ideophones and its typological implications. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 62:2 ► pp. 314 ff. Crossref logo
AKITA, KIMI & TAKESHI USUKI
2016. A constructional account of the ‘optional’ quotative marking on Japanese mimetics. Journal of Linguistics 52:2 ► pp. 245 ff. Crossref logo
Fidler, Masako U.
2019.  In Ideophones, Mimetics and Expressives [Iconicity in Language and Literature, 16], ► pp. 199 ff. Crossref logo
Hiraga, Masako K., William J. Herlofsky, Kazuko Shinohara & Kimi Akita
2015.  In Iconicity [Iconicity in Language and Literature, 14], ► pp. 1 ff. Crossref logo
Mattes, Veronika
2017. Iconicity in the lexicon. Studies in Language 41:4 ► pp. 813 ff. Crossref logo
Murasugi, Keiko
2019.  In Ideophones, Mimetics and Expressives [Iconicity in Language and Literature, 16], ► pp. 251 ff. Crossref logo
Park, Ji-Yeon
2020.  In Operationalizing Iconicity [Iconicity in Language and Literature, 17], ► pp. 58 ff. Crossref logo

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