Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Ideophones'

This thesis talks about the structure of ideophones in Southern Sinitic. Ideophone is an interesting word class that has been studies in a world atlas, while the Sinitic is just like an enclave under the context. This thesis is a try on analyzing the “state adjectives” and the onomatopoeia Chinese linguistics used to call from the ideophonic perspective. Treating Ruihong (a sub-dialect of Gan) as an entry point, structural markedness of ideophones in Southern Sinitic is described in a formal-functional way. At last, some typological attributes of the Sinitic ideophones have been summarized. Chapter 5 to Chapter 9 is the part of descriptive introduction. Each chapter picks one or several relevant forms of ideophones, and then start analysis about their structural markedness. Each Chapter has its emphasis: Chapter 5 focuses on how to identifying an ideophone from its phonotactic distribution, lack of written form, flexible word class and sound symbolism; Chapter 6 is about the most important XA ideophones in Ruihong, descriptions on characteristics like high tone and checked tone’s wide usage, disappearance of nasal coda after syllable final stop, grammaticalization and deideophonization, etc. are elaborated. Chapter 7 is about two reduplicative forms XX and AXX, comparison on the usage of XA and AXX between Gan, Xiang and other southern Sinitic is this chapter’s focus. Chapter 8 is mainly about prosodic features of the onomatopoeia and the mimicking words. Chapter 9 tries to connect the form and the semantic function, using AABB and AliXY and infix “pat” as examples, a detailed description about how these forms connect with meanings has been given. At last, in the conclusion, summary about the common points and differences in Southern Sinitic are listed. Basically, in the phonetic and phonological part, there are more common points, while in the morpho-syntactic part, differentiation is more apparent.
published_or_final_version
Linguistics
Master
Master of Arts

The relationship between ideophones and gestures has only recently been studied and is not yet completely understood. The topic has been specifically addressed by Kita (1993), Klassen (1998), Dingemanse (2013), Mihas (2013), and Reiter (2013). Yet there has been little focus on onomatopoeic ideophones. Onomatopoeic ideophones have been set aside as different by many previous researchers (Klassen, 1998, pp. 28-31; Kilian-Hatz, 2001, pp. 161-163; Dingemanse, 2011, pp. 131, 165-167; Mihas, 2012, pp. 327-329; Reiter, 2013, pp. 9-10, 308). Being stigmatized as simple, they have been labeled as "sound mimicking words" (McGregor, 2002, p. 341), "non-linguistic sounds" (Güldemann, 2008, p. 283), or "imitative sounds" (Hinton et al., 1994, §2.1). This thesis specifically addresses the relationship between onomatopoeic ideophones and gestures in Pastaza Quichua (PQ). My data acquired from primary and secondary sources, consists of 69 interactions, comprising eight hours of video recordings collected in Tena, Ecuador. These recordings include traditional narratives, personal experience tellings, elicited descriptions of nature, short didactic explanations, and folksongs. My methodology consists of close examination, classification, and tagging of 435 ideophones in the PQ data for sensory class and gestural accompaniment, using McNeill's (1992) typology. This thesis demonstrates that onomatopoeic ideophones do not have the same relationship with gestures that synesthetic ideophones do. Synesthetic ideophones are consistently accompanied by gestures (94.4% of the time) while onomatopoeic ideophones are much less likely to be accompanied by gestures (27.0% of the time). The lack of gestures occurring with onomatopoeic ideophones is striking given that PQ speakers seem to be constantly gesturing during speech. The PQ data supports previous observations that most gestures accompanying ideophones are iconic (Kunene, 1965; Dingemanse, 2013; Reiter, 2013; Mihas, 2013; Kita, 1993). The data also supports McNeill's (2007, p. 11) statement that gestures are used to make an image more real and that repetition can lead to fading gestures. However, it challenges his prediction that a minimal departure from context is the cause of a conspicuous lack of gesture. Sensory type, that is whether an ideophone is onomatopoeic or not, seems to be the most important factor in predicting gestural behavior. This paper also contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between ideophones and gestures and, ultimately, between language and gesture.

Ideophones are “marked words that vividly depict sensory events” (Dingemanse, 2009, p. 1). They often occur with gesture, but the link between the two is not yet fully understood. McNeill (1992) and Streeck (2008) have proposed classification schemas for gesture, and Nuckolls (2019) is developing a framework for the categorization of ideophones. This thesis categorizes ideophone-gesture composites using a combination of all three of these frameworks. I used data from Quechua RealWords, an online video corpus of 221 ideophones of Pastaza Quichua elicited by students and faculty at the Andes and Amazon Field School in Ecuador. I analyzed video clips of composite utterances and classified them according to McNeill’s, Streeck’s, and Nuckolls’s classification systems. This thesis demonstrates how using these three classification systems together allows for a more holistic analysis of ideophone-gesture composites as well as for the identification of certain patterns in the data. In this case, these were the existence of deictic + beat gestures and the pairing of sound-only ideophones with head gestures rather than with hand gestures. This thesis also suggests that head gestures may be classified using Streeckian and McNeillian categories and it points out ways in which beats paired with Quichua ideophones deviate from the criteria put forth by McNeill.

Mimetics in Japanese comprise both onomatopoeic expressions (phonomimes) and other ideophones (phenomimes; psychomimes), which do not imitate acoustic phenomena. They can appear in various syntactic positions and adopt the syntactic functions of nouns in a referential phrase, predicates, attributes in a noun phrase and adverbs, with the latter being the most common usage. Since the stem of mimetic expressions such as SUTON ("thump"), KIRARI ("flash"), KYAAA ("Aaaah!") or GAN-GAN ("pounding") cannot be altered and common suffixes such as /N/, /RI/ and /Q/ (glottal stop) cannot be inflected, the syntactic function of mimetics in Japanese is determined by their position in the sentence and the particles (postpositions) used to indicate their function within a larger constituent. In colloquial speech, these particles may also be omitted, which sometimes results in the syntactic position being the only indicator of the syntactic function. However, when contrasting the grammatical usage of mimetics in data sources from various speech registers, it becomes apparent that not all mimetics are used with all particles and in all syntactic positions. Moreover, some mimetics may be combined with certain particles in idiomatic contexts, but would be used differently in spontaneous speech. For this reason, it is not surprising that opinions vary greatly when it comes to determining the distribution of individual mimetics, and mimetics as a class. This often results in L2 learners of Japanese being confused by contradictory statements in dictionaries and textbooks, which may not necessarily reflect the actual usage of mimetics in spoken Japanese and thus constitute an obstacle to effective language learning. The focus of this thesis is a description of the variable use of selected mimetics in attributive contexts, to shed light on the factors underlying the variation, and to establish whether a language change has been taking place in recent years. Empirical data collected from dictionaries, corpora, surveys and interviews shows that sociolinguistic factors such as gender, age and media exposure may influence the grammatical preferences of native speakers and their perception of mimetics. For this reason, both linguistic and extra-linguistic factors have to be taken into account in order to establish a grammatical framework for mimetics in Japanese.

Les prédicats idéophoniques serbes représentent une classe de mots très courante, surtout dans la langue orale. Ces mots, qui s'apparentent par leur forme morphologique des idéophones d'une part, et qui sont dotés d’une fonction prédicative de l'autre, sont souvent classés parmi les interjections. Cependant, leur fonctionnement n'est pas celui des interjections. Le présent travail de thèse propose une première investigation sur ces formes, encore très peu étudiées dans la langue serbe. La thèse commence par une définition de la classe des prédicats idéophoniques, leur rapport avec les interjections, les onomatopées et les verbes. La partie centrale est consacrée à l'étude syntactico-sémantique de chacun de 32 prédicats idéophoniques répertoriés en serbe moderne : dans la littérature, la presse et sur Internet. Une partie synthétique présente les réflexions plus générales sur les particularités phonologiques de ces formes, les spécificités de la réalisation de leurs composants et des constructions qu'elles intègrent, de même que les problèmes de la prédication et de la prédication seconde que posent certaines formes. Sont étudiées aussi les formes synonymes et les particularités de dérivation des verbes issus d'idéophones. Une analyse sémantique plus affinée permet de différencier les idéophones à sémantique très proche, qui se situent surtout dans le domaine de « tomber » ou dans celui de « frapper ». Une conclusion générale clôt la thèse en reprenant les résultats obtenus et fait quelques comparaisons avec le fonctionnement de ces formes en russe, ce qui permet de situer la présente étude dans une perspective typologique
Serbian predicative ideophones represent a very frequent class of words in Serbian, especially in conversational language. These words that have a morphological form of the ideophone on the one hand and a predicative function on the other, are often classified as interjections. However, these words dont have a fonction of interjection.This thesis work proposes the first investigation of these words, that are still poorly studied in the Serbian language. The thesis begins with a definition of the class of predicative ideophones, their relation to interjections, onomatopeia and verbs. The central part is dedicated to the syntactico-semantic analyses of 32 predicative ideophones identified in modern Serbian language : in the literature, the press and on the Internet. A synthetic part presents the more general reflections about the phonological particularity of these forms, the specificity of the realization of their components and the constructions that these forms integrate, as well as the predicate and the second predication in some forms. Synonymous forms and derivation of verbs from ideophones are also studied. A more refined semantic analysis allows to differentiate ideophones of very close meaning, specially for the expression of « falling » or « hitting ». In the main conclusion are made some comparisons with the function of predicative ideophones in the Russian language. So the present study may be situated in a typological perspective

Japanese is a language rich in onomatopoeic and mimetic words, words that mimic sounds and other phenomena with their form. They are an integral part of the language and are used in nearly all situations, they also pose their own peculiar challenge to both learners and translators of Japanese. This study examines the Japanese onomatopoeic and mimetic words in the novel Sensei no kaban by Hiromi Kawakami, and their translations in its Finnish translation, to determine what techniques are most commonly used and why? As Finnish is also said to have a rich onomatopoeic and mimetic vocabulary, the frequency at which these terms are translated into equivalent onomatopoeic or mimetic words is also examined. The results show that the majority of the Japanese onomatopoeic and mimetic words, most of which function as adverbs, are translated as adverbs or verbs or they are completely omitted. Exactly a quarter of the examined cases have been translated using onomatopoeic or mimetic words, most of which are verbs.

The focus of this essay is on examining the meanings of the onomatopoeia (sound imitating words) snap, crack and pop. Previous studies on onomatopoeia and sound symbolism are used to define the terms and create a model for an alternative categorization of these meanings. This model is then applied in a corpus study, conducted on the COCA (Corpus Of Contemporary American English) and BYU-BNC (The British National Corpus) corpora, to find a way to more accurately describe the meanings and functions of these words.  For this purpose the context in which snap, crack and pop are used is also addressed by observing how frequently they occur in formal and informal texts and which adjectives and adverbs frequently modify them. In the study it was discovered that these three words took on many different meanings that would be hard to list separately in a dictionary. These meanings did follow a pattern linked to the properties associated with the word. The study found snap, crack and pop to be informal words with a tendency to add emotion or effect to a statement. It is therefore concluded that sorting onomatopoeia by sound and non sound-related meaning and describing the informal characteristics of these words leads to a greater understanding of how they are used.

 

Keywords: Arbitrariness, crack, emotive, ideophones, mimetics, mimes, non-arbitrariness, onomatopoeia, phenomimes, phonomimes, pop, psychomimes, register, semantics, snap, sound symbolism and style.

Ideofoner i svenska har inte studerats i någon större utsträckning. Fenomenet ideofoner har uppmärksammats mer i andra språk, främst i språk i delar av Asien och Afrika. Traditionellt har de betraktats som en underkategori till interjektioner. Syftet med denna undersökning är att ta reda på hur ideofoner används i det svenska språket. För detta ändamål sammanställdes en lista på 20 vanliga svenska ideofoner. Därefter genomfördes en korpusundersökning på dessa ideofoner i korpusar bestående av skönlitterär text. Det totala antalet förekomster för varje ideofon noterades, samt antalet förekomster inom tre olika användningskategorier: Substantiv, Interjektioner och Övrigt. En likadan undersökning genomfördes därefter i en korpus bestående av barnbokstext och litteratur på lättläst svenska, för att se huruvida användningen av ideofoner skiljde sig åt här jämfört med i skönlitterär text. En majoritet av de undersökta ideofonerna förekom mer som substantiv i båda undersökningarna. Fördelningen av förekomster i de olika kategorierna var dock ojämnare i den skönlitterära korpusen, med en större andel substantivförekomster jämfört med korpusen med barnbokstext och litteratur på lättläst svenska.
Ideophones in Swedish have not been studied to any great extent. The phenomenon of ideophones has received more attention in other languages, mainly in languages in parts of Asia and Africa. Traditionally, they have been regarded as a subcategory of interjections. The purpose of this study is to find out how ideophones are used in the Swedish language. For this purpose, a list of 20 common Swedish ideophones was compiled. Subsequently, a corpus survey in corpora consisting of fiction literature was performed of the 20 ideophones. The total number of occurrences for each ideophone was noted, as well as the number of occurrences within three different groups of use: Nouns, Interjections and Other. A similar survey was then conducted in a corpus consisting of children's literature and literature in simple Swedish, to see whether the use of ideophones differed here compared to in fiction literature. It turned out that a majority of the examined ideophones occur mostly as nouns in both surveys. The distribution of occurrences in the different categories, however, was more uneven in the literary corpus, with a larger proportion of nouns compared to the corpus with children's literature and literature in simple Swedish.

Ideofoner används flitigt i japanska och är viktiga att lära sig men bjuder på stora svårigheter för andraspråkstalare. Den här studien undersöker vilka sammanhang japanska ideofoner används i, specifikt vilka verb som ofta modifieras av ideofoner och vilka dessa ideofoner är. En japansk bloggkorpus på 5,5 miljarder tokens delades upp i tokens, ordklasstaggades, dependensparsades och söktes igenom. Vid en signifikansnivå på 0,001 hittades 2398 verb som ofta modifieras av ideofoner och 52719 kollokationer av verb och ideofoner, medan antalet unika ideofoner var 756. Detta visar att ideofoner används i en stor mängd sammanhang där det finns en relation mellan ideofon och verb. De 20 högst rankade kollokationerna undersöktes mer ingående och innehöll till största delen skildringar av sinnesintryck som är ovanliga att uttrycka med ideofoner i många språk, och som därmed kan vara svåra för många andraspråkstalare.
Ideophones are widely used in Japanese and are important to learn, but present big challenges for L2 speakers. This study investigates the contexts that ideophones in Japanese occur in, specifically what verbs are often modified by ideophones and those ideophones. A Japanese blog corpus consisting of 5.5 billion tokens was split up into tokens, tagged with part of speech and dependency relations and then searched. At a significance level of 0.001, 2398 verbs were found to often be modified by ideophones, and 52179 collocations of verbs and ideophones were found. The number of unique ideophones were 756. This shows that ideophones are used in many contexts where there is a relationship between ideophone and verb. The 20 highest ranked collocations were examined. Most contained depictions of sensory imagery normally not expressed by ideophones in many languages, and which might therefore be difficult for many L2 speakers.

Tome i "phonosyntaxe: intonation, syntaxe, semantique et pragmatique". A partir d'une perspective historique de l'evolution des theories de l'intonation, ou chaque hypothese est confrontee aux donnees phonetiques et semantiques a la maniere de liberman et sag (1974), les grandes lignes d'une problematique traitant de la place et la fonction de l'intonation dans une grammaire sont degagees. Elles concernent le role de l'intonation fall-rising opposee a l'intonation falling lorsque ces contours sont associes a un texte ambigu permettant de privilegier l'une ou l'autre des lectures potentielles de ce texte (he may, not any, etc. ). Les lacunes des theories generatives classiques pretant a l'intonation les memes proprietes que les structures morpho-syntaxiques sont mises en evidence: la fonction "grammaticale de l'intonation n'est jamais a distinguer de sa fonction pragmatique et gestuelle; les distinctions semantiques imposees par le choix des contours sur les textes contemant un operateur modal ambigu n'impliquent pas qu'il faille postuler une distinction en traits semantiques modaux au niveau sous-jacent. Tome ii "phonosyntaxe: syntaxe de l'intonation dans une theorie autosegmentale et gestuelle". - un fragment de syntaxe pour la production des contours falling, fall-rising et rise-falling et de leurs variantes attitudinales est developpe dans le cadre de la theorie autosegmentale. Pour pallier aux insuf- fisances de la theorie de liberman - codage binaire des contours - et pour repondre aux exigences mises en evidence dans le tome i, la notion de "double encodage gestuel" est empruntee a fonagy (1970). Les oppositions des contours phonologiques recoivent un codage binaire (et une interpretation ideophnique). Les variantes sont derivees par regle de quantification phonetique (codage digital) et recoivent leur interpretation en tant que distorsion par rapport aux contours "phonotypes" (attendus)
Volume i "phonosyntax: intonation, syntax, semantics and pragmatics". - the major linguistic theories of intonation are placed in their historical con- text and the different analysis they propose are confronted with the phonetic and semantic data in the manner of liberman and sag (1974). A, problematic concerning the place and the function of intonation in a grammar is developed with particular reference to to the role of fall-rising intonation opposed to falling intonation when these tunes tend to filter one or other potential reading of a text containing an ambiguous modal operator. Classical generative theories which consider that intonation and morpho-syntactic structures have the same properties are shown to be inadequate: the "grammatical function" of intonation is never distinguished from its pragmatic and gestuel function. The fact that intonation filters different meanings for a modal operator does not mean that underlying syntactic (or semantic differences) should be p postulated for modals. Volume ii "phonosyntax: a syntax for intonation within a gestuel and autosegmental framework. " - a framework within autosegmental theory is developed for the syntax of a set of intonation contours: falling, fall-rising, and rise-falling, as well as certain of their attitudinal variants. Liberman's theory cannot account for attitudinal variants of contours because of its basic binary coding; to solve this problem and to account for the data described in volume i, the notion of "double gestuel coding" has been deve- loped from fonagy (1970). The phonological contrasts between contours receive a binary coding (and an ideophonic interpretation). Variants are derived by rules of phonetic quantification (digital coding) and receive their inter- pretation in terms of distortion in relation to the expected pattern values ("phonotypes")

碩士
國立臺灣師範大學
國文學系
99
Miao-Yao languages constitute one of the primary language families of Southern China and Southeast Asia. They manifest a profound, prolonged contact relationship with Chinese, and occupy an unusually important place among the language groups of the region. The target language of this thesis, West-Hunan Miao, is none other than the eastern dialect of the Miao language (Miao branch, Miao-Yao family). The language has long been described as possessing abundant zhuang-ci (imitative or expressive words) in the Chinese descriptive works, an ill-defined term of unclear meanings. To refer to a subpart of what used to be called vaguely zhuang-ci, this thesis proposes the term ‘ideophones’, which has become standard in typological linguistics after its introduction in the 1970s from the investigation of African languages. A good many ideophones in West-Hunan Miao are assembled and analyzed in this thesis, and their unique morphological and syntactic properties are presented as evidence that they form a distinct lexical class in the target language. The syntactic functions of West-Hunan Miao ideophones, unlike adverbials, include both adverbial modification and predication. Even more diagnostic evidence comes from morphology: ideophones in this language uniquely display as many as six morphological patterns operating on monosyllabic ideophone roots, shown as follows (where R= root, R’=rule-governed phonological variant of root): I R-R states and movements [±dynamic] [+durable] II tɑ44-R sudden semelfactive actions [+dynamic] [-durable] III V-R’-V-R states or qualities less vigorous than in the R-R pattern [-dynamic] [+durable] [-vigor] IV (R’-R)’’-R’-R continuous states or movements [±dynamic] [+durable] V R’-R’-R-R states or movements; images more holistic than the R-R pattern [±dynamic] [±durable] [+holistic] VI R’-R-R’-R rhythmic movements [+rhythmic] [+dynamic] Of the above, R-R appears to be the basic pattern for West-Hunan Miao ideophones, from which the other variant morphological patterns are derived to express various Aktionsart meanings. These morphological patterns set ideophones clearly apart from the two semantically related word types, adverbials and onomatopoeic words. Having established ideophones as a distinct word class on the basis of morphosyntactic criteria, the thesis proceeds to illustrate the semantic characteristics of ideophones---vividness of imagery and fine-tuned meaning differentiation---with a set of ideophones related to facial features and expressions, followed by a classification of ideophones into six semantic classes, and a systematic account of the semantic traits and usages of each class.

This thesis investigates the consequences of iconicity—a motivated mapping between form and meaning—for the phonological and semantic development of iconic words, through the lens of dialectal variation in the forms and meanings of ideophones in Japonic (Japanese, Ryukyuan). I use the term ideophone to refer to a lexical class of iconic words dedicated to the depiction of sensory phenomena. In Japanese, this class numbers well into the thousands, and includes ideophones mimicking sound (onomatopoeia), e.g. kokekkokoo 'cock-a-doodle-doo', as well as ideophones depicting movement (buruburu ‘wobbling’), shape (kunyakunya ‘twisting’), texture (nebaneba 'sticky'), and even internal states (mukamuka ‘nauseous’, wakuwaku 'excited') (Akita, 2017). The phonological and semantic development of ideophones is presumed to be shaped and constrained by their iconicity. For example, it has been noted that sound changes occurring regularly in the arbitrary lexicon are often absent in ideophones, presumably to conserve iconic mappings between form and meaning (e.g. Diffloth, 1979). Similarly, the semantic development of ideophones is assumed to follow an implicational hierarchy with sound—the easiest domain to represent iconically in speech—as the first domain in which ideophones appear, followed by domains that are more difficult to represent iconically. Thus, we find languages whose ideophone systems are limited to the depiction of sound, and those whose ideophones depict a broader range of sensory perceptions in addition to sound, but we do not find languages that depict broader sensory perceptions without also depicting sound (Dingemanse, 2012). This thesis investigates these two ideas by using dialectal variation to explore the phonological and semantic development of ideophones in Japanese. The first part of the thesis compares the degree to which sound change has occurred between Japanese and two varieties of Ryukyuan (Miyako and Ishigaki) in the iconic versus the arbitrary lexicon (e.g. the iconic gunyagunya 'mushy' vs. the arbitrary juunan 'pliable'). Taking Japanese as a baseline, I adopt a double-pronged approach to quantifying sound change. First, for Ryukyuan words with a Japanese cognate (N=330), string edit distances between cognates provide a measure of how much sound change has occurred in the cognate set. Second, for all words (N=404), I developed a phonotactic deviation score, which is a measure of how much a Ryukyuan word differs from Japanese words in general, based on the number of deviations it makes from Japanese phonotactics. Both measures confirmed that the iconic words studied had undergone significantly less sound change than arbitrary words from the same semantic domains. However, onomatopoeia were more likely to incorporate new sounds and sound configurations than ideophones depicting inaudible phenomena. The directness of the iconic mapping in onomatopoeia means that when new sounds or sound configurations enter the language, these can be used in onomatopoeia with a transparent interpretation. On the other hand, less directly iconic mappings between sound and other sensory domains must be established through large sets of similar systematic correspondences, and thus it takes longer for sound changes to make their way into this part of the lexicon. This confirms that, compared to other vocabulary, the forms of ideophones are diachronically very stable, but with the insight that this is less likely to be the case for onomatopoeia. The second part of the thesis addresses the idea of an implicational hierarchy for the semantic development of ideophone systems, with a broader cross-linguistic sample than has been used in previous studies. Using this broader cross-linguistic sample, I formulate an implicational hierarchy SOUND < MOVEMENT < SHAPE < TEXTURE < OTHER SENSORY PERCEPTIONS, which says that languages develop ideophones first in the domain of sound, next in the domain of movement, third in the domain of shape, and fourth in the domain of texture, but that after this point their developmental trajectories may vary. This is illustrated by highlighting asymmetries in the cross-linguistic distribution of ideophones. Next, I investigate why the hierarchy should emerge in this way with a detailed analysis of Japanese and Ryukyuan ideophones elicited in response to sensory stimuli of varying modalities (including for e.g. sounds, movements, shapes, colours, textures, tastes, smells and stimuli representing internal perceptions such as pain and emotion). To introduce a diachronic perspective, the task was conducted in locations representing both the centre (Tokyo, Kyoto) and the furthest edges (Tohoku, Okinawa) of Japan, in order to contrast older forms and usages preserved in peripheral varieties with the newest forms and usages appearing in central varieties (Onishi, 2010). In total, data was collected from 80 participants representing seven major linguistic varieties: Eastern Japanese, Western Japanese, Tohoku Japanese, Amami Ryukyuan, Okinawa Ryukyuan, Miyako Ryukyuan and Yaeyama Ryukyuan. More data was collected from speakers of Ryukyuan varieties, as these are highly endangered and their ideophone systems are not well described. Thus, this thesis also makes a small contribution to understanding differences between the ideophone systems of Japanese and Ryukyuan, and to the documentation of ideophones in these languages. The results of the stimuli task support the idea that domains appearing earlier in the hierarchy are easier to represent iconically, in that ideophones were elicited most frequently in these domains. This was further supported by the multisensory meanings of ideophones elicited, as ideophones in domains appearing later in the hierarchy often had related associations in domains appearing earlier in the hierarchy (e.g. ideophones elicited in response to textural stimuli were often onomatopoeic, mimicking the sound produced by the stimulus when touched). In contrast, ideophones from domains early in the hierarchy were more likely to be monosensory, meaning that they did not have any related associations in domains other than that of the stimulus which elicited them (e.g. ideophones elicited in response to auditory stimuli tended to depict sound without reference to any other sensory domain). This reinforces the idea that iconic mappings are formed more easily in domains from early in the hierarchy, since these are frequently recruited to depict domains appearing later in the hierarchy, whereas the reverse situation is much rarer. To explain this, I consider the relative iconicity of mappings from speech to domains appearing earlier or later in the hierarchy. Specifically, I argue that mappings to domains appearing early in the hierarchy are likely to exhibit a greater degree of iconicity than mappings to domains appearing later in the hierarchy. This is attributed to the iconic affordances of the acoustic and articulatory properties of speech, as well as the multimodal integration of our sensory processing systems. In sum, this thesis develops a detailed account of how the phonological and semantic development of ideophones is intimately related to their iconicity. In terms of phonology, a close analysis of the influence of different types and degrees of iconicity on sound change revealed that while the iconicity of ideophones generally results in diachronically stable forms, paradoxically, the more transparent iconicity of onomatopoeia means that these more iconic words can exhibit less diachronic stability. This is a much more nuanced account of iconicity and sound change than has previously been developed. Secondly, in terms of semantics, the study demonstrates how the iconicity of ideophones leads to an implicational hierarchy, with some domains (e.g. sound and movement) appearing earlier than others (e.g. shape and texture) due to the ease with which they can be represented iconically in speech. However, the study also reveals that this implicational hierarchy is not as pervasive as previously assumed, and that there is room for cross-linguistic variation as well. Finally, the last chapter of the thesis considers the broader implications of these findings for future directions in the study of iconicity across different languages and modalities.

This dissertation deals with the poetry of C.S.Z. Ntuli, with specific reference to themes, diction and form. The introductory chapter deals with the aim of study, the author's biographical background, the development of modern Zulu poetry, the state of critical studies in modern Zulu poetry, the scope of study and the method of approach. Chapter 2 examines the main themes manifest in the poetry of Ntuli. Chapter 3 is devoted to diction, with particular reference to imagery, compound words, ideophones and deideophonic derivatives. Comment is also made on ways in which these amplify the theme in selected poems. Chapter 4 discusses outstanding formal features and techniques including stanza formation, refrains, alliteration, parallelism, linking and rhythm. Chapter 5 concludes the study by giving observations about the quality of Ntuli's contribution to modern Zulu poetry, and by exploring some possibilities regarding future studies on the poetry of Ntuli
African Languages
M. A. (African languages)

Thesis (M.A. (Translation Studies and Linguistics)) --University of Limpopo, 2009
This mini-research dissertation discusses the morphosemantic properties of the ideophone in Xitsonga.The ideophone is also analysed in terms of the Theta theory as proposed in the Government and Binding Theory.It is illustrated in this research paper that the ideophone can broadly be catagorised into the non-derived and the derived ideophone.It is furthermore demonstrated that it is possible for the ideophone in Xitsonga to be seen as a predicate that assigns various Theta roles to its external subject and internal complement arguement NPs in the subject and object Theta positions of linguistic expressions.It is held that whereas the predicate Theta-marks its external subject arguement NP indirectly,it assigns the Theta roles to its complement arguement NPs directly

This is a semantic study, dealing with style and technique in the short stories of D. B. Z. Ntuli. The study as a whole analyses Ntuli' s first six volumes of short stories. The first chapter is an introduction, dealing with the aim of the study. The second sub-section after aim is Ntuli's biographical notes. Full details of this author from high school attendance to his contribution during his working experience are given. Ntuli's biography is followed by the scope of study. Under this sub-heading, short story volumes to be analysed are clearly stated. The fourth sub-heading is the method of approach and a conclusion. Chapter two deals with various types of repetition, a literary technique. It analyses Ntuli's use of language, and repetition of sentences approaching it from different angles. Chapter three and four deal with choice of words. The former chapter handles the various types of language elements semantically and the latter deals specifically with the ideophone. The ideophone is sub-divided into two sub-sections: classification and usage. Chapter five deals with proverbial expressions and these are sub-divided into two sections: idioms and proverbs. The usage of idiomatic expressions is discussed under: verbs, nouns and qualificatives, while the proverbs are analysed under classification and syntax. Imagery is dealt with in chapter six. Imagery is further sub-divided into four categories: metaphor, simile, personification and symbolism. Style and structure are discussed in chapter seven. In this chapter various elements of language forms are handled: types of sentenceidiophonic; negative forms of the ideophone, with conjunctives; sentences with adverbs; the demonstratives; titles of short story volumes and naming of characters. Chapter eight is the general conclusion, reflecting on Ntuli's style and technique with special emphasis on his unique use of the language. Reference is made to discoveries regarding the author's use of vocabulary, and his techniques in using repetition as well as avoiding it, which is part of his style. His choice of words and how he arranges them on paper is also discussed. Ntuli's choice of titles in naming his short story volumes is summed up showing that these have been influenced by his background. The study concludes by suggesting areas that still require further analysis in Ntuli 's short stories.
African Languages
D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

M.A.
The study of the ideophone as a linguistic phenomenon has, with regard to the Nguni group of languages, received considerable attention to date. Concerning Southern Sotho, however, the handling of this word category has been rudimentary. Comprising the highlighting of a few aspects at a tine only. The role the ideophone plays as a stylistic phenomenon has not yet been thoroughly investigated. This situation prompted a more thorough investigation into the dualistic function of the ideophone in Southern Sotho ...

The aim of this thesis is to create an ethnolinguistic analysis of two corpuses of Mongolian riddles (Lovor and Ölziikhutag 1990 and Ölziikhutag 2013). The work contains over one hundred riddles appended with translations and morpheme-to-morpheme glosses. The riddles are further analyzed on a phonetic level, including descriptions of specific sound patterns and alliterations, as well as their lexical and semantic properties. This complex analysis, in conjunction with findings gained in field research, renders possible the description of a specific language of Mongolian riddles, characterized by the frequent occurrence of borrowings, the presence of semantically and phonetically 'damaged' words, ideophones, metaphors and many specific cultural expressions. The language of Mongolian riddles also often skilfully exploits overt abstractions, allusions, and lexical and morphological ambiguities, in addition to other techniques which facilitate conceptual mapping and cognitive blending. This linguistic analysis makes possible a description of the various aspects of the worldview of Mongolian nomads concealed in these riddles, including the characteristic linking of the 'sacred and profane,' as well as the relationship of these riddles to mythology and religious ideas.