The expression of vulgarity, force, severity and size
Phonaesthemic alternations in Reta and in other languages
Jeroen Willemsen | Aarhus Universitet
Ehm Hjorth Miltersen | Aarhus Universitet
Phonaesthemes are a common phenomenon, but they are generally not in paradigmatic opposition like morphemes are
(Svantesson 2017: 6). Reta, however, has a phonaesthemic contrast /l/~/r/, where
/r/-colouring of neutral base words signifies an increase in vulgarity, intensity, size or severity (e.g. ɓela
‘bad’ vs. ɓera ‘terrible’, -ool ‘penis’ vs. -oor ‘cock’). This paper describes
this phenomenon in detail, and provides a discussion as to whether it is best classified as morphological, phonaesthemic, or
otherwise. We argue that, although some of the cross-linguistic criteria for phonaesthesia exclude phonaesthemic /r/ from being
classified as such, it is not straightforwardly classified as either phonological or morphological. Using Kwon & Round’s (2015) criteria for phonaesthesia and derivational morphology, we compare Reta
phonaesthemic alternations to similar phenomena in other languages. We argue that such alternations differ fundamentally from both non-alternating phonaesthemes and morphology, and are best construed as a distinct cross-linguistic category.
Keywords: phonaesthemes, sound symbolism, alternation, consonant mutation, Timor-Alor-Pantar languages, Reta, Blagar, derivational morphology, augmentative, foreigner speech, markedness
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.A brief overview of Reta
- 3.Phonaesthemic alternations in Reta
- 3.1Form and function
- 3.2Phonaesthemic /r/ outside of alternations
- 4.A tentative explanation for phonaesthemic alternations in Reta
- 5.Is it phonology, morphology, both, or neither?
- 5.1Morphology
- 5.2Phonaesthesia
- 5.3Phonology
- 6.Phonaesthemic alternations are not just phonaesthemes
- 6.1A cross-linguistic overview of phonaesthemic consonant alternations
- 6.2A proposal for the classification of phonaesthemic alternations
- 7.Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References
Published online: 21 August 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.19073.wil
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.19073.wil
References
Abelin, Åsa
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y.
Blust, Robert. A.
Bogoras, Waldemar
Böhmerová, Ada
Bond, Oliver
Burridge, Kate. & Tonya Stebbins
Carlson, Barry F., John H. Esling & Katie Fraser
Corbett, Greville. G.
Dingemanse, Mark
Fónagy, Iván
Goldberg, Adele. E.
Haiman, John
Hammarström, H., Robert Forkel & Martin Haspelmath
2019 Glottolog 3.4. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Available at: https://glottolog.org/ (last access 15 July 2020).
Hinton, Leanne, Johanna Nichols & John J. Ohala
Holton, Gary, Marian Klamer, František Kratochvíl, Laura C. Robinson, & Antoinette Schapper
Holton, Gary & Laura C. Robinson
Imai, Mutsumi, Sotaro Kita, Miho Nagumo, & Hiroyuki Okada
Jacobsen, William H.
Klamer, Marian
2016 Field notes on Blagar-Pura. In Gereon A. Kaiping, Owen Edwards & Marian Klamer (eds.), LexiRumah 2.1.2. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. Available at: https://lexirumah.model-ling.eu/ (last access 15 July 2020).
Kuehnl, Christina. & Alexandra Mantau
Kula, Nancy C.
Kwon, Nahyun
Lafitte, Pierre
Langdon, Margaret
Lo, Lap-Yan, Ho M. Luk & Nigel Thompson
Lockwood, Gwilym, Mark Dingemanse & Peter Hagoort
Magnus, Margaret
Mannheim, Bruce
Marchand, Hans
Martin, Samuel E.
McGregor, William B.
Merrill, John T. M.
Moran, Steven & Daniel McCloy
(eds.) 2019 PHOIBLE 2.0. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Available at: https://phoible.org/ (last access 15 July 2020).
Mutz, Karin
Ngo, Mary K., Reeva Misra & Charles Spence
Nichols, Johanna
Rießler, Michael
Oswalt, Robert L.
Robinson, Laura C.
2010a Field notes on Reta. In Gereon A. Kaiping, Owen Edwards & Marian Klamer (eds.), LexiRumah 2.1.2. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. Available at: https://lexirumah.model-ling.eu/ (last access 15 July 2020).
2010b Field notes on Blagar-Bakalang. In Gereon A. Kaiping, Owen Edwards & Marian Klamer (eds.), LexiRumah 2.1.2. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. Available at: https://lexirumah.model-ling.eu/ (last access 15 July 2020).
2010c Field notes on Blagar-Bama. In Gereon A. Kaiping, Owen Edwards & Marian Klamer (eds.), LexiRumah 2.1.2. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. Available at: https://lexirumah.model-ling.eu/ (last access 15 July 2020).
2010d Field notes on Blagar-Kulijahi. In Gereon A. Kaiping, Owen Edwards & Marian Klamer (eds.), LexiRumah 2.1.2. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. Available at: https://lexirumah.model-ling.eu/ (last access 15 July 2020).
2010e Field notes on Blagar-Nule. In Gereon A. Kaiping, Owen Edwards & Marian Klamer (eds.), LexiRumah 2.1.2. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. Available at: https://lexirumah.model-ling.eu/ (last access 15 July 2020).
2010f Field notes on Blagar-Tuntuli. In Gereon A. Kaiping, Owen Edwards & Marian Klamer (eds.), LexiRumah 2.1.2. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. Available at: https://lexirumah.model-ling.eu/ (last access 15 July 2020).
2010g Field notes on Blagar-Warsalelang. In Gereon A. Kaiping, Owen Edwards & Marian Klamer (eds.), LexiRumah 2.1.2. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. Available at: https://lexirumah.model-ling.eu/ (last access 15 July 2020).
Sapir, Edward
Schapper, Antoinette
Shrum, L. J., Tina M. Lowrey, David Luna, Dawn B. Lerman, & Min Liu
Silverstein, Michael
Spence, Charles & Alberto Gallace
Steinhauer, Hein
Steinhauer, Hein. & Hendrik D. R. Gomang
Stokhof, Wim A. L.
Stutts, Cassie & Aurora Torres
Svantesson, Jan-Olof
Tarte, Robert D. & Loren S. Barritt
Whissel, Cynthia
Wichmann, Søren, Erik W. Holman & Cecile H. Brown
Willemsen, Jeroen
2016 Field notes on Reta. In Gereon A. Kaiping, Owen Edwards & Marian Klamer (eds.), LexiRumah 2.1.2. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. Available at: https://lexirumah.model-ling.eu/ (last access 15 July 2020).
2018 Field notes on Reta-Hula. In Gereon A. Kaiping, Owen Edwards & Marian Klamer (eds.), LexiRumah 2.1.2. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. Available at: https://lexirumah.model-ling.eu/ (last access 15 July 2020).
In press. Reta. To appear in Antoinette Schapper ed. The Papuan languages of Timor, Alor and Pantar: Sketch grammars vol. 31 Berlin De Gruyter Mouton
Submitted. The sloped world(s) of the Reta language: Grammaticalised expressions of elevation on a micro, meso and macro level. In Carsten Levisen & Susana Fernández eds. Language and popular geopolitics Special issue Journal of Postcolonial Linguistics 4
Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
No author info given
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 april 2021. 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.