Redrawing the margins of language: Lessons from research on ideophones

Abstract

Ideophones (also known as expressives or mimetics, and including onomatopoeia) have been systematically studied in linguistics since the 1850s, when they were first described as a lexical class of vivid sensory words in West-African languages. This paper surveys the research history of ideophones, from its roots in African linguistics to its fruits in general linguistics and typology around the globe. It shows that despite a recurrent narrative of marginalisation, work on ideophones has made an impact in many areas of linguistics, from theories of phonological features to typologies of manner and motion, and from sound symbolism to sensory language. Due to their hybrid nature as gradient vocal gestures that grow roots in discrete linguistic systems, ideophones provide opportunities to reframe typological questions, reconsider the role of language ideology in linguistic scholarship, and rethink the margins of language. With ideophones increasingly being brought into the fold of the language sciences, this review synthesises past theoretical insights and empirical findings in order to enable future work to build on them.

Affective iconic words benefit from additional sound–meaning integration in the left amygdala

“…Contrary to the Saussurean assumption of onomatopoeia and ideophones being a marginal case in language practice, this type of words are nowadays recognized as a widespread phenomenon (Jakobson & Waugh, 1979) forming a major word class equivalent to nouns and verbs in many languages of the world (Dingemanse, 2018). Contrary to the Saussurean assumption of onomatopoeia and ideophones being a marginal case in language practice, this type of words are nowadays recognized as a widespread phenomenon (Jakobson & Waugh, 1979) forming a major word class equivalent to nouns and verbs in many languages of the world (Dingemanse, 2018).…”

“…Onomatopoeia (e.g., "click") and ideophones (e.g., "zigzag") represent most instructive examples for this category of words that can evoke sensory, motor, or affective experiences. Contrary to the Saussurean assumption of onomatopoeia and ideophones being a marginal case in language practice, this type of words are nowadays recognized as a widespread phenomenon (Jakobson & Waugh, 1979) forming a major word class equivalent to nouns and verbs in many languages of the world (Dingemanse, 2018).…”

Nonlexical “Moans”: Response Cries in Board Game Interactions

“…In the ensuing article, I will describe the form of moans, I will analyze the sequential relevancies that lead up to and follow moan productions, and I will discuss how the moan sound makes nonseriousness relevant. This analysis will further our understanding of how play comes to be constructed, as well as contributing to the growing literature (e.g., Dingemanse, 2018) around nonlexical vocalizations.…”

Meaning to Form: Measuring Systematicity as Information

“…Contemporary research has established that nonarbitrary form-meaning associations in vocabulary are more common and diverse than previously thought (Dingemanse et al, 2015). Some non-arbitrary associations might be found repeatedly across unrelated languages presumably due to species-wide cognitive biases (Blasi et al, 2016), others are restricted to language-specific word classes that allow for more or less transparent iconic mappings -so-called ideophones, see Dingemanse (2012;2018) -and yet others might emerge from properties of discourse and usage rather than meaning per se (Piantadosi et al, 2011).…”