Cover not available
Part of
Ideophones, Mimetics and Expressives
Edited by Kimi Akita and Prashant Pardeshi
[Iconicity in Language and Literature 16] 2019
► pp. 265–302

Chapter 11
Iconicity in L2 Japanese speakers’ multi-modal language use

Mimetics and co-speech gesture in relation to L1 and Japanese proficiency

| SOAS University of London | Nanzan University
| Leiden University
Japanese mimetics are often reported to be difficult for speakers of Japanese as a second/foreign language (L2). Recent work examining L2 Japanese learners’ comprehension/perception (e.g., Naito-Billen 2013; Nakaishi et al. 2014) found that understanding mimetics is indeed challenging even for advanced learners, but less is known about L2 speakers’ spontaneous use of mimetics and gesture, which are known to co-occur (Kita 1997). We examined the use of mimetics and co-speech gesture by L2 Japanese speakers whose first language (L1) is either English or Korean, focusing on narrations of video clips. The aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the role of L2 Japanese speakers’ L1 and their L2 proficiency in the use of mimetics (highly iconic phonomimes and less iconic phenomimes) and co-speech gesture. Our analyses show that differences in the availability of mimetics in a speaker’s L1 affect the use of L2 mimetics and gesture in a subtle manner. Regardless of L1, L2 Japanese speakers produced iconic co-speech gestures accompanying mimetics, especially for phonomimes. While the frequency of mimetics use does not correlate with the level of proficiency, the pattern of mimetic-gesture synchronization seems to reflect L2 proficiency. The results are discussed in terms of the two modes of representations involved in language use (Kita 1997; Dingemanse and Akita 2017).
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous studies
    • 2.1Sound-symbolism and mimetics in L1 Japanese acquisition
    • 2.2Sound symbolism and Japanese mimetics in L2 learning
    • 2.3Mimetics in English and in Korean
    • 2.4Mimetics and gesture
      • 2.4.1Co-speech gesture and mimetics
      • 2.4.2Mimetic-gesture synchronization patterns
  • 3.Current study: Research questions
  • 4.Method
    • 4.1Participants
    • 4.2Stimuli
    • 4.3Data collection procedure
    • 4.4Method of analysis
  • 5.Use of mimetics
    • 5.1RQ1: When speaking Japanese as L2, how often do L1 English and L1 Korean speakers use mimetics?
    • 5.2RQ2: Is L2 use of mimetics related to Japanese proficiency?
    • 5.3Discussion on the use of mimetics
  • 6.Co-production of mimetics and gesture
    • 6.1RQ3: When speaking Japanese as L2, how often do L1 English and L1 Korean speakers produce gestures accompanying mimetics?
    • 6.2RQ4: Is L2 Japanese speakers’ co-production of mimetics and gesture related to their Japanese proficiency?
    • 6.3Discussion on mimetic-gesture co-production
  • 7.General discussion and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 6 May 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ill.16.12iwa
References (87)
References
Abe, Y. 2011. Nikkan ni okeru onomatope unyō no shosō. [Various aspects of use of mimetics in Japanese and in Korean]. Fuji Joshi Daigaku Kokubun Zasshi 85: 1–17.Google Scholar
Alibali, M. W., Heath, D. C. and Myers, H. J. 2001. Effects of visibility between speaker and listener on gesture production: Some gestures are meant to be seen. Journal of Memory and Language 44: 169–188. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Akimoto, M. 2007. Nihongo kyōiku ni okeru onomatope no ichizuke. [The place of mimetics in Japanese language education]. Nihongogaku 26 (5): 24–34.Google Scholar
Akita, K. 2013. Constraints on the semantic extension of onomatopoeia. The Public Journal of Semiotics 5: 21–37. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baba, J. 2003. Pragmatic function of Japanese mimetics in the spoken discourse of varying emotive intensity levels. Journal of Pragmatics 35: 1861–1889. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bavelas, J., Kenwood, C., Johnson, T. and Phillips, B. 2002. An experimental study of when and how speakers gestures to communicate. Gesture 6: 63–84.Google Scholar
Brown, A. 2015. Universal development and L1-L2 convergence in bilingual construal of manner in speech and gesture in Mandarin, Japanese and English. The Modern Language Journal 99: 66–82. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brown, A. and Gullberg, M. 2008. Bidirectional crosslinguistic influence in L1-L2 encoding of manner in speech and gesture: A study of Japanese speakers of English. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 30: 225–251. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Choi, S. and Lantolf, J. P. 2008. Representation and embodiment of meaning in L2 communication: motion events in the speech and gesture of advanced L2 Korean and L2 English speakers. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 30: 191–224. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Deconinck, J., Boers, F. and June Eyckmans. 2014. Looking for form-meaning motivation in new L2 words. English Text Construction 7: 249–280. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
de Groot, M. B. and Keijzer, R. 2000. What is hard to learn is easy to forget: The roles of word concreteness, cognate status, and word frequency in foreign-language vocabulary learning and forgetting. Language Learning 50: 1–56. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dewaele, J.-M. and Pavlenko, A. 2002. Emotion vocabulary in interlanguage. Language Learning 52: 263–322. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dingemanse, M. 2013. Ideophones and gesture in everyday speech. Gesture 13: 143–165. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dingemanse, M. and Akita, K. 2017. An inverse relation between expressiveness and grammatical integration: On the morphosyntactic typology of ideophones, with special reference to Japanese. Journal of Linguistics 53: 501–532. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Emmorey, K. and Casey, S. 2001. Gesture, thought and spatial language. Gesture 1: 35–50. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Firbas, J. 1964. On defining the theme in functional sentence analysis. Travaux linguistiques de Prague 1: 267–280.Google Scholar
Garrigues, S. L. 1995. Mimetic parallels in Korean and Japanese. Studies in Language 19: 359–398. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goldin-Meadow, S. 2003. Hearing Gesture: How Our Hands Help Us Think. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Gullberg, M. 1998. Gesture as a Communication Strategy in Second Language Discourse: A Study of Learners of French and Swedish. Lund: Lund University Press.Google Scholar
Gullberg, M., de Bot, K. and Volterra, V. 2010. Gestures and some key issues in the study of language development. In Gestures in Language Development. M. Gullberg and K. de Bot (eds), 3–33. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hamano, S. 1998. The Sound-Symbolic System of Japanese. Tokyo: Kurosio.Google Scholar
Herlofsky, W. J. 1998. The acquisition of Japanese iconic expressions: GIONGO vs. GITAIGO. Nagoya Gakuin Daigaku Nihongogaku/Nihongo Kyōiku Ronshū [Journal of Japanese Linguistics & Education] 5: 1–8.Google Scholar
Ibarretxe-Antuñano, I. 2005. Leonard Talmy: A windowing to conceptual structure and language, Part 1: Lexicalisation and typology. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics 3: 325–347. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Imai, M., Kita, S., Nagumo, M. and Okada, H. 2008. Sound symbolism facilitates early verb learning. Cognition 109: 54–65. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ishiguro, H. 1993. Onomatope no ‘hassei’. [The emergence of onomatopoeia]. Gengo 22 (6): 26–33.Google Scholar
Ivanova, G. 2006. Sound-symbolic approach to Japanese mimetic words. Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics 26: 103–113.Google Scholar
Iwasaki, N. 2008. Dai-ni gengo to shite no nihongo no giongo/gitaigo no shūtoku: KY kōpasu ni mirareru eigo bogo washa to kankokugo bogo washa no giongo/gitaigo no shiyō [L2 acquisition of Japanese mimetics: L1 English and L1 Korean speakers’ use of mimetics seen in the K-Y Corpus]. In Handbook of the Sixth Biannual International Conference on Practical Linguistics of Japanese, San Francisco State University.Google Scholar
2017a. Grammar of Japanese mimetics used by English and Korean leaners of L2 Japanese in KY Corpus interviews: Does L1-L2 similarity help? In The Grammar of Japanese Mimetics: Perspectives from Structure, Acquisition and Translation, N. Iwasaki, P. Sells and K. Akita (eds), 148–171. New York and London: Routledge.Google Scholar
2017b. Use of mimetics in motion event descriptions by English and Korean learners of L2 Japanese: Does typology make a difference? In The Grammar of Japanese Mimetics: Perspectives from Structure, Acquisition and Translation, N. Iwasaki, P. Sells and K. Akita (eds), 193–218. New York and London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Iwasaki, N, Lucien Brown, L., Kita, S. and Vinson, D. 2013. Japanese and Korean speakers’ production of mimetic words. In Japanese/Korean Linguistics, Vol. 20, F. Bjarke and P. Sells (eds), 199–213. Stanford, CA: CSLIGoogle Scholar
Iwasaki, N., Vinson, D. P. and Vigliocco, G. 2007a. What do English speakers know about gera-gera and yota-yota?: A cross-linguistic investigation of mimetic words for laughing and walking. Japanese-Language Education around the Globe 17: 53–78.Google Scholar
Iwasaki, N., Vinson, D. P. and Vigliocco. G. 2007b. How does it hurt, kiri-kiri or siku-siku?: Japanese mimetic words of pain perceived by Japanese speakers and English speakers. In Applying Theory and Research to Learning Japanese as a Foreign Language, M. Minami (ed.), 1–19. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
Jarvis, S. and Pavlenko, A. 2008. Crosslinguistic Influence in Language and Cognition. New York and London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kakehi, H., Tamori, I. and Schourup, L. 1996. Dictionary of Iconic Expressions in Japanese. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kantartzis, K., Imai, M. and Kita, S. 2011. Japanese sound-symbolism facilitates word learning in English-speaking children. Cognitive Science 35: 575–586. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kelly, S., Özyürek, A. and Maris, E. 2010. Two sides of the same coin: Speech and gesture mutually interact to enhance comprehension. Psychological Science 21: 206–267. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kendon, A. 1994. Do gestures communicate? A review. Research on Language and Social Interaction 27: 175–200. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2004. Gesture: Visible Action as Utterance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kim, K-O. 1977. Sound symbolism in Korean. Journal of Linguistics 13: 67–75. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kim, S. and Ahn, J. 2011. How do gestures reveal L2 linguistic proficiency? Studies in English Education 16: 50–66.Google Scholar
Kita, S. 1993. Language and thought interface: A study of spontaneous gestures and Japanese mimetics. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago.
1997. Two-dimensional semantic analysis of Japanese mimetics. Linguistics 35: 379–416. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2000. How representational gestures help speaking. In Language and Gesture, D. McNeill (ed.), 162–185. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kita, S. and Özyürek, A. 2003. What does cross-linguistic variation in semantic coordination of speech and gesture reveal?: Evidence for an interface representation of spatial thinking and speaking. Journal of Memory and Language 48: 16–32. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lee, E-A. 2001. Nihongo to kankokugo no onomatope ni kansuru taishō kenkyū [A contrastive study on Japanese and Korean onomatopoeia]. Ph.D. dissertation, Nagoya University.Google Scholar
Lockwood, G., Dingemanse, M. and Hagoort, P. 2016. Sound-symbolism boosts novel word learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 42: 1274–1281.Google Scholar
Makino, S. and Tsutsui, M. 1986. A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. Tokyo: The Japan Times.Google Scholar
Mayer, M. 1969. Frog, Where Are You? New York: Dial Books for Young Readers.Google Scholar
McNeill, D. 1992. Hand and Mind: What Gestures Reveal about Thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Mikami, K. 2007. Nihongo onomatope to sono kyōiku [Japanese onomatopoeia and how to teach it]. Ph.D. dissertation, Waseda University.Google Scholar
Monaghan, P., Mattock, K. and Walker, P. 2012. The role of sound symbolism in language learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory & Cognition 38: 1152–1164. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Murasugi, K. 2017. Mimetics as Japanese root infinitive analogues. In The Grammar of Japanese Mimetics: Perspectives from Structure, Acquisition and Translation, N. Iwasaki, P. Sells and K. Akita (eds), 131–147. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Nagpal, J., Nicoladis, E. and Marentette, P. 2011. Predicting individual differences in L2 speakers’ gestures. International Journal of Bilingualism 15: 205–214. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Naito-Billen, Y. 2013. An exploration of Japanese mimetics perception: Comparison among native speakers, adult learners, and non-speakers of Japanese. Educational Studies 55: 293–301.Google Scholar
Nakaishi, Y., Saji, N., Imai, M. and Sakai, H. 2011. Chūgokugo o bogo to suru gakushūsha wa nihongo no onomatope o dono teido shiyō dekiru no ka: Animēshon o mochiita sanshutsu jikken o chūshin to shite [How do advanced Chinese learners of Japanese use onomatopoeic vocabulary?: A production experiment using animations]. Chūgokugo Washa no tame no Nihongo Kyōiku Kenkyū [Studies in Japanese Language Education for Chinese Speakers] 2: 42–58.Google Scholar
Nakaishi, Y., Sakamoro, S. and Sakai, H. 2014. ‘Harahara’ wa ‘genki na yōsu’?: Chūgokugo o bogo to suru gakushūsha o taishō to sita onomatope to seishiga no macchingu jikken no kekka kara [Does ‘hara-hara’ mean ‘cheerful’?: An onomatopoeic word-picture matching experiment by Chinese learners of Japanese]. Chūgokugo Washa no tame no Nihongo Kyōiku Kenkyū [Studies in Japanese Language Education for Chinese Speakers] 5: 31–45.Google Scholar
Noji, J. 1973–1977. Yōjiki no Gengo Seikatsu no Jittai [Reality of Early Childhood Language Use]. Hiroshima: Bunka Hyoron Shuppan.Google Scholar
Nuckolls, J. B., Swanson, T., Rice, A., Sun, D. and Hatton, S. 2015. Ideophone-gesture composites: Depictive type, sensory class, and modality. Paper presented at LSA Annual Meeting, Portand, Oregon, January 7–11.
Nygaard, L. C., Cook, A. E. and Namy, L. L. 2009. Sound to meaning correspondences facilitate word learning. Cognition 112: 181–186. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Okubo, A. 1967. Yōji Gengo no Hattatsu [Infants’ Language Development]. Tokyo: Tokyodo Shuppan.Google Scholar
Osaka, N. 2001. Kansei no Kotoba o Kenkyū suru: Giongo/Gitaigo ni Yomu Kokoro no Arika [Studying the Language of Sensibility: Mimetics and the Whereabouts of the Mind]. Tokyo: Shin-yo-sha.Google Scholar
(ed.) 1999. Kansei no kotoba o kenkyū suru: Giongo/gitaigo ni yomu kokoro no arika [Researching words of senses: The nature of mind understood through mimetics]. Tokyo: Shin-yo-sha.Google Scholar
Özyürek, A. 2002. Speech-gesture relationship across languages and in second language learners: Implications for spatial thinking and speaking. In Proceedings of the 26th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, B. Skarabela, S. Fish and A. H. Do (eds), 500–509. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Park, D-G. 2015. Hankwuke uysengewa uythayeuy umwun pikyo [A phonological comparison between onomatopoetic and imitative words of Korean]. Hanmal Yengu 37: 177–203.Google Scholar
Pavlenko, A. 2014. The Bilingual Mind: And What It Tells Us about Language and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rowbotham, S., Holler, J. and Lloyd, D. 2012. How do we communicate about pain?: A systematic analysis of the semantic contribution of co-speech gestures in pain-focused conversations. Journal of Nonverbal Behaviour 36: 1–21. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sakurai, K. 2003. Giongo/gitaigo no shūtoku ni kansuru kenkyū: OPI no reberu hantei to no taiō o chūshin ni. [Research on the acquisition of Japanese mimetics: Focusing on proficiency levels rated by OPI]. Ilbonhakbo [Japanese Studies] 54: 139–150.Google Scholar
Schourup, L. 1993. Nihongo no kaki-kotoba/hanashi-kotoba ni okeru onomatope no bunpu ni tsuite [On the distribution of mimetics in written and spoken Japanese]. In Onomatopia: Gion/Gitaigo no Rakuen [Onomatopia: A Utopia of Mimetics], H. Kakehi and I. Tamori (eds), 77–100. Tokyo: Keiso Shobo.Google Scholar
Shinohara, K. and Kawahara, S. 2016. A cross-linguistic study of sound symbolism: The Images of the size. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 396–410.Google Scholar
1996. From ‘thought to language’ to ‘thinking for speaking’. In Rethinking Linguistic Relativity, J. J. Gumperz and S. C. Levinson (eds), 70–96. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Son, E. 2010. Giongo/gitaigo to miburi: Terebi hōsō no maruchimedia kōpasu ni yoru keiryō-teki bunseki. [Onomatopoeias and gestures: A multimedia corpus-based quantitative study of Japanese television broadcasts]. Mathematical Linguistics 27: 131–153.Google Scholar
Stam, G. 2015. Changes in thinking for speaking: A longitudinal case study. The Modern Language Journal 15: 83–99. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stam, G. and McCafferty, S. G. 2008. Gesture: Second Language Acquisition and Classroom Research. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sugahara, T. 2010. Onomatopoeia in spoken and written English: Corpus- and usage-based analysis. Ph.D. dissertation, Hokkaido University.
Talmy, L. 2000. Toward a Cognitive Semantics, Volume 1: Concept Structuring Systems. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Tamori, I. and Schourup, L. 1999. Onomatope: Keitai to Imi [Mimetics: Form and Meaning]. Tokyo: Kurosio.Google Scholar
Tsujimura, N. 2005a. Giongo/gitaigo no gengogaku-teki jūyōsei to nihongo kyōiku. [Significance of mimetics in linguistics and Japanese language education] Gengogaku to Nihongo Kyoiku [Linguistics and Japanese Language Education], Volume 5, M. Minami (ed.), 223–231. Tokyo: Kurosio.Google Scholar
2005b. Mimetic verbs and innovative verbs in the acquisition of Japanese. In Proceedings of the Thirty-First Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, R. T. Cover and Y. Kim (eds), 371–382.Google Scholar
Yamaguchi, N. 2003. Kurashi no kotoba gion/gitaigo jiten [Dictionary of Mimetics, Words for Living]. Tokyo: Kobunsha.Google Scholar
Yoshida, H. 2012. A cross-linguistic study of sound symbolism in children’s verb learning. Journal of Cognition and Development 13: 232–265. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yoshioka, K. 2005. Linguistic and Gestural Introduction and Tracking of Referents in L1 and L2 Discourse. (Groningen Dissertations in Linguistics 55.) Groningen: Groningen University.Google Scholar
2017. Acquisition of mimetics and the development of proficiency in L2 Japanese: A longitudinal case study of an L1 Dutch speaker’s speech and gesture. In The Grammar of Japanese Mimetics: Perspectives from Structure, Acquisition and Translation, N. Iwasaki, P. Sells and K. Akita (eds), 172–192. New York and London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Yoshioka, K. and Kellerman, E. 2006. Gestural introduction of ground reference in L2 narrative discourse. International Review of Applied Linguistics 44: 171–193. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zhang, L. 1989. Chūgokujin gakushūsha kara mita nihongo no giongo to gitaigo [Japanese onomatopoeic expressions and the Chinese learners]. Nihongo Kyōiku [Japanese Language Education] 68: 128–130.Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Hofweber, Julia, Lizzy Aumônier, Vikki Janke, Marianne Gullberg & Chloë Marshall
2023. Which Aspects of Visual Motivation Aid the Implicit Learning of Signs at First Exposure?. Language Learning 73:S1 ► pp. 33 ff. DOI logo
Van Hoey, Thomas, Arthur L. Thompson, Youngah Do & Mark Dingemanse
2023. Iconicity in Ideophones: Guessing, Memorizing, and Reassessing. Cognitive Science 47:4 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.