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Ideophones, Mimetics and Expressives
Edited by Kimi Akita and Prashant Pardeshi
[Iconicity in Language and Literature 16] 2019
► pp. 13–34

Chapter 1
‘Ideophone’ as a comparative concept

| Radboud University | Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics

This chapter makes the case for ‘ideophone’ as a comparative concept: a notion that captures a recurrent typological pattern and provides a template for understanding language-specific phenomena that prove similar. It revises an earlier definition to account for the observation that ideophones typically form an open lexical class, and uses insights from canonical typology to explore the larger typological space. According to the resulting definition, a canonical ideophone is a member of an open lexical class of marked words that depict sensory imagery. The five elements of this definition can be seen as dimensions that together generate a possibility space to characterise cross-linguistic diversity in depictive means of expression. This approach allows for the systematic comparative treatment of ideophones and ideophone-like phenomena. Some phenomena in the larger typological space are discussed to demonstrate the utility of the approach: phonaesthemes in European languages, specialised semantic classes in West-Chadic, diachronic diversions in Aslian, and depicting constructions in signed languages.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.‘Ideophone’ as a typological concept
    • 2.1Five key properties of ideophones
    • 2.2Refining the definition
    • 2.3Ideophones are not (just) iconic signs
  • 3.Ideophones and related phenomena
    • 3.1Phonaesthemes
    • 3.2Semantic subclasses: The case of Mwaghavul
    • 3.3Diachronic diversions: An Aslian parallel
    • 3.4Are there ideophones in signed languages?
  • 4.In closing
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 6 May 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ill.16.02din
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