D ETERM I N I NG THE MEAN I N GS O F IDEOPHONES•

WILL IAM J. SA:\I ARIN

).'othing demonst=es the need for bcncr luicogr:aphic methods in Afri<:an linguistia tha.n does lhc auanpt to define the idrophona. of \heR bnguages. He~ .,..e see •·ay d carfytlut ,..hcreasadhoc:ddinititln$atee:~~~>ytofabricotc,itildifficulttodettT'n'line wh:n diatinguid!es one id~'Opbone semantically from another. Cootr.rstive meaning ~not inferr.l.ole from most ddinitiOnl. Takot the one fo r RU:JJ}"U ipr.l (from lk1110n •¢i+): "dcso:r{iptive] of theoound of grunt of pig, mole, etc." lu.limi tations arc ..cru wh .. u we ...U amwen for seven.! queition~. l& thi8 the only ideo phone which deso.:ri bcs thi~ tound? Is rpn the only way pigs grunt I A r11orc important question is th is: ln the repertoire of sound& - or just animal or human !ltltmds- what i• there distincti,·e in ~Jnl,\n ~n try of this type can mor~ properly be Wigmttcd "" a 'documentation' than a dcfirlitiou : i.e . it o.ecDl.!l to ~y. "lf you want proof that '}Jn oo.:un. in the language, d icit for the con~pt 'b.,.UDI of a pig.' " In this aua w~ foreigne.1'8 ;;re pn.-matu n: in o.>ur ddining. w~ ha•-e :ollo~d pr:tgm~tic facton i.a field study to determine the nttul"l: ami content of uur dic­tiM";e.· The- worb, admittedly, ba.u in general boen few ud ratl::.ocr ~cby: timid \'ftltur8 i oto~ing the 1cnwn k d<.muim.ofthc l:lflgu2gCS we Ill,.., studied.; pnaia.l guides w !he learning of these !a.ngu.agto:; bnt omWJy just the "'mcwb:lt edited fidd nota wh ich rewlu:d from nnr gnmmatkal ~-.is and tat ~btion. Mucb. more sophilti­Cilionilnffikdin.oliri<;mltsi<:ogr,~pby."fhnistherrercqu?siteiOthepubliationof

future dictiOn:orim, ~dlc:sa of how ~ntdy we need tht!n. Rut the p:tth tt> b.:ttl'T dictiunariesiagoingiOb..adifficultone.

l...aicogl"8phic tr.chniqua u~ in principle well knO""ll tO U$, at lr.3!01 for written laoguagr.s. We ( •)llclcct a represr.nmh·c !rullplcofthe b nguage, (a) taR citations - \\ith adcqua«: contr.n - fur all the wonla being studied and (3) infer t..he meaning on the huis of their use in o.ll occurrenttt. '11oi~ having !=:11 dam:: we then (4) compare thetc words with all other similar ones tO d~terntin~ t he pr<c<.: i.., nature of their oomplementation and ro ntrllllt (Wtinreich '96-J). This fourth step is """"ntial: withnllt it we cannot kuow huw twu aynonymou~ word. differ.

'l 'hcso:step!!to dcfiningareha!ed on twnrequin:mcnts:thclint i..anabundancenfdata on each word, preferably in u many differe m kinds of comc..tts # pos>rihl~; th~ !!«!llld ~~ t hoc n.11ive speo.ker"s koowlctlge of lh~ language. The fi11t requircmCllt is ntJt likely to he met in Afric::~, both bcau!IC th~'re U genocrally not ocnough vtrincn material in Ahiean languagoandbecausewhentbcliiC'r.llure""isls. then:.appemo tobelcss Ul!eof idooplwnes (.u.y,in d~)lh:m iswnalin•~-' Blll ...-c~~iftherew~re<:apiotJSciutionsofi<ko-

~"''ioocd >=Uon<ll'ar-f!et<kti-...N ..t tho. Fihh W-Afri<:an T~~. C~n!~. April,•!>iiJ. I ...., iodd:>ccdu.C&.do. .. K.1'..t.e.fo< ~the m.anuocnr< and •o tbe. d*'-on<~~ ~• m~ er....v- r... lhrit <:utlln'lon\t>. 1 l .......wd>mo£i"nelhal<.-veoinployo...-rittmonthe.-\rn..n.~.ouchutheotwlhal '""' ptoducodo< AI)I>inGhan.aili•¢2(>>AT1nzu;m: b y l>r.Pio"...,..),rh<Tc..-cr......>cleopbof-..m... "·in <hr.oc:ril>t. A• l ob!ornul d>c: pby, ~-..-.I de-~ rh~ u .. orn""'Y ofdn:m. It v<o>U!d ~ an ino~ 01U<fy "' rompon: the lwo dio<:ouJseo ..-tth i~bon.- in mind oon W d..-wnnirv;, arnnnaolherlhingo, in whatcitcurrut"""""'lheM:tonadlihb<Obyodd~t~~~:idcoob<-:otolhe­Pa~ ~ot ( lt should J.oc-..d<k<lthotthir.=n.o.rb.ht.. rlaywotdon~inlhcbcstofE..rop""n !n<liti{)rlJWithn<~nne,..,odinthitpon.)

phonesinthe bcstlcxicographictradition,itisunlikelythatwccouldinferfromthem definition• which \V<JUid have the same probability of generality that other words h~ve. This is why we must have explanations from the native speakers. (I state this as an assllmption. >Vhat we need arc experiments to test the 'ddi.nability' of ideo phones purely from contextual material.) >Ye can ask our informants to gi,·e llli as many different uses of idcophonesastheycan,llutthistcchniquchasitso\mdangcr.ltisthi":thereissome kind of limit to tM number of different·contexts and uses whicl:t a human can recall for any wordin1mlanguage.Atanypointintimeapcrsonfindshim.selfina 'setofa,.,ociation• ' from which he can be extricated only by new stimuli. It is not likely, therefore, that we will get anywhere near the range which is p<:lSSible in the language, although it remains to be seen how different informants can be used to complement each other.

For the present, am! for a few more years, the requirements for proper lexicogmphy will not be met in Africa. Most Mricanist>; today are working on languages which are not native to them, and they do not ha•·e th~ resourc~• to properly process a half-million or 5Q

words. For a while longer, therefore, dictionaries will continue to be Flm.n DICTIO~ARIF.S. llutthi•isnorcasonwhythcyshouldnotbcgootlones

How does the field linguist go about his work? My own expericnc~ in trying to deter­mine the meaning of the Kikuyu ideophonc ba will illustrate the usual proccdllrc. While studying the meaning of rome words which seem to relate to jomping or leaping, I decide to elicit an ideophone which describes a single fall. I describe a dove sitting on a limb which falls when it is hit with a bullet. The informant responds with eriloi.gJi ~~ ba. Thi~ he accompanies with a gesture made with his open palm, facing himself, brought rapidly and forcefully down from his face to waist (a• he sit>; in front of me). I write down 'I t came down in a swift motion.' llut wh~n I ask for the names of other objects which can fall down ba I get 'leaves, handkerchiefs, sltccts of jplvanis~d irun falling from roof tops ' Obviously my definition 'in a gwift motion' wa.~ not adequate. I am further perplexed by the volunteered information that when a book falls do"~ flat it does ba, but when it fal!s onitscdgcitgoesca?.Atthispointonlyaninexperiencedfieldworkerwouldbesatisficd withhisguessatthemeaningofba.Itdoeanothelptoleavethe deciaiontothereaderof the dictionary with the information that ba occurs "'ith falling (e.g. handkerchiefs, leaves, galvaniscd iron sheeu and flat books)! Ideophones, of course, constitute a special problem because of the specificity of their meaning,"' but this exampl~ ad~quat~ly illustrates how imm~diate context is used by the field linguist for inferring meaning. Errors resulting from such 'snap judgment>;' are probablytobefoundinallour ficld notcHandpublish~d

dictionaries ~if onlywe hadatechnique forferretingthemout.

There are ways to r~duce the amount of error, that is , of coming dO!'oer to the semantic distinction which the language itself makes, not one which ow.,; its existence to the accidcnuofcontext,linguisticor not, or previous experienet' onthepartofthe fidd worker. 1 suggest tvw techniques with which I have been experimenting in a desire to achieve greater precision in defining ideophones, but we might first review the common

cquiY:Ilcnt kfllantie content. The d ifficulty hen i& that tho: infomunt is s.om..'tima; k:u competent than "'"C are In make :o judgmmt on ·the nuclear m9ning of 3 tenn. His. 'con· eepnW hypomtiution&' {a.o K. L . l'i~ c. o.:al!s o-n) are accidental, ba&ed on his pct"IIUn.al

experienc.c and what he can rcm.:mher. If I.e ap pfOves, he may be doing so only lx:a<UC'! oftheappropriaten<.'S.'I ofthcdclinit ionew the recorUed uttcr.mce(•)in which itoccurs .a

(b) We clicitinformation aboutthe \leeof thewordinothcrcontexts ,~,;ither hy asking the infomL"Ult tn provide the example~~ or by mggcating tho:rn ouraeh·es . In fi.:ld work this takca the form of the ' T wenty Qu~tion G am.c': ia it a living ubject.? ( i f it i& 2 l i~iOJ; objcet) when: doe< it li•-c-on b.nd. in the \\"Iter ar in tho: airi is it It~ """ugh for humans to!IH?rtc.'lntryingtodefinethcK.i.kuyuidcopboneiJI'Jiwhlch~intltesentcnee artimlirumirt):l iJaiJ I'hcbithim". l found that: l hadas.kcdthe fol lO"o>-ingquestil>lll(aud othersm:ayht\'CCiiCapedbcingi'U(lrde.J):

" l s thistobit<>withthct.:o:th?" "Yea.'' "Cnn<>ne hitea thing IJa ~ l?" " Xo." "Oocsithutt i""Ya ." ""Docsa penonbiteiiOmethingoff (c..g. a pieeeofhanan~)f""Xo'" .

'"\\ioul,J 'J11JI be used ora dog biting the wool of~ sheep?" ''No." "Can a pasona1 ,."OUJld, liOn", iUneu, etc. b.l2I"t IJ:OIJI ~" '"Ko."" "Could it be\lllr<lofaperaon"sbitinghis.tcngud""Yca." " Hischeeki""No." "Canyuu tdltpersootobi t~do"non*'rnclhing!Ja 'J i,as-...·Mn a t.lentj,;tirn.truetsh.i5

p ati~ntl" "Y.,.." " Whtm a !)CI"80D;,. biting something, his teeth begin to pi~rcc it. Would tM word bo

used of~e•tabbing:rnothcrwlth a kmift? " "Xo."

T he d ifficulty 'l'ith this t«hniq"" is that the infomwu , impntt:lnt a he ill. in providing cnmplts. anoot liUppl.yenough of them. As for the in\wtigator, his qu.cstion!; will help him to 'home: in' on tho: meaning only if he !w. :a prior kno...-edfte Q.f th.- ~oennntic: cate­gorios reprae.otW in the bnguage: e.g. an: objccu; da!ll!ified aooording to siunr sldpc~ does tlw.: lllllgu:agetendto dU.tinguish.-a rious"'-..}-sof cari)-ing thinp1 W itbideophonea t.bU. t~hnique is inadetjuate , bca.w.e we do not yet know what an: th e fun damental catcg\l rics ~-untrasted by these won!~

T wo otll(:r t~cb.niqur:s h.!, • ., been llSI:d by mys.dr in the study of ideophone.J.: (e) ami (d) imprQ>·eon {a) ~nd (b) ~pecti•cly. T hey are being JuggL'Sio:d not bcaUliC they ill !"e nO"<"d. ror :m:llogous. pmccdwn hl\"e been wed by 6dd linguist.. g.-.ncr:Uiy. but bec:auM: t hey hill~·c: probably 11<:''-er (or ne>u serioudy) httn applied t.o dct.cnninint; the semantic rang.s ofthcacw-ords. E..-enwithrocotheyareJtillbcingueede:~:pcrUo..nully . HtteitmU5tbe said that "-e do:speratdy IJefll a whole b:mery nr proc-W\ll"eS uhich will en.~~ble \itcr~~.te and partly t r-ainedinform.o.ntstocontribu tc baJicdat;o.onthcb»i.oofwhichlinguiMi ~ndothtr

' Tho p""ticipMi<lnof\~ lnicrn....,H i11fiold l""ico~•rhyohculd,<>l t:ouue,Df'VOti).ort;•trictod Wl>« we nc.:d,h<>w<>~r,il gn:ater•pedfoatioln nf th.ot"'lu.-.:cf th i..por<h:ipoticm.'l'hequali<>nio : Hew om .., unocpl>ioti.,..td informant b. trooinNI lD o:urttribute to •""'·ddinio-~:1 Wern<r ( •965) ill a po.per ..-hic:h e<>ntnl;nn"" much to cur _.,.J ..,bjt-n, -·-a '1"'.-ticip;m< iofornwu tcdo­=("il:en: hit iofDnnatc oned• • '(IO!nicipmt~"-t')obaul•hkh•..,sbould lib: w bm

•1M "fcaJnu' ted>n~ .. fun~ .. ur tho oaJn< ., t-lar'o nwrici=d mdhod of eliciting permitted top~· -·~=·-mN.nho(•96o>-· =· ~~""'fiOUD-liR...-ordJ..,d ..... -.bo · .... , . !lw'bluud' could""""" ,..-nh"itioolippcry',"n .. .tirty,bhhy, ,...·rul',wd"itiooold'butn<>t witb ' it ioOC>ft, ftuffy,limp'or "itis ..-i<lt .Lruad'

skilled JX'fSOns can arrive at more precise meanings than we have ken accustnmcd to. It is not only th~ inadequacy of past work which mah-s this need imperious; it is also the magnitude of the task before us. Ther~ are probably several thousand idcophones in each African language (I mean at least th~ Omgo--Kordofanian ones but also Nilo--Saharan nnd probablyChadic). Bcforc ideophonescanbeusedinsemanticandpsychologicalrcsearch theirmeaningsmustbcwcllunderstood

(c) The first procedure which my study suggests is PARAPHRASING. The limited usc I havehadwithitindicatcsthatitlilllybethebest''"'y forgettingtheinitialdataonthe meanings of idcophoncs. This should not be surprising. The function of paraphrasing os ~technique for intralingual 'translation' hfiS been koown for some time. But it was Paul Garvin's inductive method in semantic analysisJ(unpublishcd manuscript) which first sug~stedtorrn.itsutilityinthe analysis ofideophoncs.ltisbcingapplicdtr>thestudy

of Kikuyu ideophones (taken from Benson's dictionary) with the assistance of J\.Ir. Peter KamUyU. The instructions are simply to provide an illustration of the usc of the idco­phone,parnphrasetheideophoneinanotherKikuyuscntcnceandthentranslatcthctwo scntcnees into English. The following are afev,· examples

raarUkOrorfrEiiol)go:i:)l)oro'shecleaned the potcompletd y' tb arUkOrorirt irb cbdE deine wil iiol)go 'she took all the food remains in the pot' 2a IJ9~1)gtrt erilagambi :):) IJOro 'the bell is ringing ' 2b mogamb) wiil l)gtl)gut wire m6reto 'the sound of the bell was heavy' 3a twan<iton\r:>gilcei)CCCI)e'thcchildrenarejumping. • 3b twan;\. toriir~ga naigur6 maita m;\,il)ge 'the children jump sever:al time..•' Thcvalueofthispr'X"dnre,itseo:ms tome, isthatitrcquiresthcnativcspcakcrtobe

S]Xcificinhisdiscussionofth~ meanings, Tnthe second~tof sentenccs,forexample,thc

word moreto 'hcal'y' clearly i<lentifies the bell as~ low-sounding one. (Benson defines it as"soundofadeep-notedox-bcll",identicalwiththcmeaningwederivedfromthevery first paraphra'IC of sentence I a.) The paraphrase therefore eliminated the necessity of our having to ask questions such as: "What kind of bellv.-as it?" "How large was it?" "\Vas itnearathandl" etc, Thisprocedure will ,ofcourse,notdoallourworkforus. There canbenoparaphraseforall the possible uses ofanideophone,onlyforeachsentenccin which one occurs.

(d) The ><econd procedure which my study suggests might k called 'the multiplication ofsynonyms'.ltincludcstwosteps:(i)forcachi<leophoncinagivenspecificcontextthe inv~tigator seeks to obtain as many other words of similar meanings as he can. (It goes without saying that antonymns are equally instmctive.) He can do this with a single speaker,whetherhe ktheoriginaloneorsomeoneelse,orwithseveralspeakers.V.'hat must remain constant, however, is the oriJ:inal unerancr, For some utterances it will k important to make the extra-linguistic context =plicit alsn, The next step (ii) is to ask for otherutterancesinwhichthese 'synonymns' could be used.Itisillustrnted below. To increase \'atictyinthcutterance•itisbcttertouseaninformantditferentfromthcoriginalone.

The value of th\8 procedure became apparent some time ago when I sought to ascertain the amount of diversity which characterized idcophoncs for a set of TO concept~ in the Ghaya-Agbaka-Mann languages of t11e Central African Republic. These were: light (in weight), heavy, 5Ull00th and furry (using apowdcrpulf), rough, rattling sound, black, white, soft, long and round. I found that wherever I had more than one informant I obtained several different idcophoncs. :F'rom a gmup of Gbanu at Rm.qemhde, for example,Iobtained9wordsfor'black' (dcscribingapiecenfcharcoal):flyf fiytd6t6r6,

3'

DETER::\11 N i l"G T HE MEA N I N G S Of' fO EOPHONES

i'nMd, Hr~ kir~ . ndil nd ll, gbSkl glrlki, k:twS') k!~l) . ki..O klw6, nd lngbe nding~. T here were also 18 different "'lrd. which I "'-ould have gl()S!Oed as 'I'O!Jgb', aU frorn Gbeya.' No~ of llu.: sptalert identified any of them • bcing dialaul within this JangulJ"'. 'fhe wonls"....eelicitW inropo..,.., to my question tim no nn go~ r• ge nde ' TouchtMthing,sohowilit?'(All<>f~Sll!TC}'wal0011ductedintb<:G~bnguagt.) ~ object which och putici~t ....,.. .W.nl. to touch was !.he surl:aoc of a Europcan­m:ot~ufxtun:dscrob-brush 16 X4 X3·5 cmiosiu.Aftcrthewords ... cn:.obtained,allingle informant•·asaskedofeac:h word: 1) 111J nu n.t S ... ) nlgerro!ge ndi 'SomWlingwbich il ... iawlutthing?'(i.e.'l\amclll'lobjectwhich huthisquality.') l othefollo"ingli•t. additionil illustr::J.t i~.., objects WCTC pro.ido:d by different in fonnants.

Some Gbey.o Jdeophones Descriptive of the Surf1cr of a Brwh ' · rUoUnt: new grass which ho.e just come up and is still ahon l . huara:the fe..lingof lllmething crawlingovcr one'!bodyorofgrass being lwallowed

with food 3· rilt rlt:tbcskinofa ll.idnot )'eta monthold-the hairisshurtand smooth 4 · hakayaka:leaf ofpumplr.in,undpapcr, baclr.ofcrocodile 5· va1p yal)a: the collce~>on of twig. and le:n'CI on the bGck of cemio insect , month-old

growthofbeard ona Eumpca11 6. vlik 51ii'nu: sorghum grain "'hieh has sprouted in tbeprocrssofmakingbeer, ha.ir

on the back of ll ,..ild pig, tangkd sheep wool 1· Vtl)(m n')Em: itchy f~in( after a ttrtain poU.,n bas f.dkn on one's body 8. ?u!U!U: ~iscd surfxe of a ~entch on onc'a body 9· vanka: scancn:d haita on a pig" a body. upright MO<ghum sulb

10. rak.a rak.a: 511rfaoeofafileor rasp(rilui),V>Ucall.in, wn lcabdl ti.A.ka~k.a.:drysand n. soko yoko:dryAild,food~ucewhichdociDotcontaina mucilagenous \·~·"ble

(e.g. okra) 13 . VIIIJUYUI)U: thesurfaceofaoen 3iocaterpill:u-whosebody i5 covered with hair '4 · kokot:surfacc ofadriedanimaJ Bkin 15 . go ro6ot: shonlikeananimal'a headcut off at thebasc

16. kok1odo } 17. sakacf1 (Other U9C8 for thciiC wordswerc not obtain~d.)

tS.tuksucfu As s technique for ascenaining the meanings of it.!wphone~~ with greatu prKision thia

one seems to ha\-e two merits. ( 1) It hindcn; ad boo: defining. Having le:a.rnctl that $0ko yoke can 3pply to a >~auce that docl nnt have a mucibgenous ~.one finds it impl)Mible to define it u ' rough, u of a brush' although it was Uktl of a brw;b. (2) I t aho suppliea

'hioford>iore.oo.U...tlh<you~<rniO..m.lTc::all~.,...,..yrm.S~)=Y,ifthe.,vnl;,JCOir>r«~be utcd ••..U. ,., ... •bc:~iDttnnool.ltt,o,lanf:UII'&'""bea.wiltlld><d.\\'ha:b.ob.o~u•mr e.qxrimenoiothotsu~Uocttrapoodeddi!Jor<o>Uyfl>thcf...olof•btwb •rod dusilicdtbelr~ 1n u:m.of •8diff""""' ad><orllo.. S...bdow.l'urthu~ io ,.,.,_..,. 10 ~Fmrtlw....,.uuie inlu­-=tion bf:t,._., cnncrp.._ TbM ,., "term '•pprnpri.te' (0< .., ..,. ~ ., 1M m«n~•u) 10"""' ~~ mil!i>t ha..., • &.<r vw.J.,...., to_, OIIC.. Thr~ may. in f.oc1,. be _,.a nf intu­~.u..mhlpo. Thrfol.....,ngkind..,...,.,..,c=Wdrredfor iu,.,. .. l>lenlueindiKo\....-yproc:edu""':

At~c-Diotonce-Siu.-Weia'><

s~ sJ~"' I do ool, """'""" ' • - how T••tc • nd Od<rur could be rtl•ted tO thcoc CI<x·pt thruuNh a "·hole "'ri("f.<>fintumodiotocoMepto.

• Wcm<t'• orticle (•¢5) ;, intere.,ing for its documentation of the roth~rhigh de~ree ofnon·"plica. bilit~ on'l~woho medical term• in the exU.tent dicti()florie._•. For, TOit¢1Tlil there wa< complete "~"'ement with the ..,urcc in +7 inst.ncos, diugreement aOOut ITI<Oaning in 35, and complet~ rej ection in 28

DETE!Bf!NIN"G THE MEA,..;l:NGS OF lDEOl'HONES

the problem by looking at the Kikuym ideophone ~a~ I which Benson defines a" ''tks­cr[iptive] of the act of biting with a sharp dick of the jaws." When the informant was given this definition, he responded with the word ~arr in the sentCDL'<.! ari:irumir~ roremii r:>akt55 a:irf'hehithistongue 'Afterfurtherdiscussionthciuformantavowedthat kirf could IJ, used, as in ar!t:lrum:!.niriE m:igeg5 mMkt55 kiri 'he bit his teeth . . . ,'with the explanation that "Thereisnothinginhismouth,hcjustclickcdhisteethtogether." The most appropriate example would be that of a dog snapping futilely at fli es. E~-= when he ·waH given Ben.."'o's entry, i.e. ~aai, the infoml<l!lt rejected it as inappropriate Ofwurse, bysayingthisw.,rul\'enotdctcrmincdwhythcdiscrepancyexists.

Conclusion. In thi" studylhavctricdtoindicatcthcshortcominli"ofourapproachto the lexicogr~phy of African languages, using ideophones by way of e.'<lliilplc. I have not ~~to imply, howc,·cr, that all wnrds have IJ,en as poorly treated as idcophones seem to have been. Moreover, although I have tried to sugg<"st way• i..u which the semantics of id~"OphOIK"Scould be bcttera'lt<'rtained, I realizethattheycannotbcfollowcdfnrallsuch words in the usual field dictionary. But ideophones merit independent investigation of a nattucsuggcstedinthispaper

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