ideophones (typological studies in language, 44)

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Ideophones

Typological Studies in Language (TSL)

A companion series to the journal Studies in Language

General Editor Michael Noonan

Assistant Editors Spike Gildea, Suzanne Kemmer

Editorial Board

Wallace Chafe (Santa Barbara) Ronald Langacker (San Diego)Bernard Comrie (Leipzig) Charles Li (Santa Barbara)R.M.W. Dixon (Canberra) Andrew Pawley (Canberra)Matthew Dryer (Buffalo) Doris Payne (Oregon)John Haiman (St Paul) Frans Plank (Konstanz)Kenneth Hale (Cambridge, Mass.) Jerrold Sadock (Chicago)Bernd Heine (Köln) Dan Slobin (Berkeley)Paul Hopper (Pittsburgh) Sandra Thompson (Santa Barbara)Andrej Kibrik (Moscow)

Volumes in this series will be functionally and typologically oriented, coveringspecific topics in language by collecting together data from a wide variety oflanguages and language typologies. The orientation of the volumes will be substan-tive rather than formal, with the aim of investigating universals of human languagevia as broadly defined a data base as possible, leaning toward cross-linguistic,diachronic, developmental and live-discourse data.

Volume 44

IdeophonesEdited by F.K. Erhard Voeltz and Christa Kilian-Hatz

Ideophones

Edited by

F.K. Erhard VoeltzUniversität zu Köln

Christa Kilian-HatzUniversität zu Köln

John Benjamins Publishing CompanyAmsterdam/Philadelphia

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of8 TM

American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence ofPaper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ideophones / edited by F.K. Erhard Voeltz, Christa Kilian-Hatz.p. cm. -- (Typological studies in language, issn 0167-7373 ; v. 44)

Papers presented at the 1st International Symposium on Ideophones held Jan. 1999, St.Augustin, Ger.

Includes bibliographical references and index.I. Grammar, Comparative and general--Ideophone--Congresses. I. Voeltz, Erhard

Friedrich Karl, 1943- II. Kilian-Hatz, Christa. III. International Symposium on Ideophones1st: 1999 : Sankt Augustin, Germany) IV. Series.

P299.I34.I34 2001415--dc21 2001-025060isbn 90 272 2946 5 (Eur.) / 1 58811 019 2 (US) (Hb; alk. paper)

© 2001 – John Benjamins B.V.No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or anyother means, without written permission from the publisher.

John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O.Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The NetherlandsJohn Benjamins North America · P.O.Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa

Table of contents

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Acknowledgements

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ix

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Introduction

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1

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"intro">

F.K. Erhard Voeltz and Christa Kilian-Hatz

Ideophones in interaction with intonation and the expression of new

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information in some indigenous languages of Australia 9

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"alp">

Barry Alpher

Ideophones and the nature of the adjective word class in Ewe

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25

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"ame">

Felix K. Ameka

Ideophones and compound verbs in Wolaitta

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"amh">

49

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"amh">

Azeb Amha

Research on ideophones, whither hence?: The need for a social theory of

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"chi">

ideophones 63

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"chi">

G. Tucker Childs

Setswana ideophones as uninflected predicative lexemes

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75

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Denis Creissels

Phonosemantic correspondences in Emai attributive ideophones

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87

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"egb">

Francis O. Egbokhare

Defining ideophones in Mundang

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97

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Stefan Elders

Some expressive and borrowed elements in the lexicon of Finnish

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dialects 111

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Vesa Jarva

The ideophone in Didinga

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121

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Nicky de Jong

Ideophones in Ciluba

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139

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N.S. Kabuta

Universality and diversity: Ideophones from Baka and Kxoe

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155

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Christa Kilian-Hatz

vi Table of contents

Expressives and iconicity in the lexicon

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165

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Marian Klamer

Speaking the act: The ideophone as a linguistic rebel

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183

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"kun">

Daniel P. Kunene

Phonosemantic hierarchies

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193

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"mad">

Omen N. Maduka-Durunze

Ideophones as the source of verbs in Northern Australian languages

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205

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"mcg">

William McGregor

Ideophones in the Balto-Finnic languages

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"mik">

223

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"mik">

Eve Mikone

The ideophone in Zulu: A re-examination of conceptual and descriptive

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notions 235

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"msi">

C.T. Msimang and G. Poulos

Are ideophones really as weird and extra-systematic as linguists make

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them out to be? 251

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"new">

Paul Newman

Ideas, phones and Gbaya verbal art

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259

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"nos">

Philip A. Noss

Ideophones in Pastaza Quechua 271

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Janis B. Nuckolls

Le statut des idéophones en gbaya

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287

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"rou">

Paulette Roulon-Doko

Iconic morphology and word formation in Ilocano

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303

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"rub">

Carl Rubino

Testing hypotheses about African ideophones

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"sam">

321

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William J. Samarin

Ideophonic adverbs and manner gaps in Emai

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"sch1">

339

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"sch1">

Ronald P. Schaefer

Ideophone-like characteristics of uninflected predicates in Jaminjung

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"sch2">

(Australia) 355

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"sch2">

Eva Schultze-Berndt

La formation des radicaux déidéophonique et des idéophones

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"tas">

déverbatifs en t7t7la (dialecte ewango) 375

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"tas">

Okombe-Lukumbu Tassa

Table of contents vii

A comparison of some Southeast Asian ideophones with some African

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ideophones 385

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Richard L. Watson

Bibliography of ideophone research

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407

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F.K. Erhard Voeltz and Christa Kilian-Hatz

Language index

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425

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"li">

Name index

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429

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"ni">

Subject index

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"si">

433

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"toc">

Acknowledgements

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First and foremost we are grateful to the actors, the participants of the symposiumfor the enthusiastic role they played.

We would also like to thank Axel Fleisch, Tania Kuteva, Friederike Lüpke,Roxana Ma-Newman, Dirk Otten and Yvonne Treis for agreeing to chair thevarious sessions. To Danielle Jansen and Friederike Lüpke, moreover, a specialthanks for their accomplished management of all the many technical details before,during and after the symposium.

It is our pleasure to thank the director of the Arnold-Janssen-Haus of theSteyler Missionare, Sankt Augustin, Dr. Hermann Kochanek and Ms. MarliesDahmen for their hospitality and the congenial and relaxed atmosphere.

The symposium was supported with a generous grant from the DeutscheForschungsgemeinschaft to whom we wish to express our sincere gratitude and theInstitut für Afrikanistik, Universität zu Köln and its director, Bernd Heine, who hasnever failed to support and encourage our endeavors, however unconventional theymay have been.

Erhard Voeltz & Christa Kilian-Hatz November, 1999

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Introduction

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F.K. Erhard Voeltz and Christa Kilian-HatzUniversität zu Köln

Certainly one of the earliest insights into the nature of language was the recognitionthat the words we use belong to different grammatical categories; and as thesecategories were identified, definitions were formulated. Certain categories allow foreasy definitions, others are more complicated and yet others have been relegated tofootnotes or were simply ignored. With the advent of research on unwrittenlanguages in the nineteenth century different language structures were discoveredand linguists found themselves confronted with grammatical categories that theywere vaguely aware of in their own languages, but that they had only rarelyconsidered worth an effort to describe. One such case, from Zulu, is exemplifiedunder (1):

(1) a. Thula uthi tu!‘Keep perfectly silent!’

b. Kubomvu tubhu.‘It is bright red.’

c. Wathi uyahamba wathi twa obukwini.‘As he went he sank deep into the bog.’

Most of the individual elements are easily identified: Thula, kubomvu and uya-hamba are inflected verb forms, obukwini is the locative form of a given noun andso on. Not so easily identified are the underline forms tu, tubhu and twa. Grammar-ians invented a whole series of different names for these items which were soabundant in these newly discovered languages, including descriptive adverb,descriptive complement, uninflected verb, onomatopoeic vocable, adverb, substantive,etc, etc. Finally Doke, in attempting to systematize and prescribe grammaticalterminology for Bantu linguistic studies, provided them with a definition andproposed to call them:

“Ideophone (Idéophone) [Ideophon]A vivid representation of an idea in sound. A word, often onomatopoeic, whichdescribes a predicate, qualificative or adverb in respect to manner, colour,sound, smell, action, state or intensity.” (Doke 1935:118)

2 F.K. Erhard Voeltz and Christa Kilian-Hatz

It is useful to realize that this often repeated citation is only a part of Doke’s totaldefinition of the ideophone. Doke tried to establish with the term ideophone, whichhe borrowed from the phonetician E.W. Scripture, a new grammatical categorywhich was clearly different from mimic nouns and onomatopoeia — for which heprovides separate entries. The importance of his definition was the observation thatideophones were neither always onomatopoeic (What sounds do colors make thatone may imitate? But there are ideophones for colors.), nor could they be groupedwith any particular grammatical category normally recognized, and therefore theyconstituted a category in their own right. While distancing himself from thesound-meaning correlation of ideophones — which would make them onomato-poeias — he was nevertheless quick to point out that ideophones had a specialphonology which set them noticeably apart from other words:1

“It must be pointed out that generally the special rules of length, tone andstress, applicable in ordinary grammatical forms, differ considerably in the caseof ideophones.” (Doke 1935:118–119)

Doke offered neither a syntactic nor semantic definition nor any criteria foridentifying ideophones as such. Still, his definition has served as the basis andinspiration of research on ideophones for many years and could very well appear inits original form in any given dictionary of linguistics. The reason why a moreprecise, formalistic definition has been lacking — and may in fact not be possible —lies in the very nature of the element investigated. There is little doubt that suchelements as ideophones exist in any language, some languages seemingly havingmore, some less (cf. Kilian-Hatz2 and Mikone). In almost all cases investigated, asis documented in the contributions in the present volume, ideophones have aparticular often special phonology, they do not entirely fit into normal syntacticpatterns and they are semantically highly marked, while at the same time fulfillingfunctions of other, easier definable grammatical categories. Moreover, ideophonesare very often only used in oral language, a fact which may well have led to thembeing ignored in the traditional descriptions of languages that have long since beenreduced to writing and where the grammatical traditions are based on the elabora-tion of observations based on written documents. And in spite of a fairly volumi-nous literature attempting to catalogue and describe them, they have remained astep-child of modern linguistic science.

As linguists are turning away from the very centralized paradigms that havedefined research over the last four decades and in order to retrieve ideophones fromthe particularized, language-specialized investigations of researchers here and there,a symposium was organized to bring together individuals from a variety of languageareas to share their knowledge of ideophones with each other and to place ideo-phonic research into the mainstream of linguistics where it has always belonged.

The present volume represents a collection of the talks given at this [first]

Introduction 3

International Symposium on Ideophones held in January 1999 in St. Augustin,Germany. The outcome of the conference may be shortly summed up as follows infour points:

1.�Ideophones are found in many more languages than expected. While the sampleof languages of the present contributions can not be considered representative, it isnevertheless reasonable to assume that ideophones exist in all languages of theworld: They are a universal category.

2.�As for the function of ideophones, there was a general consensus that ideo-phones and similar words have a special dramaturgic function that differs from allother word classes: Ideophones simulate an event, an emotion, a perceptionthrough language.

3.�In addition to this unique function, a good number of formal parallels could beobserved as well. Ilocano (Northern Philippines) and Bantu languages, for example,displays a strikingly similar patterns of derivational processes involving ideophones.An equally widespread common feature is the introduction of ideophones via averbum dicendi or complementizer; this is the case in most languages of differentareas and families. A third observation concerns the sound-symbolic behavior ofideophones. Thus the word formation of ideophones differs from other words intheir tendency for iconicity and sound-symbolism. Finally it was clear that ideo-phones are part of spoken language — the language register, where gestures couldbe used — rather than written language. It was not surprising that ideophones areoften accompanied by gestures or even considered as “vocal gestures” (as e.g. inJapanese, in Southern Sotho or in the Australian Jaminjung).

4.�These functional and formal parallels allow the conclusion that one spoke aboutthe same or similar word class — whether they are called ‘coverbs’, ‘mimics’ or‘expressives’ or ‘ideophone’. One consequence of this consensus is to accept theDoke (1935) term ‘ideophone’ for this group of words in their contributionspresented here.

The latter point reflects the unspoken, but nevertheless common concern of allparticipants of the conference that this volume may be a useful contribution inorder to come to a standardized term that finally may facilitate further typologicalstudies dealing with a cross-language definition of these unique word class.

It is not unusual for volumes such as this to group papers either according totopic, phonology, syntax, semantics etc., or theoretical orientation, functional,cognitive, generative etc.). Or one may even arrange them according to languagefamily. In latter case the proceedings of this volume may have looked like this inoutline:


(1) Africa: Mundang (Adamawa), Ciluba, Sotho, Tetela, Tswana, Xhosa and Zulu(Bantu), Didinga (Eastern Sudanic), Emai (Edo), Hausa (Chadic), Kxoe(Khoisan), Ewe (Kwa), Wolaitta (Omotic), Baka, Gbeya/Gbaya and Sango(Ubangian).

(2) America: Pastaza Quechua;

(3) Asia: Japanese (Mongolian-Tungus), Pacoh (Mon-Khmer), Ilocano (NorthernPhilippine), and Kambera (Sumba-Bima);

(4) Australia: Jaminjung and Yir-Yoront;

(5) Europe: Finnish and Estonian;

As research on ideophones is experiencing a renaissance and contributors in manycases are still searching for a direction it was felt useful to present the individualcontributions simply in alphabetical order, emphasizing the common ground beingcovered and also reflecting the program and spirit of the conference itself. Threecontributions included here, those of Creissels, Egbokhare and Maduka-Durunzecould unfortunately not be presented at the conference, but are included herenevertheless.

Berry Alpher compares the syntactic and semantic properties of ideophones inthe Australian languages Yir-Yoront, Yirrk-Mel, and the Wik-languages. He showsthat ideophones are “a matter of presentation of new information” in theselanguages, i.e. ideophones have the function of foregrounding the verb which is thecarrier of new information or focus. Ideophones are consistently absent when theverb does not fulfill this function.

Describing some properties of ideophones in Ewe (Togo) in detail, Felix K.Ameka points out the relevance of understanding ideophones that are defined as aphonosemantic class, in order to characterize the close relationship betweenideophones and ideophonic adjectives in African languages.

Azeb Amha distinguishes the ideophones in Wolaitta (Omotic) into twogroups. This distinction is based on their different phonological shape and syntacticfunction. Thus group I ideophones typically involve reduplication and are syntac-tically and semantically similar to adjectives. Ideophones of group II behavesemantically and syntactically like converbs. Her aim is to show on these data thatideophones in Wolaitta do not constitute a separate word class, but are part of thebasic lexicon.

Based on some of his earlier works Tucker Childs points out the “quintessen-tial” social value of ideophones that he sees grounded in communicative interac-tion.

Denis Creissels recognizes two types of predicates: An inflected predicate anda predicate consisting of the verb to say and an ideophone. From a historical pointof view, these ideophonic constructions in Tswana are interesting because theycould reflect a word order change from SVOX to SOVX.

Introduction 5

Francis O. Egbokhare’s contribution deals with sound-symbolism of ideo-phones in Emai (Edo) which he considers to be natural and predictable. Bycontrasting sound-meaning minimal pairs he manages to iconic correlationsunderlying the formation of ideophones. Concluding he observes that all ideo-phones are composed of recurrent sound-symbolic molecules with predictablemeaning.

For Stefan Elders ideophones do not present a syntactical definable separateclass in Mundang, but are found in all lexical classes. Still, they are different fromother word classes in respect to their phonological structure and the phonestheticassociations they evoke..

Vesa Jarva presents a class of words called ‘expressives’ in Finnish, but whichcorresponds to the word class ‘ideophone’ known in African languages. Hedescribes the diachronic process of how borrowed Russian words became express-ives in the target language, Finnish, and reconstructs how this process has beentriggered by phonetic resemblance and semantic motivation.

Nicky de Jong gives a detailed overview of formal properties of ideophones inthe Eastern Sudanic language Didinga. Regarding their phonotactics as well as theirsyntactic behavior, he concludes that ideophones in Didinga must be considered tobe a subclass of adverbs.

N.S. Kabuta describes the phonology, morphology, syntax and meaning ofideophones in Ciluba (Bantu). Their special formal properties leads him to defineideophones as a separate word class that differs from other “ideophonic words” thatshare some phonological and semantic features with ideophones, but are nouns,verbs, and adverbs.

Christa Kilian-Hatz has a mainly functional based approach to define ideo-phones cross-linguistically. Using the example of Kxoe (Khoisan) and Baka(Ubangi), several formal universal as well as language specific properties of ideo-phones are described. It is suggested that formal differences of ideophones indifferent languages can be explained if we assume that they reflect different stagesof a common historical development.

Marian Klamer divides the lexicon into the core vocabulary and the peripheral.Using three criteria, form markedness, meaning markedness and function marked-ness, she argues convincingly that onomatopes and ideophones in three differentlanguages, Kambera, Balinese, and West Tarangan, belong to the peripheral part ofthe lexicon.

Daniel P. Kunene describes the ideophones of Sotho (Bantu) as “linguisticrebels” because they are — as opposed to other word classes — “the closestsubstitute for a non-verbal physical act”. Because of this unique dramaturgicfunction, ideophones seem to be “aloof” from the grammatical system, while at thesame time fulfilling special communicative, i.e. performative, function in oraldiscourse.


Omen Maduka-Durunze makes a further contribution to the sound-symbolicelements of ideophones. In his analysis, ideophones are composed of three differentkinds of phonosemantic units that are combined following a specific, two-dimen-sional hierarchies. Associated to these hierarchies are sets of rules which allow theassignment of semantic values such as ‘roundness’, ‘largeness’, ‘straightness’, forideophones of Nembe, Hausa, Igbo and others.

William McGregor points out the relevance of a word class ideophone for theverbal system in the Northern Australian languages. These languages use compoundverb constructions consisting of an uninflected particle and an inflected verb. Hesuggests that ideophones are the “major historical source for these uninflected partsin northern Australian languages” and explains this process by regarding it as aninstance of a wider cycle of grammatical change.

C.T. Msimang and G. Poulos re-examine the status of the word category‘ideophone’ in Zulu (Bantu) compared to other Bantu languages (Venda, Tsonga).Their main concern is to show that ideophones are a separate word categoryshowing “no derivation from other word classes” like other lexical items do.

From Paul Newman’s perspective, the treatment of ideophones as a formalaberrant group of words seems exaggerated and overinterpreted. Ideophones inHausa (Chadic) are phonologically normal, i.e., they obey the same phonotacticconstraints as other word classes. Ideophones are therefore not as “exotic” asbelieved; rather they are part of the language and must therefore be describedsystematically. Some unusual phonological features may exist, however, they are notso apart from the language as not to fit into the general system.

Another aspect of Finnish and of Estonian ideophones is described by EveMikone. She characterizes the properties of ideophones in these Balto-Finniclanguages. Ideophones are interpreted syntactically as verbs and substantives, butthey differ phonologically from other word classes in their phonotactic structureand their meaning. Morphologically noteworthy is the abundance of derivationalprocesses, largely internal sandhi, used only with ideophones.

Phillip A. Noss’ aim is to examine the use of Gbaya (Ubangian) ideophones infolktales, poetry, and poems. His main concern is to show how creatively ideo-phones are employed. He points out how stylistically relevant ideophones are fororal discourse: Not only do the have an important social, i.e., communicativeimpact, but they also add an important aesthetic note to structure of a text.

Janis B. Nuckolls lines out four semantic functions of adverbial ideophones inPastaza Quechua, a dialect of the Ecuadorean Quechua: Thus ideophones functionlike manner adverbs modifying the meaning of a related verb. With semanticallyinterdependent verbs, however, ideophones may be considered to be co-verbs, i.e.,part of a complex predicate. On the other hand, ideophones can be regarded as averbal gesture modifying the verbal action. Finally she call attention to the aspectualfunction of ideophones that may add punctual or completive information.

Introduction 7

Roulon-Doko investigates the status of ideophones vis-à-vis the other gram-matical categories used in Gbaya (Ubangian), coming to the conclusion, thatideophones occupy a very high status as indicated by their frequency in Gbayadiscourse.

Carl Rubino describes ideophones referring to sounds of Ilocano (NorthernPhilippine) that are all. Ideophones are roots, but the main interest here is theelaboration of the productive derivational morphology added to ideophones. Ofparticular importance is the observation that the Ilocano lexicon displays recurrentpatterns of onomatopoeic sequences that have iconic values.

In William J. Samarin’s very personal contribution a list of 23 hypothesis aboutideophones are presented that are the result of his long experience in the study ofideophones. The hypotheses may be understood as a help for fieldwork on ideo-phones, but they could also be a helpful outline for further investigation onideophones and especially for typological studies.

In the first part of his contribution, Ronald Schaefer shortly describes syntacticand semantic properties of ideophones in Emai (Edo). Ideophones are here asubclass of the adverbials. The second part is an attempt to elaborate a ‘finely-grained’ semantic analysis on the basis of typologically oriented comparativestudies.

Eva Schultze-Berndt examines the so-called ‘coverbs’ of the Australian Jamin-jung (Yirram). She provides detailed information about their morphology, syntax,phonology, and phonotactics as well as instances of sound-symbolism. Based onthese formal properties, she concludes, that uninflected coverbs share many featureswith ideophones known in African languages. Similar to McGregor’s contribution,she concludes, that the ideophone-like behavior of coverbs may have arisendiachronically through the incorporation of “true” ideophones into the verbalsystem.

Okombe-Lukumbu Tassa describes two derivational processes with ideophonesin Tetela (Bantu). On the one hand, verbs can be derived systematically fromideophones through the addition of de-ideophonizing suffixes that share a goodnumber of properties with normal verb-derivational suffixes, and on the otherhand, there are ideophones which derive from verbs by suffixation of an ideo-phonizer.

Richard L. Watson, finally, compares the structure of ideophones in SoutheastAsian and African languages in respect to their phonology, morphology, syntax,semantics, iconicity, and pragmatics. He outlines many cross-language similaritieson all these linguistic levels, but also some areal or language family specific featuresare identified.


Notes

1. Unfortunately he also suggested that ideophones are best classified according to syllable length,a suggestion which many researchers following in his footsteps took all too serious.

2. Where no further bibliographical indications are given, the reference is to a paper in the presentvolume.

References

Doke, C.M. 1935. Bantu linguistic terminology. London, Longmans, Green.

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Ideophones in interaction with intonation

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and the expression of new information insome indigenous languages of Australia

Barry AlpherWashington, D.C.

Ideophones occur frequently and conspicuously in certain registers of speech in theindigenous languages of southwestern Cape York Peninsula, Australia. As I haveshown elsewhere (1994) for the Yir-Yoront language of this area and as seems likelyto be true of Yir-Yoront’s neighboring languages, ideophones are not members ofany part-of-speech class that participates in syntactic relations like head–attribute,verb–object, verb–adverb, or in derivational or inflectional morphological relations;they can be usefully viewed as belonging with intonational phenomena; they differphonologically from words of other classes; and they play an important part indiscourse flow in these languages (in addition to providing sound effects fordramatic enhancement). Taking all but the last of these characteristics as given, Ishow below by means of textual examples (in the Appendix; all the examples beloware from tape-recorded dictation, but speakers are careful to put ideophones also inappropriate material dictated word by word without benefit of tape recorder) howideophones function in connected discourse of the mythic and dramatic-narrativetypes. In this discussion I use the terms Given andNew information (and Theme andRheme) as in Halliday (1985).1

1. Relevant syntactic and discourse aspects of Yir-Yoront

The unmarked, and perhaps underlying, order of elements in a Yir-Yoront clauseis Subject–Object–Verb.2 This order is attested without exception in participial andpurposive clauses (Alpher 1991:57–63), and it is the order in which things areusually given in elicited (de-contextualized) main clauses, as from English The dogbit the child. To be sure, the normal stress pattern of such a clause in English putsthe highest stress on the last word, in this case child, and this stress pattern wouldsignal child as the carrier of New information in connected discourse. In Yir-Yoront, New information is generally given as the item with the highest stress level

10 Barry Alpher

in the clause, the center of intonation; this usually comes immediately before theverb. The elicited translation of ‘the dog bit the child’, Kurtuwl lerren puy, placeslerren ‘child’ in this position, identified as New information just as in the Englishprompt.

In connected discourse in Yir-Yoront, the placement of New at the center ofintonation just before the verb regularly overrides subject–object–verb order asneeded. Examples: minh ‘meat’ (A92), line ‘fishing line’ (C17), minhl-kothrr ‘acrocodile’ (C18), par-warrch ‘prohibited cousin’ (A22) oq+arr ‘right here’ (A59),ngorto+warr ‘you alone’ (A60), pan ‘sleep’ (a noun; A89); other nominal examplesare at A94 and 97, C5–9, 11, 12, 14, and 20, and D44, 48, 50, 56, and 99. The verb isgenerally unstressed relative to what precedes. If the verb itself is the carrier of New,it is (in the absence of an ideophone) preceded by the particle a (A98, C18, D40),3

glossed “EMPH”, which is the center of intonation. Change or reassertion of theTheme (topic) is typically accomplished with pronouns, most usually in construc-tion with a noun: olo warrchiwirrl ‘the woman [for her part]’ (A98; note that Newin this example is the verb); other examples are at A22 (reasserted), D45, D48(pronoun alone), D53, D58 (reasserted), C19 (pronoun alone). To contrast the useof a pronoun as Theme with the use of one as New, compare any of these withngorto + warr ‘you alone’ in A60.

Yir-Yoront ideophones have the following properties:

a.�They most usually occur in one of two positions. The first is immediately beforethe verb, in which case the verb carries New and ideophones are mutually exclusivewith the particle a (A21, A93, B3, B67, D98) and with modal particles. There areoccasional exceptions, as in line 12 of text A, in which the male protagonist calls tohis wife, who has demanded he swim back from mid-river, “Puy ngalq yungr yirr;lilq — ” ‘let (ngalq [the hortative particle]) [me] swim (yungr [non-past tense]) on(yirr), by myself (lilq), puy! Two lines later this is repeated as Ngoyo [I] ngalq yungryirr; lilq.’ I hypothesize that there is in effect an intonational break after theideophone puy here, as evidenced by the alternate ngalq (vs. alq) of the hortativeparticle, which is the usual clause-initial alternate and which clause-internallyusually follows forms ending in vowels. The other frequent placing of ideophonesis after the verb and separated from it by a terminal intonation contour, usuallycomma (short pause and half-fall [A92, D56]; sometimes none [D91]). When theideophone follows the verb, New can be carried by the verb (coincidentally, as withworrngvlhnh ‘sniffed’ in A98–99) or by some other element (pethvl ‘with the fishingrod’ in C20, kenerr ‘on top’ in D56).

b.�They associate semantically and in co-occurrence with verbs or sets of verbs, ormore precisely with parts of the event sequences that verbs denote. For example, theideophone puy (of sudden departure) co-occurs with the ‘go’ verbswu ‘went’ (D58,D98) and yaw ‘went’ (B1), with the component +awrrnh ‘went and…’ of yuwlawrrnh

Ideophones in interaction with intonation 11

‘went and got’ (A92), and with yamlnh (A21) and yim (D95), both ‘carried’, inregard to the motion aspect of carrying. Also co-occurring with yuwlawrrnh ‘wentand got’ is chawárrq (of picking something up), but here in regard to the ‘get’ (yow~ yuw) part of the verb (D93). See Alpher (1994:167–168) for further details.Ideophones do not combine with inflecting verb stems to derive new lexical verbs,and although there is a verb tha (roughly, ‘do’) that will combine with Englishwords to form new verbs (start=tha ‘to start’, election=tha ‘to have an election’), itdoes not combine with ideophones (*chawárrq=tha ‘to pick something up’,*wirr=tha ‘to drag’, etc.). There is no use of a verb ‘say’, ‘do’, or ‘go’ to carryideophones syntactically. Ideophones also occur in the absence of verbs, but theyusually imply a particular verb, for example lak (of knocking someone down) inB66, later spelled out in full together with its verb in B67.4 Only rarely, as with wirr(of dragging) in D91 and 92, does an ideophone precede, with no intonationalbreak, a verb or other predicate which it does not imply semantically (with whichit is not conventionally associated). The total number of ideophones recorded forYir-Yoront is not much more than 100 (Alpher 1991); from this fact and from thesemantics of usage as described above, it can be seen that ideophones in thislanguage function rather differently from those of a number of African languagesdiscussed in this symposium. An example is Yoruba (Awoyale Ms.), in which foreach verb of color — ’to be red’, for instance — a rich and different array ofideophones is available to indicate shade, saturation, and condition.

c.�They are absent from subordinate clauses (the adjoined relative clause, which isnot syntactically subordinate, as well as clauses of the participial and purposive type,which are truly subordinate). They are absent from clauses of recapitulation, whichare uttered with a flat intonation and end with a drawn-out mid-front vowelwritten “e-” (C9 second line, C11, D46, D94; A19 and 20 are clauses of this type thatpresuppose material omitted here). Ideophones typically occur in declarativeclauses in one of the past tenses. Nonetheless, they do occur with non-past tenses(see above) and, contra Alpher (1994:172), they do occur with imperative verbs inYir-Yoront, and they are attested in such contexts in Uw-Oykangand as well: puy!err artil urr ‘puy! you fellows [urr] go out [artil] away [err]!’ (Sommer 1986:256,line 11).

2. Typology of representation of new information in languagesof this area

Common to the languages of Yir-Yoront’s region is the marking of New, if nominal,as the most highly stressed element (center of intonation) of the clause, typicallypositioned just before the verb. In some of these languages (Yir-Yoront, Yirrk-Mel,and the Wik languages), the center of intonation is so saliently stressed that a

12 Barry Alpher

following verb undergoes phonological reduction of some kind. In Yir-Yoront, thehistorical reduction of verb-final stops to their corresponding glides (Alpher1988:190) is a product of conditioning of this kind. In Wik-Ngatharr the result is asporadic (synchronic) loss of the initial consonant of a verb; an example is the verbwent ‘fall, jump down’ in the story “Dutchmen at Cape Keerweer” (text F below),which is realized phonologically intact in F77, 78, and 80 but with its initialconsonant dropped, as entanh ‘dived’, in F75. In other area languages of the area,(Olkola and Koko-Bera, for example), the center of intonation (also marking New)is also stressed relative to its context, but more gently so. Some of the stronglystressing languages (Yir-Yoront and its sister dialect Yirrk-Mel) normally use aparticle to carry the stress and mark a following verb when it signifies New; in theothers, the verb itself, if New, is the center of intonation.

A typological variable among the languages discussed here is the presence orabsence of pronominal subject- and object-marking clitics. In Olkola and Uw-Oykangand, there are no pronominal subject and object clitics that are distinctfrom full pronouns. In Yirr-Yoront and Yirrk-Mel, on the other hand, clitics aredistinct from full pronouns but optional and relatively free as to position in theclause, and in some of the Wik languages, as exemplified here by Wik-Ngatharr,they are distinct from full pronouns and to at least some extent obligatory inpresence and fixed in position. In Wik-Ngatharr clitics (which are not fullyobligatory, as E78 shows) are postposed to the word before the verb, which isfrequently a tense-aspect auxiliary like œyam (imperfective) as in F77, 79, 80, and84, but which can be an ideophone if no auxiliary is present: F75 (chupchupchupa-n‘chup [of diving]-they’), F76 (wupa-n ‘[of entering]-they’).

When an ideophone (with or without a following auxiliary) precedes a verb inWik-Ngatharr, the verb is New: F75 entanh ‘fell/dived’, F76 ngee’anh ‘entered/jumped in’. (It is not clear whether an auxiliary with no preceding ideophone, as inthe third line of F77, signals that a following verb is New.) A noun (blanket in F84)or adverbial (thilamala ‘again’ in F80) in center-of-intonation position representsNew. As in Yir-Yoront, an ideophone can be the sole signal of a predicate, as witherm (of arriving) in F83, and as in Yir-Yoront, ideophones occur post-verbally, aswith kap ‘thud!’ in F80. Uniquely in this text in this language, among those I amaware of from this area, an ideophone is attested apparently acting as a nominal inthe relation of direct object of the verb: tuw … ngeethana ‘heard the tuw! [gun-shots]’.

Olkola (text E) clauses have a much less pronounced difference in stress levelbetween the center of intonation and what follows. The verb, if it is representingNew and if there is no ideophone, bears the highest stress and is usually clauseinitial, as with udnal ‘lay’ in E3202; other examples (excluding directly quotedmaterial) are E3207, 3302, 3304, 3403, 3405, 3410, 3505, 3506, 3508, and 3511.Marking of pronominal subject is optional, with a free pronoun after the verb: edn


‘they’ in E3202, il ‘he’ in E3502. Ideophones can follow the verb, as with buuubh (offalling) in 3506 and tharr (of grabbing) in 3609 (uttered without a preceding pause),but the most favored position is directly before the verb, and in these cases the verbrepresents New: wirr odnderr ‘wirr! pulled’ in E3306, buwbh: errmbenhambarr ‘pup!knocked down’ in E3403, pir udnydjarr ‘pir! bashed’ in E3610; other examples areE3307, 3308, 3309, 3407, 3408, 3502, and 3510. As is not apparent from this text butappears to be the case from material in Olkola’s sister dialect Uw-Oykangandpublished by Sommer (1986:255–259), an ideophone preceding a verb can beseparated from it by an adverbial: puy! awar igurr anhdhan ‘puy! we [anhdhan] went[igurr] east [awar]’ (Sommer 1986:257, line 47). This text contains several moreexamples, and the Olkola text under consideration (E) as dictated back during tapetranscription contains similar examples. I hypothesize that these are stressed at thesame level as the following verbs and are in effect compounded with them —“incorporated”; for a discussion touching on this phenomenon in Yir-Yoront, seeAlpher (1991:53–54). Nominals (including adverbs) and particles representing Neware stressed, preverbal, and usually clause initial in Olkola: arrg ‘daylight’ in E3203,uk arram ‘another tree’ in E3310, omel ‘tail’ in E3609, adni ‘up’ in E3209 and 3303,and ana ‘ready’ in E3204.

3. Summary and conclusions

Ideophones in the three languages illustrated in texts here are forms whose semanticcontribution is largely a matter of presentation of New information, or focus —that is, whose study is part of the study of discourse. That this is so is apparent fromthe absence of ideophones from intonation units (clauses) in which anything otherthan a verb is the carrier of New information and their restriction to clauses inwhich the carrier of new information is the verb. Exceptions of two kinds notedabove are by hypothesis a matter of micro-intonational breaks between ideophoneand following material (Yir-Yoront; see Section 1) or of incorporation of interven-ing material into the following verb (Olkola and Uw-Oykangand; see Section 2).

As for Yir-Yoront, although it is in fact possible and occasionally done to uttera clause with the verb itself as center of intonation, the preferred methods offoregrounding verbs are the use of the stressed particle a or use of an ideophone.There is a further method in Yir-Yoront with relevance to the use of stress for focus:this is the use of verbs of the phrasal type, for example ko-ngarrl…yam ‘to snore, lit.to carry snores’ in A90, with the noun component (here ko-ngarrl ‘snores’) bearingprimary stress, and of a compound type in which the initial element is stressed, forexample to + tharr ‘to put aside’; here the stressed element, to, is homophonouswith the ideophone to (off flopping down; in D57 to could be construed as part of -

14 Barry Alpher

the verb). The use of phrasal verbs is strikingly parallel to the use of English phrasalverbs with the same focusing function: look (the number) up (Halliday 1986).

Appendix: excerpts from texts5

A. Yir-Yoront: from “Minh-Kiltin” [flying fox], told by Ngerr-Thuy.

Minh-kiltin kallnh ’l e- kana.flying.foxes speared he done

19 He was spearing flying foxes —done.

Wurl+nh ’l e- kana.cooked he done

20 He cooked them— done.

Minh manhthnh puy yamlnh ’l.meat cooked ! carried he

21 He carried the cooked meat off,puy!

Pam+olo par-warrch warngnhonnvnh;man+he prohibited was.chasingwarrchuwrr; par-warrch;woman prohibitedwarr-mariyrr angan.cousin his

22 He was running after his poisoncousin;a woman prohibited as a spouse,his cousin on his father’s side.

…

“Lerren lon ngethn oq+arr nhilin.children with weexpl here+only stay

59 “I always stay right here with thechildren.

Ngorto+warr yarrarr parr+thiwarrn.”you+only keep.going south.across.rivers

60 [While] you always go southacross the river by yourself.”

…

%Pilin pan nh wunvnh#/they sleep dc layyamar awr nh#/many those dc

89 They were sleeping,

those many (people).

Pan-maq-kith ko-ngarrl nh yamlnh.deep.sleep snores dc carried

90 In a deep sleep, they were snor-ing.

Ko-ngarrl, /ngan yamlnh pinn.snores dc carried they

91 They were snoring.

Olo ngolowr;he aforementionedminh yuwl+awrrnh parr+korr, ^puy-meat get+went back !

92 He, the lover,

went back out and got the meat,puy!

Chawárr yuwl+awrrnh ’l.! get+went he

93 ChaWARR! he fetched it.


Parr-^thiwrr %yawrr+^onnvnh ’l e-southwards go+caused he

94 He took it off to the south.

Warrchuwrr @ warr-marvnhrr angvlam.woman cousin:dat his:dat

95 To his poison cousin.

Pam-el angan.girlfriend his

96 His girlfriend.

Minh, kowo tharrl+awrrnh.meat nose:dat put+went

97 He brought it in front of hernose.

Olo warrchuwirr+l a worrngvlhnh.she woman+erg emph sniffed

98 She, the woman, sniffed it.

“MmMmMmMm-”! (sniffing)

99 Sniff! Sniff! Sniff!

“Nhan oyo; nhan oyo; nhan oyo.”here I

100 “It’s me here. It’s me here! It’s mehere!”

B. Yir-Yoront: from “Alligator and Crocodile” [saltwater and freshwater crocodile], toldby Machvlaw (J) and her son Wangarr-Kuwal (P); line 3 is the beginning of the narration.

J: Puy yaw ’l.! went he

�3 J: Puy! he went off.

…

J: E; ngul olowr e-yes; then aforementioned

65 J: Yes; then —

Yongn olo nhanganh lik! @for.his.part he him !lak!, kawrr Minh-Kanharr.! east crocodile

66 He [Alligator], for his part,[threw] him [down], lik!lak! him of the east, Crocodile.

P: Lak lilhth ungnh.! threw.down him

67 P: Lak! he threw him down.

C. Yir-Yoront: from “Taken by a Crocodile”, by KochYawrronl (autobiographical)

Ngul ngenn parr+kowl wu-then weexdu downwards went

�5 Then we went down—

Petherr @saltpanngar-tha mom+nn ngenn e-mud codgrab+prt weexdu

�6 To the salt pan —

we [were busy] catching mud-cod [for bait] —

Puq awr mum ngenn kana.bait that grabbed weexdu finished

�7 We finished getting the bait.

Parr+kowl wu ngenn-downwards went weexdu

�8 Down we went.

16 Barry Alpher

Petherr wirnvnh ngenn;saltpan skated weexdu

parr+kowl wu ngenn e-downwards went weexdu

�9 We slid on the salt-pan [playing];down we went —

Ngul — wartuyuw parr+kowl thut inn+w.then to.river downwards ! sit+went

10 Then — down to the river wewent and sat, thut!

Puq pirllnh.bait keep+gp

11 We were fishing with bait.

Aa-

ngar-kurr+vngiy kuntarr+onvnh ’l.barramundi+dat float+causedhe

12 And —

he was running [the bait] up anddown [like a wobbler] forbarramundi.

Kuntarr+onvnh e- ngul-float+caused then

13 He was running it up and down— then —

Ngar-kurr peqerr winy parr+kin.barramundi small threw upwards

14 He landed a small barramundi.

Kana.Finished

15 Done.

Ngul e-Then

16 Then —

Line mum ungnh; tharr-line grab:p it !

17 [Something] grabbed the line,tharr!

Ngoyo nga yirrl,I emph said“A+waw,

emph+mightminhl-kothrr moml+w awr nh,croc:erg grab+came that dc

line awr anqn awr.”line that your there

18 I said,

“I think

a crocodile came up and grabbedthat one,that line of yours there.”

Olo, “Mapuwl an, yoqo.”he nothing this stick:erg

19 He said, “This was nothing — astick [caught it].”

Ngul pethvl yikil, ^kik-then rod:erg poked !

20 Then [he] poked [it] with hisfishing rod, kik!

D. Yir-Yoront: from “Murrayl” [swamp srabs], told by Ngerr-Thuy.

“Kuwa Kuwn pal, yaw e#/come.on granddaughter hither comemurrayl an moml+awrrv.crabs here catch+come

41 “Come on, Granddaughter, comehere,I want you to come catch thesecrabs.


Inhqa yuw+kowl morr.right.here far+down very

42 Right here way down deep.

Anhth orto nga moml+aw.”try you emph catch+come

43 How about you come catch[them].”

Pal yaw.hither came

44 She approached

Olo lerrn-koponvmrr pal yaw.she granddaughter hither came

45 How about you come catch[them]?

Pal yaw ’l e-hither came she

46 She approached

Olowr parr+kowl.aforementioned downwards

47 Down there [in the swamp].

Nholo puth momlnh; paml-kemerrl.she arm grabbed grandmother:erg

48 She grabbed her arm, the grand-mother did.

Olowr parr+kowl e.aforementioned downwards

49 Downwards to that [hole; thegrandmother pulled her].

Ngul ungnh par-poq olowrarr lunhinthen her head af ’mentioned put.inungnh parr+kowl;her downwardsmurrall awr.crab[hole]:loc that

50 Then, at that place, she put herhead down in —

into that crab [hole].

Trrt trrt trrt … parr+kowl, monwiny;! downwardspushedparr+kowl thilalh awr nh.downwards hole:loc that dc

51 Trrt! Downwards, she pushedher;down into that hole.

Yaqar; yaqar; thel kulangrr;shins then shredded.grasswarrq kenerr thup yinguy.grass atop ! closed

52 [With] her legs [kicking], herlegs;then, shredded grass —she closed grass over the top,thup!

Lerrn olo ngi+kowl warrmll.child she there+down died

53 The child died in there.

I+kowl warrmll.there+down died

54 In there, she died.

Warrmll i+kowl.died there+down

55 She died in there.

Kulangrr kenerr yinguy; ^thup-grass.sp atop closed !

56 She closed kulangrr grass over thetop, thup!

18 Barry Alpher

To thurr ’l ungnh.! left she her

57 She left her there.

Nholo monqyow puy wu parr+kin.she old.woman ! went upwards

58 The old woman went up [out ofthe swamp], puy!

Wu|ng ’l e-went she

59 She went —

Murral+arr @ yoyrronn+w.crabs+only pick.up+went

60 She went picking up only thecrabs.

…

Thel @ morr karrl+w ’l.then something see+went he

89 Then — he [the father] sawsomething.

“Koq iiinhqa lunhin orr.”so! right.here put.in aha!

90 “So it’s right here she put her in!”

Yaqar awr kunpirr iw’l+kowl wirrr-shins those pulled outwards !wirr wirr wirr kith ’l.! dead she

91 He pulled her by the legs outfrom underground,wirr! wirr wirr wirr [dragging];she was dead.

Wirr wirr wirr wirr purrthurr.! put.down

92 Wirr….[dragging]; he put herdown.

Low+arr paylnh.keening.wails cried

93 He cried.

Pay ’l e- kana.cried he finished

94 He cried — enough.

Puy yim ’l parr+kin kith nh.! carried he upwards dead dc

95 Puy! he carried her up, dead.

Thunnonn+w.bring.in+came

96 [He] brought [her] in[to camp].

[The child’s mother says to her husband:]

“Monqyow awr olo larr-ngonngorr nginm;old.woman that she nighttime vanishedlunhnl ’l; larr-ngonngorr; yaw ’l.”ran she nighttime went she

97 “That old woman [my mother]vanished in the night;she ran; at nighttime; she went.”

[Narrator:]

Puy wu|ng ’l#/! went she

98 Puy! she went.

Larr-ngonngorr; thaluwnhamn wung ’l.nighttime darkness went she

99 Nighttime;in the darkness she went.

E. Olkola: from “Cough”, told by L.Y., 1996. My transcription is broad phonetic. Note that(i) the intervocalic consonant of words like /igu-/ ‘to go’, /igi-/ ‘to throw’ varies from a


voiced stop to a voiceless lengthened stop and is distinct from a voiceless aspirated stop notattested in this text; I have transcribed it as heard; (ii) vocalic length (“:”) is sound-symboliconly; (iii) acute and grave accents mark non-phonemic syllable stress within the word; (iv)parenthesized items were given during transcription only..

“Ngkóth u:^dnámpa#/”here let’s.camp

3201 “Let’s camp here.”

Udnál edn.camped they

3202 They camped.

A:rrg é:ngkél#/daylight came

3203 Daylight came.

“Aná angkímp ambul.ready let’s.go.hunting we

3204 “Let’s go hunting now.

Iyá#/ ang^ká awár ikumpa.all.right here east let’s.go

3205 All right — let’s go east here.

Inhák angkìn inh-albmbu a:rríngk.”for.meat go.hunting possum will.kill

3206 We’ll hunt for meat and we’ll killpossums.”

A:ngkirr edn.went.hunting they

3207 They went hunting.

“^Ooo inh-albmbú orrwonyinggirrpossums too.many

orrwonyinggirr a– ”too.many

3208 “Ooo — very many possums — ”

%Adní ewàl-up looked

3209 He looked up.

“’A inha a:ngká:ngk|a adní inàn a%animal here up sits

3210 “Ah — an animal is staying rightup here —

Inh-albmbú’.”possum

3301 A possum.”

Ikurr edná#/went they

3302 They went.

Adní a:dìrr#/up climbed

3303 And climbed up.

Ewál#/looked

3304 And looked

“Angká:mv%”here

3305 “Here!”

Wirrr odnderr a’-! pulled

3306 Wirr! he pulled it out —

20 Barry Alpher

Pir, pir unydjudnydjarr.! bashed

3307 Pir, pir! he bashed it again andagain [against the tree, to kill it].

A tarrp igìrr.! threw

3308 Tarrp! he threw it [obmon(down)].

Púy% ’ikúnm a#/! went

3309 Puy! he went off.

Uk árram ewal#/tree another saw

3310 He saw another tree.

“Ug árram àngká.”tree another here

3311 “Another tree here.”

“Arrín ambámp í.”where let’s.do

3312 “What shall we do with it?”

“Ulímpàmp.”let’s.knock.down

3313 “Let’s knock it down.”

Iyá; ulimbarr.all.right knocked.down

3401 All right; they knocked it down.

“Uk angka#/”tree here

3402 “Tree here — ”

’Buwbh:: ’errmbénh-ambàrr.! knocked.down

3403 Pup! they knocked it down.

Ubhilubhirr#/chopped.open

3404 They chopped it open.

Ewal#/looked

3405 And looked.

“’A– inh (-almbu) angká.”animal (possum) here

3406 “Ah — a possum here.”

Wirr inggirr.! pulled.out

3407 Wirr! he pulled it out.

Pir, pir, udnydjàrr.! bashed

3408 Pir, pir! he bashed it.

Alimp(ap) o:djarr#/ 3409 Cut (tree) again to see if anymore in there.

Ewál#/looked

3410 He looked.

“Arrám angká#/”another here

3411 “Another one here — ”

Pir abha; pir, pir, udnydjarr.! ! bashed

3412 Pir, pir! he bashed it.


“Aná– inh angká aná.”finished meat here enough

3413 “Finished — enough meat here.”

“Ogény; onhdherramp agngkam.”what’s.happening let’s.hunt

3501 “No— we’ll hunt for more.”

Puy vmp igurr il#/! went he

3502 Off he went, puy!

“Angk a:dníy.here up

3503 “Up here.

#A^a; angkamp|v, odjámp ampùl.”here let’s.cut we

3504 Ah — let’s cut here.”

(Ukú)u:límbarr#/(tree) cut

3505 They cut the tree.

Ebmbenh-ambarr ukú ángkáw [..]#/knocked.down tree herebuuubh!

3506 Knocked down the tree here —

pup!

Aná.finished

3507 Done.

^Ubhílubhírr-chopped.open

3508 They chopped it open.

“Angká:ng’ká.”right.here

3509 “It’s here all right.”

uBhiiirr odnderr.! pulled.out

3510 Wirr! he pulled it out.

A:djirr.cooked

3511 They cooked it on the fire.

Aná.finished

3512 Done.

“Alímb a:yín ów.” 3513 “Let’s get more!”

Opúrabharr#/lifted.cover

3608 [He] lifted the wood covering[the possum].

Omél arrbhirr thàrr.tail grabbed !

3609 He grabbed its tail, tharr!

’Pir udnydjàrr.! bashed

3610 Pir! he bashed it.

F. Wik-Ngatharr: from “Dutchmen at Cape Keerweer”, told by Jack Spear Karntin,Wathanhiina (Peret Outstation), December 1976 (Sutton 1986:82–107).

22 Barry Alpher

Thana iny-iny-eya,they yonder-top

inya mina-myon good-abl

74 Those others [who had massa-cred the Dutchmen],were safe there.

Chup chup chupa-n enta-nh,! -they fell

umpa kaaw,side eastngampunm panhànych-inhth homeour to.there-yon

75 They [survivors of theDutchmen’s punitive attack]dived into the water,swimming to the east bank,

heading for our homeland.

Wupa-n ngee’a-nh;!-they enteredtuw!!

76 They jumped inside the scrub;

bang! [went the guns].

They been run away iny-eya …yon-top

“Wenta-kà-mpa!”fall-imp-weœyamà-n iiykanh than-thanp.impf-they said they(distr)

77 They ran away…

“Everybody hit the dirt!”

they would say to each other.

Kap œyam wentanh!! p.impf fell

78 And they would throw them-selves down, thud!

Wurr œyamà-n [thenngàn-0]! p.impf-they [got.up]

79 Then they’d get up again.

Thilam-ula wuna tuw inhthagain-seq lay ! yonœyama-n ngeethanha-p.impf-they heard“Wenta-kà-mpa!” -kap!fall-imp-we !

80 Then they’d lie down again when

they heard a bang —

“Everybody hit the dirt!” —Thud!

Panhth-inhth-ey nhikan-màngka …there-yon-top along-backinhà-nycha-m k aawyonder-all-abl east

81 This happened all the way alongtheir flight eastwards.

Kempiy Warpàng inhà-nych-ul-inhthon.top (place) yonder-all-seq-yonwarra-n aampa-nynow-they climbed

82 They were now going up inlandtowards Warpànga.

Mookath erm, pak(place) ! down

83 They arrived safely at Mookathand sat down.


[In line 84 the time-setting shifts abruptly some 300 years; and the reference of nhula ‘he’, afull pronoun signalling a shifted theme, is apparently to Hugh Giblett, a sandalwood traderand entrepreneur of the early 20th century who used Aboriginal labor and was for people ofa number of groups of this area the first European to enter into sustained relations with them(Chase 1988:128–129). In some Yir-Yoront tales hemerges mythically with Captain Cook ofthe eighteenth century.]

Nhula blanket œyama-n thee’anhhe p.impf-they gavethananta,to.them“Ngatha ngatha ngatha pala pala!”mine hither

84 He used to give them blankets;

“Mine mine mine here! Here!”

Warr warr warr œyama-n amngàn! p.impf-they ripped

85 They used to tear them up— riprip rip!

Kungkunga-m, kungkungfragments-emph fragments

86 Just little pieces, tiny fragments.

Notes

1. New is roughly equivalent to “focus”, and Theme to “topic”, in other terminological frame-works.

2. Within the noun phrase, it is Noun-Adjective, Noun-Demonstrative, Noun-Pronoun, Noun-Adjective-Demonstrative-Pronoun.

3. Pronounced nga after a word ending in a vowel. This particle is also routinely used withimperative verbs (D43).

4. Note that lik in B66 is probably an out-of-awareness blend of lak with the verb lilhth ‘to knockdown’.

5. The interlinear “gloss” for, and identifier of, all ideophones is an exclamation point. Otherabbreviations used in interlinear glossing: dc, dependent clause; emph, emphasis (in YY, followingverb is New); p.impf, past imperfective; dat, dative case; erg, ergative case (including instrumen-tal function); loc, locative (ending always homphonous with ergative in languages of this area);exdu, exclusive dual; expl, exclusive plural; prt, participle (‘while -ing’); top, topic (Wik-Ngatharr); seq, sequential; all, allative (Wik-Ngatharr); abl, ablative (Wik-Ngatharr). Othersymbols: comma, short intonational fall and continue; period or semicolon, full intonational fall;@, speaker hesitates; | (vertical stroke), the following is present for phonological reasons only; #/,fall-rise final intonation; ^, high-tone onset (continuing); %, mid-level onset; /, rising onset; ‘(straight apostrophe, preceding), highest stress in clause. Phonemic glottal stop is represented qin Yir-Yoront and straight apostrophe (postvocalic) in Wik-Ngatharr.

24 Barry Alpher

References

Alpher, B. 1988. “Formalizing Yir-Yoront Lenition”. Aboriginal Linguistics 1:188–197.Alpher, B. 1991. Yir-Yoront Lexicon: Sketch and dictionary of an Australian language. Berlin:

Mouton de Gruyter.Alpher, B. 1994. “Yir-Yoront ideophones”. In L. Hinton, J. Nichols, and J. J. Ohala (eds), Sound

Symbolism, 161–177. Cambridge: CUP.Awoyale, Y. “The form-meaning interface in Yoruba ideophones”. Paper presented at the

International Symposium on Ideophones, Sankt Augustin, January 1999. ms.Chase, A. 1988. “Lazarus at Australia’s gateway: The Christian mission enterprise in eastern Cape

York peninsula”. In T. Swain and D. Bird Rose (eds), Aboriginal Australians and ChristianMissions: Ethnographic and historical studies, 121–139. [Special Studies in Religions 6].Adelaide: Australian Association for the Study of Religions.

Halliday, M.A.K. 1986. Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold.Sommer, B. 1986. “The Bowman incident”. In L. Hercus and P. Sutton (eds), 241–263. This is

What Happened. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.Sutton, Peter. 1986. “Dutchmen at Cape Keerweer”. In L. Hercus and P. Sutton (eds), This is What

Happened. 82–107.Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.

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Ideophones and the nature

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of the adjective word class in Ewe*

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Felix K. AmekaMax Planck Institute for Psycholinguisticsand Leiden University

1. Introduction

In his overview of African ideophones, Childs (1994:197) notes that one of theissues that remains “[Still] to be scrutinized is the exact nature of the relationshipbetween ideophones and the rest of the language, as well as the place of ideophonesin a language.” The present paper seeks to contribute to this topic of research byexamining the consequences the place given to ideophones in a language descrip-tion has for typological generalizations about that language. I argue that one camarrive at different generalizations about the nature of the adjective word class in alanguage depending on the place of ideophones in the language. I illustrate thepoint with data from Ewe, a Kwa language of West Africa. I explore the implicationsof ignoring ideophones for our understanding of the structuring of conceptualdomains such as color in the language. Furthermore, I argue that contrary to beingperipheral elements, ideophones form an integral part of the languages in whichthey occur and they should therefore not be ignored, but should be considered intheir typological characterizations.

Research on ideophones is beset with problems of finding a cross-linguisticallyvalid definition for the term ‘ideophone’ and its progress has been hampered byemphasizing the peripheral and the irregular nature of ideophones. A way forward,it seems to me, is to attempt to discover correlations between the properties thathave been documented for ideophones in specific languages and the linguistic typeof these languages. In other words, it appears that some of the properties ofideophones that have been noted in the literature apply only to certain languagetypes and others to languages of other types. To give a rather trivial example, amorphological property that has been noted for ideophones in description afterdescription is that “ideophones display very little morphology” (Childs 1994:185).

26 Felix K. Ameka

Sometimes ideophones are said to be uninflected words (cf. Schultze-Berndt thisvolume). However, such statements are only applicable to languages that are of acertain morphological type, namely the inflecting ones. Such a feature is irrelevantfor an isolating language (with agglutinative features) such as Ewe. I suspect thatmany of the features that have been noted for ideophones co-vary in similar wayswith the typological properties of the languages in which they occur.

I assume that ideophones are a phonosemantic class of words with expressiveand imaginistic semantics (cf. Kita 1997). They are first and foremost a type ofwords — a lexical class of words — which need not belong to the same grammaticalword class in a particular language nor across languages (cf., e.g., Newman 1968).In this sense they are like deictic words with a particular semantic function butwhich can fall into different grammatical word classes — nominal, adverb, verb, oradjective etc. — in a particular language.

The question of the nature of the relation between ideophones and the rest ofthe language arises because they have been marginalized and treated as extra-systematic mysterious words (cf. Newman this volume; Matisoff 1994). Ideophoneshave been defined and assumed to be peripheral to language because they tend tohave peculiar structural linguistic properties. It is the contention in this paper,however, that we cannot understand the nature of the relation of ideophones to therest of the language if we do not take seriously the observation made by a numberof people that languages differ in the extent to which ideophones are integrated intothe grammar (Moshi 1993; Childs 1994; Dumestre 1998; McGregor this volume;among others). As Childs (1994:188) put it: “Ideophones can be variably assimilat-ed into a language and this fact determines their diffusion into other word classesor their isolation in their own word class”. It seems that different salient propertiesof ideophones that have been identified in the literature correlate with whether allideophones in a language belong to one syntactic class or they are distributed overa number of syntactic classes in the language.

A cursory survey of descriptions shows that languages where ideophones aresaid to be grouped in a word class or are a subclass of one word class only are thosein which individual ideophones tend to collocate exclusively with specific words.They tend to be syntactically independent in a clause and carry special sentencestress or intonation patterns and are used only in affirmative declarative utterances.This seems to be the case in some Bantu languages such as KiVunjo-Chaga (Moshi1993) and also in Fulfulde (Breedveld 1995). At the other end of the continuum arelanguages in which ideophones are found in many more classes and they tend notto have any special intonation, individual ideophones have wider distribution bothin terms of co-occurrence with other words and in terms of the utterance types inwhich they occur. Kwa languages like Dangme (Dakubu 1998) and Ewe seem tooccupy this end of the scale. In Ewe, as we shall see below, ideophones are found inseveral word classes, and are used in declaratives, questions, imperatives and also in

Ideophones and the adjective class in Ewe 27

negative sentences. Languages can be plotted in between these two points. Bambaraprovides a nice illustration of this gradation. Dumestre (1998) indicates thatBambara ideophones generally belong to a class of expressive adverbs. As membersof this adverb class they occur only in affirmative sentences; they tend to occursentence finally, and are produced on a high pitch. However, when they function asnoun or verb they lose the special high pitch and can occur in negative sentences aswell (Dumestre 1998:331).

Another parameter for distinguishing among languages in which ideophonesare found is whether in a particular language ideophones are introduced in anutterance by a demonstrational quotative verb or form. In the first place distinc-tions can be made with respect to the number of such forms that are used in aparticular language. Secondly, a correlation can be made with respect to whetherthe ideophones belong to one class or several classes in the particular language. Forinstance, in Zulu where ideophones reportedly constitute a class of their own theform thi ‘do’ is used to introduce ideophones (Childs 1994; Poulos and Msimang,this volume).1 However, Quechua in which ideophones also presumably fall intoone class does not have any such introducing demonstrational lexical item(Nuckolls 1996). Similar differences occur in languages where ideophones fall intomore than one class. In Kana, a Kegboid language of Nigeria, which has ideophonicadjectives, ideophonic nouns and ideophonic adverbs, the ideophonic adverbs haveto be introduced by a form dòò ‘do, like’. The same form is used to verbalize someof the nominal ideophones (Ikoro 1996:296–301). In Ewe, by contrast, the adverbi-al ideophones are used in a clause like any other adverb without any such demon-strational quotative form, and ideophonic words can be complements to the verbwf ‘do, make’ just like non-ideophonic nouns and adverbs can. I should add thatthe collocation of ideophones with the verb wf ‘do, make’ is linked to the use of theverb to predicate qualities of other entities (Westermann 1930:93; Ameka 1994:71).In this usage, any nominal or adverbial word that has a quality component in itsmeaning can function as the complement to give a predicative quality interpretation.Consider the following example.2

(1) É-wf tsi / túkúí-2é / legbee3sg-do water small-adv long

noun adverb ideophonic adverb‘It is watery/small/long.’

Similar correlations can be attempted for the distribution of ideophones acrossdiscourse genres or types. It is usually claimed that ideophones are only used innarrative genres or rather that they tend to be restricted to narrative genres. Forexample, Schaefer (this volume) notes that ideophonic manner adverbs are not usedin conversation in Emai (Benue-Congo, Nigeria). However, Tassa (this volume)observes that ideophones occur frequently in Tetela (Bantu, Democratic Republic

28 Felix K. Ameka

of Congo) conversation. The same can be said for Ewe where ideophones occur indifferent kinds of interactional discourse including telephone conversations. Hereis an excerpt from a recent telephone conversation involving the author (FA) andanother speaker (FT). The excerpt is taken from the “how are you enquiry” segmentof the interaction. It is significant, I think, that ideophones can be introduced intoroutine exchanges of this kind.

(2) FA: Alékê‘How (is it)?’

FT: Me-le dzí buta buta buta1sg-be:pres upper-surface ideo ideo ideo

‘I am on it and it changes by leaps and bounds.’

Does this distribution have anything to do with the degree of integration ofideophones in the grammar of a language?

The rest of the paper is concerned with how the way ideophones are viewed canaffect typological generalizations with respect to the adjective word class. InSection 2, I pose the problem that ideophones present to the characterization of theadjective word class in African languages. Section 3 is a description of the salientproperties of ideophones in Ewe. This is followed in Section 4 by a scrutiny of thenature of the adjective class in Ewe in relation to ideophones and from a cross-linguistic typological perspective. Section 5 considers some of the consequences forexcluding ideophones from consideration for the description of the conceptualdomain of color. The paper ends in Section 6 with some concluding remarks.

2. A paradox

References abound in the literature concerning the fact that many African languageshave a closed class of underived adjectives (e.g. Welmers 1973). Many of the studiesupon which such claims are based tend not to consider ideophones. For instance,Madugu (1979) argues that adjectives have merged with verbs in Yoruba and thatthe adjective class is a small closed one. He concedes that “Although it is conceiv-able that ideophonic expressions, particularly those employed to describe physicalobjects (e.g. roboto ‘round’) are an important source of adjectives in the language,ideophones are not considered in this study” (Madugu 1979:85–86). Welmers andWelmers (1969) also claim that there are only eight adjectives in Igbo with no dueregard to ideophones. Bot Ba Njock’s (1977:207) rhetorical question: “y-a-t-il desadjectifs qualificatifs dans votre langue?” also assumes that adjectives are rare inAfrican languages.

One may well wonder if these claims would be maintained if ideophones orrather ideophonic adjectives were taken into account. This becomes especially


pertinent in the context of the other widespread view that many African languageshave ideophones which are a set of “descriptive or qualificative words” (Newman1968:107). This means that at least some ideophones code qualities. And if adjec-tives code qualities or property concepts then it would seem to me that ideophoneshave to be considered in the description of the adjective class in these languages.Furthermore, since it is generally agreed that ideophones are an open and produc-tive lexical class in the languages in which they occur (cf. e.g. Childs 1994) then onesuspects that languages that have ideophonic adjectives cannot be said to have aclosed class of adjectives. In fact those who take an evolutionary view of the wayideophones get integrated in the grammar argue that ideophones are a source ofadjectives in some languages. For instance, Moshi (1993) thinks that when ideo-phones start out from a class of their own “in time some ideophones … becomegrammaticalized like adjectives and adverbs and acquire a refined or attenuatedlexical meaning” (Moshi 1993:190). Similarly, Westermann (1930:189) assertedlong ago with respect to Ewe that “It is unquestionable that many words (substan-tives, verbs, adjectives) have their derivation in these picture words [i.e. ideo-phones]”. Implicit in these statements is the assumption that once ideophones havebecome grammaticalized they lose ideophonic status. But this need not be the case.Rather, the ideophonic words augment the class into which they are integrated. Inaddition this does not necessarily involve derivation on a synchronic level. Hencesuch forms cannot be thought of as derived elements. Besides, given the tendencyfor ideophonic words not to participate in overt morphological processes and thetendency for ideophones to have multiple categorization in some languages, it ishard to talk of the form in one category as being derived from the other. This ismore so the case in a language like Ewe where word classes are defined on the basisof syntactic distributional properties of word forms.

Moreover, this is not inconsistent with a perspective on the adjective class as anemerging class, at least in some West African languages (Ameka 1986, 1991; Schaeferand Egbokhare 1993; and cf. Lindsey and Scancarrelli 1985 on Cherokee). Schaeferand Egbokhare (1993:174) suggest that “the Emai property concept system isundergoing a change” in which at an earlier stage “verbs were the dominant, andperhaps only, means for coding property concepts. The presence of adjectives andnouns in the present system is thus an innovation.”

It should be evident then that one cannot ignore ideophones in the discussionof adjective classes in the languages in which they occur. Yet this is what the practicehas been in many studies. I will show in Section 4 that different conclusions arearrived at about the nature of the adjective class in Ewe depending on whetherideophones are included in the discussion or excluded from it. Before turning tothis, I present an overview of Ewe ideophones in the next section.

30 Felix K. Ameka

3. Properties of Ewe ideophones

Westermann (1930:187) draws attention to the fact that a large part of the Ewelexicon is made up of ideophones which he called “picture words” He writes:

The language is extremely rich in means of translating an impression intosound. This wealth arises from an almost irrepressible desire to mimic and todescribe by one or more sounds everything heard or seen, or any impressionhowever received. These expressions we call picture words.

These ideophonic words can be identified on the basis of phonological, morpho-syntactic and semantic properties (see e.g. Westermann 1927, 1930, 1937; Ansre1966; Geraldo 1980; Awuku 1992; Duthie 1996).

Phonologically, some ideophonic words contain non-canonical CVV or CVNsyllable structure. For example, kpóó ‘quietly’; glfmff ‘crooked, uneven’; ké]‘completely’; kpam ‘sound of a collision between surfaces’. Similarly, some of themhave syllabic ‘r’ as in words like prrrr ‘sound of a whistle’ and gbrrr ‘sound ofthunder’. Furthermore, the phonotactic constraint in the language where [r] doesnot occur after grave sounds is violated in some ideophones as prrrr ‘sound of awhistle’ and gbrrr ‘sound of thunder’ illustrate. The deviations from the canonicalphonological patterns noted here are not exclusive to ideophones. Some loanwordsand non-ideophonic interjections exhibit such properties too (cf. Ameka 1992).

Other phonological properties typical of ideophones include the use ofphonation types, such as breathy voice or growl, in the production of someideophones which are not otherwise used in the main sound system. Similarly, wordfinal vowel lengthening is used for expressive purposes in ideophones but rarely, ifever, in non-ideophonic words. For instance, the words fuu ‘a lot’ and lotoo ‘big andround’ can have their final vowels lengthened for intensity as in fuuuuu…‘pleee…nty’ and lotoooo… ‘very big and round’.

The tonal register of ideophonic words can also be varied to symbolize differentkinds of meaning. Thus a bad smell can be simply described with the word kuu ‘badsmell’ with regular low tone. The same word can however be produced on an extralow register to indicate that the smell is a very bad one. Furthermore, High and nonHigh tones may be varied on the same sequence of segments to symbolize differentvalues of various properties. High tone or register is symbolic of nice, pleasant,sweet, good and small. Low tone or register is used to indicate bad, unpleasant, sourand big dimension. Compare the following pairs of words:

(3) l½F l½F l½F l½F l½F … lılılılı …‘nice good sweet smell’ ‘very bad smell’pótópótó potopoto‘sound of a small drum’ ‘sound of a big drum’


The syllables of some disyllabic ideophones can be permuted. The semantic nuancesbetween the two variants in most cases are so subtle that they are hard to capture.Consider the following pairs:

(4) tsaklii klitsaa ‘rough surface’dzahlii hlidzaa ‘tough and plumpy’kflii likff ‘black and thick smoke’nyadrii drinyaa ‘tough’kpfdzff dzfkpff ‘thick and round’nogoo gonoo ‘round’

In other cases, however, such permutations can lead to wider semantic differences.For example,

(5) lfbff ‘long’bflff ‘soft’

It is not immediately obvious how this process should be accounted for. AnnSenghas (p.c.) suggests that it might be the result of reduplication followed bytruncation. On this view a form like tsaklii is reduplicated to form tsaklitsaklii andthen there is the deletion of the first and the last syllables yielding klitsa. Then finalvowel lengthening has to take place after the truncation to make the form fit thetemplate. This is a very plausible scenario given the fact that the reduplicated formis a well formed ideophonic word. It is also consistent with Steriade’s (1988) formalaccount of reduplication. For Steriade, reduplication begins with total reduplicationof the base followed by pruning of the reduplicated material to meet the well-formedness conditions on the template. The formal as well as the semantic proper-ties of these ideophonic constructions require further investigation. For instance,ideophonic forms comparable to those in the first column in (4) do not undergothis process (see 6).

(6) tsralaa *latsraa ‘tall and thin’glfmff *mfglff ‘crooked’

It is thus not clear what the formal restrictions on the input to the process are.Suffice it to say that, non-ideophonic words do not undergo such permutation oftheir internal structure.

Few ideophonic words in the language have an inherently repetitive structurewith no corresponding monosyllabic form. Thus there is no form *nya which couldbe the base of the triplicated form used in the following example (7). Note, however,that the repetitive structure is in most cases iconic with the semantics of the form.

(7) dflá-wó ƒú du kplé dzodzo nyanyaanyaservant-pl move course with red-jump trembling-ideo‘… the servants run with much trepidation trembling.’

(Obianim 1990:36)

32 Felix K. Ameka

Typically, ideophones undergo syntactic iteration (i.e. word repetition) rather thanmorphophonological reduplication or triplication (see Ameka 1999)

(8) gbf dzi blewuu blewuubreathe heart ideo ideo

‘Be patient in a calm and soft way.’

There is no grammatical word class of ideophones as such in Ewe. Ideophonicwords can fall into any syntactic class of the language. Thus there are nominal,adjectival, intensifier, verbal, adverbial as well as interjection ideophonic words.Many ideophonic words have multiple categorization and their conversion fromone class to the other, so to speak, is by zero derivation (see below on verb-adjec-tive-adverb forms). Thus an ideophone like atuu ‘embrace’ can function either asan interjection or an adverb (Ameka 1992). Similarly, some words such as f½u½u‘plenty’ and ké] ‘completely’ function either as Intensifiers (in the NP) or as adverbs(Ansre 1988; Duthie 1996). Some ideophones function only as adverbs, for exam-ple, ƒíó; or ƒíóƒíóƒíóƒíó ‘completely’, hóyíhóyíhóyí ‘bitter sharp taste’. Ideophonicnominals such as ]ee]é ‘baby’, laxaláxa ‘saw’ and kétéke ‘train’ also occur. Suchideophonic nominals function just like any other nominal in the language. Inexample (9a) below the ideophonic nominal occurs preposed to the verb in animperfective aspect construction. This is one of the tests of argumenthood of verbcomplements (see Essegbey 1999 for justification of this test). However, in example(9b) the form gbudugbudu functions as an adverb and occurs after the temporalnoun which cannot function as an argument.

(9) a. Wó-le gbùdùgbùdù wf-m3pl-be-pres ideo do-prog‘They are causing tumult.’

b. Wó-nf avu wf-m etsf gbùdùgbùdù3.pl-be.n.pres fight do-prog yesterday ideo

‘They were fighting yesterday in a tumultuous way.’

As noted earlier, ideophonic words in Ewe are used in all sentence types in thelanguage as illustrated in (10).

(10) a. Mi-zf minyaminya … (imperative)2pl-walk ideo

‘Walk stealthily …’ (a line from a dirge)b. Mi-ga-wf gbùdùgbùdù o (prohibitive)

2pl-rep-do ideo neg

‘Do not engage in tumultuous behavior.’c. … mé-wf-a ba fanyafanya o. (negative)

3.sg.neg-do mud ideo neg

‘… it does not become very clumsily muddy’ (Nyaku 1958:11)


d. È-nya-e wò-fu títítítítí-a? (question)2.sg-wash-3.sg 3.sg-become white ideo-q‘Have you washed it immaculate white?’

Ideophones can be used quotatively as if they were representing a sentence incontext as in (11a). The ideophone could also be embedded in a quotative clauseand introduced by the complementizer bé ‘that’ as in (11b). Furthermore, incontexts where the ideophones are used demonstrationally, they can be embeddedas complements to the nominal demonstrational word álé ‘like this’. In this case theideophones do not behave differently from other gestures or demonstrations whichdepict the form of what is being talked about.

(11) a. É-ƒú así nu bóbóbó3sg-strike hand mouth ideo

‘S/He raised an alarm and went “bóbóbó”.’b. É-ƒú así nu bé bóbóbó

3sg-strike hand mouth comp ideo

‘S/He raised an alarm and went “bóbóbó”.’c. Tsi lá fá (á)lé míámíámíámíámíá

water def be-cold like-this ideo

‘The water is very pleasantly cold and soothing.’

As noted earlier, ideophones are used in Ewe in different kinds of discourse —conversational including telephone conversations, radio and television broadcastsand narrative etc. The functions of ideophones in the different types of discoursedeserve more systematic study. Initial ideas on the functions of ideophones in Ewenarrative discourse are presented in Konrad (1994). She comments on the use ofideophones in the performance of folk tales as follows:

… ideophones are … literary devices used to heighten dramatic tension, toaccentuate certain actions and to draw attention to certain images and de-emphasize others…. Ideophones are in effect an enormously affective andefficient tool performers have at their disposal to develop the privilegedrelationship shared between narrator and audience in a culturally definedcontext. (Konrad 1994:108)

Konrad found that in one of the tales in her corpus eleven different ideophoneswere used. A cursory glance through the texts recorded in the book shows thatideophones occur in each of them. Thus Ewe ideophones are indeed used innarratives but they are not restricted to such genres alone.

4. What is the nature of the adjective class in Ewe?

Although Ewe grammarians agree that there is an adjective class in the language,

34 Felix K. Ameka

there are differing views on the constitution of the class. Before examining theseviews, let us consider what it means to say that a language has ‘a class of adjectives’?

According to Lyons (1977:440–1)

When we say that there are adjectives […] in such and such a language, wemean that there is a grammatically definable class of expressions whose mostcharacteristic syntactic function is that of being the modifier of the noun in anendocentric construction and whose most characteristic semantic function isto ascribe properties to entities. It does not follow […] that all (or indeed any)of the adjectives […] will be lexemes; it is in principle possible that some (orindeed) all of these should be formed by productive grammatical processesbelonging to other parts-of-speech.

Dixon (1982:56), on the other hand, asserts that an adjective class “is a set of lexicalitems distinguished on morphological and syntactic grounds from the universalclasses of Noun and Verb [….] Semantically, an adjective describes some importantbut non-criterial property of an object” [emphasis added F.A.] In fact, in Dixon’sanalysis he makes a distinction between ‘deep’ or ‘basic’ adjectives, i.e. lexical itemsdefined by the above criteria, and ‘surface’ adjectives, i.e. words that function asadjectives but are derived from other word classes. In making decisions about thenature of the adjective class of a language, Dixon only considers the size of the‘deep’ or underived adjectives.

Different findings will be made in respect of the adjective class in a languagedepending on whether one follows Dixon’s or Lyons’ definition. Essentially, byfollowing Dixon the only items that one will consider as adjectives are roots whereasby following Lyons one will consider both roots and derived items.

Different positions have been taken on the nature of the adjective class in Ewe,which reflect these views. Westermann (1930:183) suggests that all the members ofthe adjective class in Ewe, if there is one, are derived from other classes. In his words

There are no words which are adjectives pure and simple. All expressionswhich serve as adjectives are either (1) also substantives or formed fromsubstantives or (2) actually verbs or formed from verbs or (3) combinations ofverbs and substantives or (4) also adverbs or (5) picture words [i.e. ideophonesF.A.]

Evidently, Westermann thinks that there are no adjectival roots in the language andthat all forms that could behave syntactically and semantically as adjectives onoccasion were either derived or belonged to another word class. If one were tointerpret Westermann’s claim in terms of Dixon’s definition one would have toconclude that Ewe does not have a class of adjectives. On the other hand, if onewere to apply Lyons’ views then one would have to conclude that Ewe has anadjective class, even if according to Westermann they are all derived. Significantly


for our present purposes, Westermann acknowledges that ideophones belong to theadjective class. He assumes however, that there is a class of ideophones which forma subclass of adverbs in the language.3 In my view, there are ideophonic adjectivesas well as ideophonic adverbs and the one need not be derived from the other.

Ansre (1966:213) presents another view and rightly points out, albeit in afootnote that: “The assertion by Westermann that ‘there are no words which areadjectives pure and simple’ is inaccurate and must be attributed mainly to lack ofsophistication in tonal analysis and too great a tendency to etymologize.” Ansre setsup two structural classes of adjectives: the simple — monomorphemic, presumably,the underived adjectives — and the non-simple, the polymorphemic, or the derivedforms. He does not make any statements about the size of these sub-classes. Nordoes he say anything about the possibility for some of the simple adjectives to havemultiple categorization. Interestingly, two of the three simple adjectives that Ansre(ibid.) cites are ideophonic words which can also function without any additionalmaterial as verbs or adverbs. (see example [15] below). This means that Ansreconsiders ideophonic adjectives as underived forms contra Westermann.

Primarily, the adjective class in Ewe has to be defined in terms of distributionalproperties. An adjective in Ewe can be described as an item that immediatelyfollows the noun head and precedes other modifiers if there are any in an endo-centric NP. It serves to describe a property of the noun. The order of elements in asimple noun phrase is:

identifier noun adj quantifier det1–det2/dem plural intensifier

Example (12) below is a simple NP in which all the slots have been filled. Noticethat there are three adjectives in this example. In (13) further examples of NPs aregiven with different types of modifiers together with adjectives.

id n adj adj adj

(12) neném ny¢fnu k¢fk¢f tralaa dzetugbesuch woman tall slender beautiful

qt dem pl int int

eve má- wó kó¢] kotwo that pl just only‘only those same two tall slender and beautiful women’

(13) a. awu >í/>é lágarment white def

‘the white garment’b. tf ga½, goglo má

river big deep dem

‘that big deep river’

The above examples contain different features of adjectives in Ewe. Adjectives canoccur in sequence in one NP. In (12) the three adjectives belong to different

36 Felix K. Ameka

subclasses: k¢fk¢f ‘tall’ is derived from the verb k¢f ‘be(come) tall’. On the other hand,dzetugbe ‘beautiful’ is derived by the compounding of a verb dze ‘make contact’ andthe property denoting noun tugbe ‘beauty’. Unlike these two, tralaa ‘slender, tall-thin’ is a simple underived ideophonic adjective. The forms g¢a ‘big’ and >í/>é ‘white’which occur in (13) are also simple adjectives but they are non-ideophonic. Whilethe form goglo ‘deep’ in (13b) looks like a derived form because of its reduplicatednature, there is no synchronic verbal base *glo for it. Such forms are diachronicderivations which have become lexicalized (see Ameka 1991). The elements that fillthe adjective slot may thus be simple or underived, derived transparently ordiachronically derived forms. The adjectival forms are used only attributively. Thepredicative function of the attributive adjectives is performed by verbs, nouns oradverbs. The sentences in (14) below illustrate the morphosyntactic expression ofthe property concept ‘big’ both attributively and predicatively.

(14) a. Máwú g½a (adjective, attributive)God big‘Supreme God’

b. Máwú nyé gã¦ (predicate nominal)God cop big‘God is (the) big/great (one)’

c. É-le g½a-2é (adverb, predicative)3sg-be-at.pres big-adv‘S/He /it is big’

The verb lolo ‘be large, big’ that is synonymous with g½a ‘big’ can be used as its verbalcounterpart in predicative function as in (13d).

(14) d. Máwú loloGod be-large‘God is great’

In the rest of the paper we will be concerned with the class of underived adjectivesmainly because this is the class whose existence crosslinguistically and in Africanlanguages has been in doubt. As noted earlier, two subclasses of underived mono-morphemic adjectives can be distinguished in Ewe. The classification is based on theability of an item to convert to other classes by overt morphological means or byzero derivation (cf. Duthie 1996:57). This corresponds, by and large, to whetherthey are ideophones or not. In examples (14a–c) we saw that the simple adjective g½a‘big’ converted to other categories namely, noun and adverb, by overt morphologi-cal means. Compare the forms of tralaa ‘slender, tall-thin’ in (15) to the forms ofthe property concept words in (14) as well as (16).

(15) a. []útsu lá´]NP [tralaa]VP.[man def [thin-tall‘The man is tall and thin ?lanky.’


b. []útsu tralaa lá]NP vá]VP.[man thin-tall def come‘The tall and thin (?lanky) man came.’

c. []útsu lá]NP [k¢f]VP [tralaa]AP.[man def [be-tall [thin-tall‘The man is tall in a tallish-thinly (lanky) manner.’

(16) a. [2eví lá]NP [nyó]VP

[child def [be-good‘The child is good.’

b. [2eví nyúí lá´]NP [xf]VP [fetú]NP.[child good def [get [pay‘The good child got a prize.’

c. [2eví lá]NP [háyá]VP [nyui-é / nyoe-2é]AP

[child def [recover [good-adv good-adv‘The child recovered well.’

The word tralaa in example (15) is one of Ansre’s simple adjectives. It can be seenfrom the example that in addition to functioning as an adjective in (15b) it can alsofunction as a verb as in (15a) and as an adverb as in (15c) without any change inform. Some support for this can be found from a comparison of the forms withthose in (14) and (16). In (16b) nyuí ‘good’ is an adjective and it is derived from theverb nyó ‘be good’ which occurs in (16a). The adverbial form nyuíe (or nyoe2é)‘well’ in (16c) is derived from the adjective form by the suffixation of -e or -2é‘adverbializing suffix’ depending on one’s dialect. In this case the difference ingrammatical function is overtly marked. Thus the form g½a ‘big’ in (14a) and tralaain (15b) are both simple adjectives but they each belong to the two differentsubclasses. The former to the class of those underived adjectives that convert toother categories by overt morphological means and the latter to the class of thoseunderived adjectives that convert to other categories by zero conversion. The twosubclasses correspond largely to a difference between the non-ideophonic (overtconversion) and ideophonic (zero conversion) adjectives.

A useful framework for talking about the nature and typological patterning ofadjectives is provided by Dixon (1982, 1994) (see also Madugu (1979), Thompson(1988), Schaefer and Egbokhare (1993)). The discussion of the features of simpleadjectives in Ewe will be cast in this framework after its relevant tenets are de-scribed.

4.1 Dixon’s semantic types for adjectives

Dixon distinguishes three levels of description; a universal semantic level, a basic or‘deep’ level and a surface level. At the universal semantic level conceptsrepresented by dictionary items in a language are grouped into ‘semantic types’

38 Felix K. Ameka

such as age, color, kin, motion, etc. The members of a semantic type have acommon semantic element, and they also tend to behave in similar ways morpho-syntactically. For example, English red belongs to the type color and walk to thetype motion. At the basic level, the semantic type to which a lexical item belongsis associated normally with a single part-of-speech in the language. For example, inEnglish, motion is linked to the class Verb, kin to the class Noun, and color to theclass Adjective. Thus red is a ‘deep’ adjective and walk is a ‘deep’ verb. The surface

level is the one at which items can undergo conversion to other categories. Thusthe deep adjective red could become a surface verb redden while the ‘deep’ verb walkcould yield the surface noun walker.

The semantic types which constitute the word class adjective are listed belowwith English examples (cf. Dixon 1994):

�1.�dimension — big, large, little, small, long, short, narrow, wide,�2.�physical property — hard, soft, sweet, sour, rough, smooth, hot�3.�color — black, white, red, green, yellow, blue …�4.�human propensity — jealous, happy, kind, rude, proud, cruel …�5.�age — new, young, old ….�6.�value — good, bad, precious, delicious, atrocious ….�7.�speed — fast, quick, slow ….�8.�position — high, low, near, far ….�9.�origin — English, American, Australian, Ghanaian, Polish10.�purpose — dining table, drawing board, hunting dog …11.�composition — wooden chair, plastic bag, golden box …

The first seven of these were the basis of the cross-linguistic comparison of theadjective word class. Two typological dimensions were set up on the basis of thesurvey. The first has to do with whether a language has an open or a closed

adjective class. Those languages in which all the seven semantic types were associat-ed with one part-of-speech are said to have an open class. In this case either they fallinto a class different from the class of motion, and of objects etc., that is, theyform an adjective class. Dyirbal is an example of such a language. Or the seven typesbelong to the same class with the motion and affect types, that is a verb class, asis the case, for instance, in Yurok, Chinese, and Samoan. In addition to these twopossibilities that Dixon outlined, one might add a third where the seven types couldbelong to the same class as the members of the kin and objects types, that is anoun class. This seems to be the case in Quechua (Schachter 1985:17) and Walpiri.

The languages with a closed adjective class are those in which some of theseven types are associated with one word class, the adjective class, and some withother parts-of-speech to which other semantic types belong, for example, noun, orverb. Typically, in these languages, the dimension, value, age and color types areassociated with the adjective word class. physical property has the tendency to


belong to the verb class and human propensity tends to go with the noun classand speed is grouped with adverbs. Dixon’s examples of such languages includeHausa, Igbo and Hua.

The second dimension has to do with whether the language is verb dominatedor adjective dominated. strongly adjectival languages such as Dyirbal are thosein which the seven types are exclusively associated with a single part-of-speech, theadjective class. In such a language, the polar opposites all belong to the same class.In strongly verbal languages the marked pole of many adjectival oppositions arerealized by a verb (cf. raw vs. cooked, whole vs. broken or by a noun. Hausa andAlamblak are examples of such languages. neutral languages have both poles ofmost oppositions expressed by adjectives but for a few which involve a stateresulting from an action the marked pole may be realized by a verb. English is theclearest representative of this with respect to pairs such as raw and cooked.

Dixon’s findings are based on the deep or basic level which is not withoutproblems (see Ameka 1991:100–102 for a discussion). However, it is a usefulheuristic for talking about property concepts and their class membership in generaland for examining ideophonic words that code properties from that point of view.

4.2 Semantic classes of Ewe simple adjectives4.2.1 Non-ideophonic simple adjectivesThere are five non-ideophonic adjectival monomorphemic items which have to beovertly marked for conversion to other categories, for example, adverbs.

g½a ‘big’, ví ‘small’ (dimension)v½f ‘bad’, (value)>í/>é ‘white’ dzı/dz«e ‘red’ (color)

If one does not consider ideophonic adjectives then one can conclude that Ewe hasa closed class of five adjectives.4 Note that they fall within the semantic types thatDixon predicts. In fact the behavior of the non-ideophonic forms that expressproperty concepts conform to Dixon’s cross-linguistic findings. This is demonstrat-ed in Ameka (1991, Chapter 5) where it is argued that the age and physical

property semantic type notions are expressed by basic verbs which convert toadjectives on the surface. human propensity concepts are expressed by nouns andspeed by adverbs. All this is consistent with Dixon’s findings. However, such apicture is incomplete and misleading because, ideophonic simple adjectives areassociated with each of the seven semantic types as I demonstrate in the nextsection. The conclusion that would have to be drawn there is that Ewe has an openadjective class even at the deep level.

40 Felix K. Ameka

4.2.2 Ideophonic monomorphemic adjectivesI assume that ideophones that express property concepts associated with thesemantic types are basic and simple adjectives which convert to other parts-of-speech without any overt modification. In Table 1, I give a sample of ideophonicadjectives and their semantic type association with an indication as to whether theycan function in the same form as verbs and/or adverbs as well.

As is evident from the Table, there are ideophonic adjectives associated witheach of the seven core semantic types. From this point of view, Ewe has an adjectiveclass. Since many more items could be added especially to the ideophonic sub-class,it can be argued that the class is an open one. If this proposal is accepted then itcould be said that Ewe has a large open class of underived or deep adjectives.However, if ideophones are ignored in the classification and treatment of adjectives,then the characterization would obviously be different. The implication for Ewe inthat case is that it has a very small class of basic adjectives consisting of five items asnoted above. This shows that the kind of data considered in the analysis affects thecharacterization of the adjective class in a language. Apart from these underivedadjectives, however, Ewe also has a number of productive processes for formingwords to express property concepts (see Ameka 1991, 1999). Taking the two classesof underived and derived adjectives together, it is clear that Ewe indeed has a largeopen adjective class whether à la Dixon or à la Lyons. Ideophones play a central rolein this class.

One of the clear ways in which ideophones are central in the adjective class inEwe is evidenced by the fact that ideophonic adjectives enter into systematicoppositions with non-ideophonic adjectives. Consider these pairs

(17) a. f½e ‘young’ tsitsı ‘old’b. gbadzaa ‘flat, wide’ lúbuí ‘narrow’c. gbadzaa ‘flat, wide’ xáx7 ‘narrow’d. gbóbgo ‘unripe’ 2i2ı ‘ripe’e. blíbo ‘whole’ gbagba ‘broken’f. múmu ‘raw’ 2a2a ‘cooked’g. kpekpe ‘heavy’ wódzóé ‘light’

Observe that except for the last pair (17g) all the others have an ideophonic form asthe unmarked term in the pair. The term for ‘flat/wide’ has both an ideophonic anda non-ideophonic polar opposite (see (17b, c)). The marked term for five out of theseven pairs are deverbal adjectival forms. In Dixon’s terms these will be deeper basicverbs. Significantly two of the marked terms in the pairs are ideophonic adjectives(see 17b,g). This is not trivial because the patterning of antonymic oppositions withrespect to basic category membership of the terms is one of the parameters inDixon’s typology. This is the feature that contributes to the characterization of alanguage as strongly adjectival or strongly verbal or neutral. For this characterization,


Dixon looks at the way the underived terms pattern in the antonymic oppositions

Table 1.�Multiple categorization potential of ideophonic adjectives

adjective verb adverb

age

f½eyéyekányá

‘young’‘new’‘early’

–––

–– –

–

color

yibff(mú)mu(i)kpii

‘black’‘green’‘grayish’

––?

?–

–––

dimension

kpfdzfflfbfflegbeelúbúigbadzaalekpelekpe

‘fat, thick’‘long’‘long’‘narrow’‘flat/wide’‘fat’

––––––

–––

–––––

value

ba2avávã]áná]áná

‘bad’‘real’‘sweet’

–––

– –––

physical property

blíbogb¢flonyadriitsakliinogoowódzóémúmu

‘whole’‘empty’‘tough, hard’‘rough’,‘round‘light, not heavy’‘raw/fresh’

–––––––

–––––

–––––––

human propensity

2f2ú2fe

‘dull/slow/lazy’‘stupid/foolish

––

––

(2f2f2f ‘slowly’)

speed

kpata ‘sudden’ – –

Legend: – = can function as … ; ? = marginally possible to function as …blank = cannot function as

involving actions (raw vs. cooked) and non-action (e.g. sharp vs. blunt) oppositions.An examination of the oppositions manifested by the underived adjectives in Ewe(ideophones included) reveals the following:

42 Felix K. Ameka

action opposition non-action opposition

unmarkedAdj

——

markedV

unmarkedV

——

markedV/Adj

In terms of this parameter, Ewe is somewhere between strongly verbal to neutrallanguages. It manifests the kind of mixed syndrome described for Emai by Schaeferand Egbokhare (1993). The point to note here is that if ideophones were excludedfrom the analysis the picture will be different. Ewe in that case will come out as astrongly verbal language because the non-action oppositions will turn out to beexpressed by verbs or deverbal adjectives which in Dixon’s framework will beconsidered basic verbs.

Apart from the arguments presented so far there are other formal reasons forconsidering ideophonic adjectives as core members of the adjective class in Ewe.One of these is the fact that the conversion to other classes by zero conversion is notrestricted to ideophones alone. Some deverbal forms can also function as adjectivesor adverbs without any overt change in form as in (18).

(18) Verb Adjective Adverbkf ‘become clean’ kf-kf-e ‘holy’ kf-kf-e ‘holy’bfbf ‘become soft’ bfbf-e ‘soft’ bfbf-e ‘easy’s½e ‘become strong’ sés½ıe ‘strong’ sés½ıe ‘strong’ (dia-

lectal)

Similarly, there are some verbs which function as adjectives without any overtchange in form just like the ideophonic words. In some dialects the adjectival formscarry a high tone suffix indicated in brackets in the examples below.

(19) Verb Adjectivevíví ‘be(come) sweet’ víví(í) ‘sweet’lolo ‘be(come) large, big’ lolo(ó) ‘large, big’

From a diachronic perspective, it is possible that these verbs used to have a mono-syllabic counterpart which has been lost. The current reduplicated verbal formcould have been an intensive form and at that stage there could have been anadjectival form derived by reduplication from the CV verb (Ameka 1999). Syn-chronically, however, there is no CV form and there is homonymy between theadjectival and verbal forms.

Furthermore, like some derived adjectives (20a), some ideophonic adjectives(20b,c) also take the diminutive suffix, to signal expressive intensity:

(20) Verb Adjective Adjective+Dim

a. fá ‘become cold’ fáfá ‘cold’ fáf7¢ ‘pleasantly cool/cold’b. yibff ‘black’ yibfé ‘nicely black’c. tsralaa ‘tall’ tsral7 ‘pleasantly tall’


Thus some of the formal properties of ideophonic adjectives are not necessarilyunique to them but are features of members of the adjective class in Ewe. Hence anygeneralization about the class must take ideophones into consideration.

5. Ideophonic adjectives and the domain of color

One of the semantic types of property concepts à la Dixon is color. It was shownin Section 4.2.1 that Ewe has two non-ideophonic underived color adjective termsnamely, >í/>é ‘white’ and dzı/dz«e ‘red’. The term for ‘black’ is an ideophone —yibff. These terms are basic in the sense of Berlin and Kay (1969) because they aregeneral — they apply to different classes of objects — as well as salient, i.e., they arereadily elicitable, shared and used consistently by speakers. They do not refer tocomposite colors. Descriptors for other color concepts come from different sourcessuch as circumlocutive descriptions, e.g. avu-mí-kfla literally, dog-shit-color,‘brown’, or derived by metonymic associations, e.g. múmui ‘green’ related to múmu‘raw’; or from borrowing such as blû from English blue. It is thus fair to say that Ewehas a three basic color term. As such it is a Stage II language where the terms patternas predicted by Berlin and Kay (1969) and Kay et al. (1997).

(21) >í/>é ‘white’ (non-ideophonic)dzı/dz«e ‘red’(non-ideophonic)

yibff ‘black’ (ideophonic)

However, such a characterization is only possible if the ideophonic term is consid-ered part of the basic color system. If the ideophone was excluded, then Ewe wouldbe a two term language with an anomalous structure since both terms would bewarm colors — white and red. Universally, in a two term language — a Stage Ilanguage there are two terms, one for white and one for black, or one for white pluswarm colors, i.e., red and yellow and the other for black plus cool colors, i.e., greenand blue.

Apart from this, native speakers’ responses to the terms in a Word Associationtest (125 Ewe stimulus expressions) supports the view that the three terms areperceived to belong to the same domain and to be related. Some speakers gave thesuperordinate term amadédé ‘color’ for the three terms showing they are thought ofas hyponyms to the same hyponym. Interestingly, >í/>é ‘white’ as stimulus triggeredyibff ‘black’ while dzı/dz«e ‘red’ also produced yibff ‘black’ and vice versa. Speakerswho responded in this way explained that the relation between the terms was oneof an opposition or contrast either globally or with respect to specific domains suchas the dye of cloth. It is significant that the two non-ideophonic warm color termstriggered the ideophonic cool color term as their complement. This shows that

44 Felix K. Ameka

speakers view both types of words as belonging to the same system. The exclusionof the ideophonic terms would create an asymmetry in the system.

Similarly, if the ideophone yibff ‘black’ is excluded from the basic color termsof the language, there would be an incongruity between the color adjectives and thecolor verbs. In Ewe there are three color verbs which correspond to a three basiccolor system namely, fu ‘become macro white’, (n)y«f ‘become macro black’ and biã‘become macro red’. The use of the word ‘macro’ in the glosses is meant to showthat these verbs have general meanings and denote the macro field of the colors.Their meanings are made more specified by an adverbial term.

(22) a. É-fu >í-e / >é-2é3.sg-become_white white-adv white-adv‘It is (focal) white.’

b. É-fu kpiii3.sg-become_white gray ideo‘It is gray / gray(ish) white.’

c. É-fu títítítí3.sg-become_white white ideo‘It is immaculate white (like snow/cotton).’

(23) a. É-biã dzıe / /dze-2é3.sg-become_red red-adv red-adv‘It is (focal) red.’

b. É-biã heee3.sg-become_red reddish ideo‘It is rather red.’

c. É-biã gbánágbáná3.sg-become_red red ideo‘It is shining red.’

(24) a. É-yf yibff3sg-become_black black‘It is (focal) black.’

b. É-yf kpékpékpé3.sg-become_black deep black ideo‘It is pitch black’

The discussion of the structuring of the color domain in Ewe thus shows that theincongruity that might be observed in the non-ideophonic basic part of the domaindisappears once the ideophonic color term is brought into the picture as a comple-mentary term in the system. This further shows that ideophones ought to be thoughtof as an integral part of the languages in which they occur, otherwise our accountof and understanding of the nature of conceptual domains will be impoverished.


6. Conclusion

In this paper, I have attempted to show that even though ideophones may deviatefrom the canonical phonological and morphological and morpho-syntactic proper-ties of a language, they are part and parcel of the languages in which they occur. Ihave suggested that ideophones research would be free from the bottlenecks thathinder it at the moment if an attempt is made to discover correlations betweenclusters of properties of ideophones and language type. This can pave the way, inmy view, for a better understanding of the phenomenon of ideophony in naturallanguage. In short, what I am asserting is this: ideophones are an integral part of thelanguages in which they occur. It is time for linguists and linguistic anthropologistsnot only to describe them as a curiosity of these languages but to go further andinclude them in the data they consider in making typological generalizations aboutspecific parts of the languages or of the languages as a whole. In this paper I haveattempted to demonstrate the biased effect the neglect of ideophones may have oncharacterizing the nature and content of the adjective class in a language like Ewe.

Notes

* Parts of the material discussed here were presented at the International Symposium on

DEST "ame-n*">

Ideophones January 25–27, 1999 at St Augustin, Germany, and to the Language and CognitionGroup of the Max Planck Institute of Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen. I am grateful to the participantsat both meetings for their comments and encouragement. I am also grateful to Bill McGregor,David Wilkins, Melanie Wilkinson and Eva Schultze-Berndt for discussions I had with them onaspects of the topic.

1. Tom Güldemann (Ms.) reports that the form ti in Shona (a cognate of the Zulu thi) is not onlyused among other things to introduce ideophones and ideophonic constructions in predicative usebut also “ideophones can be attributed to a noun when the ti-clause is in the relative form.”(p.13).

2. The following abbreviations are used in the interlinear glosses:adj =�adjectiveadv =�adverbializing suffix,cop =�copula,comp =�complementizer,def =�definiteness marker,dem =�demonstrative,det =�determiner,dim =�diminutive,id =�prenominal identifier,indef =�indefinite,int =�intensifier,n =�nominal,neg =�negative,

npres =�non-present,pl =�plural marker,pres =�present,prog =�progressive,red =�reduplicative,rep =�repetitive,sg =�singular,q =�question marker,qt =�quantifier,1 =�first person,2 =�second person,3 =�third person.

46 Felix K. Ameka

High tones are marked throughout with an acute accent in addition to the low tones that arecustomarily marked in the traditional orthography with a grave accent. The hatchek marks a risingtone. Ewe orthographic ƒ and v are the voiceless and voiced bilabial fricatives respectively whichshould be distinguished form ‘f ’ and ‘v’. Unfortunately, the distinction between ƒ and f is lostwhen the forms are represented in italic.

3. Cf. his statement that “From their function they must be classed as adverbs for they all describethe action of a verb; but most of them may be used as substantives or adjectives” (Westermann1930:187)

4. A common property of these underived adjectives is that they convert to a nominal by theprefixation of a low tone. The interesting thing is that the transparently derived adjective nyúí‘good’ illustrated above is the only derived adjective that behaves in similar fashion. This may bethe language’s response to the hole in the pattern of the simple adjectives. This is also anindication that the adjective class as such may be an emerging rather than a disappearing class.That is to say new members are added to the core in the course of history.

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Ideophones and compound verbs

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in Wolaitta*

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Azeb AmhaLeiden University & Addis Ababa University

1. Introduction

In this chapter I discuss the structure of ideophones in Wolaitta, an Omoticlanguage spoken in the southern part of Ethiopia. Though many Omotic languagesof Ethiopia have a large inventory of ideophones, until now no attempt has beenmade to study this aspect of the languages. In fact, as Dhoorre and Tosco (1998)point out for Cushitic languages, in Omotic studies too, the existence of ideophoneswas hardly noticed. The present contribution focuses on the similarities anddifferences between ideophones and other lexical phenomena in Wolaitta. The aimis to show that, though phonologically aberrant, ideophones in Wolaitta do notconstitute a separate word class; they are part of the basic lexicon.

Concerning the use of ideophones in Wolaitta we observe that existing writtenmaterials (school text books and Bible translations) have few ideophones. It seemsthat people in the towns use ideophones less frequently than those in the country-side. However, speakers from all walks of life seem to have comparable knowledgeof ideophones, since differences in understanding and interpreting ideophones areminimal. In spite of this shared knowledge, some people are very reluctant in usingideophones (and also proverbs). Some use ideophones quite extensively. Some-times, the latter people are liked as good speakers and humorous companions;sometimes they are resented as people ‘who are too critical or negative aboutothers’.

Based on their phonological shape and syntactic function, Wolaitta ideophonesare divided into two: Group I and Group II ideophones. In Section 2 below, GroupI ideophones are described. Section 3 deals with Group II ideophones. In Section 4,the syntactic category of both types of ideophones in contrast to other major lexicalcategories is discussed.

50 Azeb Amha

2. Group I ideophones

Group I ideophones typically involve reduplication. Two major types of reduplica-tion are involved: full and partial reduplication. Interestingly, there is a limitedpattern of reduplication (i.e., consonant and vowel combinations), nine to bespecific, and all ideophones fall into one or the other of these patterns.

Both in full and partial reduplication cases, there are base forms which do nothave a lexical meaning. This raises the question whether reduplication is a phono-logical characteristic of ideophones or a morphological means for deriving thesewords from already existing lexicon. Though it is possible that some (but not all)group I ideophones such as k’imbiriíra ‘well mannered’ are derived from group IIideophones such as k’imbír g- ‘looked good’, or vice versa, no ideophones derivedfrom other categories are found. Another question which stems from the lack ofmeaning in base forms is: how do we determine the base and the reduplicated part?In other words, in ideophones such as miik’-i-miík’-a, is it the first underlined part(miík’) or the second part which is to be taken as the base? Knowing that Wolaittais a purely suffixal language, it is plausible to consider the first miík’ as the base.Extending this analysis to arguably prefixing type of reduplication, such as gaagaáno‘very big’, we claim that the base form gaáno, undergoes internal reduplication, byrepeating the first syllable, gaa to the right. Except in the word k’ak’k’abbá ‘emo-tionally weak, undetermined’, all group I ideophones have high tone-accent on thepenultimate vowel.

2.1 Full reduplication

Full reduplication involves base forms which have the segmental structure of CVCCor CVVC, as inmiik’-i-miík’-a ‘disagreeable’, wapp-i-wápp-a ‘very generous’ in whichtwo exactly identical forms are found within the same word. The base and thereduplicated part are connected with the vowel -i-; and a terminal vowel -a is addedat the end of the reduplicated word. In Wolaitta all non-verbal categories end withone of the terminal vowels -e, -o, or -a. Group I ideophones take only the terminalvowel -a. More examples of ideophones with CVVC base:

C1VVC2+C1VVC2 Æ C1VVC2+i+C1VVC2+a

(1) yook’iyoók’a ‘sympathetic, emotionally weak ‘tiit’itiít’a ‘one with a hasty manner of walk, especially of teenagers or of a

slim person (mainly associated with women)’toot’itoót’a ‘one with a hasty manner of walk, especially of a fat person’miik’imiík’a ‘disagreeable, short tempered (mainly of women and young girls)’looc’iloóc’a ‘hasty to speak or to judge, curious’liifiliífa ‘thin, soft, flat’lookiloóka ‘long, thin’

Ideophones and compound verbs in Wolaitta 51

In base forms with a CVCC structure, the second and the third consonants of thebase can be identical (geminated) or they can be different (consonant clusters), asthe forms in (2) and (3) below show respectively:

C1VC2C2+C1VC2C2 Æ C1VC2C2+i+ C1VC2C2+a

(2) jabbijábba ‘restless, not careful in action, also of talking about unneces-sary subjects’

k’ap’p’ik’áp’p’a ‘fast and ambitious but non-effective’

C1VC2C3+C1VC2C3 Æ C1VC2C3+i+ C1VC2C3+a

(3) panjipánja ‘not tasty (very weak tea, coffee, beer)’ also pronounced asfanjifánja

firk’ifírk’a ‘touchy, one who is easily irritated and turns violent’puskipúska ‘agile’wuyt’iwúyt’a ‘very thin’

What the forms in (1)–(3 above) share in common is that they have the same‘connecting vowel’ -i- and an identical terminal vowel -a. There are some ideo-phones which lack the connecting vowel and thus result in an otherwise non-existing consonant cluster type in the language.

(4) k’ip’k’íp’a ‘one who is too hasty in doing things, not thorough, alsopronounced as: k’ap’p’ik’áp’p’a’

k’ap’k’áp’a ‘greedy, one who can not part easily with money or any otherpossession’

2.2 Partial reduplication

Partial reduplication of ideophones involves reduplication of final VC or of initialCV of the base form.

2.2.1 Reduplication affecting final VC of the baseThis type of reduplication involves monosyllabic and di-syllabic base forms.Examples of the latter include bases such as, k’imbir- and kicir- from whichideophones such as k’imbir-iír-a ‘quiet and reserved’ and kicir-iíra ‘stubborn’ arederived by reduplicating the right most vowel and consonant (VC) of the base andlengthening the vowel of the reduplicated (VC). Further examples:

C1ViC2 (C3)ViC4 Æ C1ViC2 (C3)ViC4+Vi Vi+ C4+a

(5) k’imbiriíra ‘quiet and reserved, well mannered; well tied and fixed in place of aload’

binjiliíla ‘too smart, unrespectful person (mainly young people); also inreference to very sour lemon’

52 Azeb Amha

k’up’uluúla ‘one who looks up for other people’s reaction, of children, of aperson with no selfconfidence’

kosoroóra ‘one who is careless and breaks things often’ (also: kororoósa)kiciriíra ‘stubborn; dry (of objects)’wikiriíra ‘shabby, inelegant (short and badly dressed)kuncuruúra ‘inelegant (short and with bad complexion (dry skin)’

In monosyllabic base forms which undergo partial reduplication, we observe twopatterns: they lengthen the vowel of the reduplicated VC(C) or they geminate theconsonant. When the base ends in a consonant cluster, the second member of thecluster is reduplicated. Example (6) below illustrates VC reduplication of monosyl-labic base forms and lengthening of the reduplicated vowel.

C1ViC2C3 Æ C1ViC2C3+ViVi+C3+a

(6) wurk’uúk’a ‘very dirty (of bigger children)’murk’uúk’a ‘for babies with dirty (messy) face, running nose’

The following are examples of monosyllabic base forms which reduplicate the lastVC of the base, and which geminate the consonant of the reduplicated VC. Noticethat the final vowel -a is a terminal vowel.

C1ViC2 Æ C1ViC2+Vi+ C2C2+a

(7) gawáwwa ‘weak, slow and unhealthy’lowówwa ‘quiet and tactful ‘kuwúwwa ‘vengeful, mysterious’k’azázza ‘handsome/beautiful, (specially of people with big straight

nose)’lakákka ‘agreeable, decent’ (of manner and speech)’sakákka ‘very beautiful’

The same phenomenon of VC reduplication plus consonant gemination, but onewhich involves consonant clusters, is shown in example (8) below. In such forms,it is the second consonant of the cluster that is reduplicated.

C1ViC2 C3 Æ C1ViC2 C3+Vi+ C3C3+ a

(8) mirk’ík’k’a ‘one who looks down upon others’t’orsóssa ‘very slow person’karbábba ‘wide, of ear’sampáppa ‘very wide, of leaves, bed, seat (flat objects)’bort’ót’t’a ‘big and multiple, of eyes, some grain types e.g. maize’pirc’íc’c’a ‘small and several, e.g. of rush, chicken-pox’milt’ít’t’a ‘impudent, bold’


2.2.2 Partial reduplication affecting initial CV(V) of the baseAs mentioned above, this type of ideophone is interpreted here as involving internalreduplication.

C1ViViC2 (V2) Æ C1+ViVi+C1Vi Vi C2+(V2 )

(9) gaagaáno ‘very big’loolloósa ‘beautiful’t’et’t’éla ‘smart, witty’wununuúk’a ‘very, very smallk’ak’k’abbá ‘emotionally weak, undetermined’

2.2.3 Other typesThe following ideophones do not fit into the recurring reduplication patternsdescribed above.

(10) k’onk’ólla ‘very tall and clumsy’bunduruúk’a ‘dirty, messy (of babies)’pucilánco ‘restless (referring to babies)’

3. Group II ideophones

Group II ideophones obligatorily occur with the verb /g-/ ‘say’ when they areintransitive and with ‘oott- ‘do’ when they are transitive. These two verbs in thiscontext are ‘dummy’ or ‘introductory’ verbs (cf. Childs 1994:187). In section (4) wewill show that in Wolaitta the use of dummy verbs is not restricted to group IIideophones. There are other compound verbs in which the second of the verb +verb compounds is bleached of its lexical meaning and functions as a bearer ofinflectional markers or as an adverbial modifier (cf. 4.2.1 below). Semantically,group II ideophones are characterized by simultaneously expressing a state/event aswell as manner. All group II ideophones end in one of the vowels i or u. These finalvowels are not part of the reduplication. Rather they are vowels connecting theideophone with the ‘dummy’ verb.

There are two kinds of group II ideophones: (a) The first involves reduplicationof the final syllable and denotes motion verbs, as illustrated below.

C1ViC2 Æ C1ViC2+Vi+C2+u/i(11) kúrúru g- ‘to move, of small children, and as insult for a short adult person’

c’úrúru g- ‘to spill, of liquid coming out in a slow consistent manner’tólólu g- ‘to boil over, liquid suddenly pouring out in up-ward direction’sáláli g- ‘to move in a slow, easy manner’p’áp’álk’i g- ‘description of lightning’

54 Azeb Amha

(b) Ideophones with the same syntactic restriction of necessarily occurring with‘dummy verbs’, but without reduplication. This type of group II ideophonestypically involves consonant clusters and express punctual or non-iterative actionsas examples in (12) below demonstrate.

(12) láwhu g- ‘to leave quickly or to pass by quickly’fúttu g- ‘to come, to appear unexpectedly’wóttu g- ‘to stand up abruptly’wóppu g- ‘to stop, to rest after an intense activity which is not approved by

the speaker (e.g., children noisily playing; stop movement of anangry or mentally ill person’

píwhu g- ‘to desert, to run away and disappear completely’jóllu g- ‘to become motionless and absentminded also: tóllu g-’to stand

still’zoppu g- ‘to fall of something heavy and dry’wóppu g- ‘to spill at once, in large quantity’póggu g- ‘to shine, to brighten suddenly, e.g. electric light unexpectedly

turned on; also to tease somebody dressed with bright colorclothes’

típpi g- ‘to become suddenly and completely dark ‘ (sudden extinguishingof fire, light)

páwki g- ‘to be happy suddenly or momentarily’jábbi g- ‘to temporarily lose control of mind, to become disoriented(jábáli g)k’ílt’i g- ‘to become very full, of liquid’c’íppi g- ‘to become very full, of solid things, e.g. grain container’mílt’i g- ‘to be bold headed, to lack disguise, to be completely empty’díppi g- ‘to be completely finished’zírt’i g- ‘to be alert’kírk’i g- ‘to refuse completely’

As the above examples show, group II ideophones are typically disyllabic and theyinvolve consonant gemination and consonant clusters. High tone-accent occurs onthe first vowel. These ideophones have vowel assonance of the type u-u, o-u or i-i,which involves the front-back dichotomy. Group II ideophones also include wordswith ž which again is absent in the (synchronic) inventory of consonant phonemesof Wolaitta. Examples:

(13) dúžgu g- ‘to experience instant shock; sudden pain of, e.g., electric shock’dóžžu g- ‘to hear a persistent buzzing sound, continuous sound or pain’

Like group I ideophones, group II ideophones involve sound symbolism. Highvowels are associated with smallness/lightness and mid vowels with bigness/heaviness.


(14) k’úlc’u g- ‘to fall, of something small in water’dólc’u g- ‘to fall, of something big in water’túlku g- ‘to break easily, suddenly of some thing small’tólku g- ‘to break easily, suddenly of some thing big’póŠŠu g- ‘to tear suddenly, of thick cloth’ (e.g. garment: kúta)píŠŠi g- ‘to tear suddenly, of thin cloth (e.g. light shawl: nat’alá)c’úruru g- ‘to spill little, of liquid coming out in a slow consistent manner’wóppu g- ‘to spill at once, in large quantity’zóppu g- ‘to fall of something big and dry’t’úl‘u g- ‘to fall, of something small’t’óttu g- ‘to fall, of something wet and big’

Notice that in many languages, including English, the association of small-big andvowel qualities involves the features front and back (cf. Maduka 1988:93) whereasin Wolaitta the relevant parameter in such phono-semantic associations is vowelheight. Also in languages which use the same parameter, the semantic associationmay not be identical. For instance, in contrast to Wolaitta, in Korean, “lower vowelheight has a symbolic value of smallness and/or intensity.” (Maduka 1988:94)

Transitive forms of group I ideophones combine with the verb ‘oott- ‘do’, asshown below.

(15) k’órc’u ‘oott- ‘to swallow something quickly’púsku ‘oott- ‘to scatter completely (of small things, e.g. coins, grain)wóppu ‘oott- ‘to spill at once, for a large quantity of liquid’túlku ‘oott- ‘to break easily, of something small’póggu ‘oott- ‘to make light, unexpectedly’háwhu ‘oott- ‘to leave wide open, e.g. of door, mouth’káwhu ‘oott- ‘to hit a hard object with a stick (e.g. stick on the head)’cáwhu ‘oott- ‘to slap very hard’wóttu ‘oott- ‘to lift something or somebody quickly’

4. Categorial status

The question whether ideophones are a sub-category within one of the major lexicalcategories such as nouns and verbs or form their own independent word class hasbeen a major subject of discussion in (African) linguistics. Concerning this,Kulemeka (1994:77) states that: “The study of ideophones in Africa can generallybe characterized as being preoccupied with determining the grammatical categoryto which ideophones belong.” The problem of the categorial status arises because ofthe different syntactic functions of ideophones in different languages. In somelanguages ideophones function as nouns; in others ideophones function as verbsand/or adverbs.

In this section we will outline the similarity and difference between the major

56 Azeb Amha

lexical categories and the two types of Wolaitta ideophones shown above. But first,for comparison, a short random list of illustrative words of the other lexicalcategories of Wolaitta is given below:

Nouns Adjectives Verbs Adverbs Ideophone I Ideophone II

waáwwa‘roasted grain’

c’íma‘old’

we‘-‘urinate’

zíno‘yesterday’

wapiwáppa wóppu g-

‘ec’eré‘rat’

buúk’a‘rotten’

zaar-‘return’

bollá-n‘up there’

binjiliíla binjílli g-

keettá‘house’

keéha‘kind’

keet’t’-‘build’

ha‘‘í‘now’

kuwúwwa káwhu g-

t’ap’ó‘root’

t’úma‘dark’

t’ámm-‘suck’

digín‘later’

t’orsóssa t’óttu g-

4.1 The categorial status of group I ideophones

Group I ideophones mainly occur as modifiers of noun phrases and they sharesyntactic and semantic properties of descriptive or qualificative adjectives. Parallelto other adjectives, group I ideophones occur as nominal modifiers, attributivepredicates and inchoative verbs. The following examples illustrate the use ofideophones and other adjectives in the attributive function:

(16) Non-ideophonica. dúre ‘asa

rich personb. míno na‘a

strong child

(17) Ideophonica. gawáwwa ‘asa ‘a weak person’

ideo personb. k’ap’k’áp’a na‘a ‘a greedy person’

ideo child

The following are examples of ideophones and regular adjectives used in ellipticconstructions.

(18) a. Non-ideophonic:‘í míno-t-a dos-eesihe strong-pl-acc like-3.m.sg.impf

‘He likes the strong ones.’b. Ideophonic:

gawawwa-t-í y-iídosonaweak-pl-nom come-3.pl.pf‘The weak, sickly ones came.’


Both regular adjectives and ideophones are used predicatively:

(19) a. Non-ideophonic:gallásso-y dúreG.-nom rich‘Gallaso is rich.’

b. ideophonic:galláso-y k’ap’k’áp’aG.-nom ideo

‘Gallasso is greedy.’

Verbal inflectional markers are attached to simple and ideophonic adjectives toform the inchoative form.

(20) a. Non-ideophonic:galláso-y mínn-iisiG.-nom strong-3.m.sg.pf‘Gallaso became strong.’

b. Ideophonic:gallásoy boljojj-iísiG. ideo-3.m.sg.pf‘Gallaso became stout and light colored.’

Examples (12)–(20) above show that, counter to the claim that (African) ideo-phones display little morphology (cf. Childs 1994:185), Group I ideophones inWolaitta take all nominal and verbal inflection which other adjectives take. Basedon such morphological characteristics and the syntactic function shown above, wecategorize Group I ideophones with adjectives. However, the following slightphonological and semantic differences can be noted between simple and ideophonicadjectives. While simple adjectives end in any of the terminal vowels -e, -o or -a,group I ideophones only take -a as their terminal vowel. Secondly, unlike theregular adjectives which are maximally tri-syllabic, these ideophones often involvethree or more syllables (exceptions to this are discussed at the end of this section).Semantically, group I ideophones tend to be more ‘expressive’ and ‘specific’ thansimple adjectives. Thus, for most of the ideophonic adjectives there is a simpler, lessexpressive variable belonging to the class of simple adjectives. For example, parallelto the very general adjective malanca ‘handsome/ beautiful’ (derived from mala‘appearance’), there are specific ideophonic adjectives:

(21) k’azázza ‘handsome/beautiful (especially of people with big straight nose)’boljójja ‘handsome/beautiful, (one with light colored, fatty and full face)

Furthermore, group I ideophones involve a phono-semantic correlation betweenvowel quality and size or weight, whereas in simple adjectives no such sound–meaning correspondence can be observed. For example, ideophones referring to

58 Azeb Amha

‘light and/or small’ things are formed with high vowels, whereas those referring to‘heavy and/or big’ things are formed with mid-vowels. The following are examples:

(22) bort’ót’t’a ‘big and multiple, of eyes, some grain types e.g. maize’pirc’íc’c’a ‘small and multiple, e.g. of rush, chicken-pox’toot’itoót’a ‘one with a hasty manner of walk, especially of a stout person’tiit’itiít’a ‘one with a hasty manner of walk, especially of a slim person’wununuúk’a ‘very small’k’onk’ólla ‘very tall and clumsy’

As mentioned above, one of the diagnostic means for differentiating ideophonicand non-ideophonic adjectives is the number of syllables in the word. Ideophonesare multi-syllabic, while simple adjectives are mainly di-syllabic, with a few tri-syllabic adjectives. However, such phonological differences in isolation cannot betaken as defining criterion. For instance, there are words which, based on semanticand syntactic grounds, are classified as adjectival ideophones. However, from aphonological point of view these look like regular adjectives or nouns of Wolaitta.

(23) sása ‘very cold’ (regular: ‘írt’a ‘cold’)leéla ‘very dark’ (regular: t’úma ‘dark’)dúm‘a ‘very black’ (regular: karétta ‘black’)múlt’a ‘very white’ (regular: boótta ‘white)'ánk’a ‘very sour’ (regular: c’aála ‘sour’)

Compared to their respective regular adjectives (given in brackets above), theideophones in (20) are more expressive. These ideophones are syntacticallydependent on the non-ideophonic adjectives since they are used in combinationwith their respective simple adjectives. The following are illustrative sentences.

(24) a. ha tukke ‘irt’a sasathis coffee cold ideo

‘This coffee is very cold.’b. ‘i ‘issi karetta dum‘a boora wamm-iisi

he one black ideo ox buy-3.m.sg.pf‘He bought a very black ox.’

The above disyllabic ideophones should not be interpreted as degree specifiers.These two differ structurally. While the degree specifiers must precede the adjectivethey modify, the di-syllabic ideophones follow the adjective. That is, the ideophonesoccur in the head position. Compare the following examples with those in (24)above.

(25) a. dáro ‘irt’aa lot cold‘very cold’


b. dáro c’aalaa lot cold‘very sour.’

4.2 The categorial status of group II ideophones

Most Group II ideophones include in their meaning the verbal expression as well asthe ‘manner’, ‘duration’, ‘intention’ etc. which are expressed in many languagesthrough adverbs. In this way, these ideophones behave syntactically and semantical-ly in the same way as one class of verbs i.e., converbs. In this section, we will showthe structural and semantic relation between group II ideophones and converbs andbriefly discuss the similarity between these two categories.

4.2.1 Group II ideophones and converb verbsThe term ‘converb’ here refers to a dependent verb, the main function of which isto mark adverbial subordination. The subject of the main verb and the converb isnecessarily coreferential. As Haspelmath (1995:4) correctly hypothesizes, theconverb is not a verb plus a complementizer or subordinator. Rather, it is an inflec-tional paradigm of the verb. Accordingly, all verbs in Wolaitta can be turned intoconverb verbs by taking the suffix -ádá or -ídí, depending on the person and genderof the subject. The following paradigm represents the inflection of the verb rootwot’t’- ‘run’ for the converb in Wolaitta.

(26) táání wot’t’-ádá ‘I having run’nééní wot’t’-ádá ‘you having run’‘í wot’t’-ídí ‘he having run’‘á wot’t’-ádá ‘she having run’núúní wot’t’-ídí ‘we having run’‘ínté wot’t’-ídi ‘you (pl) having run’‘etí wot’t’-ídí ‘they having run’

When expressing series of events, the converb verb markers -ídí and-ádá can beshortened to -í and -á respectively as illustrated below:

(27) naatí keetttáa fítt-í mítta mit’-í haattta tíkk-ídí giyáa b–iidosonachild house sweep- wood gather water draw market go-plnom dacc cnv cnv cnv 3.pl.pf‘Having cleaned the house, having gathered firewood and having brought water,the children went to the market.’

There is morphological parallelism between converbs and group II ideophones:unlike other verbal categories, these two lack morphological marking of tense andmood. Syntactically, both converbs and group II ideophones are dependent,because they always need a supporting verb or a main verb which carries aspect and

60 Azeb Amha

mood information. However, there is a crucial difference between the converb verbtype shown in (27) above, and group II ideophones. In the ‘converb+main verb’construction the basic essence of the sentence depends on the ‘main verb’ and the‘converb’ is a modifying element. On the other hand in ‘group II ideophone+supporting verb’ construction, the basic meaning relies on the ideophone and noton the ‘supporting verb’. Hence the name ‘dummy verb’ for the verbs co-occurringwith ideophones.

Interestingly, however, there are some ‘compound verbs’ which are formed onthe basis of converbs, in which verb1 of the ‘verb1+verb2’ contributes the mainmeaning while verb2 is simply an adverbial modifier or an auxiliary verb carryingverbal inflection. Verb1 of such compounds is either a converb or an infinitive verbwhereas Verb2 is a fully inflected verb. Depending on the semantic contribution ofverb1 and verb2 we can divide compound verbs in Wolaitta into three.

a. Some of the verbal compounds are ‘exocentric’ compounds, in which themeaning of the compound (underlined) differs from the meaning of the input.That such compounds are based on converb verbs can be seen from the finalvowel of verb1 which changes according to gender and person of the subject,and is identical in form to the shortened converb marker discussed above.

(28) a. hargáncay ‘aá22-í wo22-iisispatient.m.nom pass-cnv descend-3.m.sg.pf‘The patient (M) turned over.’

b. hargánciya ‘aá22-á wo22-aasupatient.f.nom pass-cnv descend-3.f.sg.pf‘The patient (F) turned over.’

c. hakímee hargánca ‘aatt-í yeggiisidoctor.nom patient.acc pass.caus-cnv add.3.m.sg.pf‘The doctor turned over the patient.’

b. In some compounds verb2 seems to be central to the meaning of the com-pound. However, analyzing verb1 as ‘modifier’ would be incorrect:

(29) a. hage súre néna bak’k’-í ‘oyk’-iisithis.m trousers 2.sg.acc slap-cnv hold-3.m.sg.pf‘This trousers is tight on you’ (lit. This trousers holds you tightly).

b. naa-t-í haattáa ‘ekk-í yiíd-osonachild-pl-nom water.acc take-cnv come-3.pl.pf‘The children brought water’

c. In some ‘compound verbs’ the main meaning is contributed by verb1, whileverb2 functions as an adverbial modifier or as an auxiliary. Verb1 occurs only asa converb or as an infinitive verb and its slot can be filled by any verb of thelanguage whereas verb2 represents a closed class of verbs: only about fourteenverbs (cf. also Adams 1983). Most of the verbs in verb2 slot are associated witha fixed adverbial notion. For instance, any converb verb immediately followed


by the verb ‘agg- ‘give up’ expresses that the state/event expressed by theconverb verb is carried out immediately (cf. Adams 1983 who analyses ‘agg-‘give up’ as ‘immediacy aspect’ marker). On the other hand, a converb verbimmediately followed by the verb bay- ‘disappear’ expresses that the action iscarried out with determination, while ‘ekk- ‘take’ expresses ‘certainty’. Thefollowing are examples:

(30) a. márz-iya ‘úy-ídí haík’k’-i ‘agg-iisipoison-acc drink-cnv die-cnv give up-3.sg.pf‘Having taken the poison, he died instantly.’

b. ‘asáy b–íyo wode tá néna t’eég-a ‘ekk-anapeople.nom go-rel time 1.sg.nom 2.sg.acc call-cnv take-tma

‘When the people go, I will certainly call you.’c. k’úmaw mat’iné gid-ída-kko m-á be‘-a

food.dat salt.nom be enough-pf-cond eat-cnv see-imp

‘Taste if there is enough salt in the food.’

The above compound verbs are similar to ‘explicator compound verbs’ in Asianlanguages in which “[a] conjunctive participle is followed immediately … by a finiteverb, the two forming a unit in which the main verb is the participle, the finite verbacting as a modifying auxiliary.” (Masica 1976:141).1 As Masica observes for suchverb compounds in Asian languages, in Wolaitta too, the main difference betweena ‘converb+main verb’ construction and a ‘converb+verb’ compounds is that in thelatter there is: “a shift in the semantic center of gravity from V2 to V1, with concom-itant lexical emptying or grammaticalization of V2” (Masica 1976:141). This isexactly the case with group II ideophones and the co-occurring ‘say’ or ‘do’ verbs.Here, the main verb is the ideophone while the co-occurring ‘say’ or ‘do’ verb is thebearer of inflectional and derivational information (i.e., transitivity, causation, etc.)which the ideophone, characteristically, can not carry. In this way, the ideophoneand the ‘dummy’ verb constitute a compound verb.

Notes

* An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 8th Italian Meeting of Afroasiatic (Hamito-

DEST "amh-n*">

Semitic) Linguistics, held between January 25–27, 1996 in Napoli. I would like to acknowledgewith gratitude the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek in de Tropen(WOTRO) for providing financial support which enabled me to participate in that conference.

Data on Wolaitta are based on the author’s speech, who speaks Wolaitta as a first language,and on the speech of the author’s mother, W/o Nigatwa Adaye. I would like to thank my mother,who, after an initial protest against discussing ideophones in public, enlarged my list considerably.My thanks go also to Abebe Bekele and Data Dea, for sharing their native speaker’s intuitionsabout the translations. I am very grateful to Gerrit Dimmendaal for his comments on the paper.All remaining errors are mine.

62 Azeb Amha

1. In his area map which shows the distribution of explicator-compound verbs, Masica (1976)puts Ethiopian languages with those that have ‘explicator compound verbs, somewhat aberranttypes’. This, I guess, is because of the failure of earlier studies of Ethio-Semitic languages, whichare used as sources in Masica’s typological study, to distinguish ideophonic and non-ideophoniccompound verbs.

References

Adams, B.A. 1983. A Tagmemic Analysis of the Wolaitta Language. Ph.D. thesis, University ofLondon.


Dhoorre, C.S. and M.T. 1998. “Somali ideophones.” Journal of African Cultural Studies.11(2):125–156.

Haspelmath, M. 1995. “Introduction: The converb as a cross-linguistically valid category”. In M.Haspelmath and E. König (eds), Converbs in Cross-Linguistic Perspective. Structure andmeaning of adverbial verb forms — adverbial participles, gerund. [Empirical Approaches toLanguage Typology 13]. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Kulemeka, A.T. 1995. “Sound symbolic and grammatical frameworks: A typology of ideophonesin Asian and African languages”. South African Journal of African Languages 15(2):73–84.

Maduka, O.N. 1988. “Size and shape ideophones in Nembe: A phonosemantic analysis”. Studiesin African Linguistics 19 (1):93–113.

Masica, C.P.1976. Defining a Linguistic Area: South Asia. Chicago: The University of ChicagoPress.

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Research on ideophones, whither hence?

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The need for a social theory of ideophones*

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G. Tucker ChildsPortland State University

1. Introduction

This paper considers issues in the ecology of ideophones in an attempt to betterunderstand their status vis-à-vis other word categories, even their status as languageitself (see Wescott 1975). The purpose is to make the general point that ideophonesare quintessentially social: they are grounded in communicative interaction.Because or concomitant with this feature, ideophones locate an individual withina particular community, even a particular group. To understand ideophones,therefore, one must understand their social and cultural context more so than withother words. This paper synthesizes some earlier work on ideophones suggestinghow those connections can be demonstrated, and points the way to further inquiry.It specifically reports on research on ideophones in African pidgins and creoles(Childs 1994b) and comparable urban varieties (Childs 1997) and reports on anextensive variation study (Childs 1993b; Childs 1996). Those survey and quantita-tive findings are supplemented with insights gained from more ethnographicinvestigations, some of which have been gleaned from the literature, others of whichcome from personal investigations. The paper concludes with some suggestedresearch directions, based on the crucial social function of ideophones.

In the following section I briefly sample the work has been done in the pasttwenty years, primarily with regard to the study of African ideophones but also withregard to the study of ideophones in other languages. Many of the works cited,especially the theses, contain extensive reviews of the literature, which the readerinterested in further details may wish to consult. The references I mention are thosethat I feel most relevant to the future direction of ideophone studies (see Nuckolls1999 for a recent review of sound symbolism).

64 G. Tucker Childs

2. Recent work on African ideophones

A survey article on African ideophones (Childs 1994a) was the first to appear sincea comparable survey of Bantu ideophones more than twenty years earlier (Samarin1971c). Much has been done since the 1994 article was written (some five yearsbefore its publication date!), and it is that literature that will be selectively assayedhere.

As many commentators have noted, perhaps starting with Samarin (1967),ideophones are often disdained, given superficial treatment, or ignored. This is trueas much today as it has been in the past. For example, no ideophones can be foundin an otherwise fine Wolof dictionary, Munro and Gaye (1991), despite the fact thatideophones are prolific in the language, e.g., Dialo (1985); Fal, Santos, and Doneux(1990). Although the lexicographic problems facing the analyst are considerable(Childs 1993a), their intractability is no excuse for excluding them from treatment.

On the other hand, ideophones often form the focus of an inquiry: language-specific studies have continued unabated. One often has the impression thatanalysts are re-inventing the wheel on the less descriptive side as they encounter andtreat the same issues that engaged analysts many years earlier, issues such ascategorization, e.g., Newman (1968). Often these are studies with short bibliogra-phies based on a single language.

A number of recent theses have taken African ideophones as their focus, e.g.,Wendland (1979), Mphande (1989), Kulemeka (1993), Kilian-Hatz (1997). Workon ideophones outside of Africa can also be found, as the detailed bibliography inMok (1993) shows, particularly with regard to Asian languages. A thoroughdiscussion of Quechua ideophones is contained in Nuckolls (1996), a book that isalso praiseworthy in seeing ideophones as being culturally grounded. Similarly, newinterest has been generated in Australian ideophones, as attested by papers given atthis colloquium, and papers elsewhere, e.g., McGregor (1998), Schultze-Berndt(1998).

Very few studies of African ideophones, however, have looked beyond a singlelanguage. Virtually no one has considered ideophones from a comparative point ofview, e.g., Lanham (1960). The exception is Bartens (1998), which does not focuson ideophones per se but rather on the substratal influence of African languages onNew World creoles (see discussion below).

The long tradition of psycholinguistic inquiry on onomatopoeia and soundsymbolism, e.g., Wissemann (1954), Brown (1958), Jakobson and Waugh (1979);(Araujo and Hata 1986 for an update) has not been extended to African forms.Although Mphande (1989) is a thorough exploration of ChiTumbuka ideophonephonetics, to my knowledge the only experimental study on African ideophones isone that looks at the acoustic correlates of ‘big’ and ‘thin’ in Kujamatay (Greenbergand Sapir 1978). More work on African ideophones needs to be done in this vein.

Research on ideophones, whither hence? 65

Africanists would also do well to explore the more cognitively oriented workrepresented in Kita (1997), and the finding that sound symbolism has “evolutionaryadaptive value” (Ciccotosto 1991).

Variationists have also neglected African ideophones, with the exception ofSamarin (1991) (and the earlier Samarin 1971b; Samarin 1971a), and an article onJamaican Creole found in DeCamp (1974). Below I illustrate one way in whichthose techniques may be applied.

In summary, there are many promising directions in which the study ofideophones could be taken, represented by the less structurally oriented subdisci-plines of anthropological linguistics, psycholinguistics, cognitive linguistics, andvariation or sociolinguistics. The general point that I will conclude with is that it isin these directions that our inquiry should be directed.

3. Ideophones in pidgins and creoles

Pidgins and creoles provide an excellent crucible or “keyhole” (Aitchison 1987) inwhich to examine linguistic phenomena for the resolution of broad theoreticalissues, e.g., Wekker (1996). Because pidgins and creoles telescope processes oflanguage change and concentrate situations of language variation, they provideimportant sources for issues in language variation and change, e.g., Ramat andHopper (1999). If indeed we see such processes as socially conditioned, e.g., Labov(1980); Milroy (1992), and pidgins and creoles as representing the quintessence ofsocially conditioned language, then the social import of ideophones should bedramatically displayed there as well. Such is the general finding in both Childs(1994b) and Childs (1997), which look at the variable presence of ideophones inAfrican pidgins and urban vernaculars.

The first of these two papers concluded that ideophones will persist into thecontact variety from the substrate but only functionally, i.e., there are few if anyidentifiable cognates. If cognates do exist, they are found only at the level ofonomatopoeia and are likely universals (Childs 1994a). This transfer of functionwill occur, however, only when the contact variety has become the everydaylanguage of its speakers and represents the identity of those speakers. Roughlyspeaking, the variety has become nativized or Africanized (see the discussion ofWest African Pidgin English as a “neo-African language” in Gilman 1979).

A study that differs with regard to the etymological point in the paragraphabove is found in Bartens (1998), which explicitly treats ideophone cognates. Thisstudy shows how prolific ideophones (and ideophone-derived words) are in(mainly) Caribbean creoles. She claims direct etymological relationships betweenthe ideophones in African languages and ideophones in Atlantic creoles. Despite thedifferences with the findings claimed here, her work underscores the more important

66 G. Tucker Childs

point of the study, namely, that the function of ideophones will persist from thesubstrate into the contact variety when that variety is a language of focal identity, an“MCS” a “medium for community solidarity” (Baker 1998).

Although only peripherally discussing ideophones, the latter paper (Childs1997) identified a quantitative and qualitative difference between Isicamtho, aSouth African urban variety, and Zulu, the language on which Isicamtho is based.Mfusi (1990) quite correctly identifies Isicamtho as “Soweto Zulu Slang”, for on alinguistic basis the differences between Isicamtho and Zulu are only lexical. Socially,however, the varieties contrast more sharply; Isicamtho (and related varieties) havebecome the vernacular of most urban youth (Ntshangase 1993). The crucial findingwith regard to ideophones is that in Isicamtho speakers use ideophones sparingly,if at all. When ideophones are incorporated into Isicamtho, they change their wordcategory, as demonstrated by the examples in (9), to become less expressive verbs,nouns, or adjectives in a process that has been labeled “deideophonization”(Msimang 1987).

(1) Deideophonization in Zulu (Mfusi 1990:39ff).

ukugidla verb ‘to sleep’ < Zulu gidli for fallingheavily

mca adjective ‘beautiful, pleasant, deli-cious’

< Zulu nca of abundantharvest

ivum noun ‘car’ < [onomatopoeic] Zulu[?] sound of moving carvu-u-um

The reason for their being shunned by Isicamtho speakers, just as they are else-where, is that ideophones mark local identity, a theme that will be elaborated inthe following section. Ideophones mark one as being rural, non-urban, as some-thing of a country hick. Young Zulu speakers want no part of that identity andstrictly eschew the use of such words.

Ideophones are quintessentially the mark of local identity but an identity ofcontinuity with an ideophone past. It would be predicted that ideophones would bemore likely to be found in creoles that came from pidgins that were only graduallycreolized (Mühlhäusler 1997), ones that went through an “extended pidgin” phase(Todd 1974) and underwent no sharp break with the speakers’ social-cultural past.It would also be predicted that ideophones would persist in maroon colonies, asthey do in Ndyuka (Huttar and Huttar 1994), Sranan and Saramaccan (NorvalSmith 1998, personal communication). Furthermore, ideophones would morelikely prosper in situations were the non-ideophone-bearing superstrate no longerexerts a normative presence.

I now turn to the mirror situation, the effect of urbanization on ideophones in


Zulu. We have already seen how ideophones are shunned in the derivative varietyIsicamtho; what is even more surprising is that there are disappearing in Zulu itself.

4. A variation study of ideophones

This section reports on an extensive study of the knowledge of ideophones amongZulu speakers in South Africa, involving over a 140 native speakers of Zulu ofvarying social characteristics. Partial results were reported in Childs (1996), and Ihave reported on the complete findings in several orally delivered papers, e.g.,Childs (1998a). The basic conclusion of this study is that ideophones are disappear-ing in Zulu as they are found in the speech of the old but not in the speech of theyoung, even the non-urban young, i.e., those who do not have Isicamtho as theircommon vernacular.

The first point to be made is that this not a case of language change in the senseof what might loosely be termed “grammaticalization”, the diachronic process bywhich ideophones are more directly involved in the grammar. For example, manyKanuri verbs are derived from ideophones (Hutchison 1981; Hutchison 1989; seeChilds 1989 for a process going in the opposite direction), much as seems to havebeen the case in Australian languages, e.g., McGregor (1996); Schultze-Berndt(1998). The loss of ideophones in Zulu is decidedly different; it is a process that canbe seen in the synchronic distribution of forms, likely presaging their completeloss in the language.

Part of the loss of ideophones may be taking place through “deideophoni-zation”, as described above. Ideophones use their distinctive “ideophony” markingthem as a class: “a certain class of words distinguished phonologically (and possiblyboth morphologically and syntactically) from other words in the language whosesemantics has to do with qualities, states, events, and so forth” (Samarin 1970). Thisprocess cannot, however, account for the complete loss of ideophones in Zulu, sincenot all ideophones are changing class; younger speakers simply do not know them.

It should not surprise us that a language loses its ideophones, just as it shouldsurprise us that a language gains ideophones. It is undoubtedly the case thatideophones can be created, despite protestations to the contrary after a claim inInnes (1964): “New ideophones are sometimes coined by a story teller, and thecoining of striking and appropriate ideophones is regarded as one of the marks ofa skilled narration” (see Samarin 1967a:40 for the protest). On a grander scale,numerous authors have shown how ideophones arise diachronically, e.g., Louw(1984) for Southern Bantu, and Childs (1989) for an Atlantic language.

Thus the claim that Zulu is losing its ideophones should not be regarded as animpossibility, despite its taking place in such a truncated period of time. The socialforces at work are powerful, primarily urbanization and the maintenance of at least

68 G. Tucker Childs

one prestige language without ideophones (perhaps with the change in power inSouth Africa ideophones will once again flourish in Zulu). What I will documentbelow is one case of a language losing its ideophones. If indeed we can see languagechange in language variation (e.g., Labov 1981), then Zulu is in the process of losingits ideophones. I turn now to a brief summary of that study.

That the knowledge of ideophones is unevenly distributed among Zulu speakersis relatively uncontroversial, and the data show this clearly. Ethnographic interviewssuggested this and questionnaires confirmed it. What this study shows is the highlyskewed nature of this distribution with regard to age and no other factor. Surpris-ingly sex was not statistically significant, nor was level of education, although withregard to the latter the tendency was for uneducated speakers to know moreideophones than educated speakers.

Other factors were assessed to determine their role: “Residence” and “Rustici-ty”. Residence quantified the living patterns of Zulu speakers as to their degree ofurban-ness. It also turned out to be non-significant, likely because of the massurbanization that has taken place as the apartheid government took more and moreland away from the Africans and turned them into guest laborers. Rusticity wasdesigned to measure a person’s orientation to traditional Zulu culture, e.g., thepaying of lobola (‘bride price’) and the practice of hlonipha, the language of respect.This factor was not significant although the results tended to support the hypothesisthat the more traditional a person’s orientation the more likely that person wouldknow more ideophones.

From these results using the apparent time construct (e.g., Bailey et al. 1991),one can extrapolate into the future and predict that ideophones will soon disappearin Zulu. This prediction is controversial and even unsettling, especially to thoseinvested in the preservation of “Zulu”. The interpretation that can be put on theseresults is that the paucity of ideophones in the speech of a native Zulu speakersignals a renunciation of a traditional Zulu identity and portends language change.

That ideophones signal a rural and traditional identity for Zulu speakers cannotbe disputed. That urban vs. rural, educated vs. uneducated, and young vs. oldspeakers wish to disown that identity also seems plausible. It is their shunning ofideophones, likely because of their absence in the target culture (speaking Englishand perhaps Afrikaans), that at least partially signals this change in identity. In thesame way marked variants or expressive language encodes a certain identity, so maythe absence or avoidance of such forms signal a denial of that identity.

A more theoretically oriented paper (Childs 1998b), following the lead of, e.g.,Labov (1963) and Kroch (1978) (see Guy 1988 for some relevant discussion), drewparallels between the distribution of ideophones and larger social forces. This studylooks not at the knowledge of ideophones but rather variation in tokens. I give someexamples below. The examples below show different types of sound-meaning


correspondences; in some cases the meanings are identical (as in (2)) while inothers ((3) and (4)) they vary, presumably denoting different words.

(2) Clusterings of sound-meaning correspondences.Hausa lip/rip ‘smooth, flat’.

buzuu-bùzùu/muzuu-mùzùu ‘hairy’.cik/cif ‘stopped completely’

(Moore 1973:19).Kisi càm-càm/cá]-cá] ‘lukewarm (of a liquid)’.

kfcù/dfcù ‘knocking’ (Childs 1988:175).Zulu ndrr/drr/mbrr/bhr ‘birds flying’.

cosu/cusu/nonsu/nosu/thosu ‘tearing away’.to/nto/tho ‘dripping’ (Fivaz 1963).

The Yoruba examples in (3) show partial lexicalization; the Ijo examples in (4)represent complete lexicalization.

(3) Partial lexicalization in Yoruba (Courtenay 1976:25).rogodo ‘bulging (as eyes)’.rugudu ‘small and spherical (as buttocks)’.rúgúdú ‘small and spherical (as buttocks)’.rógódó ‘large, round (as yams)’.rogbodo ‘fine and plump’.robotyo ‘fat — much more than rugudu’.

(4) Complete lexicalization in Ijo (Williamson 1965:24).geen ‘of an even, unblinking light’.g »e »en ‘of a steady light, brighter than geen’.goon ‘of a light which is brighter than geen, but does not bother one like

geen’.g »o »on ‘of a light brighter than geen or geen’.

No explanation had as yet been advanced for this variability. The paper attempts anexplanation using the model of Labov, e.g., Labov (1974), appealing to “changefrom below” marking local identity for the interior classes. Ideophones exhibitstrong local associations (Samarin 1991), and their grammatical features are justthose typically found in the codes of the interior classes. Furthermore, with thesocial stratification of urbanization, ideophones are eschewed by the elite, in thesame way marks of the lower classes are resisted by the elite (Kroch 1978). Ideo-phones thus are shown to fit a profile for marking local identity on the basis of bothnegative and positive evidence.

The combination of studies presented in the preceding sections demonstratesthe strong social associations of ideophones, a fact that should form the basis forfuture inquiry. In the conclusion I indicate some directions that inquiry could take.

70 G. Tucker Childs

5. Conclusion

Ideophones are quintessentially social, the mark of local identity and solidarity, ashas been argued here. What this fact calls for, then, are more studies of ideophonesas a socially grounded phenomenon and perhaps more generally a theory ofexpressive language (see Samarin 1970 and Samarin 1972). Clearly a functionallyoriented approach seems best, either at the local (single language) or global level.One could look at how the expressive function is handled cross-linguistically. Suchinvestigations would contribute insights as to language universals, especially as tothe ways languages exploit iconicity as a linguistic resource.

Perhaps irresolvable but nonetheless provocative questions are also of interest,e.g., Why are Japanese ideophones psychological in their orientation and Africanideophones so perceptual or sensual? What about the functions of ideophones inother parts of the world? Chinese? Australian? Meso-American? Are there differentdiachronic sources, e.g., from cries of pain or pleasure vs. imitations and interpreta-tions of and reactions to sounds in nature? Cross-linguistic studies could also takethe form of psycholinguistic experiments, e.g., What is the psychological status ofideophones vis-à-vis their matrix language? Can ideophones be created ex nihilo?Are there other universals besides size sound symbolism (Ohala 1984)?

One direction a locally oriented inquiry can take is represented in the work ofNuckolls (1996), an ethnography with a cognitive orientation. Much can also belearned from the study of ideophones actually being used or performed, as in, e.g.,Noss (1975), Noss (1988). With the refinement of field techniques and the digiti-zation of field data, much can be accomplished.

Finally, the work must be put in the hands of native speakers for it is they whohave the deep cultural knowledge necessary to fully understand ideophones. Iapplaud the conference organizers for inviting so many such scholars to thecolloquium and hope that these invitees will continue their fine work.

Notes

* My thanks to the colloquium organizers, Erhard Voeltz and Christa Kilian-Hatz (and their

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benefactors), for inviting me and so many other wonderful participants to the Colloquium onideophones. What made it so stimulating and profitable was the presence of so many scholarsworking on languages outside of Africa. Truly the study of ideophones has come of age!


References

Aitchison, J. 1987. “Other keyholes: Language universals from a pidgin-creole viewpoint”. In S.Modgil and C. Modgil (eds), Noam Chomsky, Consensus and Controversy, 93–103. Philadel-phia: The Falmer Press.

Araujo, L.R. and K. Hata. 1986. Three Experiments in Phonetic Symbolism. Phonology Laboratory,University of California, Berkeley.

Bailey, G., T. Wikle, J. Tillery, and L. Sand. 1991. “The apparent time construct”. LanguageVariation and Change 3:241–264.

Baker, P.1998. “Towards an integrated theory of pidginization and creolization”. Paper deliveredat Degrees of Restructuring in Creole Languages (University of Regensburg, Germany; 24–27June).

Bartens, A. 1998. “Ideophones and sound symbolism in Atlantic creoles”. Ms.Brown, R.W. 1958. Words and Things Glencoe. Illinois: Free Press.Childs, G.T. 1988. “The phonology of Kisi ideophones”. Journal of African Languages and

Linguistics 10:165–90.Childs, G.T. 1989. “Where do ideophones come from?” Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 19:57–78.Childs, G.T. 1993a. “Lexicography in West Africa: Some problems and issues”. Lexikos 3:13–28.Childs, G.T. 1993b. “Under-reporting the use of expressive language: The case of Zulu ideo-

phones”. Paper presented to the Annual Meeting of the LSA, Los Angeles, 7–11 January.Childs, G.T. 1994a. “African ideophones”. In L. Hinton et al. (eds), Studies in Sound Symbolism,

247–279. Cambridge: CUP.Childs, G.T. 1994b. “Expressiveness in contact situations: The fate of African ideophones”. Journal

of Pidgin and Creole Languages 9:257–282.Childs, G.T. 1996. “Where have all the ideophones gone? The death of a word category in Zulu”.

Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics 15:81–103.Childs, G.T. 1997. “The status of Isicamtho, an Nguni-based urban variety of Soweto”. In A.K.

Spears and D. Winford (eds), Pidgins and Creoles: Structure and status, 341–370. Amsterdam:John Benjamins.

Childs, G.T. 1998a. “Explanations for the social distribution of ideophones”. Paper delivered tothe Cognitive Anthropology Group, Max Planck Institute, Nijmegen, The Netherlands,August 8.

Childs, G.T. 1998b. “Ideophone variation is tied to local identity”. In M.K. Verma (ed.), TheSociolinguistics of Language and Society: SelectedpPapers from SS IX, 36–46. London: SagePublishers.

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African linguistics Supplement 6:13–26.DeCamp, D. 1974. “Neutralizations, iteratives, and ideophones: The locus of language in

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Setswana ideophones

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AUTHOR "Denis Creissels"

TITLE "Setswana ideophones as uninflected predicative lexemes"


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as uninflected predicative lexemes

Denis CreisselsLaboratoire Dynamique du Langage(CNRS & Université Lyon 2)

1. Introduction

Like most African languages, Setswana has a category of words, usually termedideophones, which does not correspond to any of the categories traditionallyrecognized in descriptions of European languages. In addition to their distribu-tional characteristics, ideophones generally have phonological properties that setthem apart from other categories, and this is commonly viewed as the manifestationof a semantic feature of expressivity. In Setswana, as in most African languages, thecategory of ideophones as a whole is characterized by phonological properties thathowever do not necessarily apply to the individual ideophones: certain phonemesand tonal sequences have a particularly high frequency among ideophones. But inaddition to that, it is interesting to observe that, in Setswana, every ideophone hasa phonological property that is found in no other category: the law of penultimatelengthening, which in the absence of ideophones applies without exception toSetswana sentences, does not apply to sentences ending with an ideophone.

In this paper, I discuss the question of the grammatical status of Setswanaideophones. Traditionally, various kinds of uninflected words that do not fit easilyin any other category are labeled as “adverbs”. This may suggest that ideophones beconsidered a particular type of adverbs. However, at least in the case of Setswana,the syntactic behavior of ideophones shows more affinities with that of verbs thanwith that of the types of units traditionally termed adverbs.

2. Ideophones and sentence types

Given the obvious particularities of ideophones at the semantic level, it is worthemphasizing first (a) that ideophones participate in the construction of clauses

76 Denis Creissels

(which clearly distinguishes them from interjections), and (b) that the sentences inwhich they occur do not constitute a distinct sentence type carrying a particularillocutionary meaning.

In the transcription of the Setswana sentences quoted in this paper, I follow theconvention of standard Setswana orthography in writing an exclamation markimmediately after every ideophone. This could suggest that ideophones occur in aparticular type of sentences more or less similar to the exclamatory sentences ofEuropean languages, but, in fact, Setswana ideophones occur in sentences that have,in every respect, the properties of ordinary declarative sentences. Ex. (1) to (7) showthat clauses including ideophones can occur as constituents of complex declarativesentences of the type commonly found in narrative texts, and can in particular berelativized — ex. (7).

(1) E r-ile legodu le re bona, l-a re dike! kasc9 say-pft 5.thief sc5 o1p see sc5-cons say ideo with¡Irílè l¡Ióòdù lI¢r¡Ib¢fnà làr¡I dìké kálebotana5.walllI¢bf¡tànà‘When the thief saw us he suddenly disappeared behind a wall.’

(2) Batho ba ne ba tshub-ile naga, e ntse e re2.people sc2 aux sc2 burn-pft 9.veld sc9 aux sc9 saybàth¡~ bánè bátshùbílé náóà I¢¢ntsI¢ I¢rI¢fii!ideo

fìì‘The people had burnt the veld and it was absolutely black.’

(3) Dints‘a ts-a leleka phokoje a bo a re10.dog sc10-cons chase 1.jackal sc1.cons aux sc1.cons saydì¡\twá tsál¡7l¡7kà ph~¢k~¢dŠé àbó ár¡Imosima golwe!3.hole ideo

m¡~sìmá óf¡lw7¢‘The dogs chased the jackal and it darted into a hole.’

(4) Pula e ne y-a re gwaa! mme y-a feta9.rain sc9 aux sc9-cons say ideo then sc9-cons stoppúlá I¢nè jàr¡I ówàà m¡ mI¢ jáf¡Ità‘The rain poured down and then stopped.’

Setswana ideophones as uninflected predicative lexemes 77

(5) Ke bonye selo se re nyedi! fale, e a bo e les1s see.pft 7.thing sc7 say ideo there sc9 dsj aux sc9 bek¡Ibó\I¢ sI¢lf¡ sI¢rI¢ \èdí fálè, I¢ábò I¢lI¢eng?what?¡I¢]‘I saw something twinkling there yonder; what would it be?’

(6) O ts-ile a taboga a tla a re kgo! fasc1 come-pft sc1 run sc1.cons come sc1.cons say ideo prep

pele ga mefront 17.gen pro1s~¢tsìlé átàb~¢óá átSà àr¡I qhó fá pI¢l¡I óám¡I‘He came running and came and stopped abruptly in front of me.’

(7) O ts-ile a kgweetsa kgomo e e bosweusc1 come-pft sc1 drive 9.cow 9.attr sc9 14.whiteness~¢tsìlé áqhwèétsá qhòm~¢ é I¢b~¢swèújo bo r-ile-ng twaa!14.attr sc14 say-pft-rel ideo

dŠó b~¢rìlé¢] twàà‘He came driving a cow which was absolutely pure white.’

3. General remarks on the treatment of ideophones in descriptionsof African languages

In descriptions of African languages, one finds mainly two ways of treating ideo-phones: either they are considered as a subclass of the class of adverbs, or they areconsidered as constituting a distinct category on a par with nouns, verbs, adverbsand others.

As already indicated in the introduction, the first solution conforms with thetraditional practice of labeling “adverbs” various kinds of uninflected words, but itis not really a solution to the problem of defining the grammatical status ofideophones, since the label adverb is in fact a default label that says almost nothingabout the grammatical status of the units to which it applies: the only propertiescommon to all adverbs is that they lack inflection and they do not fit easily in anyother category.

The second solution has the advantage of better accounting for the originalityof the category of ideophones. It is adopted by most Bantu grammars following thedescriptive tradition initiated by Doke, although Doke’s position concerning thegrammatical status of ideophones is not entirely clear and seems to have fluctuated(see Kulemeka 1995). In particular, Cole’s reference grammar of Setswana has a

78 Denis Creissels

chapter “The ideophone” distinct both from the chapter “The Adverb” and fromthe chapter “The Interjective”.

The problem is that descriptions inspired by Doke’s tradition (and in particularCole’s description of Setswana) do not state explicitly to what extent the contribu-tion of ideophones to the construction of clauses resembles that of other categoriesor differs from it. After reproducing Doke’s semantic definition of ideophones, theygenerally give only very brief indications about the constructions in which ideo-phones occur and concentrate their attention on the phonological particularities ofideophones (in particular on their syllabic structure).

What complicates the matter is that there are important cross-linguisticvariations in the distribution of ideophones:

– It may happen that the occurrence of ideophones is conditioned by individualverbs, each ideophone combining only with a particular ver (or with a verylimited set of verbs).

– It may happen that all the ideophones combine with a verb meaning ‘be’, ‘do’or ‘say’. In such combinations, the verb in question loses the meaning and thesubcategorization properties it has when it functions by itself as the predicativecenter of a clause, and the meaning as well as the subcategorization propertiesof the combination be / do / say+ideophone are entirely determined by theideophone.

– It may happen that ideophones occur in verbless clauses in which they deter-mine the semantic roles assigned to the noun phrases with which they combine.

In the first case, ideophones are in some respect similar to so-called “cognateobjects” — with, however, the important difference that ideophones, in contrastwith cognate objects, do not have any nominal characteristic. In the second andthird cases, they have more affinities with verbs, since their function of role-assigners in the construction of the clause is identical to that commonly fulfilled byverbal lexemes.

4. The distribution of ideophones in Setswana

In Setswana, the construction illustrated by ex. (8), in which the ideophonecombines with the verb re ‘say’, is much more frequent than the other two men-tioned in the preceding section.

(8) Dikokwana ts-a re phatla! fa di bona segodi10.chicken sc10-cons say ideo when sc10 see 7.hawkdìk~¢kwàná tsár¡I phàtSá fá díbf¡ná s¡Ióódì‘The chickens suddenly scattered when they saw the hawk.’


The construction in which an ideophone combines with a verb other than re — ex.(9a) — and that in which an ideophone fulfills the function of predicative center ofa verbless clause — ex. (10a) — exist too, but they are much rarer, and the reactionsof informants clearly indicate that the constructions illustrated by ex. (9a) & (10a)are marked constructions the use of which has a strong stylistic value: whenever Iproposed such constructions to speakers of Setswana, they either refused to acceptthem or declared that they consider them possible only with a very strong expressivevalue, and that variants with the verb re— ex. (9b) and (10b) — are more “correct”.

(9) a. Ka leuba naga e ne e setlhafetsewith 5.drought 9.veld sc9 aux sc9 become yellow.pftká lI¢ùbà nàóà I¢nè I¢s¡7tSháfétsI¢setlhee!, go se na mafuloideo sc17 neg have 6.pastures7¢tSh¡7¡7 ó~¢sI¢ná máfùlf¡‘As a result of drought the veld became yellow and there was no pasture.’

b. Ka leuba naga e ne e setlhafetsewith 5.drought 9.veld sc9 aux sc9 become yellow.pftká lI¢ùbà nàóà I¢nè I¢s¡7tSháfétsI¢e ntse e re setlhee!, go se na mafulosc9 aux sc9 say ideo sc17 neg have 6.pastureI¢¢ntsI¢ I¢rI¢ s7¢tSh¡7¡7 ó~¢sI¢ná máfùlf¡‘As a result of drought the veld became yellow and there was no pasture.’

(10) a. Mosimane ngwee! le moratiwa1.boy ideo with 1.sweetheartm¡~símànI¢ ]w¡7¡7 lI¢m¡~rátìwá‘The boy absconded with his sweetheart.’

b. Mosimane o ne a re ngwee! le moratiwa1.boy sc1 aux sc1.cons say ideo with 1.sweetheartm¡~símànI¢ ~¢nè árI¢ ]w¡7¡7 lI¢m¡~rátìwá‘The boy absconded with his sweetheart.’

We can therefore conclude that, as far as their syntactic properties are concerned,Setswana ideophones are basically predicative lexemes that constitute the lexicalelement of compound predicates in which the function of auxiliary is fulfilled by theverb re. Section 5 describes the properties of predicates of the type re+ideophone,and in particular the behavior of re fulfilling the function of auxiliary in suchconstructions.

80 Denis Creissels

5. The Setswana verb re ‘say’ and its use as an auxiliaryin combination with ideophones

The Setswana verb re ‘say’ is in many respects unique. Several properties distinguishit from any other Setswana verb, and in particular from two other verbs corre-sponding in certain contexts to English ‘say’ or ‘tell’: bolela ‘say’, ‘tell’, ‘report’ — asin ex. (11) — and bua ‘say’, ‘tell’, ‘speak’ — as in ex. (12), which are morphological-ly regular and have the syntactic behavior of ordinary transitive verbs.

(11) O m-poleletse dilo tse di kgatlha-ngsc1 o1s-tell.appl.pft 8.thing 8.attr sc8 interest-rel~¢m¡ p~¢lélétsI¢ dílf¡ tsé díqhátShà¢]‘He told me interesting things.’

(12) Bua nnetetell 9.truthbúá ¡nnI¢t¡I‘Tell the truth’

Morphologically, the possibilities of variation of re are similar to those characteriz-ing the regular verbs of Setswana, but in these variations, re shows several irregulari-ties:

– in its tonal behavior (re generally has the tonal behavior of a lexically tonelessverb, but in the perfect tense, it may optionally behave like a lexically H-tonedverb or like a lexically toneless verb);

– in its final vowel (in the perfect tense, it has the regular ending -ile, but in theother tenses, it invariably ends with — e [I], whereas regular verbs end with -e[I] in certain tenses only and take an ending -a [$] or -e [7] in other tenses)1;

– in the way its initial consonant alternates (in Setswana, r normally alternateswith the in contexts triggering the alternation known as “consonant strengthen-ing”, but the r of re alternates with t, and this alternation occurs in contexts inwhich the initial consonant of regular verbs is not strengthened).

Syntactically, re combines with a subject noun phrase in the same way as otherSetswana verbs do, but in its relationship with its other arguments, it has propertiesthat distinguish it from any other Setswana verb.

Re is the only Setswana verb that can be directly followed by a complementclause showing the same form as an independent declarative or hortative sentence— ex. (13); the other verbs of saying, thinking, etc. require the use of a complemen-tizer which is in fact the infinitive or a participial form of the verb re — ex. (14).


(13) a. Ba tlaa tla kamososc2 fut come tomorrowbátSáátSà kám¡~sf‘They will come tomorrow.’

b. Ba r-ile [ba tlaa tla kamoso]sc2 say-pft [sc2 fut come tomorrowbárìlé [bátSáátSà kám¡~sf‘They said they would come tomorrow.’

(14) a. O ya ko Kanyesc1 go prep Kanye~¢jà kó kà\7¢‘He is going to Kanye.’

b. O re boleletse [gore [o ya ko Kanye]]sc1 o1p tell.appl.pft [that [sc1 go prep Kanye~¢r¡Ib~¢lélétsI¢ ó~¢r¡I ~¢jà kó kà\7¢‘He told us that he was going to Kanye.’(the complementizer gore ‘that’ is morphologically the infinitive of re ‘say’)

Re cannot take a noun phrase as its complement: apart from clauses and ideo-phones, its only possible complements are eng? ‘what?’, jaana ‘like this’ or jalo ‘likethat’.

In addition to that, re is monosemous only when followed by a clausal comple-ment; when followed by eng? ‘what?’, jaana ‘like this’ or jalo ‘like that’, dependingon the context, its subject may represent not only a person saying something, butalso a person to whom something happens — ex. (15).

(15) Ba r-ile eng?sc2 say-pft what?bárìlé ¡I¢]‘What did they say?’, or ‘What happened to them?’ (depending on the context)

Re presents also the following anomaly: it is employed in the -a consecutive2 withthe meaning normally carried by the present — ex. (16).

(16) Ngaka y-a re eng?9.doctor sc9-cons say what?]àkà jàr¡I ¡I¢]‘What is the doctor saying?’

(ya re is the a-consecutive of re with a SM of cl 9, i.e. a form which would nor-mally be expected to mean ‘and then (s)hec9 said’, and not ‘(s)hec9 is saying’)

Another particularity that distinguishes re from any other Setswana verb is that theonly extension with which it can combine is the passive extension. Note in parti-cular that neither the applicative extension nor the causative extension can be addedto re, which in other words means that in Setswana, ‘tell somebody that …’ or

82 Denis Creissels

‘make somebody say that …’ cannot be expressed by means of a derived form of re.In addition to the function of predicative center of clauses, re has three different

types of grammaticalized uses:

– as already mentioned, in the infinitive or in the participial form of the present,re functions as a complementizer — see ex. (14b) above;

– in the construction illustrated by ex. (17), re can be analyzed as an auxiliaryemphasizing the idea of happening;3

(17) E r-ile ba bangwe ba ya ko masimo-ngsc9 say-pft 2.attr 2.other sc2 go prep 6.field-loc¡Irílè bá bà]wI¢ bájá kwá màsím~¢]ene a sala mo gae1pro sc1.cons remain prep home¡7n7¢ àsálà mó óá¡I‘It happened that when the others went to the field, she remained at home.’

–re functions as a predication auxiliary in combination with uninflected predicativelexemes, i.e. with ideophones.

The combination of re with an ideophone constitutes a kind of compoundequivalent in almost every respect to a verb form, the grammatical elements of averb form (subject marker, object marker, TAM markers) being all attached to re,whereas the lexical meaning and the argument structure of such a compound areentirely determined by the ideophone. In its combination with ideophones, re losesthe predicative properties it has when it functions as the predicative center of aclause: the selection of the subject and of the complements and the semantic rolesassigned to them entirely depend on the ideophone. In particular, re constitutingthe predicative center of a clause never takes an object marker, since it cannot havea nominal complement, whereas re combined with an ideophone may take anobject marker representing a noun phrase that semantically belongs to the argu-ment structure of the ideophone, as illustrated by ex. (18) and (19).

(18) O ne a tsaya mmidi a o re goro! fa fatshesc1 aux sc1.cons take 3.maize sc1.cons oc3 say ideo prep ground~¢nè àtsájá m¡ mídí à~¢rI¢ ó¡~r¡~ fá fàtshI¢‘He then took the maize and poured it out on the ground.’(the object marker prefixed to re represents the term A of the scheme A re goro(‘A pours out’)

(19) Notshe y-a mo re po! mo tsebe-ng9.bee sc9-cons oc1 say ideo prep 9.ear-locnótshI¢ jám¡~r¡I pó mó tsèbé]‘The bee stung him on the ear.’(the object marker prefixed to re represents the term B of the scheme A re B po(‘A stings B’)


In such constructions, objects (i.e. noun phrases that can be represented by anobject marker inserted between the subject marker and the stem re) always appearbetween re and the ideophone, whereas noun phrases in adjunct function andadverbs generally follow the ideophone, as in ex. (20).

(20) Monna a re nkwe ruthu! mo tsebe-ng ka1.man sc1.cons say 9.leopard ideo prep 9.ear-loc withm¡~¢nná ár¡I ]kw¡7 rùthù mó tsèbé] kámolamu3.clubm~¢làmú‘The man hit the leopard ‘thud’ on the ear with a club.’

Conclusion

The syntactic properties of Setswana ideophones can therefore be summarized bycharacterizing them as uninflected predicative lexemes that normally occur as thelexical part of compound predicates in which re ‘say’ fulfills the auxiliary function.In other words, Setswana has two types of lexemes specialized in the function ofpredicative center of clauses: inflected predicative lexemes, or verbs, which directlycombine with the grammatical morphemes that accompany the main predicate ofSetswana clauses (subject markers, object markers and TAM markers), anduninflected predicative lexemes, or ideophones, which fulfill the main predicatefunction in combination with an auxiliary to which the grammatical morphemescharacteristic of main predicates are attached.

(21) proposes a schematic representation of the two types of clause structurefound in Setswana, depending on the choice of a verb or of an ideophone as themain predicate.4

(21) a. N(S) s-o-verbtam

N(O) N(X)b. N(S) s-o-re

tamN(O) ideo N(X)

An important contrast between these two types of clauses is that, with very fewexceptions, Setswana verb forms occurring in intransitive constructions in whichthe subject refers to an entity undergoing some process are necessarily differentfrom forms derived from the same root occurring in transitive constructions inwhich the subject refers to an agent making the object undergo the process inquestion. For example, in ex. (22a), the verb includes the intransitive reversiveextension -og-, whereas in ex. (22b), the verb includes the transitive reversiveextension -ol-. By contrast, ideophones are entirely devoid of voice-marking, butmany ideophones can occur both in intransitive constructions in which the subjectrefers to an entity undergoing some process — ex. (23a) — and in transitive

84 Denis Creissels

constructions in which the subject refers to an agent making the object undergo theprocess in question — ex. (23b).

(22) a. Bojalwa jw-a tshologela fa fatshe14.beer sc14-cons pour prep groundb¡~dŠàlwá dŠwátsh¡~l¡~ó¡7là fá fàtshI¢‘The beer poured out on the ground.’

b. Monna a tshololela bojalwa fa fatshe1.man sc1.cons pour 14.beer prep groundm¡~¢nná átsh¡~l¡~l¡7là b¡~dŠàlwá fá fàtshI¢‘The man poured out the beer on the ground.’

(23) a. Bojalwa jw-a re goro! fa fatshe14.beer sc14-cons say ideo prep groundb¡~dŠàlwá dŠwár¡I ó¡~r¡~ fá fàtshI¢‘The beer poured out on the ground.’

b. Monna a re bojalwa goro! fa fatshe1.man sc1.cons say 14.beer ideo prep groundm¡~¢nná ár¡I b¡~dŠàlwá ó¡~r¡~ fá fàtshI¢‘The man poured out the beer on the ground.’

From a typological point of view, it is interesting to observe that Setswana clauseswith an ideophone in the function of main predicate may be viewed as illustratinga type of clause structure in which the grammatical part of the predicate can beseparated from the predicative lexeme by a noun phrase in object function. Thistype, rather different from the type illustrated by the verbal clauses of most Bantulanguages, is very common in other groups of African languages, especially inMande. The Setswana data shows that it may exist as a more or less marginal typein a language which is otherwise a typical SVO language. From a historical point ofview, this suggests that clauses with an ideophone in the function of main predicatecombined with an auxiliary may contribute to the development of historicalprocesses leading to a shift from SVOX to SOVX.

Abbreviations

List of conventions and abbreviations in the glosses of the Setswana examples:– a number not followed by s or p indicates a noun class; in order to facilitate the under-standing of the syntactic structure of the examples, every noun is preceded by a numberindicating its class, even if no overt prefix is present;appl = applicative;attr = attributive linker;aux = auxiliary;cons = consecutive;dsj = disjunctive;

fut = future;gen = genitive;ideo = ideophoneloc = locative;neg = negation;


ocx = object marker of class X (X anumber between 1 and 17);

o1s = object marker of 1st personsingular;

o2s = object marker of 2nd personsingular;

o1p = object marker of 1st personplural;

o2p = object marker of 2nd personplural;

pft = perfect;

pro = pronoun;prep = preposition;rel = morpheme characteristic of relative

verb forms;scx = subject marker of class X (X a number

between 1 and 17);s1s = subject marker of 1st person singular;s2s = subject marker of 2nd person singular;s1p = subject marker of 1st person plural;s2p = subject marker of 2nd person plural.

Notes

1. Itse ‘know’ and lere ‘bring’ show the same irregularity.

2. The a-consecutive is a tense typically used in sequences of clauses referring to sequences of pastevents or to sequences of conditional events.

3. This construction is analyzed in Creissels 1997.

4. n(s) = noun phrase in subject function, n(o) = noun phrase in object function, n(x) = nounphrase in adjunct function, ideo = ideophone, s = subject marker, o = object marker, tam =inflected in tense-aspect-modality.

References

Cole, D.T. 1955. An Introduction to Tswana grammar. London: Longmans.Creissels, D. 1996. “Disjunctive and conjunctive verb forms in Setswana”. South African Journal of

African Languages 16.4:109–115.Creissels, D. 1997. “The auxiliarization of re ‘say’ in Setswana”. Paper presented at the annual

meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society.Doke, C.M. 1935. Bantu Linguistic Terminology. London: Longman, Green and Co.Doke, C.M. 1954. The Southern Bantu Languages. London: OUP.Doke, C.M. 1982. Outline Grammar of Bantu. Grahamstown: Department of African languages,

Rhodes University.Kulemeka, A.T. 1993. The Status of the ideophone in Chichewa. PhD, thesis, Bloomington: Indiana

University.Kulemeka, A.T. 1995. “Sound symbolic and grammatical frameworks: A typology of ideophones

in Asian and African languages”. South African Journal of African Languages 15(2):73–84.Kulemeka, A.T. 1996. “Determining the grammatical category of Chichewa ideophones”.

Linguistic Analysis 26: 84–116.Marivate, C.T.D. 1985. “The ideophone as a syntactic category in the southern Bantu languages”.

Studies in African Linguistics, Supplement 9:210–214.

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Phonosemantic correspondences

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AUTHOR "Francis O. Egbokhare"

TITLE "Phonosemantic correspondences in Emai attributive ideophones"


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in Emai attributive ideophones*

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Francis O. EgbokhareUniversity of Ibadan

1. Introduction

The relationship between sound and meaning is believed to be conventional notnatural. In ideophones as in other sound symbolic categories however, a morenatural connection occurs (Hinton et. al. 1994; Childs 1988). It has been suggestedthat this connection has its basis in human neurology and cognition (Ohala 1994).In this study we attempt to demonstrate a natural connection between the sound-meaning correspondences in Emai ideophones.1 We argue that at a higher level, thisconnection reflects the way Emai speakers evaluate the physical world as beingmade up of geometric shapes with varying densities. Whereas consonants capturegeometric propensities and material properties of entities, vowels capture theirdensities and molecular properties.

2. Formal properties of Emai Ideophones2

Ideophones in Emai maintain the basic syllable composition for the language. Theyadmit no close syllables and consonant clusters. They however show certain formalcharacteristics outlined below.

2.1 Phonological properties

a. Ideophones have a rigid tonal structure. Over 99% of them have an all-hightone pattern. The remaining 1% display a LH pattern. No other lexical class inEmai permits an all-high tonal pattern.

b. Ideophones in Emai have a consonant-initial, minimal disyllabic and maximalquadrisyllabic structure. In this way they behave like Yoruba ideophones(Awoyale 1997).3

88 Francis O. Egbokhare

c. Segment co-occurrence in ideophones is highly restricted: A voiced consonantand its voiceless pair may not co-occur in an ideophone. It is possible to findconsonants with opposing phonations as long as they do not share the sameplace and manner of articulation.

d. Oral consonants and their nasal pairs may not co-occur.e. Fricatives do not co-occur within an ideophone irrespective of their places of

articulation. But they occur freely with approximants and stops.f. The only exceptions to (e) above are the velar [ó] and [>ë] which are however

restricted structurally to the second consonant position.4

g. Approximants may co-occur. But if we draw a distinction between liquid andnon-liquid approximants, we obtain an interesting restriction. Liquids may co-occur only with non-liquids.

h. Stops co-occur; but the bilabial position is mutually exclusive with the labial-velar and velar positions.

i. Vowel identity is characteristic of Emai ideophones. But a few forms occur withnon-identical vowels. One of the diverse vowels must however be a close one(i.e. either [i] or [u]).

It is important to mention that the co-occurrence restrictions above are a functionof the semantic properties of the segments. Segments with opposing meanings maynot co-occur in a stem.

2.2 Morphological properties

Reduplication and final vowel repetition or lengthening are characteristic. Withrespect to reduplication one may identify three classes:

i. Some ideophones occur only in their reduplicated or triplicated forms. Redu-plication is obligatory

(1) a. rírírí(color) ‘red’

b. títítí(time) ‘prolonged’

c. kútúkútú(water) ‘boiling’

d. wózíwózí(body) ‘obese’

The number of reduplication is a function of the length of the root. Monosyllabicroots triplicate, disyllabic ones duplicate. Trisyllabic and longer roots do notreduplicate.

Phonosemantic correspondences in Emai attributive ideophones 89

(ii) Some ideophones exhibit optional total reduplication. Non-reduplicatedalternants end up with final vowel lengthening or repetition, which is lackingin their reduplicated counterparts.

(2) a. híí / híhíhí(silence) ‘eerie’

b. yúú / yúyúyú(flow) ‘gushing’

c. lógóó / lógólógó(height) ‘lanky’

(iii) Some ideophones allow only partial reduplication as an optional process. Initialsyllables are favored.

(3) a. tókó / tótókó(sb.) ‘mushy’

b. yéghé / yéyéghé(phy.) ‘undersized’

c. kpúnyé / kpúnyényé(s.) ‘diminutive’

3. Meanings in ideophones

To arrive at the meanings deployed in Emai ideophones we have paid specialattention to minimal and near minimal pairs. Approximate glosses are provided foreach example and these glosses are reinterpreted in terms of their compositemeaning units. By methods of recurrent partials, sound segments are matched withspecific meanings. Examples in (4) below show consonants in interchangedstructural positions. There is a significant shift in meaning occasioned by this.

(4) a. shékpé(pers.) ‘stunted’

b. kpéshé(sth.) ‘stubby’

c. gányá(pos.) ‘gaunt’

d. nyágán(pos.) ‘haggard’

e. géné(phy.) ‘curved’

f. négén(phy.) ‘wiry’

g. kótó(sb.) ‘mushy’


h. tókó(sb.) ‘blobby’

i. kédé(s.) ‘small-sized’

j. dédé(s.) ‘proportional’

k. góló(h.) ‘gangling’

l. lógólógó(h.) ‘lanky’

Minimal pairs and sets give us a better appreciation of meanings deployed inideophones. Pairs and sets illustrating consonant and vowel meanings are presentedbelow:

(5) a. kpúkú(sh.) ‘pointed/protruding’; small, compact and round, short.

b. kpútú(s.) ‘stumpy’; small, compact and round, disproportional.

c. kpúshú(sth.) ‘stubby’; small, compact and round, rough.

d. kpódó(sh.) ‘round’; small, circular and supple, proportional.

e. dúkú(sh.) ‘horny’; proportional, compact and round, short.

f. gbúkú(sh.) ‘bulging’; big, compact and round, short.

g. dúgbú(sh.) ‘pod-like/rotund’; big, compact and round, short.

h. féghé(tch.) ‘very fine’; fine, thin thread, delicate

i. héghé(w.) ‘very light’; light, flat, delicate.

j. yéghé(phy.) ‘undersized’; haggard frame, thin, fragile.

k. kpíríkpírí(sens.) ‘prickly’; small, compact, interspersed.

l. kpízíkpízí(sens.) ‘creasy’; small, compact, undulating.

m. fúyéfúyé(tch.) ‘fluffy’; fine, dense fibers, tickling.

n. fúléfúlé(tch.) ‘wooly’; fine, dense, even long and thin fibers.


(6) a. gbíkí(phy.) ‘stocky’; big, compact, short.

b. gbúkú(sh.) ‘bulging’; big, compact and round, short

c. gbókó(sh.) ‘oval’; big, circular and hollow, short.

d. gbáká(sh.) ‘bogus’; big, very flat, short.

e. kpókó(sh.) ‘swollen’; small, circular and supple, short.

f. kpéké(st.) ‘petit’; small, thin, short.

g. kpúkú(sh.) ‘pointed/protruding’; small, compact and round, short.

h. kpéké(belly) ‘filled-up’; small, tight, not distended.

i. tíkí(sb.) ‘highly viscous’; abnormal, thick, not mouldy.

j. tókó(sb.) ‘mushy’; abnormal, circular and supple, not mouldy.

k. téké(st.) ‘runty’; disproportional, thin, short.

l. táká(sh.) ‘irregular’; disproportional, flat, short.

m. kpúdú(sh.) ‘pellet-like’; small, compact and round, proportional.

n. kpódó(sh.) ‘round’; small, circular and supple, proportional.

o. kpédé(sth.) ‘proportionate’; small-sized, firm, proportional.

p. bóbóghó(sh.) ‘oblong’; broad, hollow and firm, delicate.

q. bébéghé(sh.) ‘oblong’; broad, flat, delicate.

r. bábághá(sh.) ‘oblong’; broad, very flat, delicate.

s. gébé(phy.) ‘husky’; tall, firm-muscular, broad.

t. góbó(phy.) ‘beefy’; tall, fat, broad.

u. gúbú(sh.) ‘bulbous’; long, compact and circular, broad.

v. lúbú(sh.) ‘lumpy’; straight/even, compact and round, broad.


w. lébé(sh.) ‘lumpy’; straight/even, firm, broad.

x. lábá(sh.) ‘lumpy’; straight/even, very flat, broad.

In the examples in (7) below, we present oral consonants and their nasal pairs. Emaihas the following oro-nasal pairs. The nasal ones are allophones of their oralcounterparts (l/n, vb/m, y/ny, w/nw).

(7) a. lógólógó(phy.) ‘lanky’; erect-posture, fairly muscular, tall.

b. négénégén(phy.) ‘wiry’; curved, thin, tall.

c. góló(h.) ‘gangling’; tall, fairly muscular, bent over.

d. géné(phy.) ‘curved’; tall, thin, bent over.

e. yáyáyá(water) ‘seething’; bubbling, diffuse.

f. nyányányá(light) ‘chromatic’; too bright, diffuse.

g. vbióghó(sth.) ‘smooth’; smooth, circular and supple, delicate.

h. mioghón(sth.) ‘slippery’; shiny, circular and supple, delicate.

In Tables (1) and (2) below, we present summaries of vowel and consonantmeanings.Additional data has been used to arrive at these meanings, which we cannot includehere for lack of space.

Table 1.�Vowel meanings

Vowels Meanings Illustrating examples

iu

compact, dense.compact and round

6a, i.6b, g, m.

eo

tight, firmcircular and hollow, fairly muscular

6h, o, s, w.6c, p.

eo

thin, flatcircular and supple, fat

6f, k, q.6j, n, t

a very flat, diffuse 6d, r, x.


4. A phonetic basis for consonant and vowel meanings

Table 2.�Consonant meanings

Consonant Meanings Meaning class Illustrating examples

Stops pb

narrowbroad

Width 6p–x

td

disproportional,proportional

Measure 5b, 6i–l5d, f; 6m–o

kg

short, low.long, high.

Length 5e, g; 6i–l6s–u

kpgb

smallbig

Size 5a–d; 6m–o5f, g; 6a–d

Fricatives f(v)5

fine Tactile 5h, m, n

(s)z creasy

Tactile 5l

Ú(z)

scruffy, rough. Tactile 5c

(x)ë fragile, delicate

Tactile 5h–ji 6p–r

Approximants υ fused, clumped. Material cohesion 7q

y particulete, strung-up

“ 5j, 7e

w loose, chunky “

h light “ 5i

l straight, erect. “ 6v–x

r

Oro-nasal Nasality abnormal, crooked pejorative 7b, f, h

Consonants capture the physical and material properties of entities. They areorganized on the basis of their manners of articulation into three broad classes;stops, fricatives and approximants. Each of these defines a scale of meanings withplaces of articulation defining points along this scale. Phonation defines degrees of


the same basic meaning feature. In table (3) below we attempt to establish natural-ness in the phonosemantic correspondences already established in table (1) forconsonants. In the table, we present the sound class and the definitive phoneticproperty connection.

Vowel meanings are best understood within a conceptual framework incorporating

Table 3.�Phono-semantic naturalness

Sound class Phonetic property Natural meaning correlate

Stopbilabialalveolarvelarlabial-velar

Vocal tract shapebroad vocal tract shapevocal tract halvinghigh tongue positionhigh tongue position+broad vocal tract shape

dimensionalitywidthmeasurelength/heightsize

Fricativeslabio-dentalvelaralveolarpalato alveolar

airflow+frictionlow friction noisedispersed friction/extremely low frictionhigh friction noise in upper frequencieshigh friction noise distributed throughout thespectrum

tactile sensationfineness, smoothnessdelicatenesscreasinessroughness

Approximantslabio-dental

palatallabial-velar

glottallateralr-sound

Frictionless airflowcompressed airflow (over surface of groovedtongue)dispersed air (over humped front of tongue)uncompressed airflow (in rounded moutharea)absolute free flow, breathinessextended tongue and lateral airflowintermittent interruption

Material cohesioncohesiveness

particulate, strung uplooseness, chunkiness

etherealness, lightnessstraight, erectintermittence, discontinu-ity

Phonation voicevoiceless

intensifierdown-toner

NasalOral

nasal air by-passoral airflow

pejorativenormative

the notion compactness. Vowels represent the density or molecular properties ofentities. Density is itself a function of the compactness of molecules. Compactnessforms a scale. Entities may be compact along two axes. Along a vertical axis and ahorizontal axis as the figure in (1) below indicates. Emai exploits compactnesscreatively by relating it to vowel height or size of orifice and lip posture. Different


tongue heights are correlated to different degrees of compactness.

close

(compact)

half-close

(tight, firm)

half open (fairly

diffuse, supple)

open

(diffuse)

compact non-compact

compact

diffuse

unrounded rounded

i u

o

f

e

7

a

Figure 1.�Compactness scale for vowels

Decreasing vowel height is correlated with a decrease in compactness, along ascale from compact, tight, supple to diffuse. There is an evident correlation betweenvowel height and size of orifice to the property characterized by compactness. Thesmaller the orifice the greater is the compactness. Emai ideophones also exploitrounding in vowels to indicate circularity, fatness and roundedness. This is anapplication of compactness on a horizontal axis. Unrounded vowels capture flatnessor thinness. This is evidently a natural pairing of a phonetic feature with a semanticone. It is well known that lip rounding gets tighter as one moves up the height scale.There is therefore a corresponding progression in the related meaning. Thus [u] isalways round, [o] is circular and hollow, [f] is swollen, moldy, fat or circular andsupple.

Abbreviations

h. = height; pers. = person; phy. = physique; pos. = posture; s. = size; sb. = substance;sh.=shape; st.=stature; sth.=something; tch.=touch; w.=weight.

Notes

* This research was initiated during my stay at the University of Hamburg as a fellow of Alexander

DEST "egb-n*">

von Humboldt-Stiftung. Preliminary findings were presented at various talks at the University of


Hamburg and University of Ibadan. I am grateful to Joe McIntyre and Ludwig Gerhardt and mycolleagues at Ibadan for their inputs. I am also grateful to the von Humboldt-Stiftung for givingme a fellowship opportunity.

1. Emai is a member of the ‘Ora-Emai-Iuleha’ dialect cluster of the North Central Branch ofEdoid. Edoid is a New Benue Congo of Niger-Congo language.

2. Polysyllabicity, tonal patterning, reduplication, vowel repetition or lengthening are characteris-tic of ideophones (Awoyale 1983:2). ideophones are sometimes phonologically anomalous interms of their sounds, sound structure, tonal structure and phonological behavior (Welmers1973).

3. Awoyale ascribes the Yoruba situation to the “bimoraic foot constraint.”

4. The following letters have the phonetic correlates listed against them: e [7], o [f], gh [>], kh [x],v[‚], ny [ñ], nw []w], sh [w]. Nasality in vowels is signified by an ‘n’ after the letter for the sound.After nasal consonants, nasality is not marked in vowels in the spelling used in this work.

5. The forms in parenthesis are unsolicited in attributive ideophones. Phonation is not semanti-cally significant in the fricative class. It is however possible to substitute them. When this is done,meanings consistent with its use in the stop class are recorded.

References

Awoyale, Y. 1997. “The phonological structure of Yoruba ideophones”. Paper Presented at theSecond World Congress on African Linguistics, Leipzig, Germany.

Awoyale, Y. 1983. “On the semantic fields of Yoruba ideophones”. Journal of Linguistics Associa-tion of Nigeria 1: 11–22.

Childs, G.T. 1988. “The phonology of Kisi ideophones”. Journal of African Languages andLinguistics 10:165–190.

Diffloth, G. 1984. “I: Big, a: Small.” In L. Hinton et al. (eds), Sound Symbolism, 107–114.Cambridge: CUP.

Egbokhare, F.O. 1990. A Phonology of Emai. PhD. thesis, Ibadan: University of Ibadan.Galadanci, K. 1971. “Ideophones in Hausa”. Harsunan Nijeriya 1:12–26.Maduka, O.N. 1986. “Strategies for conveying pejoration in ideophones”. Paper read at 8th

Annual Conference of the Linguistics Association of Nigeria, Port-Harcourt.Maduka, O.N. 1988. “Size and shape ideophones in Nembe: A phonosemantic analysis”. Studies

in African Linguistics 19:93–113.Maduka, O.N. 1991. “Phonosemantic rules and hierarchies: Evidence from roundness ideophones

in Hausa.” Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 26:167–175.Marchand, H. 1959. “Phonetic symbolism in English word-formation”. Indogermanische

Forschungen 64:146–168.Markell, N. and E.P. Hamp.1960–61. “Connotative meanings of certain phoneme sequences”.

Studies in Linguistics 15:47–61.Ohala, J. 1984. “The frequency code underlies the sound-symbolic use of voice pitch”. In Leanne

Hinton et al. (eds), Sound Symbolism, 325–347. Cambridge: CUP.Sapir, E. 1929. “A Study in phonetic symbolism”. Journal of Experimental Psychology 12:225–239.Schaefer, R.P.1984. “Toward an understanding of some ideophones of color in Emai”. Journal of

West Arican Languages 14(2):125–134.

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Defining ideophones in Mundang

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AUTHOR "Stefan Elders"

TITLE "Defining ideophones in Mundang"


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Stefan EldersUniversiteit Leiden

1. Introduction

What makes a word an ideophone in Mundang? There are descriptive and intensivewords whose phonotactic structure is often different from an average word. I callthem ideophones because they correspond to established ideophones in otherAfrican languages. When studying an almost undescribed African language, one hasa certain expectation what would be an ideophone from what is known from otherAfrican languages. Though this expectation may prove to be right, what is anideophone in Mundang has to be stated in the first place in language-internal terms.Only then one can proceed to the issue how ideophones in Mundang compare toideophones in other African languages. I will restrict myself to a formal definitionof ideophones. This paper brings together ideophonic adverbs, ideophonic verbsand ideophonic nouns.

Other aspects of ideophones are discussed in the chapter on adverbs andideophones of my Mundang grammar (Elders 2000): lexical semantics of ideo-phonic adverbs; phonesthetic associations; phonological features of ideophonicadverbs in discourse; syntax of ideophones. Tonal behavior of ideophonic adverbsin the sentence is discussed in the chapter on tone.1

2. Ideophonic adverbs

Most ideophonic words are adverbs. Ideophonic adverbs constitute an open wordclass with certain phonological characteristics. These phonological characteristicsare prototypical: a member of this category may represent all the characteristics ofthis category, while others only bear some of the characteristics (cf. Newman 1968;Childs 1988; Childs 1995).

98 Stefan Elders

2.1 Non-canonical phonological characteristics

Here follow non-canonical phonological characteristics of ideophonic adverbs thatdistinguish them from non-ideophonic words.

a.�different morpheme structuresb.�different tone patternsc.�reduplicationd.�different distribution of consonants and vowels; different consonant and vowelqualities

2.1.1 Non-canonical morpheme structuresNon-reduplicated ideophonic adverbs attest some morpheme structures that arenot found in other word classes.

(1) CLVC vr¢6m ‘extinguish a fire’cláp ‘fall into the water to the bottom’

NCLVV mbr¾a¾a ‘with a shameless look’CVCCVC gurzuk ‘die unexpectedly’CVVCVCVV háát¢6ww½ı¾e ‘sound of sneezing, sneeze (noun)’

2.1.2 Tone patternsMundang is a three-tone language with three level tones High, Mid and Low. Theselevel tones can be combined into contour tones. Though the three tones aredistinctive, Mid is subject to restrictions in the various word classes. Ideophonicadverbs only attest High and Low as lexical tones. Tone patterns are often eitherHigh throughout or Low throughout, and this tendency distinguishes them fromother word classes. Tone patterns often have a clear sound-symbolic value.

(2) s¢6l¢6m ‘sound of small stone falling’s6l6m ‘sound of big stone falling’t¢6p77 ‘walk without making noise’cwà cwà ‘walk while making noise’

2.1.3 Reduplicationideophonic adverbs as a word class are characterized by reduplication. Reduplica-tion in other word classes is either non-productive (nouns) or non-existent (verbs).Reduplication can be either partial or total. Non-reduplicated ideophonic adverbscan occur with reduplication in discourse, while others occur with reduplicationonly. Reduplicated ideophonic adverbs also show the tendency towards isotonictone patterns. Further, there are reduplicated ideophonic adverbs repeating adifferent tone pattern, like High–Low.

Defining ideophones in Mundang 99

(3) a. Partial reduplicationsuusààk ‘drive a bicycle slowly’t7y7y ‘open-mouthed in surprise’bàbíyò ‘shake the body to dry oneself

(done by children after bathing)’g7r½7r½7 ‘walk in a crooked way’c¢6kumkum ‘describes the walk of an elephant’

b. Total reduplication:]]] ‘sound of bee, humming’‘y½a ‘y½a ‘walk without making noise’c¾a¾a ‘drive a bicycle rapidly’híh¾f¾f híh¾f¾f ‘sound of a donkey, braying’l¢6káy l6kày ‘walk unsteadily’tukf½7k tukf½7k ‘sound of a guinea-fowl’

c. Triplication:pláp pláp pláp ‘sound of sandals’

2.2 Different (distribution of) consonants and vowels in ideophones

Some consonants are typical of ideophones: the labio-dental flap vb only occurs inideophonic words (4a) and the fricative v is restricted to ideophones and loanwords(4b). These sounds signal also some nouns and verbs as ideophonic words, as willbe shown below.

(4) a. k6vb6m ‘describes walking of elephant; introduces a folktale (Chad-ian dialect)’;

k6nd6m (same meaning; northern dialect in Cameroon)pávbám ‘enormous’

b. v¾a¾at ‘walk vigorously, quickly’vík ‘sound of broom being waved in the air’vr¢6m ‘extinguish a fire completely’vr6s ‘describes emission of light’

Ideophonic adverbs admit more consonant qualities in word-final position thannon-ideophonic words (5). Apart from loanwords, ideophonic adverbs are the onlywords that allow the obstruents p b f s word-finally.

(5) p káp káp ‘sound made by clapping hands’t. f½7½7t ‘all’k. gruzuk ‘die unexpectedly’b. gub ‘breath with difficulty’' g6l6' ‘fall with great noise’1 1wà1 ‘fall of water drops (from cloth or container)’f páf ‘bursting sound’

100 Stefan Elders

s us ‘sound of breaking wind’m p¢6l¢6m ‘sound of small stone falling’] d¢6bá] d6bà] ‘walk unsteadily’l k¢61ál ‘of same level (height, physical force)’r 'àr ‘cleaving of wood’

Some ideophonic adverbs with a CVC or CV.CVC structure have identical initialand final consonants (6).

(6) b6b ‘get up with a jump’p6p p6p ‘sound of big object bursting (rifle or bigger arms)’tát tát ‘corpulent’[k¢6ník ‘ground very fine (flour)’

Ideophonic adverbs attest two nasalized vowels 77 et ff that do not occur in non-ideophonic words (7).

(7) f½7½7t ‘all’‘m½7½7 ‘sound of goat or sheep, bleating’c½f½f ‘fill a container to the brim’híh¾f¾f ‘sound of donkey, braying’

Ideophonic adverbs sometimes show an exceptional vowel distribution: longnasalized vowel in a closed syllable or a short nasalized vowel in an open syllable(8a). Nasalized vowels are normally either long vowels, diphthongs or short vowelsin a closed syllable. Compared to other word classes, diphthongues of high vow-el+mid vowel are rare; only ıe is attested (8b).

(8) a. f½7½7t ‘all’v¾a¾at v¾a¾at ‘walk vigorously, rapidly’k½a½ak k½a½ak ‘sound of bicycle’‘y½a‘ y½a ‘walk without making noise’

b. c½ı½7gòr½ı½7 ‘sound of hornbill’háát6w½ı¾e ‘sound of sneezing, sneeze (noun)’

Some ideophones neutralize phonological distinctions (cf. Childs 1995): they showa free variation between i and I. In the case of vik, the ideophonic adverb has adifferent quality than the verb from which it is derived (9a). An alternation betweenvelar nasal and vowel nasalization is also attested (9b); non-ideophonic words onlyattest an alternation between high vowel+velar nasal and a long nasalized vowel.

(9) a. cík, cík ‘filled to the brim’c½ı c½ı , cí cí ‘at the same moment’vík, vík vík ‘sound of broom being waved in the air’; from vIk

shake, balance in the air’b. ‘yá] ‘yá], ‘y½a ‘y½a ‘walk without making noise‘


2.3 Ideophones following canonical patterns

In another respect, vowels in ideophonic adverbs behave like vowels in non-ideophonic words: the vowel in an initial CV syllable of polysyllabic word is oftenshwa, which suggests vowel reduction (10).

(10) CVCVV s6fyàà ‘not homogeneous (of food)’CVCVC k¢61ál ‘of same height or physical force’CVNCVC t6ndí] ‘grow enormously’

Ideophonic adverbs show a certain tendency towards vowel harmony (11a). Someschemes are not attested; it is not clear whether these gaps are accidental orsystematic. Vowel schemes in which the vowels in subsequent syllables are differenttend to have either shwa or a as first vowel (11b). Shwa probably results from thereduction of another vowel.

(11) a. 7 – 7 t7y7y ‘open-mouthed in surprise’7 – 7 – 7 – 7 – 7 k½7k¾7r½7k¾7¾7 ‘sound of rooster, cock-a-doodledoo’6 –6 s616m ‘rhythm of walking slowly’a–a hárá] ‘in good health, content’u–u gurzuk ‘die unexpectedly’I –a njílák ‘clear’6 –wa s6rwàl ‘in a lying position’" –i gwárí ‘quick, near’u– I wulík ‘shine intensively’u–a suusàk ‘drive a bicycle slowly’

There are ideophonic adverbs whose morpheme structure could be that one of aregular noun or verb, but they differ from these regular words by the tone patternsthey allow (12).

(12) cík ‘filled to the brim’g¢6l¢6r ‘sound of a hide being beaten’g6rí] ‘amazed’

Then there are ideophonic adverbs that are not distinct in their sound shape fromany other non-ideophonic word (13). However, they show the same syntacticbehavior as the adverbs with a non-canonical phonotactics and they can also occurreduplicated. Their lexical meaning also makes them resemble the more outspokenideophonic adverbs.

(13) ]gI] ‘without moving, without effort’by¾a¾a ‘excessively, what is found everywhere’b6l6m ‘sound of a drum, sound made by feet on water while a person is

swimming’fàtI ‘not at all’

102 Stefan Elders

2.4 Deverbal adverbs: Ideophones or regular adverbs?

Some deverbal adverbs clearly have ideophonic traits, as in (14). The informantdoes not necessarily consider all verbs from which the deverbal adverbs are derivedto be ideophonic. The deverbal adverbs can be reduplicated and some of them onlyoccur in a reduplicated form. It is not clear if the tone of the deverbal adverb can bepredicted from the tone class of the verb: verbs of the tone class Low have deverbaladverbs with Low as well as with High. The tone pattern is maybe conditioned bya phonesthetic association between the tone pattern and the meaning of thedeverbal adverb.

(14) 1I] 1I] ‘walking with a heavy load’; from the verb 1I ~ ‘bend’k7m, k7m k7m ‘in a begging way’; from the verb k7m ‘beg’twàs twàs ‘throwing sand’; from the verb twàs throwing sand (ideo-

phonic verb)’vík, vík vík ‘sound of broom being waved in the air’; from vìk ‘shake,

balance in the air’

A deverbal adverb can function as a cognate adverb with respect to the verb fromwhich it has been derived (15a). This term is based on the term cognate adverbialfrom Andersen (1986), a description of verbal flexion in Moru (Central Sudanic).The cognate adverb in this language is however a flectional element indicatingfocus; Andersen (1986) does not observe a possible ideophonic value. The syntacticfunctionof the cognate adverb inMundang is not obligatory for deverbal ideophones:it can also occur with another verb than the one it has been derived from (15b).

(15) a. Deverbal adverb as cognate adverb to verb:m7 k7m-ko k7ms.1s beg-spec in.begging.way‘I have begged him.’m7 k7m-ko k7m k7ms.1s beg-spec in.begging.way red

‘I have begged him a lot.’b. Deverbal adverb with other verb:

‘à ]w¾a¾a t6kuu twàs twàss.3:im throw.plur sand sweep:everywhere red

‘She throws sand everywhere while sweeping.’

These deverbal adverbs resemble ideophonic adverbs in several respects. Likeideophonic adverbs, deverbal adverbs as a category are characterized by totalreduplication. Adverbs derived from ideophonic verbs are of course ideophonicthemselves, while adverbs derived from non-ideophonic verbs behave like ideo-phonic adverbs by their reduplication and by their intensive or descriptive meaning.

A formal resemblance as well as a derivational relationship between verbs andideophonic adverbs is known from Bantu languages (Samarin 1971:141). Deverbal


ideophonic adverbs are also known from Kera, a Chadic language spoken in thesame region as Mundang. Ebert (1979:101–103, 282) calls these deverbal ideo-phonic adverbs intensive forms and she notes their ideophonic character. TheUbangi language Gbaya also attests some deverbal ideophonic adverbs, butaccording to Noss (1981:108) they are not productive.

3. Ideophonic words in other word classes

ideophonic words in other word classes are only ideophonic in part: they areideophonic by their sound symbolism, but they behave in all other grammaticalaspects like the other members of their categories. These ideophonic words areideophonic verbs, ideophonic nouns and the ideophonic adjectives, ‘white’ and‘black’ and the ideophonic numeral ‘just one’.

3.1 Ideophonic verbs

Ideophonic verbs are often onomatopoetic. Some of them indicate the action ofemitting a sound (16a); others indicate an action resulting in a sound or an actionwhich is accompanied by a sound (16b). Other verbs are not onomatopoeic, buttheir form is suggestive of sound symbolism (16c). Verbs are given here in theirstem forms; there are two lexical tone classes, Low and High-Floating Low.

(16) a. Producing a sound:gàl ‘cackle’h7l ‘cough’yí~yIí ‘cry, lament’ (litt. cry a cry)y¾ı y½ı½ırI ‘snore’ (litt. snore a snore)

b. Action resulting in a sound or accompanied by a sound:'71 ‘drop a hanging object’1u` ‘pound (in mortar)’lwà' ‘flog’]g6lwà' ‘pound sth. humid’

c. Other ideophonic verbs:vI1yàk ‘wave to s.o.’p7]` ‘be(come) white, fade’lwàl ‘be mute’

Ideophonic verbs sometimes have a particular consonant distribution, reminiscentof ideophonic adverbs. The only ver with v is an ideophonic ver (17a) and almost allverbs with v are ideophonic (17b). Furthermore, ideophonic verbs attest in stem-final position consonants that are either not admitted in non-ideophonic verbs orrare in them (17c).

104 Stefan Elders

(17) a. vb¢f] ‘tan, make soft (hide)’b. g6và ‘lean forward, wither’

v¾ı¾ı ‘fling (e.g. stone)’g6v6r ‘ventilate sth.’vI1yàk ‘wave to s.o.’v71 ‘shake (tail, cloth)’vIk ‘shake or balance sth. in the air’

c. final p: d7p ‘shake (tail, child for play)’final t: hàt ‘interrupt’

mbàt ‘dig out by making clods of earth, put aside’pàt (same meaning)

final s: twàs ‘throw (sand)’

Some ideophonic verbs have a verbal derivative suffix (extension) (18); thesesuffixes are not restricted to ideophonic verbs. All extensions are non-productive.Most ideophonic verbs with an extension contain a pluractional extension,indicating an iterative action. There is no clear semantic distinction between thetwo pluractional extensions -(à)k and -r. (The term pluractional is taken fromChadic linguistics, Newman 1990; the terms separative and extensive are fromBantu linguistics, cf. Schadeberg 1982 and 1994).

(18) Verbal extensions in ideophonic verbs:a. Pluractional -(à)k, -r ‘iterative action, plurality of nominal argument

of verb’:-(à)k 1uk ‘hit (plur.), slaughter; destroy wood (by weevils)’

fì~1yàk ‘take away wings of flying ants for preparation’g6d6k ‘tickle’

-r g6v6r ‘ventilate sth.’p6r ‘sow sesame grains (by putting them into the

mouth and spitting them out)’b. Separative -l ‘movement away from a position or an original state’:

h7l ‘cough’c. Extensive -] ‘extended position of subject or object of verb (or some-

times an action done with an object with an extended shape)’:vb¢f] ~ ‘tan, make soft (hide)’

d. Positional -k ‘absolutive argument of verb (subject of intransitiveverb/object of transitive verb) is in a position or is put into a position’:

g6lIk ‘being stuck (between two persons or two objects)’gIk ‘stay in throat (of food)’


3.2 Ideophonic nouns

An ideophonic noun is a noun with a sound-symbolic form. Ideophonic nounsoccur as derived nouns, compound nouns and non-derived nouns. An ideophonicnoun is sometimes derived from an ideophonic adverby adding a derivative prefix(19a, b) or suffix. De-nominal prefixes are highly productive, especially those withpa!- from pánI ‘father’, má- from mánI ‘mother’ and fà ‘thing’ from fànI ‘thing’.De-ideophonic nouns especially occur with the ma!- prefix.

(19) a. Ideophonic nouns with de-nominal prefix:ma!-d´!ba!Nd´~ba~N ‘spider’ (mother-walking in a unsteady way like a

spider or a drunkard)má-]gáá]gàà ‘crow’ (mother-sound of crow)pá-víívII ‘person with power to manipulate the wind’

(father-whirlwind)má-vb¢6ki~ ‘grass sp. used for thatching’ (mother-?)

b. Ideophonic nouns with prefix t6.t6.ky¢f]ky¢f] ‘whooping-cough’ (pfx-?)t6.y½ı½ı .rI ‘snore’ (pfx-snore.sfx)

Nouns with a derivative suffix are not productive. The suffix reflects an ancientnoun class suffix. (Though Mundang does not have a functioning noun classsystem, traces of noun class suffixes can be found in derived nouns.) Some of thesenouns combine a derivative suffix with a de-nominal prefix. Note that the qualityof the suffix vowel is determined by the vowel in the syllable preceding it.

(20) Ideophonic nouns with fossilized noun class suffix:.rI b6l6mì ‘type of drum; from b6l6m sound of this drum’.rI kp½a½a.rI ‘nervous character; from kp½a¾a enraged’má-+.II má-l6'l6'.ì ‘butterfly; from l6' describes flight of butterfly, cluster-

ing everywhere on leaves and flowers’

Most compound nouns are noun phrases with an idiomatic meaning. A fewcompound noun contain morphemes that occur as ideophones, like ‘aimless’, orthat resemble ideophonic adverbs by their form, like the first stem in ‘sardine’ (21).

(21) b6rà] dIIrI ‘rail of shelter (aimless-shelter)’p7lpílí ji~i~ ‘sardine sp.’

Other ideophonic nouns do not bear a derivative suffix (22). I call them ideophonicbecause their form resembles an ideophonic adverb; some of these nouns arereduplicated. Ideophonic nouns are most often onomatopoetic, but others indicatea particular movement, like ‘slowworm’ or the gait of a camel.

106 Stefan Elders

(22) b6b61áà ‘frog sp.’b6r6mt6l ‘mason wasp’b¢6vbàw ‘African buffalo, derby eland’báz6gíi~ ‘frog sp.’b6rb¢6r ‘horsefly’c½ı½7gòr½ı½7 ‘ground hornbill’‘7ryáw ‘cat; also /E!ra!whááhfm ‘yawn’háát¢6w½ı¾e ‘sneeze’hu¾fr7 ‘mosquito’kI‘ ‘vomit’ko!k½u¾f ‘fly’kp½a¾a ‘anger, unrest, thunder’njIlák ‘clarity’nj¢f]njf] ‘camel’; also njf]njf]sárs6lí7 ‘slowworm’; its name indicates contortion, the snaking movement

of this animal (cf. meselesele ‘lizard’ in the neighboring Chadiclanguage Giziga; Lukas 1970:129)

Then there are nouns for which I am not certain that they are ideophonic. I suggestthey are because some of them are reduplicated and others have a CVCVC structurewith an intervocalic liquid, a shape suggestive of sound symbolism. Their form ishalf-way between outspokenly ideophonic nouns and nouns whose form-meaningrelationship is clearly arbitrary. I present all such problematic nouns in my data toshow the difficulties in drawing a sharp boundary between ideophonic and non-ideophonic nouns (23a). Intuition also plays a role here. The meaning of thesenouns is sometimes suggestive of categories found among ideophones. Possiblesemantic features are: onomatopoetic; diminutive; typical shape, like ‘trunk of tree’.The list also contains several bird names (23b); these were elicited and determinedby using the French names in Serle and Morel (1977). Though birdnames are oftenonomatopoeic or soundsymbolic in another form across languages, I hesitate to callthese names ideophonic without having it tested with first language speakers.

(23) a. Ideophonic nouns?d61u1í ‘fine sand in stream’dàd6mí7 ‘stinging red ant sp.’; also má-dàd6mí7dàdàr¾ı¾ı ‘rest of unsold beer’; also má-dàdàr¾7y1wà1 s¢6mi~ ‘drop of blood’ (?-blood)f6fy¾a¾a hími~ ‘beer of which one has activated the fermentation to fer-

ment the rest’f¢6r¢6mi~ ‘smoke, soot, steam, piece of charcoal taken from burnt

charcoal’g¢6rá] ‘shard of pottery put over fire on which beer ferments in a

pot’; also ]g¢6rá]


g¢6ro!tí] ‘mumps’gb6gbuli~ ‘stump of tree’gb6gby¾a¾a ‘chronically infected wound’gI]gI] ‘fish sp. with a hard skull and stinging fins’kp6kpàà ‘foot of bird, (figuratively) person with frail legs’kp6kp¾ı½ıri~ ‘brains’m6mámí ‘wave’má-f½aáf¾a¾a ‘black ant sp.’ (mother-?); also má-fw½a½afw¾a¾amá-go!guò ‘praying mantis’ (mother-?)má-k¢f]g¢6yf] ‘small black ant’ (mother-?)nd¢6rwá' ‘not totally ripe state of fruit’; also má-nd¢6rwá']g¢6rI] ‘dwarf ’p6può ‘duiker’wírIm ‘weak or sickly person’s¢6lwál ‘paralysis’wá-làlà ‘lizard sp.’ (male-?)‘wî] ‘tastelessness (of porridge)’ye!-k´~ka~a! ‘lastborn’ (child-?); also y7-kààk¢6ri~

b. Ideophonic bird names?bi~i~zum ‘owl (general term)’j¾a¾a ‘crowned crane’k¢6rààmu ‘gray heron’; also má-k¢6rààmu

k6rák dw77 ‘harrier-eagle’k¢frf] ‘spoonbill’kurwàkI ‘owl sp. associated with sorcery’làmlàmà ‘palm-nut vulture, bald eagle’lyàkI ‘nightjar’má-t¢6.kààlà ‘stork’ (mother-?)z6záwrí ‘owl sp.’

3.3 Adjectives and numerals

The adjectives p7] ‘white’ and pùù ‘black’ are analyzed as ideophonic, because Iassume that their form is suggestive of their meaning: front vowel+nasal for a brightcolor versus a long back vowel for a dark color. The adjectives derive from verbs:p7] ‘be(come) white’ and pùù ‘be(come) black’. These color adjectives also combinewith adjectival intensifiers: tál and ká]ká] ‘snow white’ and píppíp and kúrúm‘pitch black’. The numeral pál ‘just one’ occurs as an alternative to the regularnumeral búónó; pál is a borrowing from Fulfulde (cf. Noye 1989:278): “idéophonerenforçant l’expression de l’unité” (translated as: seulement un, d’un seul coup). Itfits into a group of ideophonic words with initial p indicating intensity.

108 Stefan Elders

4. Conclusions

Ideophonic words in Mundang can be found in all lexical word classes in Mundang.Most of them are adverbs. Ideophonic adverbs as a group show certain non-canonical phonological characteristics. Words with a comparable structure arefound among verbs, nouns, adjectives and numerals. These non-canonical phono-logical words are suggestive of phonesthetic associations. The boundary betweenphonesthetic words and words with an arbitrary correspondence between form andmeaning is however fluent, as is illustrated by nouns. Deverbal adverbs formanother instance of the fuzzy boundary between ideophonic and non-ideophonicwords: deverbal adverbs have the same grammatical behavior as ideophonicadverbs, but only part of the deverbal adverbs have an outspoken ideophoniccharacter.

Abbreviations

C consonantV vowelVV long vowelN nasalL liquid- morpheme boundary. fossilized morpheme boundaryplur pluractional verb stemspec specific determiner (also functions as 3sg object pronoun)s.3:im 3rd person Imperfect

Notes

1. Mundang belongs to the Adamawa branch of Adamawa-Ubangi within the Niger-Congo family(Boyd 1989). It is spoken in the border area of Cameroon and Chad, with Kaélé and Léré as itsmajor centers. The research is part of a Ph.D. thesis, the subject of which is a description of thenorthernmost dialect of Mundang (north of and in Kaélé). Data were collected during fieldworkin Cameroon (1991–1992 and 1993) and during additional fieldwork in Brussels (1995) andLeiden (1996). The project was funded by the Research School CNWS, School for Asian, Africanand Latin American Studies, University of Leiden.

2. The inventory of consonants and vowels is given in Table 1.


References

Table 1.�Inventory of consonants and vowels

Consonant inventory

labial alveolar palatal velar labial-velar

glottal

vcl. plosives: p t c k kp [/]vcd. plosives: b d j g gbimplosives: ' 1vcl. fricatives: f s s# hvcd. fricatives: v z z#prenasalized plosives: mb nd nj ]g ngbnasal sonorant: m n ]glottalized nasals: ‘m ‘nlateral sonorant: lcentral sonorant tap: flap: vb

r

laryngealized glides: ‘y ‘w

Vowel inventory

Oral vowelsshort oral long diphthongs

high+non-high

diphthongsa+glide

i 6 u ii uu ie uoI u II uu Ie uoe o ee oo ay aw7 f 77 ff

a aa ıe 7f

Nasalized vowelsshort oral long diphthongs

high+non-high

diphthongsa+glide

ı [´0] [u0] ıı u0u0 i0e0 u0o0U0U0 I0e0 U0o0

[e] [o0] - - a0y a0wE0 [O0] E0E0 O0O0 i0a0 u0a0

a0 a0a0 [U0a0]

Andersen, Torben. 1986. “Verbal inflexion in Moru.” Afrika und Übersee 69:19–43.Boyd, R. 1989. “Adamawa-Ubangi”. In J. Bendor-Samuel (ed.), The Niger-Congo Languages,

189–215. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

110 Stefan Elders

Childs, G. Tucker. 1988. “The phonology of Kisi ideophones”. Journal of African Languages andLinguistics 10:165–188.

Childs, G. Tucker. 1995. “African ideophones”. In Leanne Hinton et al. (eds), Sound Symbolism,178–204. Cambridge: CUP.

Ebert, K.H. 1979. Sprache und Tradition der Kera. Teil III: Grammatik [Marburger Studien zurAfrika- und Asienkunde, Serie A: Afrika 15]. Berlin: Reimer.

Elders, S. 2000. Grammaire mundang. Leiden: Research School CNWS. (Also PhD. thesis).Lukas, J. 1970. Studien zur Sprache der Gisiga [Afrikanistische Studien 4]. Glückstadt: Augustin.Newman, P.1968. “ideophones from a syntactic point of view”. Journal of West African Languages

5(2):107–117.Newman, P.1990. Nominal and Verbal Plurality in Chadic [Publications in African languages and

linguistics 12]. Dordrecht: Foris.Noss, P. 1981. Gbaya: phonologie et grammaire: dialecte yaayuwee. Meiganga, Cameroon: Eglise

Evangélique du Cameroun, Centre de Traduction Gbaya.Noye, D. 1989. Dictionnaire fulfulde-français. Dialecte peul du Diamaré, Nord-Cameroun. Garoua:

Procure des Missions/Paris: Geuthner.Samarin, W.J. 1971. Survey of Bantu ideophones?. African language studies 12:130–168.Schadeberg, T.C. 1982. ?Les suffixes verbaux séparatifs en bantou?. Sprache und Geschichte in

Afrika 4:55–66.Schadeberg, T.C. 1994. “Die extensive Extension im Bantu”. In T. Geider and R. Kastenholz (eds),

Sprache und Sprachzeugnisse in Afrika. Eine Sammlung philologischer Beiträge Wilhelm J.G.Möhlig zum 60. Geburtstag zugeeignet, 357–366. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.

Serle, W. and G. Morel. 1977. A Field Guide to the Birds of West Africa. London: Collins.

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Some expressive and borrowed elements

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TITLE "Some expressive and borrowed elements in the lexicon of Finnish dialects"


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in the lexicon of Finnish dialects

Vesa JarvaUniversity of Jyväskylä, Finland

Preamble

Expressive words usually have somewhat exceptional phoneme inventories, whichcan also be connected with borrowed elements. (I use “expressive” here as a coverterm; thus it overlaps with terms like onomatopoetic, descriptive, ideophones,phonesthems etc.) From the etymological point of view expressive functions may beattributed to phonemes of foreign origin. For example, voiced stops have enteredthe Eastern Balto-Finnic languages, Karelian, Veps and Votic, with Russianloanwords. Now these phonemes may also be used in native expressive words:Karelian borista (cf. Finnish porista ‘mutter; bubble’) or Votic durisa (cf. Finnishturista ‘murmur, buzz’). (Itkonen 1966:133; cf. Laanest 1982:86).

We can see this phenomenon affecting lexical units as well. A loanword maylose its original meaning and acquire a new, expressive one. Generally it also adaptsto the morphological structure of existing expressive words in the target language.This development is not always easily verifiable because of irregular changes usuallyinvolved in expressive forms. However, in some cases there are sufficient connectinglinks between the original and expressive forms so that they form a synchronicfamily resemblance network, which can be interpreted diachronically. To illustratethis development, I present two examples of Russian words used expressively inFinnish dialects. The first case is the consonantal structure k-lk-r (kalkara, kilkeroetc.), originally from Russian kolokol ‘bell, sleigh bell’ and the second case is tytinäfrom Russian stúden’ ‘jellied meat’.

1. The Finnish language

Finnish, and Finno-Ugrian languages in general, are often cited as languages

112 Vesa Jarva

extremely rich in expressive vocabulary (cf. Hakulinen 1961:222; Anttila 1977:27).However, due to a lack of accurate statistical evidence, this is only an impression. Itmay be based on the fact that Finnish is an agglutinative language and, in compari-son with Indo-European languages, morphologically complex. Well-knownexamples are the large number of noun cases (15) and the so called possessive suffixsystem (kirja-ni ‘my book’, kirja-si ‘your book’). Finnish also uses a lot of holistic,derived and inflected forms instead of syntactic structures as in the Indo-Europeanlanguages. (For further details, see, for example, Karlsson 1987:12–14, 155,194–195.)

The inflectional and derivational possibilities in many cases result in a multi-tude of verbal, adverbial, adjective and nominal forms, which have the same “stem”or “root”. For example, the following forms are somehow connected with the verbstem syö- ‘to eat’: syöpyä ‘to be corroded’, syöttää ‘to feed’, syövyttää ‘to corrode’;syöjätär ‘evil woman’ (literally: she-eater), syöminen ‘eating; something to eat’;syömäri ‘big eater’, syöpä ‘cancer’, syöpäläinen ‘parasite’; syötti ‘bait’; syötävä ‘edible’;syöveri ‘whirlpool’.

In some cases the relation between different forms is regular. For example, cf.syödä ‘to eat’ and syöttää ‘to feed’ with juoda ‘to drink’ and juottaa ‘to water’;derivational suffix -tta/ä has the meaning ‘cause to be done’ (see also Laanest1982:281–282; Karlsson 1987:201). Many derivative forms are somehow, formallyor semantically, exceptional, but they can still be interpreted diachronically: forexample syöpä ‘cancer’ is an old participle form, which has originally been used asan adjective: syöpä tauti ‘an eating disease’. In Standard Finnish the presentparticiple form now has the ending -va/ä, like syövä mies ‘an eating man’ (seeLaanest 1982:248–249; Karlsson 1987:165). There are also many forms whoseconnection is highly exceptional and remains unclear, though they seem to besomehow connected with each other. This is often the case with expressive words.As a result, they have been neglected in research into Finno-Ugrian languages,especially in etymology. (Cf. Anttila 1975:19; 1997:111–112.)

From another point of view, Finnish is very fertile language to diachronicanalyses. At its “best”, it is almost transparently agglutinative, with derivative andinflectional elements quite easily segmented. Finnish is also a phonetically conserva-tive language. It can be seen for example in old German loan words like kuningas‘king’, which is very near to Old German *kuninga-z (Kylstra et al. 1996:122–123),whereas Germanic languages have gone through many sound changes, cf. Swedishkonung, GermanKönig, English king. Finnish dialects are also very well documentedwith extensive archives. The neo-grammarian school and historical linguistics ingeneral held in a strong position in research in the area, which was until the 1960salmost totally based on dialectal corpora (Korhonen 1986:108). Hence there aregood opportunities for comparative and diachronic research.

My data is from the archive of the dictionary of Finnish dialects, which consists

Some expressive and borrowed elements 113

of over 8 million entries from the beginning of 20th century to our days. I havetranscribed the examples given below roughly in the orthography of StandardFinnish, as phonological aspects of Finnish dialects are not of interest here. It alsorenders sentences easier to understand for those who know at least some Finnish.

2. Types k-lk and k-kr

To understand the first case (k-lk-r), we first need an overview of two expressiveword groups: types k-lk and k-k-r.

There are a large number of onomatopoeic words, mostly verbs, of the typek-lk. These words typically refer to the noise of something hard hitting or strikingsomething: an axe against wood, a tongue against a bell, a hammer against an anvil,an oar against a row lock etc. Here are just a few examples (here, the Finnishdictionary entries consist of infinitive endings separated by a dash; cf. Karlsson1987:53–55).

(1) kalkahta-a kilkahta-a kolkahta-akalkka-a kilkka-a kolkka-akalkkaantu- akilkkaantu-a kolkkaantu-akalkkais-ta kilkkais-ta kolkkais-takalkutta-a kilkutta-a kolkutta-a

Alternation of a vowel, particularly in the first syllable, is characteristic of Finnishonomatopoeic verbs, as it is of expressive words in general. There may be otheralternating vowels as well, but a, i, and o are the most common. This phenomenoncan easily be compared with onomatopoeic words in English, for example clink-clank-clunk. In English, the same pattern also occurs in grammatical formations,like shrink-shrank-shrunk. (Anttila 1977:27–29, 34.) In Finnish, on the contrary,this “internal derivation” is very striking, because Finnish derivation suffixes aremostly added after stems.

In some cases the alternation can be interpreted as sound symbolism: wordswith a are quite neutral, whereas words with i refer to something smaller or quieteror higher in pitch, words with o to something bigger or louder or lower in pitch.Examples (2, 3) feature a verb-to-verb suffix -aht(a)- and example (4) the suffix-ele- (for their special meaning see Laanest 1982:271, 274; Karlsson 1987:200–201).

(2) odotin ja kuuntelin, missä päin lehmän kello kalk-ahta-isi‘I was waiting and listening, from where the cow’s bell would clank.’

(3) lasi mäni hajalle, jotta kilk-aht-i‘Glass broke, so it “clinked”.’

(4) kärrynpyörä kolk-aht-ele-e kiviä vasten‘The wagon wheel is clunking against stones.’

114 Vesa Jarva

Another relevant group here are words of the type k-k-r. These words are typicallydescriptive nouns and they refer to small, roundish objects: for example a piece ofdirt, or ice; a small cake or bread; lumps in salt, milk or flour.

(5) kakare kikare kokarekakkara kikkara kokkarakakkero kikkero kokkerokakkura kikkura kokkura

Group (5) shows the same kind of vowel alternation as group (1), but with theaddition of quantity alternation in the second consonant. The next set of examplesalso show similar sound symbolic aspects. In sentence (7) the adjective pieni ‘small’emphasizes a form with an i (kikare); in sentence (8) the adjective paksu ‘thick’emphasizes a form with an o (kokkare).

(6) pellolla on paljon kakkaro-ita‘there are lot of lumps [of clay] in a field’

(7) anto pienen kikare-en voita leivän päälle‘[s/he] gave [sby] a little piece of butter on some bread’

(8) tässäpä piimässä on paksuja kokkare-ita‘in this sour milk there are thick lumps’

So, here we have the consonantal “skeletons” or “frames” k-l-k and k-k-rwith quiteestablished, but approximate meaning, which are made more precise by the choiceof vowels. A very interesting parallel for this system is found in Yorùbá. YiwolaAwoyale (1999) has presented examples of a “skeletal consonantal base” r-g-d,which in general has the meaning ‘round, roundish or curved shape’ and which iscompleted by different vowels with tonemic and nasal-non-nasal oppositions:règèdè, regede, régédé, rigidi, ragada, rogodo etc. Finnish has no tonemic or nasaldistinctions, but quantity opposition and derivational affixes are used in Finnish tocomplete vowel alternation in the very same way as tones and nasals are used inYorùbá. In Yorùbá, which is an isolating language with very few affixes, this kind of“umlaut” flexion is as unexceptional as in Finnish.

3. Type k-lk-r

Some of the words I presented above are also well known in standard Finnish (andcan be found in bilingual dictionaries), whilst the type k-lk-r is mostly known indialects only. In Standard Finnish only the word kalkkarokäärme ‘rattle snake’ isknown, and this is a loan translation, apparently from Swedish.


(9) kalkkare kilkkare kolkkarekalkkero kilkkero kolkkerokalkura kilkura kolkura

These words have several meanings: ‘bell, sleigh bell; twisted bunch of fur or hair;a roundish piece of ice, dirt, or manure, etc.’ The semantic vagueness and morpho-phonemic complexity of k-lk-r suggest that the type is not as basic as the two formerones. Phonetically, it could be interpreted as a contamination of the two formergroups: k-lk plus k-k-r yields k-lk-r. It has also certain semantic features which canbe connected with the former groups: verbs of the type k-lk may refer to theclanking of a bell, and nouns of the type k-k-r refer to ‘a roundish lump’, too. So itseems obvious that the three types mentioned above are closely bound up with eachother.

In Finno-Ugrian etymological research, expressive words are usually consideredto be, at least in part, native, as Raimo Anttila (1997:112) puts it: “affective colorsecures immediate naturalization, and thus we feel that it has always been there.”This is true in the case of the k-lk-r type, too. One etymological dictionary ofFinnish gives under kalkkarokäärme ‘rattle snake’ (SSA: 286, my own translation):“The First part [i.e. kalkkaro] is connected with onomatopoetic words underkalkkaa” (cf. second line of example 1). They intuitively appear to be connected toany Finnish-speaker, but is this an etymological explanation?

An etymological key lies in the meaning ‘bell, sleigh bell’, which is found inFinnish dialects in the forms kalkkala and kalkkalo.

(10) sitten pantiin kello-t ja kalkkala-t hevosen kaulaan‘Then we put [many] bells on the horse’s neck’

(11) lehmällä on kalkkalo kaulassa‘A cow has a bell on its neck’

These match perfectly with Old Russian *kolkol:, cf. Russian kólokol (Plöger1973:61–62). Hence we are dealing with borrowing, and any similarity withonomatopoetic words like kalk- was purely accidental. What is interesting here isthat the similarity in the expressive words, however accidental it may be, begun toinfluence the word kalkkala after its borrowing.

Thus first note certain sound changes: from kalkkala to kalkkana or kalkkara,i.e., the latter of the two l:s has changed but the meaning remains the same.

(12) kieli kello-sta putosi, katosi ääni kalkkara-sta‘the ‘tongue’ [= clapper] has fallen out of the bell,the (jingle) bell has lost its ‘voice’�’[a proverb used when a talkative person is quiet]

On the one hand, such forms may be due to dissimilation; so we do not necessarilyhave to assume that it is the expressive forms which are influential here. On the

116 Vesa Jarva

other hand, the word already has got expressive connotations, as can be seen inexample (10) in the redundant expression kello-t ja kalkkala-t, literally ‘bells andbells’, where the first word kello is Standard Finnish. Also in example (12), bothvariants, kello and kalkkara, are used. This kind of redundant use of (almost)synonymous words is a common stylistic device in Finnish folk poetry; it can alsohave connotations of exaggeration or irony.

The next step is obvious:

(13) ei niitä kilkkaro-ita, eihän ne kuulu mihinkään[in olden times bells were bigger than nowadays:]‘Not those bells, you can’t hear them anywhere’

The form kilkkaro is used to describe ‘small, quiet bell’, which means that originalloan-word has been adapted to the expressive vowel alternation; notice also thesame kind of sound symbolism here as in example (3).

The final step is semantic expansion in the area of k-k-r, and it is semanticallymotivated, as example (13) shows: it combines ‘a bell’ with ‘a roundish lump’.

(14) oli yltä päältä paskasta kelkkare-issa niin kuin kulkustiukuja‘[in a cow’s fur] there was all over lumps of manure like sleigh bells’

An etymological dictionary of Finnish says under kalkkala (SSA: 286; my owntranslation): “[kalkkala, kalkkana, kalkkara, kalkkalo are] partly from Russiankólokol, partly obviously native derivations of the verb kalkkaa.” Here we see theviewpoint mentioned above, in Anttila’s words “immediate naturalization” becauseof expressivity. Although the k-lk-r and k-lk words have something in commonphonologically and semantically, the term “derivation” is wholly inaccurate here.The “derivational” suffixes -lo, -la come from Russian. The variants with -ra, -re etc.are due to dissimilation (cf. Plöger 1973:62) or influence of the k-k-r words. We cannow reconstruct the development:

a. borrowing: Old Russ. *kolkol7 (> kolokol;) ‘bell, sleigh bell’ > Finn. kalkkala~kalkkalo ‘id.’ (examples 10, 11).

b. phonemic variation (dissimilation l–l > l–n, l–r): kalkkala~ kalkkalo~kalkkana~kalkkara~kalkkaro ‘bell, sleigh bell’ (12).

c. adaption to the vowel alternation : kalkkaro > kilkkaro ‘small bell’ (13).d. semantic expansion: interference of kakkara etc. (14).

4. Tytinä ‘jellied meat’

Finnish contains a large number of verbs of the type of CVCis-ta/ä (the latter is aninfinitive suffix). These verbs also have noun correlates of the type CVCina/ä (seeHakulinen 1961:128; Laanest 1982:212):


(15) kalis-ta kilis-tä kolis-takalina kilinä kolina‘clank, rattle, etc.’ (cf. (1)

(16) pihis-tä pohis-ta puhis-tapihinä pohina puhina‘hiss, fizz, etc.’

(17) järis-tä täris-tä väris-täjärinä tärinä värinä‘shake, quake, tremble, etc.’

In general these are expressive forms, which can refer to sound or movement. Theirsemantic vagueness is considerable, but to the most part we can connect differentforms into chains of semantic and phonetic correlates. We can see internallycorrelating chains, which differ in the vowel in the first syllable (15), (16) or in theinitial consonant (17). (Cf. Hahmo 1994:14–15, 23–24.) Semantic differences inthese chains are highly questionable, though sound symbolism can occasionally beperceived in them. This type is very common: Kiviniemi (1971:24) has collectedover 400 different verbs of this type in his corpus.

In (18) we have examples of verb–noun correlates, which have alternation inthe consonant, which can be t or h, and in the vowel, which can be u or y.

(18) hutis-ta hytis-tähutina hytinätutis-ta tytis-tätutina tytinä‘shake, quake, tremble etc.’

These words refer to a kind of small, rapid, seesawing movement, for example aperson trembling because of cold or fear, a leaf shaking in the wind and so on.

(19) minun on niin vilu että minä ihan tutis-en‘I am so cold that I am trembling’

(20) ei mun käteni vielä tytis-e‘my hands are not trembling yet’ [I am not that old]

Now it is possible that a loan word may adapt to this system. Sirkka-Liisa Hahmo(1994:364–365) has presented 12 Russian and 11 Swedish loan words of the typeCVCina/ä. They are mostly dialectal, but some of them are known in StandardFinnish, for example tarina ‘a story’, latina ‘Latin’ and rusina ‘a raisin’.

Here we have an example of a dialectal word meaning ‘jellied meat’. In Russianthis is stúden’, which regularly yields tyyteni in Finnish (see also Hahmo1996:286–287).

(21) vasikan lihasta saa hyvää tyyteni-ä‘You get good jellied meat from veal’

118 Vesa Jarva

(22) tytenä-ä tehtiin, jos lehmä tapettiin‘We made jellied meat, when we killed a cow’

(23) mitkäs pidot ne on missä ei tytinä-ä ole‘what kind of party is it, if you do not have jellied meat’

Here we see the step-by-step development which leads to the canonical form of theFinnish expressive verb correlate: tyyteni (21) > tytenä (22) > tytinä (23). The wordhas retained its original meaning, but has been phonetically adapted to the extent,that the result is homophone: tytinä ‘jellied meat’ (23) from Russian stúden’ andtytinä ‘quivering’ (24) from the native, expressive verb tytistä (20).

(24) tytinä alko loppua kun sai lääkettä‘[patient’s] trembling begun to cease when he got medication’

But here we also have a sentence (25) which demonstrates that homophony canturn into polysemy:

(25) sitä sanotaan tytinäksi vissiin sitä vasten kun se tytisee‘I think it [jellied meat] is called tytinä because it quivers’

In this case the informant has explained the original loan-word by reference tonative, expressive word. Semantic motivation is clear enough to generate thecomparison: jellied meat has a lot of gelatin in it and it is so flexible that, whentouched with a fork for example, it quivers for awhile. An excellent case of folketymology!

The development can now be reconstructed as follows:

a. borrowing: Russ. stúden’ ‘jellied meat’ > Finn. tyyteni ‘id.’ (21).b. adaptation to the expressive word form CVCinA: tyyteni > tytenä > tytinä

(21)–(23).c. semantic motivation (25).

5. Conclusion

In the first case, the k-lk-r type, we have a loan word whose original meaning hassomehow become blurred and confused with expressive forms. It has been adaptedto the canonic vowel variation system of Finnish expressive words. Hence it seemslikely that the whole of the skeletal consonantal base, k-lk-r, which at first glanceseems to show contamination with k-lk and k-k-r, is of foreign origin. In the secondcase, tytinä, a loan word is morphologically adapted to the expressive form in thepattern CVCinA, but it has retained its original meaning.

In both cases we can follow step by step, how an originally foreign element, aRussian loan word, has been adapted to the total system of expressive words in theFinnish language. It is probably no coincidence that loan words in particular —


which are said to have “affective/suggestive color” (Anttila 1975:16) — tend toacquire expressive connotations. Because they are novelties in the target language,their meanings and forms are more vague than those of more “normal” or estab-lished words. So speakers tend to explain them with the help of familiar forms.Crucial here are both a phonetic resemblance and a semantic motivation, which tiethe etymologically separate forms together in the speaker’s mind.

References

Anttila, R. 1975. “Affective vocabulary in Finnish: An(other) invitation”. Ural-Altaische Jahrbücher47:10–19.

Anttila, R. 1977. “Toward a semiotic analysis of expressive vocabulary”. Semiosis 5:27–40.Anttila, R. 1997. “Affective vocabulary and borrowing: Finnish pirskottaa ‘sprinkle’ and patistaa

‘urge, prod’”. Journal of Finnish Studies 1:111–114.Awoyale, Y. 1999. “The form-meaning interface in Yoruba ideophones”. Unpublished paper given

at International Symposium on ideophones, January 25–27, 1999.Hahmo, S.-L. 1994. Grundlexem oder Ableitung? Die finnischen Nomina der Typen kämmen und

pähkinä und ihre Geschichte [Studia Fennica Linguistica 5]. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjalli-suuden Seura.

Hakulinen, L. 1961. The Structure and Development of the Finnish Language. (Suomen kielenrakenne ja kehitys.) [Indiana University Publications, Uralic And Altaic Series 3].The Hague:Mouton, Bloomington: Indiana University.

Itkonen, E. 1966. Kieli ja sen tutkimus. Helsinki: Werner Soderstrom.Karlsson, F. 1987. Finnish Grammar. Translated by Andrew Chesterman. Second edition. Helsinki:

Werner Soderstrom.Kiviniemi, E. 1971:Suomen partisiippinimistöä [Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seuran toimituksia

295]. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura.Korhonen, M. 1986. Finno-Ugrian Language Studies in Finland 1828–1918 [The History of

Learning and Science in Finland 1828–1918, 11]. Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica.Kylstra, A.D., S-L. Hahmo, T. Hofstra and O. Nikkilä 1996. Lexikon der älteren germanischen

Lehnwörter in den ostseefinnischen Sprachen. Band II: K-O. Amsterdam and Atlanta: Rodopi.Laanest, A. 1982:Einführung in die ostseefinnischen Sprachen. (Sissejuhatus läänemeresoome

keeltesse.) Translated from Estonian by Hans-Hermann Bartens. Hamburg: Helmut Buske.Plöger, A. 1973. Die russischen Lehnwörter der finnischen Schriftsprache. Wiesbaden: Otto

Harrassowitz.SSA = Suomen sanojen alkuperä I 1992. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura. [Suomalaisen

Kirjallisuuden Seuran toimituksia 556].

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The ideophone in Didinga

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Nicky de JongSummer Institute of Linguistics, Sudan Branch

Introduction

Didinga, an Eastern Sudanic (Eastern) language spoken in southern Sudan, belongsto the group of Southwest Surmic languages. The Didinga people (30,000–50,000)live in Sudan where the borders of Kenya, Uganda and Sudan meet. They aresubsistence farmers but keep cattle as well. The language type is VSO.

Ideophones are descriptive words that are highly specific. They often appeal tothe senses and give a vivid picture which would otherwise require a lot of words todescribe. Their occurrence is limited, at least in Didinga, to affirmative declarativeand imperative sentences.

The main source of ideophones for this paper is a body of about 80 oral storiestold by a variety of people, mainly narrative (personal experiences and fables) andsome procedural (customary) texts, collected in Southern Sudan in the late eighties.Some ideophones have been elicited through related words. But Samarin’s(1971:484) method of eliciting ideophones through antonyms wasn’t productivesince there exist over 120 adjectives as well as quite a number of qualitative (stative)verbs in the language.

Ideophones are not very commonly used. About 70 different ones are found inthe stories but only four of them occur in more than two.

In this paper, the first section deals with the phonology and morphology ofideophones including derivation. The second section looks at the syntax, the thirdat the semantics and the fourth at frequency in discourse. Finally, some borderlinecases are discussed.

1. Phonology and morphology

In this section, the first part deals with the Didinga vowel and consonant inventory,the second with the syllable structure of ideophones and their derivation.

122 Nicky de Jong

1.1 Vowels

Didinga has a symmetric nine vowel system with phonemic length. The high andmid vowels can be [+ATR] (i, u, e, o) or [−ATR] (I, ~, 7, f) with the low vowel (a)being opaque. Ideophones follow the same pattern of cross-height vowel harmonyas other monomorphemic words: they have either only [+ATR] or [−ATR] vowelsor the low vowel, as well as the low vowel combined with either [+ATR] or [−ATR]vowels.1

(1) punuθ p~n~~tw‘sound of sth coming out’ ‘slippery’1ixillo] Šf'lf]‘manner of losing balance’ ‘in tears’kwa?ak twa1ut‘manner of striking sth hard’ ‘firmly (like the grip of a cat)’

The language has two phonemic tones: high (marked with acute) and low (un-marked). Six tone melodies are found on different words but the tone melody of anideophone is almost always low. (Exceptions: manaá\ ‘easily bruised off; smooth’,tw~~n ‘sound of bowels when hungry’, tdI] ‘nothing, empty’, tIyyIk ‘sound of metalagainst metal’ and Š~~mf Š~~mf ‘not together, i.e. in separate groups or one byone’.)

1.2 Consonants

There are 36 consonants shown in Table 1. 16 pairs have lenis and fortis realiza-tions, the remaining four only occur fortis.2

Fortis consonants are found with higher frequency in ideophones and other adverbs

Table 1.�Didinga consonants

labial dental alveolar palatal velar

lenis fortis lenis fortis lenis fortis lenis fortis lenis fortis

stop voicedstop voicelessfricativenasallateralvibrantsemivowel

'

m

w

bpv

mm

ww

tð

dttðð

1

nln

dtd

nnllr

�

Š\

y

dŠtw

\\

yy

9

x~>]

gk

]]

than elsewhere in the language. Didinga has a strong tendency for words to have at

The ideophone in Didinga 123

least two moras. Monosyllabic words, apart from ideophones, almost always havea long vowel with few exceptions like kfn ‘sun’ and ttún ‘five’. In these exceptions,one mora is associated with the vowel, the other one is apparently deleted. Ascompensation, the onset consonant is doubled and realized as a fortis consonant.3

By analogy, any fortis consonant can fill such an onset slot. Among the ideophones,more than 30 monosyllabic ones have a short vowel preceded by a fortis consonant.Even in polysyllabic ideophones, which do not have this constraint, fortis conso-nants often appear in the onset slot.

1.3 Syllable structure

Ideophones in Didinga occur either in single or in reduplicated form. Thoseoccurring single usually have one or two syllables but three or four are possible. Theroot of those occurring reduplicated has one or two syllables.

(2) rit rfjfk~ rujak‘manner of closing’ ‘sound of sth not very hard breaking’roo'oyyi xapixi1ik‘lying on the stomach’ ‘manner of making a place barren’r7l r7l Šani Šani‘manner of looking shyly’ ‘watery’l~l~l~l~ ]7]7]7]7‘healthy, smooth’ ‘nicely fitting together (of teeth)’

1.4 Derivations

A number of ideophones can undergo derivation producing a verb, a noun or anadjective.

Several ideophones form a corresponding verb usually by adding the suffix-an.4

(3) but bután‘sound of removing’ ‘uproot, pull; thin’llin llinján‘sound made when falling down’ ‘fall’m~l~\ m~l¢~¢~\an‘manner of being swallowed’ ‘flood’panatw panááŠan‘manner of easily moving’ ‘cause to come off easily’p~n~tw p~n¢~tw‘manner of removing quickly’ ‘remove, undress, strip off’tw~k Š~>án‘in a bundle’ ‘bundle’

124 Nicky de Jong

Ša1~~] Ša1~~] Ša1¢~¢~]an‘worried’ ‘cause to worry’uum umúún‘manner of pouring’ ‘pour out’van vanán‘sound of cracking a stick’ ‘crack’

An ideophone and its related verb may occur in the same clause.

(4) a-1áák ]áá ¢7-tt¢7¢7tÐ lootw no>ó llin.pf-die:3sg woman:nom pf-fell:3sg ground just llin‘The woman fell down dead just llin (= sound made when falling down).’

(5) a-llínan 1o>oleétw lootw.ipf-fall:3 child:nom ground.‘The child is falling down.’

(6) a-vanán náwálawalla monók nó>ó van.pf-crack:3sg ring:nom shaft just van‘The ring cracked the shaft just van (= sound of cracking a stick).’

A few ideophones form a corresponding noun or adjective but no patterns havebeen discovered, as there are with those forming a verb.

Examples of ideophones with their derived nouns or adjectives:

(7) kitdik kitdik kitdikitdík‘manner of shaking, vibrating’ ‘earthquake’\a'iit \a'íðð¢7¢7t‘feeling of dampness’ ‘dampness’xatdi] xatdi] xatdiítdi], xaniítdi]‘manner of rolling down like ‘kind of plant with round tubers’a tuber’yyfk yyfk yfyyfk‘manner of not being secure’ ‘disturbance’yyaluk loyyáluk‘easily moving to one side by ‘long-crested eagle’the wind’pum pupuma‘sound of a drum’ ‘big but light’tdI] tditdi]a‘sound made by sth bulky’ ‘bulky’tt7l t7lla‘completely bare’ ‘bare’

(8) a-I lffŠ-I yyfk yyfk xInI]ItI lfg¢IIn.ipf-say:3 place-nom yyfk yyfk because Logiir‘The place says yyfk yyfk (= is not secure) because of (possible disturbance by)the Logiir.’


2. Syntax

Ideophones can be divided into two categories according to the way their syntaxfunctions.

a. Some ideophones carry a full semantic load and use a form of the verb II ‘say’as an auxiliary.

(9) ma 'aa ]aá á-¢I lffŠ-I ttau ttau I-tI]aáŠf.and when(past) still ipf-say:3 place-nom ttau ttau pf-get:up:3p‘And when the place still said ttau ttau (= first appearance of daylight) they gotup.’

(10) a-\ák Š¢7n¢7m Š¢I á-¢I xipik xipik.ipf-have:3 dress rel ipf-say:3 xipik xipik‘She has a dress which says xipik xipik (= with many colours).’

(11) 7-nn-¢7¢7k¢I lóóno] i\\á nó>ó vItw.ipf-say-ben:appl:3 rope neck just vItw‘He told the rope to the neck just vItw. (= He tightened the rope around theneck.)’

b. Other ideophones following the main verb are often preceded by the adverbno>ó ‘just’. Some of those make the main verb more specific (answering thequestion ‘In what way or manner exactly?’), others have the same meaning asthe main verb and their usage seems to be a stylistic means.

(12) a-t¢I¢Il-I tan¢I támmú 'úúk nó>ó twuu.ipf-rain-intr:3 in-fact rain:nom also just twuu‘In fact it was also raining just twuu (= heavily).’

(13) a-kát-I ]aá éét x7'7nI no>ó tdfk tdfk.ipf-plant-appl:3 woman:nom man eyes just tdfk tdfk‘The woman was fixing her eyes on the man just tdfk tdfk (= in a staring man-ner).’

(14) 1Imán tdíitw xataman van van xf-f-tf!do:2sg work quickly van van pf-go-1pin:irreal‘Do the work quickly van van (= showing impatience) so that we go!’

(15) a-'árit ~ð~n-I no>ó ððan ððan.ipf-shiver:3 dog-nom just ððan ððan‘The dog is shivering just ððan ððan (= in a shivering manner).’

Even though most ideophones follow just one pattern, it is possible to transformone into the other with a difference of focus:

(16) a. a-dúút-i maám-a 1een-a no>ó td~l td~l.ipf-pour:out-impers:3 water-nom gourd-obl just td~l td~l‘Water is poured from a gourd just td~l td~l (= making a gurgling sound).’

126 Nicky de Jong

b. a-dúút 1eení máám á-¢I td~l td~l.ipf-pour:out:3 gourd water ipf-say:3 td~l td~l‘The gourd let the water flow out saying td~l td~l.’

3. Semantics

As Childs (1994:188) states, “[i]deophones can be quite specific, usually evokingsome concrete imagery. They often appeal to the senses and have a narrow mean-ing.” In Didinga, ideophones appeal to the senses too: hearing, seeing, touching,smelling and tasting (but rarely to the latter three), or describe feelings and themanner in which certain actions are performed.

(17) 7-tt¢7¢7tÐ á>át nó>ó ]wak.pf-cut:3sg food just ]wak‘She broke the food just ]wak (= sound of breaking sth soft into two).’

(18) 17¢7tw gffl áa a-¢I ttul.follow:2sg road rel:hab ipf-say:3 ttul‘Follow that road which says ttul (= frequently used [and therefore dusty])’

(19) nee Š¢I á-¢I vInf] ]aáti xo?what rel ipf-say:3 vInf] here (shared knowledge)‘What is it that says vInf] (= is smelling badly) here?’

(20) a-tán-I lft77-Š-I a-¢I llII llII.ipf-taste-intr:3 honeys-sg-nom ipf-say:3 llII llII‘The honey tastes saying llII llII (= sweet)’

(21) ¢II ððIn¢I t pin.pf:say:3sg heart:nom pin‘The heart said pin (= His heart changed).’

(22) f-m¢f¢f t-I 177k7¢7Š-I a-¢I yyaluk.ipf-move-intr:3 bird’s:crest-nom ipf-say:3 yyaluk‘The crest feathers are moving saying yyaluk (= easily moving to one side by thewind).’

3.1 Sound symbolism (phonosemantics)

In most ideophones, there doesn’t seem to be a relationship between the sounds ina particular ideophone and its meaning. In trying to apply the phonetic symbolismas described by French (1976:314) for the vowels used, by looking at the qualitieslisted in that article, one has to decide which quality is in focus:


– in td~l td~l ‘gurgling sound’, the vowel is related to the roundness of theopening;

– in pum ‘sound of a drum’, to the large size of the drum, whereas in di] di]‘sound of a small drum’ to a small size drum;

– in dim dim ‘sound of walking’ and in llin ‘sound made when falling down’, tothe hardness of the ground;

– in rim ‘sound of heavy things falling’, to the same hardness of the ground, notto the heaviness of the falling objects;

– in ððI tIk ‘tightly’, to tightness but in twa1ut ‘firmly (like the grip of a cat)’ to theroundness of the paw, not to the tightness of the grip or the claws beingpointed;

– in xipik xipik ‘with many colours’, to the brightness of the colours.

Even though this approach gives some insight as to why a certain vowel appears ina particular ideophone, there are many others that have no matching quality suchas tdI] ‘sound made by sth bulky’ and lililili ‘completely barren’ (none of thequalities listed for /i, I/ fit). In others such as vInf] ‘smelling badly’, llII llII ‘sweet’and 1~~l ‘feeling of regaining strength’, as well as most of the manner ideophones,the vowels cannot be associated with any of these qualities.

As for the consonants in ideophones, hardly any iconic relationship betweenthe sounds and the meaning has been discovered. Voiceless stops are sometimesrelated to impact like in papu papu ‘sound of stones rolling down a rocky area’, kuk‘impact of hitting the ground’ and puk ‘sound of sth hitting sth soft’ and the labialfricative sometimes to speed as in vau ‘sound of speed making contact with a bush’and vuu ‘sound of flying’.

3.2 Onomatopoeia

A few onomatopoeic terms (aural ideophones) show iconicity between the soundand its reference.

(23) kaððak kaððak td~l td~l‘sound of a dog drinking’ ‘gurgling sound’

3.3 Reduplication

Reduplicated ideophones often indicate a repeated action, duration or speed as wellas a distributive pattern.5

(24) a-núk t~x~l¢~tw xavuuto no>ó xapuk xapuk.ipf-beat:3 cock:nom wings just xapuk xapuk‘The cock is fluttering its wings just xapuk xapuk (= sound of fluttering beforecrowing).’

128 Nicky de Jong

(25) a-álla ððIn¢I t á-¢I Ša1~~] Ša1~~].ipf-remain:3 heart:nom ipf-say:3 Ša1~~] Ša1~~]‘The heart remains saying Ša1~~] Ša1~~]. (= The person remains feeling wor-ried.)’

(26) tooyya 1aal 1aal!walk-ven:2sg 1aal 1aal‘Come here 1aal 1aal (= quickly but carefully)!’

(27) a-áttIkÐ eet-a ŠI-kÐ a-¢I Š~n7 Š~n7.ipf-stay:3pl people-nom rel:nom-pl ipf-say:3 Š~n7 Š~n7‘There are people who say Š~n7 Š~n7 (= a few here and there).’

4. Frequency in discourse

The frequency of ideophones in the source material is low. A word count revealedthat the average occurrence of ideophones is 0.2% of the total words, the highest inone story being 1%. Many ideophones occur in only one story. Many stories aretold without any ideophone. One reason could be that some ideophones are highlyspecific like xirikok xirikok ‘manner of moving backwards and forwards (of achameleon)’ and d7m d7m ‘manner of walking unhurriedly’. So none occurs if thestory has no call for it.

Childs (1994:194) states in the section Pragmatic: “In that ideophones serve anexpressive function, it is not unexpected that they should appear in limitedenvironments, ones where expressiveness would be expected to occur.” But hedoesn’t specify these environments. In Didinga, although frequency is low, there arethree very significant environments in narrative discourse where ideophones moreoften are used: in a pre-peak section where a problem is stated, in the climax sectionat the turning point and in the outcome.

5. Borderline cases

Further evidence that in Didinga ideophones are not to be considered a separateword class is given by other adverbs that have either syntactic or phonologicalsimilarity. (Of course, these similarities could be an argument for including thesewords under the ideophones as well.)

5.1 Syntactic similarity

A number of mainly manner adverbs exists that syntactically behave the same asideophones in that they can go together with a form of II ‘say’ or be preceded by


no>ó ‘just’. They often have a related verb and/or adjective. In fact, these adverbsand their verbs are derived from adjectives by partial reduplication, in the case ofadverbs, and adding the suffix -an in the case of verbs.

(28) Ša>akal – –‘hard’1~x~k~l 1~k¢~¢~lan 1~k~la‘manner of uncontrolled falling’ ‘make unstable’ ‘unstable’m~Š~tw~n m~tw¢~¢~nan -‘easily cut’ ‘cut (sth tender and delicate)’muðuðutw – muðuŠa‘manner of lying flat’ ‘lying flat’]alillin ]allíínan ]allina‘in an overdoing manner’ ‘do beyond what is expected’ ‘oversize’viniritw virííŠan -‘sound of sth being thrown’ ‘throw’

'ana>atwak 'ankááŠan -‘manner of awakening suddenly’ ‘break off (branch)’]fnf>fððfk ]fnk¢f¢fðan -‘manner of being injured ‘injure with a sharp object’ -with sth sharp’pIlIxI\\Ik pIlk¢I¢I\an pIlkI\a‘manner of slipping off easily‘ ‘cause to slip off easily’ ‘too small’pflf>f\\fk pflk¢f¢f\an –‘manner of removing’ ‘cause to come out, remove’1IxIlIllI] - –‘manner of swaying (a child on the back)’1~x~l~ll~] 1~ll¢~¢~]an 1~ll~]a‘manner of rolling down easily’ ‘cause to move easily ‘with a round

as a whole’ shape’

(29) a-¢I ððííxit-i Ša>akal.ipf-say:3sg iron-nom Ša>akal‘The iron says Ša>akal (= is hard).’ [Sense of touching]

(30) u-ttún mmáá bánánaa-wa viniritw.pf-hit:3sg lion small:axe-obl viniritw‘He hit the lion with a small axe viniritw (= sound of sth being thrown).’

(31) I-tI]á nó>ó 'ara>atwak.pf-wake:up:3sg just 'ara>atwak‘He woke up just 'ara>atwak (= manner of awakening suddenly).’

130 Nicky de Jong

5.2 Phonological similarity

A number of adverbs with the same shape as monosyllabic ideophones (i.e. with ashort vowel, the onset being a fortis consonant, usually low tone) exist — allmeaning ‘very’. They are verbal or adjectival intensifiers which Newman (1968:110)separates from descriptive adverbs. They collocate with specific verbs or adjectivesjust like Samarin (1970:165) found ”that in Wolof ideophones seem to be satellitesof specific verbs.”

(32) a-'áð-I td7tw a-lál-I k~twipf-be:bad-intr:3 very ipf-be:cold-intr:3 very‘it is very bad’ ‘it is very cold’a->a>at-I¢I tdum ma9ið-ðjook Š¢I-kÐ xóllí-kÐ tt¢7nipf-be:bitter-intr:3 very hunger-pl rel-pl black-pl very‘it is very bitter’ ‘periods of severe hunger’

6. Conclusion

In Didinga, ideophones have the same phoneme inventory as other words eventhough monosyllabic words with a short vowel and a fortis consonant onset are rareamong non-adverb words in the language. They follow the same pattern of ATRcross-height vowel harmony as occurs in other monomorphemic words. Reduplica-tion in ideophones may have the same function as in verbs, which is repeated actionor duration. There are two optional adverbial phrase slots, one before and one afterthe nucleus. Ideophones always occur in the post-nuclear slot.

The fact that other adverbs may enter into the same constructions as ideo-phones and can have the same shape, further hardens the inclusion of ideophonesin the adverb word class as a subclass in Didinga.


Abbreviations

antp

atr

appl

ben

hab

impers

intr

ipf

it

irreal

nom

obl

pf

antipassiveadvanced tongue rootapplicativebeneficiaryhabitualimpersonal (agent implicit)intransitiveimperfective aspectiterativeirrealisnominative caseoblique caseperfective aspect

pl

rel

sg

sth

ven

11pin1pex2sg33sg3/pl

plural markerrelative pronounsingulative markersomethingventivefirst personfirst person plural inclusivefirst person plural exclusivesecond person singularthird personthird person singularthird person plural

Appendix

Additional ideophones and their corresponding verbs (see §1.4)

ððI tIk ððI tII>án‘tightly’ ‘strangle’kftw kfŠán‘manner of hooking sth on sth’ ‘put on a hook’]]am ]amán‘sound of breaking off’ ‘break off’]]fm ]fmán‘manner of hitting gently’ ‘hit gently’pItÐ pI1án‘totally blocked; covered; stubborn’ ‘close tightly’rit ritán‘manner of closing’ ‘close; lower, lessen, reduce’rupÐ rf'án‘manner of cutting into pieces’ ‘cut into pieces’tdI] tdI]án‘sound of slap on the face’ ‘hit on the head’tdipÐ tdi'án tdi'áneek‘manner of covering completely’ ‘cover, fill’ ‘mix’‘manner of mixing’tdftw, td~tw tdfŠán‘manner of taking all’ ‘remove all, take all’

132 Nicky de Jong

ttul ttulán‘dusty, frequently used’ ‘cause dust to come up’vak va?án‘way of splitting’ ‘split (by force using hands)’

l~l~l~l~ l~l~~tan‘healthy, smooth’ ‘make smooth’td~l td~l td~td~~lan‘with a gurgling sound’ ‘pour (from a container with a small

mouth)’tdutdutdutdu tdutdaan‘sound of struggling ‘struggle through; run with force’sound of running with force;sound of drinking fast’

Division of ideophones according to Syntax (see 2)Category a: Ideophones that carry a full semantic load1. 1uu 1uu ‘manner of reacting in an uncontrollable way’2. 1~~l ‘feeling of regaining strength, of relief ’3. 1~ll7k ‘sign of light of a fire (intermittent appearance of sparks)’4. ððII / tdI] ‘nothing left’5. ððuul ððuul ‘with little hair’6. ðð~~l ðð~~l ‘having vision problems because of old age’7. lililili ‘completely bare’8. l~l~l~l~ ‘healthy, smooth’9. kapÐ kapÐ ‘articulately’10. ]a~ ]a~ ‘feeling uneasy’11. ]7]7]7]7 ‘manner of fitting nicely together’12. pin ‘change of heart’13. pfn pfn ‘sound of leaves moving (by a person going through the

garden)’14. p~n~~tw ‘slippery’15. ttau ttau ‘twilight (not enough to see properly);

weak (of eyes, temporary because of sickness)’16. tdutw ‘frightened, scared’17. tdwan ‘sound of sth hitting sth dry (skin, wood)’18. t IyyIk ‘sound of metal against metal’19. ttul ‘dusty, frequently used’20. vInf] ‘badly smelling’21. wataak ‘beginning to become bright’22. xapixi1ik ‘barren’23. xipik xipik ‘with many colours’24. yyfk yyfk ‘manner of not being secure’25. Ša1~~] Ša1~~] ‘worried’26. Š~n7 Š~n7 ‘a few here and there’


Category b.1: Ideophones that are more specific (often manner words)1. 'fnttff t ‘boggy’2. 1aal 1aal ‘quickly but carefully’3. d7m d7m ‘not in a hurry’4. ððI tIk ‘tightly’5. Iðaatw Iðaatw ‘manner of swallowing easily’6. kana'uk ‘on one’s knees (because of fear)’7. kitdik kitdik ‘manner of shaking, vibrating’8. mo1uun ‘lying on the back’9. ]wak ‘sound of breaking sth soft into two’10. pau ‘sound of quickness while moving freely; manner of com-

pletely clearing’11. pItÐ ‘completely blocked, covered’12. puk ‘sound of sth hitting sth soft’13. r7l r7l ‘in a shy way’14. rim ‘sound of heavy things falling’15. roo'oyyi ‘lying on the stomach’16. tajayyak ‘sound of throwing dry firewood down’17. tdipÐ ‘manner of covering completely’18. td~l td~l ‘with a gurgling sound’19. tI1ak tI1ak ‘manner of continuous landing of birds’20. twuu ‘heavily’21. twa1ut ‘firmly’22. van van ‘hurriedly, showing impatience’23. vau ‘quickly moving making contact with a bush’24. vin ‘upright, straight up’25. wana wana ‘manner of getting up quickly of people sitting or lying down’26. xapuk xapuk ‘sound of fluttering wings of a cock before crowing’27. xirikok xirikok ‘manner of moving backwards and forwards (of chameleon)’28. yyaluk ‘easily moving to one side by the wind’29. yya] yya] ‘movement of long hair’30. Šf'Ilf] / 'flfnf] ‘in tears’31. Š~~mf Š~~mf ‘not together (in separate groups or one by one)’

Category b.2: Ideophones that have the same meaning as the collocating verb1. ððan ððan ‘manner of shivering’ 'arít ‘shiver’2. ðundu1u1u ‘sound of water bubbling 1uú gwoyyátff ‘bubble into the fire’

into the fire’3. dii dii ‘sound of grinding’ n77k ‘grind’4. 1Illff ‘manner of swinging’ aán lókóó1I ‘swing’5. kin kin ‘manner of running’ iín ‘run’6. kinok ‘manner of entering 1uxún, iðó ‘enter (from outside)’

from outside’7. kwak ‘sound of bursting’ paák ‘burst’8. ra'uk ‘manner of collapsing’ ribán ‘collapse’

134 Nicky de Jong

9. rit ‘manner of closing’ rittán ‘close’10. rupÐ ‘manner of cutting xfftÐ ‘cut into pieces’

into pieces’11. tw717k ‘manner of jumping’ ]ffθ ‘jump’12. tudee / t~k77 ‘manner of scattering’ ððaan ‘scatter’13. t~ / t~ t~ ‘manner of spitting’ tt~~n ‘spit (saliva)’14. uum ‘manner of pouring’ umúún ‘pour out’15. wawaat wawaat‘sound of skinning’ t77 ‘skin’16. yyauk ‘manner of breaking yyfkán ‘break into pieces’

pieces off’

Ideophones in context (in addition to those in the main body)

Hearinga-x~1-I ~ð~n-I a-I kaððak kaððak.ipf-drink-antp:3 dog-nom ipf-say:3 kaððak kaððak‘The dog is drinking saying kaððak kaððak (= sound of a dog drinking).’

xa-ðíx-i ððoó ŠI-kÐ éét-akÐ a-I dim dim IŠI ŠIll-f.ipf-hear-1sg feet rel-pl person-poss:pl ipf-say:3 dim dim obl:rel back:of:house-poss‘I heard the feet of a person saying dim dim (= sound of walking) at the back of the house.’

I-'IllII]-I '77 nó>ó papu papu.pf-roll-intr:3sg rock:nom just papu papu‘The rock rolled just papu papu (= sound of stones rolling down a rocky area).’

a-páx-I x77] nó>ó kwak.ipf-burst-intr:3 stomach:nom just kwak‘The stomach burst just kwak (= sound of bursting).’

I-ttá\-í ]áá rIIma lootw no>ó rim.ipf-hit-appl:3 woman:nom firewood ground just rim‘The woman dropped the firewood on the ground just rim (= sound of heavy things falling)’

u-dúx-í ððíll-á nó>ó vuu kuk.pf-throw-antp:3sg cliff-obl just vuu kuk‘She threw herself from the cliff just vuu (= sound of flying) kuk (= impact of hitting theground).’

a-1úú-i maám-a no>ó ðundu1u1u gwoyy-á-tff.ipf-bubble-intr:3 water-nom just ðundu1u1u fire-obl-inside‘The water is bubbling just ðundu1u1u (= sound of water bubbling into the fire) into thefire.’

xa-1ak-tt-oó-a nI]ááta no>ó \am \am.pf-eat-pl-antp-1plex there just \am \am‘There we have eaten just \am \am (= sound of eating).’

a-I ððII>-a t IyyIk.ipf-say:3 metal-nom t IyyIk‘The pieces of metal say t IyyIk (= sound of metal against metal).’


a-dux-eék ]áá rIIma lootw no>ó tajayyak.ipf-throw-dir:3 woman:nom firewood ground just tajayyak‘The woman threw the firewood on the ground just tajayyak (= sound of throwing dryfirewood down).’

f-'ftw ]áá éét nó>ó tdff.pf-nudge:3sg woman:nom man just tdff‘The woman nudged the man (on the head to warn him) just tdff (= sound of hitting sthhard).’

Sight7-]71I t eet-a x77n x-II lffŠ-I lililili xaa9a.ipf-cut:3 people-nom trees 3-pf:say:irreal:3sg place-nom lililili just‘The people were cutting trees so that the place just said lililili (= was completely barren).’

I-twáák eet-a lootw x-II xapixi1ik.ipf-stamp:3 people-nom ground 3-pf:say:irreal:3sg xapixi1ik‘People are stamping the ground so that it says xapixi1ik (= become barren).’

a-I x7'7nI ŠI9annIkÐ ttau ttau.ipf-say:3 eyes:nom my:nom:pl ttau ttau‘My eyes say ttau ttau (= The vision of my eyes is weak [temporary because of sickness]).’

xa-Šin-oóð-i gwoó á-I 1~ll7k r77na.ipf-see-it-1sg fire ipf-say:3 1~ll7k far‘I saw a fire saying 1~ll7k (= appearance of sparks) far away.’

Hearing and Sightf-mfft-I Ima-ná ŠI-kÐ mmáa-wakÐ a-I yya] yya].ipf-move-intr:3 hair-nom rel:nom-pl lion-poss:pl ipf-say:3 yya] yya]‘The manes of the lion were moving saying yya] yya] (= movement of long hair).’

Feelinga-I 7l7 ŠaannI ]a~ ]a~.ipf-say:3 body:nom my:nom ]a~ ]a~‘My body says ]a~ ]a~ (= I am feeling uneasy.)’

xa-Šin-oóð-i ððInI t á-I 1~~l.ipf-see-it-1sg heart ipf-say:3 1~~l‘I felt my heart saying 1~~l (= feeling of regaining strength).’

MannerII lffŠ-I wataak.pf:say:3sg place-nom wataak‘The place said wataak (= began to get bright).’

a-I ]aa-I 1uu 1uu.ipf-say:3 woman-pl 1uu 1uu‘The women say 1uu 1uu (= react in an uncontrollable way).’

136 Nicky de Jong

a-9aneék 77 t-I ðff¢θ nó?ó kapÐ kapÐ.pf-know:well:3sg man-nom word just kapÐ kapÐ

‘The man knew well the word just kapÐ kapÐ (= spoke articulately).’

7-17Š-I 77 t-I gffl no>ó d7m d7m.ipf-follow-3 man-nom road just d7m d7m‘The man follows the road just d7m d7m (= not in a hurry).’

i-íta tIIn-a ŠI-kÐ a-I l~l~l~l~.pf-come:3pl cows-nom rel:nom-pl ipf-say:3 l~l~l~l~‘Cows which say l~l~l~l~ (= are healthy) came.’

a-I Ima-ná ŠI-kÐ 1ó>oleeŠ-ákÐ ððuul ððuul.ipf-say:3 hair-nom rel:nom-pl child-poss:pl ððuul ððuul‘The hair of the child says ððuul ððuul (= is little).’

I-I-tf x7'7nI ŠI-kÐ \aká]áán ŠáannI ðð~~l ðð~~l xaa9a.pf-say-3pl eyes:nom rel:nom-pl father my ðð~~l ðð~~l just‘The eyes of my father said ðð~~l ðð~~l just (= are just getting weak).’

a-ú ~-x~~ð-I xI'aallI mana no>ó tI1ak tI1ak.ipf-come:3pl ipf-perch-appl:3 birds garden just tI1ak tI1ak‘The birds came to perch upon the garden just tI1ak tI1ak (= manner of continuouslanding).’

a-ín ]atirjaa-I a-I kin kin.ipf-run:3 duiker-nom ipf-say:3 kin kin‘The duiker is running saying kin kin (= manner of running).’

a-ŠIn-i 77t-I no>ó r7l r7l.ipf-see-antp:3 man-nom just r7l r7l‘The man is looking just r7l r7l (= in a shy way).’

a-kú 77 t-I a>át nó>ó Iðaatw Iðaatw x-II ððII.ipf-swallow:3 man-nom food just Iðaatw Iðaatw 3-pf:say:irreal:3sg ððII‘The man swallowed the food just Iðaatw Iðaatw (= manner of swallowing easily) to say ððII (=completely).’

I-tI]aáŠf eet-a no>ó wana wana.pf-get:up:3pl people-nom just wana wana‘The people got up just wana wana (= manner of getting up quickly of people who weresitting or lying down).’

f-tfmf lffŠ-I II kitdik kitdik.pf-move:3sg land-nom pf:say:3sg kitdik kitdik‘The land moved saying kitdik kitdik (= manner of shaking, vibrating).’

a-I \I9It-a ŠI-kÐ eét-akÐ ]7]7]7]7.ipf-say:3 teeth-nom rel:nom-pl person-poss:pl ]7]7]7]7‘The teeth of this man say ]7]7]7]7 (= fit nicely together).’

a-1a-eék 77 t-I telétw nó>ó vin.pf-dig-ben:3sg man-nom pole just vin‘The man fixed the pole just vin (= upright).’


I-]fð-á 77 t-I no>ó tw717k.pf-jump-ven:3sg man-nom just tw717k‘The man jumped out just tw717k (= manner of jumping).’

a-1II t máám-a gwoó nó>ó tdipÐ.ipf-quench:3 water-nom fire just tdipÐ

‘The water quenched the fire just tdipÐ (= manner of covering completely).’

a-lú 77 t-I nó>ó Šf'Ilf] / 'flfnf].ipf-cry:3 man-nom just Šf'Ilf] / 'flfnf]‘The man was crying just Šf'Ilf] / 'flfnf] (= in tears).’

f->ftÐ 77 t-I loóno] no>ó rupÐ.pf-cut:into:pieces:3sg man-nom rope just rupÐ

‘The man cut the rope into two just rupÐ (= manner of cutting into two).’

i-ri'án twééθ lootw no>ó ra'uk.pf-collapse:3sg house ground just ra'uk‘The house collapsed just ra'uk (= manner of collapsing under its own weight).’

u-núk lootw no>ó kana'uk.pf-beat:3sg ground just kana'uk‘She feel down just kana'uk (= on her knees [because of fear]).’

I-ððáán eet-a mInfk nó>ó tudee / t~k77.ipf-scatter:3 people-nom enemies just tudee / t~k77‘The people scattered the enemies just tudee / t~k77 (= manner of scattering).’

f-yyf>an ngaá rIIma no>ó yyauk.ipf-break:into:pieces:3 woman:nom firewood just yyauk‘The woman is breaking the firewood into pieces just yyauk (= manner of breaking piecesoff).’

xa-1ák-tt-a x~ð~wan nI]ááta td~tw.pf-eat-pl-1plex buffalo there td~tw‘There we have eaten the buffalo td~tw (= manner of taking all, i.e. the whole buffalo).’

u-Šu1-eék ]áá loxiín to loóro] i\\á nó>ó ððItIk.pf-strangle-appl:3sg woman:nom hyena rope neck just ððI tIk‘The woman strangled the hyena with a rope around its neck just ððItIk (= tightly)’

a-gám x77la]-I eét aððiit no>ó twa1ut.pf-catch:3sg leopard-nom man hand just twa1ut‘The leopard bit the man in his hand just twa1ut (= firmly).’

a-áx-I í1i]-i pItÐ.pf-cook-impers:3sg meat-nom pItÐ

‘The meat is cooked pItÐ (= completely covered).’

a-m~�-I lffŠ-I a-I 'fnttff t.ipf-be:soft-intr:3 ground-nom ipf-say:3 'fnttff t‘The ground is soft saying 'fnttff t (= boggy).’

138 Nicky de Jong

Notes

1. The examples are written phonetically using the IPA. Lenis consonants preceded by a fortisconsonant are realized as fortis (post-lexical rule). In the examples, however, they are written lenisfor transparency, especially of reduplicated ideophones. So the pronunciation of for example/xipik xipik/ is [xipik kipik].

2. The lenis voiced stops are slightly implosive and the fortis ones with egressive lung air. The lenisvoiceless dental stop is apical, the fortis one is laminar, also the fortis alveolar one. The alveo-palatal fricative is the lenis variant of the voiceless alveopalatal affricate and the velar fricative ofthe voiceless velar stop. The fortis interdental fricative has more friction than the lenis one and sodo the fortis lateral and semivowels. The fortis nasals are longer than the lenis ones. Theconsonants occurring in the coda are pÐ, tÐ, twÐ, kÐ (devoiced stops), t, tw, k, θ, m, n, \, ], l and n.3. There is some more evidence of compensation causing an onset consonant to become fortis:The verb t~'~ ‘blow’ when adding the ventive suffix -a becomes either t~'~a or t~ba ‘come blow,revive’.

4. Verbs are in the singular command form. The same suffix -an changes adjectives into causativeverbs:

ðirja]a ‘in a surprised state’ dirjáá]an ‘cause to be surprised’patdaŠa ‘wide’ patdááŠan ‘cause to become wider, stretch’

5. Reduplication in verbs also can indicate repeated action or duration:nIríí>an ‘strip meat in long pieces’, ŠItwIInan ‘tear up’, p7p77Šan ‘remove one by one’;ŠItwII>an ‘filter, squeeze through a piece of cloth’, pupúúŠan ‘rub, erase’

References


French, P.L. 1976. “Toward an explanation of phonetic symbolism”. Word 28:305–322.Newman, P.1968. “Ideophones from a syntactic point of view”. JWAL 5:107–117.Samarin, W.J. 1970 “Inventory and choice in expressive language”. Word 26:153–169.Samarin, W.J. 1971. “Measuring variation in the use of Gbeya ideophones”. Proceedings of the

Eighth Congress of the West African Linguistic Society, 483–488.

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Ideophones in Cilubà*

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N.S. KabutaGhent University

Introduction

This article begins with an analysis of the behavior of ideophones and ideophonicwords on the phonological, morphological and syntactic levels. Then the ideasconveyed are briefly examined. In conclusion a definition of the ideophone inCilubà is suggested. To collect ideophones, a corpus of approximately 500,000words (comprising conversations, tales, poetry, proverbs, a bible translation and adictionary) was surveyed. However, the original aim was not to collect ideophones,but just to make a frequency list of words to be included in a Cilubà–Frenchdictionary. We were struck by certain words whose phonology was characterized byan accumulation of features which only seldom appear in the rest of the system.Approximately 280 such words were isolated, most of them found in tales. Theywere then discussed with varied Cilubà speakers to establish their precise meanings.Interestingly enough, it appeared that, apart from a dozen very frequent forms,most of the others, although they were recognized as being ideophones, were notknown to most speakers (perhaps it would be more correct to say: “present-day”, or“educated”, or “urban” speakers). Only the deverbative ideophones were spontane-ously understood by everyone. This research is part of a Cilubà lexicography projectand the article actually a “framework” for the ideophone category, which allows usto give a precise definition of the ideophone, not only in French, but also in Cilubà.One of the aims of the project is to develop an acceptable grammatical meta-language in Cilubà to be used in the macrostructure of the dictionary.

1. Phonology

To understand the particularities of ideophones, it is necessary to outline thephonology of Cilubà. In the following summary, the most relevant points areunderlined. There are 5 vowels:

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front central backhigh i uhigh-mid e olow-mid (7) (f)low a

The most frequent vowels are the high (i, u) and the low (a), the latter appearingpredominantly in final position. The vowels in brackets ([+low +mid]) are allo-phones of e and o respectively. They are written the same way as the high-midvowels, their pronunciation being predictable.

There are 2 tonemes: high, not marked, being the most frequent, and low (`).It should be pointed out here that Cilubà displays a tone reversal system in compar-ison with Proto-Bantu, and, contrary to most of the Bantu languages. The fallingtoneme (ˆ) is rare and a rising (ˇ) never occurs outside inflection. Since a vowel canbe short (with 1 mora), long (with 2 morae) or falling (with 2 morae) and bear ahigh or low toneme, every vowel yields 5 phonemes. To these, one can add 3 nasalallophones all of which are bimoraic (1 with a high tone, 1 with a low tone and 1with a falling tone). Here are, the different forms for the vowel a:

a.�phonemes: /á/, /à/, /á˜/, /à˜/, /â˜/b.�with complex tones: /¦a˜/, /â˜/c.�nasalized vowel /ã/ (with the tonal alternations alluded to above)

One can then state that nasality, as well as rising and falling features, are alwaysaccompanied by lengthening. Furthermore, nasality and lengthening are onlypossible before a consonant inside a word, which means that they normally do notappear in final position:

(1) kumvwa [ku˜mvwa], musonso [muso˜nso]‘hear’ ‘nail’

Exceptions to these rules are very few, although the frequency of the words con-cerned, all of which are monosyllabic, may be high:

(2) àn or èn, to, mbû‘yes’, no ocean

There are 18 consonants: /m/, /n/, /\/, /]/, /b/, /v/, /l/,/d/, /z/, /Š/, /p/, /φ/, /f/, /t/, /s/,/σ/,/k/, /tw/. Some of these are represented as follows: /\/: ny; /tw/: c; /]/: ng; /Š/: j; /w/:sh; /φ/: p. [d] is in complementary distribution with [l] after /n/ and before /i/ ; [p]is in complementary distribution with [Φ] after a nasal.

The syllable displays the following general structures: CV, V, CVV, CGV, NCV.Repetition of syllables is frequent, but as far as verb stems are concerned, totalrepetition only occurs on the segmental level, unless the repeated segments have all

Ideophones in Cilubà 141

high tonemes (4a). In (4b), the repetition of LH is not LHLH, but LHHH. This isalso often the case with nominal stems (cf. 4c):

(4) a. ku-bela > ku-belabela‘to advise repeatedly’

b. ku-mòna > ku-mònamona‘to see repeatedly’

c. mu-dìbudibu‘kind of vegetable’

Phoneme combinations that are not permitted are:

a. CG: nyw, cw, zw, jw, shw;b. CC, except for NCc. CV: ve, va, fe, fa; vo, fo; tid. NVl, except for []V], otherwise l is nasalized.

Ideophones and ideophonic words are characterized by the presence or accumula-tion of phonological features rarely or even never found in other words. Moreover,a large number of them are not as arbitrary as de Saussure would claim. Here arethe most striking facts:

Long final vowels, even in a CGV# sequence (normally, this only occurs with aconnective pronoun which, by definition, is always followed by another word).2

(5) a. baa tùù‘surprise mixed with fear’ ‘falling’

b. bàtàà, betàà, botàà, cìdìdìì, fìtùtùù‘silence’ ‘flattening’ ‘clean’ ‘red’ ‘dark’

c. byùù, kabyùù, kwàà‘haste’ ‘noise of something falling’ ‘noise of something disappearing into

bushes’

But the following sequences, which are normally not permitted, do occur inideophones:

(6) cwà ncwi tii‘falling’ ‘swallowing quickly’ ‘passing of time’

Short vowel in normally “heavy” syllables, that is, in CGV or VNG sequences (thesevowels are underlined in the examples):

(7) a. kodyàkodyà pòdyòdyòò pyakàà‘disorder’ ‘in vain’ ‘slap’

b. ndòng‘challenge (often accompanied by a particular gesture)’

Nasals in final position:

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(8) nden [nd7«] nzen [nz7«] nyon [\f«] or ncon [ntwf«]‘adherence’ ‘duration’ ‘dry’

Accumulation of low tones:

(9) lùùlùùlù lòbòlòbò mbyùmbyùmbyù mvùù,‘impatience’ ‘pressure’ ‘following’ ‘movement (often upwards)’tàlàlàà nzònzònzò‘cold/silence’ ‘dripping’

Bilabial voiceless plosive in absence of a nasal:

(10) pa‘grasp’

Iconism and onomatopoeia:

(11) ncàncàncà/ zàkàzàkà kìdìkìdì; tòkotòko‘trembling’ ‘bursting’

Variability (variants are perfect synonyms with slight formal differences):

(12) a. nyàkàtàà/nyèkètèè‘silence’

b. bùù/mpyùù, pyu, mbyùù, kabyùù‘falling’

c. tuu/ntuntuntu, tii, twii‘passing of time, succession’

d. sùbùsùbù/zùbùzùbù‘flabby’

e. zee/zeezeeze, teeteete‘whiteness’

Reduplication of vowels and syllables, partial or total, is illustrated in manyexamples above, with the following recurrent tone patterns: LL, HH, HL, LH ; LLL,HHH ; LLLL, HHHH, HLHL, LHLH, LLLLLL (the underlined types do not occurin verbs, with HLHL being much more frequent than LHLH).

Four syllabic structures are particularly recurrent: (N)CV:(N), (N)C1V1(:N)C2V1-(N)C1V1(:N)C2V1, C1V1:C1V1:C1V1 and C1V1C2V1:. All these structures canbe combined with glides. In each of them, an identical vowel tends to be used:

(13) a. ndùn twii‘running away’ ‘passing of time’

b. kabakaba bondòbondò‘embarrassment’ ‘mess’


c. zeezeeze teeteete lùùlùùlù ncàncàncà‘whiteness’ ‘redness’ ‘haste’ ‘trembling’mbyùmbyùmbyù myamyamya‘large number of people’ ‘scarcity’

d. batàà‘quiet’

The proportion of mid vowels seems to be much higher than in the rest of thesystem:

(14) bondòbondò byòmòòmà shèèshèèshè teeteete‘mess’ ‘in large quantity’ ‘limping along, dawdling’ ‘redness’

Although it is obvious that ideophones predominantly use low-toned and length-ened vowels, the speaker enjoys the freedom to use the tones and vowel quantity ashe or she wishes in many of them. So, one of their characteristics is their supra-segmental unstability. More generally, ideophones seem to form a class in whichalmost all normally discouraged phonological behaviors are allowed.

Some of the phonological characteristics are also found in poetry, such aslengthening of the last vowel, muting of such a vowel, accumulation of low tones,shortening of normally long vowels. Some of these characteristics, namely thetendency to vowel lengthening and repetition of segments, accumulation of lowtones and iconism, are also found in polysyllabic (more than 2 syllables) nominalstems and adverbs, as discussed in § 6 below.

2. Morphology

Morphologically, ideophones do not have any prefixes. A number of them arederived from verbs by splitting the root at a syllable boundary, whereas verbalderivation is obtained by suffixation of a derivative morpheme. However, splittingis rarer in CV(V,N)C roots. Moreover, the lexical tone of the root is often invertedin the ideophone. These deverbative ideophones represent approximately 20% ofthe total number. They are generally used with the infinitive they derive from toexpress intensity. In this case they act much like the adverbs of intensity be, bikolè,yà bûngì ‘very’, bikolè bitàmbe ‘extremely’, except that these adverbs do accompanya verb and lack the “color”, “sound” and “movement” inherent to ideophones. Ithappens very often that the verb is not expressed, in which case the ideophone juststands next to an NP or an independent pronoun. The result is an increasedvividness and speed in communication.

Chart 1 gives examples of deverbative ideophones. “Cognate verbs” in column2 are understood here as verbs which will often co-occur with a particular ideo-phone. In this case, they are the verbs from which the ideophones in column 1 are

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derived. It is assumed here that derivation goes from verb to ideophone, but investi-gation is necessary to make sure whether it is not the other way round. In sentenceswhere no verb is mentioned, it is only this source verb which is understood. Withnon-deverbative ideophones, a cognate verb can be a different word, as is shown inthe chart below. Column 3 lists cross-references to synonyms. In example h, it isassumed that a reduplicated syllable was added to the truncated root fì but, onceagain, one is not sure whether the original form was not the supposedly truncatedone. It is noticeable that, lexically long vowels in the verbs are often shortened in theideophones, while the tone pattern is often inverted. Finally, this type of ideo-phones, creativity is allowed. Tests have shown that from kutònkola ‘overturn’, ‘turnupside down’, one can produce tonkòtonkò, tònkotònko or tònkô, without shockingany Cilubà speaker. The same is true of kucànkunya ‘to chew’, which yields cankù-cankù or cànkucànku. Not all verbs are of course potential sources for such ideo-phones. Verbs expressing any kind of movement (visual, aural, mechanical, …),however, seem to be very good candidates for this process.

In (15) below, examples containing ideophones whose frequency is very high are

Chart 1.

Ideophone Cognateverbs

cf. Meaning

a. bàtàà

b. bàzàbàzàc. betààd. bondàbondàe. bondòbondò

f. butù/bùtuug. nanù

h. fìtùtùùi. kùnzùùj. +tòò/tòkòòk. tèkètèèl. +tòndô/

tondòtondòm. zàkàzàkà

kubàtama

kubàzakanakubèètakubòndakubòndakaja

kubùtulakunana

kufììkakukùnzakutòòkakuteketakutonda

kuzakala

+nyaa/nyàkàtàà, nyèkètèè ; tàlàlàà,vi(i), zàbàà

tengàtengà, zèkezèke1 kodyàkodyà, lapàlapà, myanda-myanda, nsòbònsòbò, nyomà-nyomà, zèkezèke; 2 nyùkùnyùkù,kashèndèndè, nanù

cìdìdìì+zee/zeezeeze, nzenzenze, kazeezefùbèè (<kufùba)

mbòmbòmbò, ncàncàncà

‘calm, silence

‘prattling, babbling’‘flattening, crushing, compactness’

1 ‘mess’; 2 ‘continuity’

‘destroying, annihilating’‘lengthening by pulling; duration;lasciviousness’‘black’‘red’‘white’‘weakness, discouragement’‘being overwhelmed’

‘trembling’

listed. (15c) and (15i) are examples of a metaphorical use of an ideophone:


(15) a. Ke lwèbè lupèmbà elu: ùkolè booboobo!‘I bless you: may you be healthy, full of health’

b. Bilàmbà byà Nkàshààmà kukùnza àmu cìdìdìì nè mashi‘The Leopard’s clothes were red, drenched with blood’

c. Mwandà mwikàle àmu fìtùtùù‘The affair or story was extremely unclear’

d. Kukùnjija mêsu, kulwaù kùnzùù‘Her eyes became blood-red’

e. Ùdila mwadi, kwîsu àmu ncon!‘He was crying without a trace of a tear’

f. Bantu kudyà nshìma, kuvinga yônso nkòng‘The people ate the porridge, they polished it off’

g. Mbùji kwimana piinàápu àmu tàlàlàà, bisoosà kàdi, kudila kàdidi‘The goat didn’t move, it stood there without a movement, without a sound’

h. È kôko kushààla àmu tèkètèè‘She was standing (or sitting. limp!’

i. Mbwalu bwà dikèma, bwà muntu ùdìsungwila àmu lufù nùnku patòòke tòò!‘It’s amazing that a man should choose death in front of all of us!’

j. Bàmwebeja, yêye àmu vi!‘When she was asked, she didn’t make a sound!’

k. Bantu cibingu wòò!‘People jeered: “wo”!’

l. Nzòòlo mitòòkè yà zeezeeze‘White chickens, snow-white’

m. Twâkatàta too, maalu au kujikaù‘We suffered a long time, until those problems came to an end’

Many ideophones (±19%) are clearly onomatopoeic. In many others, we are awarethat our feeling about their onomatopoeic character might be somewhat subjec-tive:3

(16) a. Même mwoyo munda baa! or Mwoyo munda kumpandika boo!‘My heart beat “baa”!’

b. Kumutàpayè mapì bakàbakà‘She flapped him “bakabaka”!

c. Kavùla kàvwa kàlòka bòcàbòcà/bòcòkàbòcòkà‘It was raining quite a lot’

d. Kuboobola byâta bokòbokò‘To beat out a carpet “bokoboko”’

e. Mucì ùtuuta mu mâyi cìmbwicìmbwi‘The stick was hitting the (surface of.the water’

f. Ùvwa ùzakala zàkàzàkà/ncàncàncà, mbòmbòmbò‘He was all of a tremble’

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The tenses most used in sentences containing ideophones are the past and presentindicative.

In negative, future and interrogative forms, no ideophone was found.

3. Syntax

As it is obvious from the examples above, the structureVP+Id is extremely frequent.Even when one seems to recognize an NP+Id structure, it is easy to show that theverb is simply understood. Examples (15e), (15k) and (16a), (16f) and (16i), canrespectively be re-written as in (17), with the verbs underlined. It may then beassumed that ideophones act most of the time as adverbs, the difference being thatideophones are extremely specific, often modifying only one specific verb.

(17) a. Ùdila mwadi, kwîsu (kwikàle) kûme àmu ncon,b. Bantu kwela cibingu wòò or Même mwoyo munda kwaba baa!

When determining an NP, an ideophone will either appear inside a connectivephrase (NP Æ N+CP with CP Æ c+Id)4, or follow the NP directly (cf. 18h–18j):

(18) a. Mvùla wa càbwàcàbwà‘heavy rain’

b. Mbushùwà bwinè bwà jaajaaja‘It is the exact truth’

c. Njila wa landàlandà‘an even road’

d. Kwasabò diyuukì dyà lebùlebù‘They started a drawling (or noisy) conversation’

e. Bulundà bwà lapàlapà‘an everlasting friendship’

f. Mwoyo wà zùkùzùkù‘restlessness, envy, impatience’

g. Mulongi wa zakùzakù‘a careless student’

h. Bintu kabùkabù‘miscellaneous things’

i. Ùcìdi àmu katakata‘She is still in perfect condition’

j. Nshìngù lebàlebà‘Long and supple neck’

Some ideophones can be used like nouns before a VP, determining agreement inclass 1, like all prefixless nouns: IP Æ Id+VP. They also happen to occupy an objectslot, as in example (19d). Note that examples (19a) and (19b) are proverbs and(19c) a saying.


(19) a. Labàlabà kàtu ùmana yà pànwapa‘Jealousy never solved any problems’

b. Lùkùlùkù wàdììla5 bibìshi‘Impatience ate raw things (= one should not be impatient)’

c. kùtùkùtù, maalu kaàtu àjika‘Haste never settles problems’

d. Zùkùzùkù udiyè nendè neàmufikishè kubì‘Her restlessness will bring her into trouble’

Very often an ideophone will co-occur with the word àmu used as an emphaticadverb (a possible translation of this word would be: ‘not otherwise’, ‘just’ or‘really’).6 Such a word is said to be a frequent collocate for ideophones. This isillustrated in (15).

4. Meaning

Expressivity is the highest motivation for the use of ideophones. Utterances like theones in (22) are characterized by their vividness and by the speed with which themessage is conveyed. One can notice that the verb, with its array of morphemes andtense markers, often becomes useless:

(20) a. Ke Nzevu jùù sè: “Mbàáyi”then Elephant ideo that: “I’m off”‘Then the Elephant stood up at once and said: “I’m off” ’

b. Mwîvi lapaathief ideo

‘The thief fell down and could not get up any more’c. Yêye mêsu kabakaba

he eyes ideo

‘He was so worried that he was nervously blinking’d. Bônso lubilu ndùùn

all speed ideo

‘They all ran away’

It is striking to see that most ideophones are words for sounds:

(21) a. bya, kabyùù, mpyùù‘sound of something falling’

b. cyàcyà, kwàà, mvùmvùmvù, zelezele‘rustling’

c. njènjènjè‘slow rustling’

d. mbambamba, ntùm ntùm, tàkàtàkà, tukùtukù‘heart beat’

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e. nkenkenke‘sound of a hammer in a smithy’

f. ntùù‘sound of drum’

g. nzelelee‘sound of metal coins’

h. puupuupu‘sound of storm’

i. pee, puupuu‘sound of wind’

There are also quite a few words for different kinds of movements

(22) a. peepeepe‘swinging of a flame’

b. bokòbokò‘repeated and accelerated movement’

c. lebàlebà‘swinging (of a long and supple neck)’

d. mbùù, mbyùù‘movement of something or someone falling’

e. mvùù‘upwards movement’

f. njen‘quick movement’

Interestingly enough, ideophones for silence (or absence of noise are also quitenumerous).

(23) nya/nyaa, vi/vii, nyèkètèè/nyàkàtàà

The precise meaning of ideophones is of course often dependent on the words thatsurround them. Chart 1 also reveals that “red”, “white” and “black” are the onlycolors that have ideophones, as is the case in many languages of the world.

Other ideas expressed by ideophones are listed below.

With more than one ideophone�: abundance, average, beat, cleanness, continuity,density, disappearance, dryness, duration, falling, filling, firmness, following, forgood, frightening, going out, haste, impatience, mess, row, running away, scarcity,slightly, suddenness, time, totality, trembling, weakness.

With one ideophone�: adherence, being overwhelmed, carelessness, challenging,completeness, contempt, damage, dawdling, dazzling, delirium, depth, diminishing,diversity, divulging, dripping, elasticity, embarrassment, emptiness, excess, beingfixed, flabbiness, flatulence, following, genuineness, gulping down, healthiness,hole, jealousy, jumping, laughing, launching, long and supple, longing, moving to


or from a point, obstructing, opening, order, peculiar, perfection, pouring out,purity, quarrelling, quivering, range, roaming, without exception, shame, spreadingout, spurting out, squinting, staggering, standing, straightforwardness, succession,swimming, swinging, tearing, twinkling, unexpectedness, untying, unwillingness,wading about, waking up with a start.

5. Ideophonic words

Ideophonic words are nouns, adverbs and verbs which share many phonologicaland semantic features with ideophones, especially with onomatopoeic ideophones.There are indeed many examples which, as it were, aurally reproduce specialimpressions such as ‘repetition’, ‘noise’, ‘mess’ etc. The use of voiced alveolar andespecially palatal fricatives in stems related to vibration (flash of light, blurredvision, vibration, transparency, etc. ) or especially of voiceless stops for the ideas of‘hardness’, ‘dryness’, ‘crispness’ or ‘jerkiness’ (crust, stinginess, shell, coarseness,hiccough, burst, spark, skeleton, skull, etc. ) is highly suggestive, and obviously notarbitrary in the Saussurian sense. The major morphological difference betweenideophones and ideophonic words is the presence of prefixes in the latter. Phono-logically, these words differ from ideophones in that the great majority of them arepolysyllabic (this word is used here only for words whose stem is longer than 2syllables) and are made longer still by the presence of prefixes. For adverbs andnouns, the latter generally fall in classes 7 (augmentative), 11 (augmentative) and12 (diminutive) and are often combined with a nasal prefix of class 1. The expres-sive value of these classes is very clear. Associated with a given class, the nounsderive a marked meaning (bigger, smaller, harder, etc. than normal or lacking somequality). Finally, variants for nominal ideophones are numerous, as with ideo-phones.7

5.1 Ideophonic nouns

Different kinds of reduplications are illustrated. Each noun is followed by a pair ofnumbers, indicating its gender:8

Total (or quasi-total) reduplication

(24) biyàmbàyàmbà9 7/8‘(banana) leaves worn for dancing’cibàyìbàyì 7/8‘butterfly’

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Partial reduplication:

(25) bukònkòtò 14/0‘avarice’cibwekeke 7/8‘dwarf ’lukòtòtò 11/4‘crust’

Final -lV:

(26) +dikàngàlà 5/6 /nkàngà 1/4‘guinea fowl’+luzebele/luzebe 11/4, cizebe 7/8‘fringe’+mbungulu/mbùngù 1/4‘big vessel’

Final -ku:

(27) +cibùtùkù/cibùtù 7/8‘kind of grasshopper’

Final -lVtV:

(28) bunkòlòtò 14/0‘rudeness’+cishèletè/cifwèletè 7/8‘kind of insect’

Final -kVtV:

(29) +cipòmpokotò/cipoopo 7/8‘truncated object’+cishèlèkètè/cishèèlèèlè 7/8‘log partly burnt’

Final -kVdi (in some words combined with partial reduplication):

(30) cintankidi 7/8‘good-for-nothing’; very fat person’+cisubikidi/cisuba 7/8‘tuft, crest’kandòndònkidi 12/13‘hell’, cf. kandòndò 12/13 ‘well’

Final -VlVkVsV:

(31) cipèlèkèsè 7/8‘shell’+kapùlùkùsù/kapèlèkèsè, kapulukutu 12/13‘small bat’


5.2 Ideophonic adverbs

Ideophonic adverbs have monoclass nominal prefixes and their stems are generallytotally or partially reduplicated. They are often derived from verbs or nouns. Inclasses 7 and 14, the deverbative ideophonic adverbs, whose stems always bear lowtones, always accompany the source verbs and express ‘negligence’. The process ishighly productive, especially in class 7 (in the examples below, the source verb iswritten in brackets). Class 8 contains many adverbs derived from adjectives ornominal participles as well as from verbs. Only the adverbs derived directly fromverbs display ideophonic characteristics in this class.

(33) bibàtàbàtà 8‘leaning to the ground (cf. kubààtaja crush)’busùm bàsùmbà 14 (cf. kusùmba ‘buy’)‘buy anything, without any planning’cibùtàbùtà 7‘secretly’ (cf. kubùta ‘hide’)citèèkàtèèkà 7‘putting carelessly’ (cf. kutèèka ‘put’)cyànnyìmannyìmà 7‘going backwards’ (cf. nnyimà 1/4 ‘back’)kalobèlobè 12‘sparingly’ (cf. kulòbelela ‘use sparingly’)kaseke-seke 12‘one-sidedly’ (cf. luseke ‘side’)lubelubelu 11‘showing one thigh in order to seduce’ (cf. cibelu 7/8 ‘thigh’)lùngìdingìdi 11‘confusingly’mipàsàpàsà 4‘at the same time’ (cf. dipàsà 5/6 ‘twin child’)nsekenseke 1‘proudly’ (cf. luseke 11/4 ‘side’)tubwidibwidi 13‘indistinctly’

5.3 Ideophonic verbs

Beside the fact that almost any verb can become more expressive by total stemreduplication, there are verbs which inherently have expressive quality. These aregenerally characterized by partial reduplication of the initial syllable:

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(34) kubaabata 15/0‘palpate’kuboobola 15/0‘beat out’kubòmbola 15/0‘empty by shaking’kububula 15/0‘shake out’kunyenyeta 15/0‘twinkle’kukonkota 15/0‘spare miserly’kufyototoka 15/0‘have hunger pangs’kukukumina 15/0‘stutter’

6. Conclusions

The definition of the Cilubà ideophone is based on the form, the content and thesyntax. Phonologically, an ideophone accumulates rare distinctive traits with astrong tendency for repetition of syllables and tone patterns. Morphologically, it isprefixless and often deverbative. Semantically, it is highly expressive. Syntactically,it generally follows a VP, like an adverb; it can also determine a noun whenincluded inside a connective construction.

The grammar should contain the category “ideophone” and a distinction bemade between pure ideophones, onomatopoeic ideophones, ideophonic nouns,adverbs and verbs. The mini-grammar as well as the macrostructure of the dictio-nary should mention these distinctions.

On the lexicographical level, in the Cilubà dictionary of De Clercq & Willems,ideophones and onomatopoeias are called mots images ‘picture words’. As has beenshown, however, a clear distinction should be made between ideophones and oronomatopoeic ideophones. Finally, as the pronunciation is often deviant, it isnecessary to indicate it in the dictionary by supplying the suprasegmental features.

A problem raised by the macrostructure is that of the metalanguage. Indeed, toname the ideophone in Cilubà, Bundukì 1975 suggests “citooyambidi”, a termcontaining the stem -tooyi ‘noise’ and -bidi ‘body’, ‘shape’. However, the examina-tion of the ideophone framework reveals that this term adequately applies to theonomatopoeic ideophones and is not appropriate to designate the entire category.So, suggestions are: (1) “mushìndiku” (mu-shìndik-u) 3/4, a word derived from theverb kushìndika ‘stress’, ‘emphasize’, and belonging to the same class of words as


mwakù ‘word’, mwakulu ‘language’, mupinganyi ‘pronoun’, etc., or 2. mutwìshi(mu-tw-ìsh-i) 3/4, from the phrase kutwà ku mwoyo ‘impress’, ‘touch’, ‘strike’,‘move’. The second word has a derivational potential, which the first lacks. So it iseasy to obtain an adjective. Here, then, is how the entry for the ideophone subùsubùcould look like in a semi-bilingual Cilubà–French dictionary:

subùsubù, mutwìshi, id. flask. Muntu ùdi~pàdìye mutàmbe kuteketa (bwà dìsaamà,dipùngì, a.n.), mushààle cizubuzubu, munda mutupù. Meetà ùvwa musâme matùkùàà bûngì, mushààle àmu~ ‘Meetà a été longtemps malade, il n’en restait plus que desos.’; Yêye kutùlàmbila nshìma misubùlùke ~, kaìyì didyà ‘Elle nous prépara une pâtetoute molle, impossible à manger’.

Finally, derivational processes used in ideophones can effectively be applied to coinnew words.

Abbreviations and symbols

$: syllable boundary, +: variants, #: word boundary, ~: head word, a.n. : àmu nànku etc.,C: consonant, Id or id: ideophone, N: nasal consonant, V: vowel, var. : variant.

Notes

* I thank Cl. Faïk-Nzuji and R. Noss for their constructive suggestions. Cilubà is spoken in

DEST "kab-n*">

Congo-Kinshasa as a national language, besides Lingala, Kiswahili and Kikongo.

1. The tone in phonetic transcriptions are placed beneath the vowels.

2. This would suggest that logically, the connective should be attached to the word following it.

3. It is interesting to note that the barking of a dog is reproduced differently according to thelanguages, whereas cats seem to miaow approximately the same way all over the world.

4. Cilubà speakers favor the connective structure. So one finds it even with adjectives, which arenormally directly connected to a noun (nzùbu mutòòke ‘a white house’ > nzùbu wa mutòòke).There is often a slight difference in meaning, the discussion of which is not relevant here.

5. This is a variant form for the remote past tense ùdììle he ate.

6. N. de Jong has shown that such an introductory word is also used in Didinga, a language of theSudan (International Symposium on ideophones in Sankt Augustin, 25–27 January 1999).

7. Ideophonic words are found in a large number of Bantu languages, as shown in Kabuta 1980.

8. Here is a list of Cilubà nominal prefixes (a +sign follows secondary prefixes; N represents anynasal prefix):1 mu-/N-,mù-,Ø-; 2 ba-/bà-,baa+; 3 mu-/mù-; 4 mi-/mì-,N-,Ø-; 5 di-/dì-; 6 ma-/mà-,maa+;7 ci-/cì,cii+; 8 bi-/bì,bii+; 11 lu-/lù-; 12 ka-/kà-,kaa+; 13 tu-/tù-,tuu+; 14 bu-/bù-,buu+; 15 ku-;16 pa+/-; 17 ku+/-; 18 mu+/-

154 N.S. Kabuta

References

De Clercq, A. and E. Willems. 1960. Dictionnaire Tshiluba-Françai. Léopoldville: Scheut.Bunduki, K. 1975. Lexique linguistique du Cilubà. Lubumbashi: CELTA.Coupez, A. 1975. “Variabilité lexicale en bantou”. African Languages 1:164–203.Kabuta, N.S. 1980. Le thème nominal polysyllabique dans les langues bantoues. MA thesis,

Brussels:Université Libre.Kabuta, N.S. 1998. Loanwords in Cilubà [Lexikos 8]. Stellenbosch: Rands Afrikaanse Universiteit.Mukanda wa Mvidi Mukulu. 1994. Verbum Bible. Spain.Samarin, W.J. 1970: “Inventory and choice in expressive language”. Word 26:153–169.

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Universality and diversity

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Ideophones from Baka and Kxoe

Christa Kilian-HatzUniversität zu Köln

1. Introduction

Everybody knows ideophones from colloquial speech, particularly from comics, andprobably most people have used them unwittingly on many of occasion. Ideo-phones are words like e.g. boing, miau, ding-dong or ka-wumm. They are words thatare most typical in spoken and informal speech. Koch & Öesterreicher (1985:19ff)term this register of language ‘Sprache der Nähe’ (speech of proximity), as opposedto forms of written formal speech termed ‘Sprache der Distanz’ (speech of dis-tance). The term “Sprache der Nähe” sees ideophones from two perspectives:

First, the use of ideophones brings the speaker as well as the hearer from thepure speech level to a level nearer the event, as already Fortune (1962:6) in Shonaand later Kunene (1978:34ff) in Southern Sotho (both Bantu languages) observed:

An ideophone is a vivid re-presentation or re-creation of an event in sound.(Fortune 1962:6)

Ideophones, in this view, are direct speech, a verbalized imitation of extra linguisticevents or situations. By the use of ideophones the speaker simulates — or raises theillusion — that the verbalized event happens simultaneously the moment of itsproduction/pronunciation. In this way, the “speaker-turns-actor” (Kunene 1978),while the hearer, accordingly, becomes a direct witness of this ideophonic eventinstead of experiencing indirectly a report. Comparable to a report on the radio, thespeaker changes by the use of ideophones over to the live broadcast which givesproof of the authenticity of the reported event and which involves the hearerdirectly in this event. In this perspective speech level and extra linguistic event levelare identical (cf. Von Roncador 1988, who terms this kind of level shift ‘Referenz-verschiebung’ (shift of reference’ where his definition of direct speech is based on).

Second, informal speech — and especially colloquial speech wherein ideophones

156 Christa Kilian-Hatz

are very often found — is used, to keep and/or to establish a social proximity to thepartner of conversation, i.e. to create or to maintain a certain intimacy. This socialnearness can be further promoted by the use of ideophones, because speaker andhearer are both — as indicated above — direct participants of the ideophonic event.Nuckolls (1996:79) interprets this fact of “speaker involvement” in PastazaQuechua (an Amerind language; Equatoral B) even as a primary function ofideophones, i.e. to create a relaxed atmosphere of communication between speakerand hearer through the illusion of a shared experience of participation in thereported event.

In view of their dramatic function, ideophones can be defined as follows:

Ideophones are part of an informal language register, and their function is todramatize a narration, i.e. the discourse in general. Extra linguistic events areverbalized by their use whereby a shift from pure speech level to event level takesplace; in this way, speaker and hearer are both directly involved in the ideophonicevent as actor and witness.

Two examples, one from Baka — an Adamwa-Ubangi language in SoutheastCameroon — and the other from Kxoe, a Central-Khoisan language spoken inNamibia may illustrate this:

(1) Á ja pe mbénga a-ng7 kang a kpè-lo.3sg take ben spear poss-3poss.sg kang loc stick-wood‘He takes [the point of] the spear: kang (i.e. he attaches the iron point of thespear) on the stick.’

(2) Kóm ´à xà úá¾ı-¾ı-tá kúrú˜bellows obj 3.m.pl stand-ii-past press the bellowsthukrrr thukrrr thukrrr thukrrr thukrrr thukrrr.thukrrr thukrrr thukrrr thukrrr thukrrr thukrrr‘Ever since that time they stand there and work the bellows: thukrrr thukrrrthukrrr thukrrr thukrrr thukrrr.’

2. Formal universals

Taking this special performative function of verbalized dramatization, we canexplain some formal parallels concerning ideophones across the languages of theworld, Baka and Kxoe included:

Ideophones are simplexes, i.e. they are not marked for person, tense and moodlike verbs, and they are not marked for case, gender and number like nouns. Thelack of tense makes sense insofar as the ideophonic event happens simultaneouslyin the moment when it is uttered; ideophones are generally therefore per se actual,as Kock (1985) remarks about ideophones in Southern Sotho (Bantu):

Universality and diversity 157

It is the intention, the communicative purpose of ideophones to ‘actualize’ thatwhich it describes (Kock 1985:51).

Case and number, typically marked on nouns, as well as the above mentionedverbal markers are redundant if not inappropriate to ideophones because ideo-phones do not denote only such parts of speech like verbs and nouns, but rather acomplete utterance. They have sentence-like character and denote inherently notonly a state or an action but also the cause and other participants (e.g. patient,instrument, etc.) of the event. In this perspective, ideophones replace a completesentence; an example from Baka demonstrates a whole series of such succeeding“ideophonic sentences” in a folktale:

(3) Wòàwòàwòàwòà pfff‘the hunters are discussing’ ‘the chimpanzee interrupts eating’kung wóoò‘a spear strikes the chimpanzee’ ‘falls down’pao tung‘brakes a branch’ ‘hard falling he arrives on the ground.’

The semantics of ideophones can only be understood when seen on this back-ground of their performative function of level shift, which evokes in the hearer theillusion of a direct participation. To ‘participate’ means to experience an event notonly rationally but to experience it with ones own senses. Logically, ideophonesdenote events, that can be experienced sensorially, i.e. they denote a special aspectof the event that can be experienced by the senses: They denote the manner how anevent is heard, seen, touched, smelled and felt psychologically. That’s why ideo-phones denote so many different concepts as, for example, sound imitations(onomatopes), very often also special kinds of movements (e.g. Baka: ndiandìà‘staggering of a tortoise or a drunkard’), striking colors (red as a beet-root; loudcolors), rarely smell, but quite often also extreme psychic states like ‘be in greatanger’ or ‘be mad/confused’, etc.

The composition of an ideophonic word doesn’t participate in the morphologyof other word classes like verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc. The latter combine a wordstem with grammatical morphemes; this combination informs the hearer aboutgrammatical and semantic relations of a given sentence. But ideophones are notmarked with such grammatical morphemes, and they denote themselves a completeutterance (and not only a part of it). It is this function of imitation of a real eventthat plays a determined part in the composition of an ideophone. Onomatopoeicideophones are imitations of sounds, where the noises of the world are echoed bythe speaker. These imitations are a reflection of the reality colored by the phonolo-gy, phonotactics and perception of a given language. Beside such audible sensationsother kinds of sensations are expressed by ideophones following the same patternsof imitation. These sensations (visible, tactile, etc. ) often give rise to metaphoric


meaning change of audible ideophones (as exemplified e.g. by Bernard-Thierry1961 for ideophones in Malagasy). The processes of word formation of ideophonesis not a combination of analytic parts, but that of iconic and/or of motivated soundsymbolism. It consists of a combination of sounds that are felt by the speakercommunity to be similar with the original extra linguistic sensation. That imitationcan then be identified by the hearer as an appropriate copy of this original. Thisiconic or motivated sound symbolism may be partly universal or it may be languagespecific. An example for such a sound symbolic ideophonic component (in theliterature also called ‘sub-morphemic units’ or ‘psychomorphs’) that is ratheruniversal is given from Baka; here as well as in German ideophones, the velar nasal[«] denotes resonating metallic sounds:

(4) Baka: lang lang lang‘beat a nut or hard fruit witch a machete???’

German: ding-(dang)-dongringing bells

The Kxoe example (2) exemplifies another technique that is very productive inideophones in general: Reduplication. Reduplication always denotes, when usedwith ideophones, a kind of plurality, i.e. an increase of intensity concerning statesor e.g. colors — here it is often only translatable by ‘very’ and therefore easilymisinterpreted as an intensifier. Whereas reduplication of ideophones indicates arepetition of the action corresponding exactly to the number of words repeated. Asimilar linear technique is the lengthening of vowels and syllabic consonants thatindicates the duration of an event or state.

Ideophones in general are never negated and are rarely found in negatedsentences. Negated sentences where ideophones may be used are in most casesrhetoric as shown in (5) from Baka:

(5) Mòj77 de? kp77h!2.sg.hear.past neg kp77h!Don’t you hear?: kp77h! (i.e. a branch breaks when stepping on it)!’

But these cases are very rare. Thus we can conclude that ideophones are affirmativeby definition. The incompatibility of ideophones and negation can be explained bytheir dramaturgic function: Mosisidi (1980) sums this up very precisely in thefollowing question:

Thus the negative conjugation or construction would imply that the action or‘drama’ did not take place. If so, how can it be dramatized?

(Mosisidi 1980:216).

The very function of ideophones is to simulate a sensation and not the absence ofsuch a sensation. A similar conclusion is drawn by Li & Thompson (1981:345) forideophones in Mandarin Chinese.


3. Formal diversity

There is a great divergence according to the number of ideophones in the dictionaryof Baka and Kxoe. Thus in Kxoe only 76 ideophones could be found and in anarration rarely more than one token is used. In Baka, on the other hand, over 1.000 ideophones have been documented, and narrators make abundant use ofideophonic types in discourse.

But not only the number of ideophones varies from Baka to Kxoe, there are alsosignificant differences concerning the semantics and the contexts and positions thatideophones can occupy in a text and sentence. In the following paragraphs this willbe shown in more detail:

3.1 Semantics

Concerning the semantics of ideophones it was already mentioned that these maygenerally denote all concepts of physical as well as psychological sensations. This isindeed valid for Baka in every respect. Ideophones denote in this language the fullrange of all possible sensorial concepts: Especially kinds of movements andnumerous actions are expressed by ideophones; onomatopes, on the other hand, areless frequent (an exception is the imitation of animal cries and especially bird cries).Thus one can observes in Baka ideophones representing such sound imitations onone spectrum of all possibilities (cf. (1) and (4)) and ideophones expressing statesof mind on the other, as in (6):

(6) ´É dòto t77.3.sg.h stay.pres t77‘He keeps t77 (i.e. completely calm)’

imitations of visible gestures and mimic, as in ex. (7):

(7) ´É à m77 mosimòsimosimòsìmosi.3.sg.h impfv do.pres mosimòsimosimòsìmosi‘He does mosimòsimosimòsìmosi (i.e. he pulls a grimace of deridinglaughter).’

or a whole variety of actions, as in (8):

(8) ´Á kindà libfndf à m¢f-7˜ kikikikiki.3.sg.nar put in piece of meat loc mouth 3.sg.poss kikikikiki‘He puts pieces of meat into his mouth: kikikikiki.’

Furthermore we observe in Baka a great variety of polysemous ideophones. Thispolysemy can be reconstructed and explained in sense of metaphoric meaningextensions/change. Thus t77 in (5) denotes primarily a ‘lack of an expected audible


or visible sensation’, a ‘complete emptiness’, or in more abstract sense ‘absolutelynothing’; this meanings are also be used to denote a frame of ‘mind of calmness’and metaphorically an ‘emptiness of feelings’. Nj7ng7mj7g7 is primarily onomato-poeic and denotes the ‘rustling sound of worms coming out of the earth’; but in itsmetaphorical sense it denotes the ‘beginning of the day’ via the association with thesound of dew drops in the early morning.

In Kxoe, however, ideophones are semantically restricted to denoting exclusive-ly audible sensations and/or visible sensations that must associated with a certainsound, as in (2) and in (9):

(9) Ngúíyá áta ám khuúrú-m !xòàbaboon thus 3masc.sg.poss calabash-3masc.sg withkyã½a-ì- tè nò yaá !ókókó.run-imps pres and come !ókókó‘Baboon runs away with the calabash, but he comes back: !ókókó (i.e. he puts theempty calabash on the ground which makes a hollow sounds).’

Ideophones in Kxoe, however, show no trait of existing or beginning polysemy. Onthe contrary, they are always highly specific, i.e. they denote only one single specificcase of the noise and its specific affiliated audible or audible-visible action or state,as demonstrated in (10):

(10) Xàdjí txèrìrí qóqóqóqóqóqó qóqóqóqó, áta m½ı nò òè3.f.pl txèrìrí qóqóqóqóqóqó qóqóqóqó thus sound and alwaysbèyèé-djì txèrìrí txèrìrí txèrìrí txèrìrí txèrìrízebra-3.f.pl txèrìrí txèrìrí txèrìrí txèrìrí txèrìrí.‘Thy txèrìrí (i.e. one hears zebras galloping whereby the stripes of their skintrouble the eyes of the spectator) and qóqóqóqóqóqó qóqóqóqó (i.e. the zebrasbray). Thus sound the zebras: txèrìrí …’

3.2 Contexts

The positions that ideophones occupy in a text are numerous in Baka: ideophonesmay be placed in every slot of any major grammatical category. (11) demonstratesits position in the verbal slots, in (12) it occupies the position of a noun or comple-ment phrase:

(11) ´é à ´o lo, boom à tóló.3sg.h impfv climb.pres tree boom loc ground‘He climbs a tree but boom (i.e. he falls) on the ground.’

(12) Pe wó ngf j7 juuuu: “Ah y7k7 á là?”when 3pl then hear.pres juuuu ah which def who‘The moment when they hear juuu (i.e. the bees are buzzing), [they ask:] “Ah,what’s that?” ’


Syntactically Baka ideophones may be placed everywhere where an illustration withan ideophone makes sense and where the narrator feels like inserting them forstylistic purposes. Thus (13) is a case where an ideophone occupies an initialposition in the sentence

(13) Wà: kang, mòlingè 'à g¢fgf a ye.and then kang trap impfv go.part loc height‘An then: kang (i.e. the trap snaps shut whereby the snare slings the victim up),and the snare shoots up.’

While the case cited under (13) shows adverbial, adjectival and verbal uses in asingle sentence.

By contrast, ideophones in Kxoe are not only restricted semantically but also interms of the positions they can have, thus they are only rarely used to replace awhole sentence as in (14):

(14) Áta kx´½a½ı nà-m ánì-mà? Bwww, ci nòthus vulture which-3.masc.sg side-3.masc.sg bwww arrive andcì- ¾a-à-xú.nem-land-ii-comp

‘This vulture — in which direction [can he fly]? Bwww (i.e. he tries to take off bymoving his wings), however [he fails again an again], he lands immediately’.

Sometimes they do nevertheless replace argument-predicate-structures in explicitcoordination with another sentence:

(15) Cií-è-tè nò á-m càá-m ki djúxuùùù …arrive-I-pres when dem-3.masc.sg water-3masc.sg loc djúxuùùù …‘When they arrive at the water they djúxuùùù … (i.e., they jump into the waterand submerge themselves).’

They may be placed sentence initial or final, as in (2), but mostly they are found inconstructions similar to sentences of direct speech. Thus they are complements toone of a variety of verba dicendi, as in (16):

(16) Djírí áta n"¾u¾ı-á-n áa cì:monkey thus sit-ii-say compl

“Kx´éú kx´áò kx´áò kx´áò kx´áò kx´áò kx´áò.”kx’éú kx’áò …‘Thus the monkey sits and cries: “Kx’éú kx’áò … .” ’

Animal cries as well as all the other onomatopes may generally be introduced by theverb m½ı ‘to sound’ — a construction that is identical to direct speech too (cf. (10)).

Direct speech is evidently the preferred pattern in Kxoe to insert ideophones ina sentence — this ideophonic direct speech construction is completely consistentwith observations made in many languages of the world; where this pattern is highlyproductive. In some languages, it is not only the preferred one (as in the Bantu


languages) but even obligatory as e.g. in Wolaitta (Omotic, cf. Amha, this volume)or in the Australian Jaminjung (cf. McGregor, this volume).

4. Conclusion

The formal differences that can be observed in these two languages, Baka and Kxoe,can not simply be explained on the basis of their different genetic affiliation, nordoes it suffice to argue that their different language structures elicit differentialideophonic ”behavior”. The word order in Baka — an SVO-language — is strictlyregulated and allows only freedom of placement only in the case of adverbials andhere, as well; the choice is limited to either sentence initial or sentence finalposition. However, ideophones show great syntactical freedom; they may occupyany position in the sentence. In Kxoe word order is relatively free and highlyvariable, so that a speaker has the freedom to place arguments seemingly randomly(note that Kxoe is considered as a SOV-language, but OSV and SVO configurationsare observed very frequently as well). Surprisingly the speakers of Kxoe prefer thestructure of complements of direct speech as main pattern to integrate ideophonesin a sentence.

These differences can perhaps be better explained when language specificpreferences and restrictions are seen as representants of some types that belong toa continuum: We can classify the ideophones in Kxoe, for example, according totheir semantics as ‘onomatopoeic type’ whereas the Baka comprises all possiblesemantic concepts — polysemic ideophones included — so that Baka ideophonesbelong more to the ‘free type’. If we can suppose that a great part of non-onomato-poeic ideophones in Baka are derived from ideophones via metaphorical meaningchange; it is logical that the semantic of Baka ideophones is certainly more devel-oped and more comprehensive on our scale than the ideophones in Kxoe.

Semantics may well be the base for a possible explanation for the diversity ofplacement of ideophones in Kxoe vs. Baka: In a wider sense, ideophones in Kxoedenote exclusively either pure audible or audible-visible sensations; i.e. the soundsor noises of the environment are seen in a very anthropomorphic perspective as“utterances” or “citations” of the animals and objects of the world, and they aretherefore placed in the position normally reserved for such citations, i.e. a comple-ment sentence of direct speech.

In Baka ideophones may be classified according to their meaning and theposition they may take in a sentence. The various semantic concepts don’t illustrateonly audible events but — by the use of ideophones — the speaker can generallypoint out every sensorial detail of every lexeme that he wants to use. Because of theprinciple of linearity of language, ideophones are then placed next to the itemmodified or the replace it in the sentence.


Thus we can state in conclusion that the different formal features of ideophonesin Baka and Kxoe represent two points on a scale leading from onomatopes (i.e.ideophones representing pure audible sensations) to non-onomatopes (i.e. ideo-phones representing all other kinds of sensations). And, that it is the meanings thatinfluences or even dictates the positions of ideophones in the sentence or text.

A short note may be added here: Field work in Namibia among Khoisanlanguages and a typological research about ideophones in all language families ofthe world (cf. Kilian-Hatz 1999) had led to a modification of a common assump-tion that has been based on a lack available data. In the literature about ideophonesit has been assumed until nowadays that Khoisan languages are perhaps the onlylanguages without ideophones (cf., e.g., Samarin 1971). The above data about Kxoeshow that this claim does not hold; ideophones are used in Khoisan languages aswell as in probably all other languages of the world. One can state without hesita-tion that ideophones are a universal feature of human language.

References

Bernard-Thierry, S. 1961. “Les onomatopées en Malgache”. Bulletin de la Societé de Linguistiquede Paris 50: 240–269.

Fortune, G. 1962. Ideophones in Shona. Oxford: OUP.Kilian-Hatz, C. 1997. “Die Baka-Ideophone: Ihre Struktur und Funktion”. Afrikanistische

Arbeitspapiere 50:123–167.Kilian-Hatz, C. 2001. Ideophone. Köln: Institut für Afrikanistik, Universität zu Köln (Habilita-

tionsschrift).Kunene, D. 1978. The ideophone in Southern Sotho [Marburger Studien zur Afrika- und Asien-

kunde, Serie A: Afrika, vol. 11]. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer .Koch, P. and W. Oesterreicher. 1985. “Sprache der Nähe — Sprache der Distanz: Mündlichkeit

und Schriftlichkeit im Sprannungsfeld von Sprachtheorie und Sprachgeschichte”. Romanis-tisches Jahrbuch 36:16–43.

Kock, I. 1985. “The speech act theory: A preliminary investigation”. South African Journal ofAfrican Languages 5: 49–53.

Li, C.N. and S.A. Thompson. 1981. Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. Berkeley:University of California Press.

Mosisidi, B.P.1980. “The ideophone in Southern Sotho revised”. In P. J. Wentzel, (ed.), Proceed-ings of the Third African Languages Congress of UNISA, Pretoria: UNISA, 202–219.

Nuckolls, J.B. 1996. Sounds like Life: Sound symbolic grammar, performance and cognition inPastaza Quechua. New York: OUP.

Samarin; W.J. 1971. “Survey of Bantu ideophones “. African Language Studies 12:131–168.Von Roncador, M. 1988. Zwischen direkter und indirekter Rede: Nichtwörtliche direkte Rede,

logophorische Konstruktionen und Verwandtes [Linguistische Arbeiten 192]. Tübingen:Niemeyer.

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Expressives and iconicity in the lexicon*

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Marian KlamerUniversiteit Leiden

Introduction

It has often been observed (e.g. Joseph 1994) that the lexicon of a language consistsof a core and peripheral part. The core part is made up by the normal referentialelements, whose primary function is to refer to entities, events, concepts, etc. Itwould at least include body part, kinship and color terms. The peripheral partconsists of items with an added non-referential function, whose non-referential(descriptive, evaluative) function is at least as important as their referentialfunction. It includes lexicalizations of vivid sense impressions such as onomato-poeics, ideophones and phonestemes, names, and morphemes with negativeconnotations or referring to undesirable states (cf. Clynes 1998; Joseph 1997). Thesesemantically and functionally special items are referred to as ‘expressives’ in thispaper.

Semantically, expressives are more complex and more specific than normalreferential elements. An illustration are the following English pairs, where the firstitem is a common referential element, and the second an expressive: the lunchroom– the Sizzle, breast – boob, walk – stagger. We may say that the descriptive and/orevaluative function of expressives is at least as important as their referentialfunction.

Traditionally, expressive elements are seen as iconic, sound symbolic forms, ona par with onomatopoeia, phonestemes, Japanese mimetic forms, or ideophones. Inthis paper we will see that the class of expressives is much larger, and includes formsthat are not sound-symbolic at all. We will also see that, though sound symbolismis not involved, the more abstract non-arbitrary relations between form, meaningand function are still motivated by iconicity. I describe this iconicity as a type ofdiagrammatic iconicity (cf. Peirce 1965; Haiman 1994). This iconicity is the factorwhich restricts the coinage of new words, and is thus the explanation on the limitsof this type of creative language.

166 Marian Klamer

1. Iconicity and the concept of markedness

Among the various types of signs, icons are the ones that show a factual resem-blance between the sign and the object.1 In its strictest interpretation, iconicityaligns meaning A and form because of the inherent similarity of A and — the ‘icon’,form B, is an image of ‘concept’ A.

When we apply this strict interpretation of iconicity to expressives we immedi-ately run into descriptive problems. Many expressive words refer to sights, motions,or states where no sound is involved, so their phonetic form can never be strictlyiconic to begin with. Secondly, because the formal properties of expressives areoften not an ‘image’ of the ‘concept’ represented. For example, expressives oftenhave unusual phonotactics, such as a closed syllable rather than an open one, butwhether or not a syllable is not a direct image of expressive semantics. Even in thecase of onomatopoeics, which are commonly cited as prototypical instances oficonic alignment of sound and meaning, there are language-particular abstractionsof the actual sound they describe. For instance, the sound made by a bulky objectfalling is represented by an item containing a stop consonants and a back vowel inEnglish, Dutch and Kambera (Austronesian), but in Didinga (Nilo-Saharan) theform includes a vowel /I/ and a velar nasal:

(1) meaning ‘sound made by bulky object falling’|

form thud Englishplof Dutchmbùtu Kambera (Klamer 1998)tdI] Didinga (Jong, this volume)

However, we should not take this as evidence to abandon iconicity as a motivationfor the form-function relation in expressives, because this would imply that therelation is arbitrary, in contradiction to the findings of e.g. the authors of thisvolume and those in Hinton et al. (1994). Rather than abandoning iconicity as anexplanatory force in word formation, we must refine it. In line with Battistella(1990), the analysis of iconicity presented in this paper draws on the concept ofmarkedness in order to align the form, meaning and function of lexical items.Lexical items occupy a position on continua for their markedness: they can beformally (structurally) more or less marked, but also semantically and functionally.I will now discuss these three markedness continua. In Section 3 I present evidencefor these continua and the correlations between them, and in Section 4 we will seethat these correlations are iconic, and how iconicity is a creative factor in thelexicon.

With respect to their formal (physical, structural) properties, lexical items canbe arranged along a continuum in which one end is for the optimal word forms,

Expressives and iconicity in the lexicon 167

and the other end for the marked word forms. If we view the structural system oflanguage as a set of constraints on the wellformedness of linguistic utterances, thenthe more constrained items are the unmarked ones, and the formally less con-strained items are the marked ones:

(2) Form:

marked unmarked

− ¨ constrained Æ +

An illustration of this is the fact that ideophones often use segments not belongingto the regular phonemic inventory and violate phonotactic constraints of thelanguage. They often display very little or exceptional morphology (e.g. reduplica-tion) and rarely possess any syntax unique to their class except the relative absenceof any syntax. They are thus formally less constrained than the core lexical items (cf.Mithun 1982; Childs 1994, among others). Formal markedness is thus a relativenotion, defined in terms of degree of formal constrainedness. On this continuum,expressive elements are subject to less constraints, i.e. more marked, than corelexical items.2 Section 3 presents some evidence for this.

On the continuum of meaning (amount of semantic features), marked elementsare characteristically less general than unmarked items, and more determinate anddifferentiated (Battistella 1990). For example, ‘ideophones can be quite specific,often evoking some concrete imagery. They often appeal to the senses and have anarrow meaning. Kisi, (Niger-Congo) has two rice-beating ideophones: gbun gbun‘rice beaten by one person’ and pim pim ‘rice beaten by two or more people’ (Childs1994:188). As a result of their semantic specificity, expressives have less ability tocombine with other features, so the range of contexts in which they appear issmaller than for unmarked items. Unmarked items, on the other hand, are capableof having a general interpretation and can substitute the marked items in somecontexts, while the reverse is not true. Illustrations are the English pairs given in theintroduction. The semantics of unmarked items is more general and prototypical:3

(3) Meaning:

marked unmarked

− ¨ general Æ +

The third relevant continuum is the continuum of function, ranging from referen-tial to non-referential. As the prime function of language as a sign system isreferential, we expect that formally marked, functionally ‘peripheral’ (cf. Uhlenbeck1950) lexical items, such as expressives, are less referential than unmarked, corelexical items. Expressives are considered non-referential because their function isnot primarily referential. They are characteristically used to add vividness, liveliness,

168 Marian Klamer

and directness to utterances and may be used creatively in verbal art (languagegames, insults). Their exceptional syntactic behavior is also evidence for their non-referential function: expressive elements are often used in connection with orjuxtaposed to exclamations and interjections, are often syntactically redundant oroptional (adjunct) constituents, and do not allow negation (cf. Childs 1994; Kita1999).

(4) Function:

marked unmarked

− ¨ referential Æ +

These three markedness continua can be used to show that the correlation betweenform, meaning and function is not totally arbitrary, but rather patterned bydiagrams of nonarbitrary, iconic relations. As iconic signs are not always images,they are distinguished in ‘images’, ‘diagrams’ and ‘metaphors’ (Peirce 1965). Imagespartake of simple qualities of their object (e.g. onomatopoeia); diagrams representthe relations, mainly dyadic, of the parts of one thing by analogous relations in theirown parts; and metaphors represent the representative part of a sign by representinga parallelism in something else (Battistella 1990:71). The concept of diagrammaticiconicity is defined here as follows:

(5) Diagrammatic iconicity

Not the component parts of the diagram resemble what they stand for, but therelationships among those components: the relative position of an element insystem A is matched by an element with the same relative position in system B.

In this paper I argue that the markedness patterns described above are in a non-arbitrary relation to each other and that the diagrammatic iconic mapping betweenthem explains why certain choices are made from among competing possibilities inthe coining and perception of new words. We will also see that the alignment offormal marking and semantic markedness is a tendency and not compulsory.

2. Formal and semantic markedness

Before considering the correlation between marked form and meaning in actuallanguage data, we translate our notions of formal (structural) and semanticmarkedness in diagnostic terms.

Formal markedness I define in terms of constraint violation: a lexical item isformally marked if it violates one or more formal constraints of the language. Theviolated constraints may be phonological, morphological or syntactic. Within thelimits of this paper I only discuss some phonological constraints in a number of


Austronesian languages, plus one general constraint on semantic transparency (cf.immediately below), but the implication is that all the constraints in a constraint-based theory of language can in principle be relevant as markedness values in aparticular language.4

A constraint that is systematically violated by expressives across languages is theconstraint on Semantic Transparency (Klamer 2000a, 2000b), a constraint thatrefers to the universal tendency that linguistic items prefer a direct, one-to-onematching of form and meaning:

(6) Semantic transparency: Match form and meaning one-to-one:

meaning A|

form X

The following configurations violate this constraint, and the illustrations givenindicate that unusual morphological structures often represent such configurations.

(7) a. * A b. * AB/\ \/

X…Y X(e.g. circumfix) (e.g. homophones)

c. * __ d. * A| |X __

(e.g. empty prefix) (e.g. zero morpheme)

In the next section we will see how this constraint is violated by expressives inKambera and Balinese. Examples of relevant phonological constraints are the onesthat involve infrequent, complex or unusual segments or prosodic entities, i.e.constraints similar to the markedness and alignment constraints of OptimalityTheory. We will see illustrations of these in the next section.

The notion of semantic markedness can be translated into three diagnostictypes, following up on a proposal by Clynes (1995, 1998) Semantically, expressiveelements are marked because they are very specific. I propose that they are restrictedto only three semantic types: Sense, Name and Bad, specified as follows:

(8) Sense�: lexicalizations of vivid sense impressions: sound, touch, taste, smell,feeling, emotion and sight (including lexicalizations of movements of the bodyand of body parts). E.g. Kambera tòku ‘knock, bang’ (sound), holap ‘be weak,limp, flabby’

Name�: personal or place names, hypocoristic names, terms of endearment;names for plants and animals E.g. Kambera pirih ‘k.o. parrot’, helap ‘kind of fish’

Bad�: lexical items with negative connotations or referring to undesirable (men-tal, bodily, atmospheric) states and referents. E.g. Kambera nyimba ‘be blockingthe way’

170 Marian Klamer

In the study of sound symbolic forms and their semantics, the first type is alwaysmentioned. The second and third semantic type may seem somewhat surprising tosome. However, it is a well-established fact that names, nicknames and animalnames often reflect audible or visible characteristics of the named person or animal(e.g. body shape, hair color, bird’s call, animal movement), whereas plant namesmay reflect the typical shape of (parts of) the plant (e.g. leafs, branches). Forexample, in Mundang (Niger-Congo), animal and plant names are part of theexpressive vocabulary (Elders, this volume). In Estonian, bird names are expressive,and in Finnish too, to some extend (Antilla 1976). In Greek, nicknames patternwith the expressives (Joseph 1997). As names can be seen as lexicalizations of senseimpressions, the distinction between the types Sense and Name is a fluid one.

In many languages, words with bad or negative connotations formally patternwith the expressive items. This has been described, for example, for Japanese (Kita1997:98; Hamano 1998), Balinese (Clynes 1995, 1998, 2000) and Greek (Joseph1997). Further examples from Malay, West Tarangan and Dutch will be presentedin Section 3. Note that speakers of a language need not be consciously aware of thisfact. For example, that /‚r-/ is a marked onset in Dutch (Booij 1995) is known atleast among Dutch linguists, but that all the words with this marked onset onlybelong to the semantic types Sense and Bad (i.e. refer to sense impressions or havenegative connotations) has so far gone unnoticed.

Now we have translated our notions of formal and semantic markedness intodiagnostic values and types, we consider in the next section the correlation betweenmarked form and meaning in some actual language data.

3. The correlation between marked form and meaning

The correlation between form and meaning in sound symbolic words such asonomatopoeia and ideophones is very well-known. Therefore I will just give oneillustration of this by discussing the ideophones of the Austronesian languageKambera. Then I will go on discussing data from other Austronesian languages thatonly on second sight appear to match form and function in an iconic fashion.

3.1 Kambera

Kambera (Klamer 1998, 2000b) is one of the few Austronesian languages withideophones. Ideophones are prime examples of how formal, functional andsemantic markedness can be aligned. The ideophonic roots of this language describesounds, sights and motions, and are commonly used to add vividness and livelinessto a narrative text. Some ideophones are more conventionalized than others, andnew forms are constantly being created. Kambera has only one circumfix, ka-k,


which is the affix used to derive verbs from ideophonic roots. Some illustrations ofKambera ideophonic roots and their derivations:

(9)Root form Derived verbal form Gloss of verbal form

Soundsngùruhèritòrupàkatiku

ka-ngùru-kka-hèri-kka-tòru-kka-pàka-kka-tiku-k

‘murmur’‘tear something’‘rattle’‘smack’‘creak/click’

Motionsyidiwàdi

ka-yidi-kka-wàdi-k

‘shiver’ (in dislike)‘blink’

Sightsrèribila

ka-rèri-kka-bila-k

‘ablaze’ (fire)/ ‘shine’ (ring)‘light/brightness’

Semantically, all these ideophones belong to the Sense type. The forms are phono-logically marked because they are the only Kambera lexical items with markedvowels. The unmarked vowels of Kambera are the cardinal vowels /i,u,a/ with along/short opposition. The marked vowels are the short lowered vowels [7, f](represented as è, ò) and the super-short high vowel [ù]. The marked central vowelis the short low vowel ["] (represented as à). We describe the general non-prefer-ence for these marked vowels in Kambera as a markedness constraint against suchvowels:

(10) */ù, è, ò, à/ “Don’t be /ù, è, ò, à/”

Because the marked vowels occur only in ideophones, ideophones violate thisconstraint, which is otherwise not violated in the language. But the marked vowelsare not a categorical property of ideophones: though /è, ò, ù/ occur in ideophonicroots only, /à/ is used in a number of non-ideophonic roots as well, e.g. tàka ‘arrive’.

Verbal derivations from ideophonic roots are also morphologically marked:they are the only Kambera items with a circumfix, violating the Semantic Transpar-ency constraint by mapping two forms on one function:

V

ka ... k

(11)

The verbs derived from ideophonic roots are also phonotactically marked becausethey have a final C, namely the -k part of the circumfix ka-k. Now, the unmarkedroot form in Kambera is a bimoraic trochee CVCV and this form covers approx.

172 Marian Klamer

50% of the roots. At the same time, roots with closed syllables are non-preferred. Ina constraint-based model of language we can describe morpheme structureconditions in terms of surface constraints on markedness and alignment (cf. Booij1998). The condition here can be formulated as an alignment constraint where theright edge of a root morpheme (M) must be aligned with a vowel (V):

(12) “Align (V, R, M, R)” “Avoid roots with closed final syllables”

But 30% of the Kambera roots are CVCVC forms, examples:

(13) tehik ‘sea’ watar ‘corn’padang ‘field’ engal ‘k.o. tuberous plant’múhung ‘be rotten, gone bad’ mungal ‘fall out, slip out, slip off’helap ‘k.o. sea fish’ bàbat ‘bamboo slat (part of loom)holap ‘weak, limp, flabby’ hoput ‘be very angry, put out’pirih ‘parrot’ Trichoglossus heamatoduspàlih ‘lick mouth/lips’

The constraint should therefore not be taken to imply that Kambera does not haveroots with closed final syllables. Rather, the constraint penalizes closed syllables inoutput forms, and a result, an epenthetic (‘paragogic’) vowel [u] is always insertedto ‘repair’ lexical roots ending in a closed syllable. In other words, lexical codasbecome the onsets of an additional syllable in output forms: /pu.duk/ Æ [pu.du.ku]‘kiss’.

Despite their frequency, the CVCVC roots are thus formally marked forms,because they violate the constraint on roots with a closed final syllable. The questionis now whether the formal markedness correlates with semantic markedness. Thisis indeed what is found: of a test sample of 145 CVCVC forms, 71% belong to thetypes Sense, Name or Bad, while 29% were unclassified:

We conclude that the presence of a lexical final consonant of a Kambera root signals

Table 1.�The final consonant of CVCVC roots, C1=/p/ (Onvlee 1984)

C3 k ]] l r h t p Totals

Sense/name/badUnclassified

46�8

�718

14�2

14�7

11�2

11�5

00

103�42

semantic markedness.It is therefore also no surprise to find that verbal derivations of ideophonic

roots end in a consonant (-k). Note however that the final C is not a categoricalproperty of expressives, because not all CVCVC roots are expressive (only 71%);and not all final C’s signal expressiveness (e.g. final /]/ also functions in wordderivation as a valence changing (applicative) suffix).


In other words, the Kambera ideophones are semantically marked special formsreferring to sounds, sights and motions. They violate three formal markednessconstraints of the language: on segmental selection, on phonotactic structure andon morphological marking. This correlation of formal and semantic markedness isan example of diagrammatic iconicity.

3.2 Balinese

In Balinese too, semantic and formal markedness are aligned (Clynes 1995, 1998,2000). Balinese expressives violate at least one, but usually more of the six con-straints listed below. Balinese nicknames are an especially clear instance of this: thenicknames are inelegant ‘bad names’ and are otherwise meaningless. All of themviolate at least one constraint. Illustrations:

(14) Constraint violation by Balinese bad names (Clynes 1995:51–52, 1998:21–22)

Onset: Every syllable must have an onsetCluit, Joet

* ComplexONS: Avoid complex onsetsKl6mug, Namprut, Gomblos, Cluit

* σ [/h/: Avoid /h/ as onsetCibuhut

Root= σ σ Roots must be disyllabicCidaku, Cibuhut, Maseni

Vowel harmony: Co-occurring [+ATR] vowels agree in heightKedi, Keni, Maseni, Toti

Consonant disharmonyTwo consonants with the same place of articulation do not co-occur in arootCidaku, Namprut, Toti, Latep, Petet

Balinese also has a special type of ‘inherent reduplication’ forms (Clynes 1995:Section 4.2, p.71). Because they contain meaningless reduplicated elements, theyviolate the Semantic transparency constraint. Semantically, they belong to any ofthe three types we defined above. Examples:

(15) mémé ‘mother’crukcuk ‘k.o. bird’kedongdong ‘k.o. fruit tree’lumbalumba ‘dolphin’kisikisi ‘whisper’tektek ‘chop up’sepsep ‘suck’cadcad ‘criticize’

174 Marian Klamer

In conclusion, even though we only dealt with a subpart of Balinese expressiveforms (cf. Clynes 1998 for a full discussion, including animal cries and onomato-poeia), we found that the language has semantically marked lexical elements thatsystematically violate markedness constraints.

Note that the choice and number of the constraints involved is a languageparticular issue. In Balinese, there are different, and more constraints involved thanin e.g. Kambera. The Semantic Transparency constraint however seems to haverelevance crosslinguistically.

3.3 Malay

In an earlier stage, the canonical Malay root C1 V C2 V (C) was subject to aconstraint that where C1 and C2 are both stops and are homorganic, they must alsoagree in voicing:

(16) ‘If tautomorphemic consonants harmonize for place, they alsoharmonize for voice:’

[C[ cont]-

V C[ cont]-

V]M

PlaceVoice

This constraint excludes morphemes where homorganic voiced stops, voicelessstops, nasals or semivowels occur together as C1 and C2, e.g. *komo and *panda.5

However, quite a number of Malay words violate the Place=Voice constraint — anexample is the commonly used form bapa ‘father’. Adelaar (1983) presents a list ofthese exceptional forms, compiled on the basis of Wilkinson’s 1932 Malay–Englishdictionary. Of the 108 forms presented in this paper, 51 forms are loans, and thusirrelevant in the present context. Of the 57 native forms, however, we found that 22can be semantically classified as names of plants or animals, and 10 refer to specialstates, movements or sounds, names, or bad things such as evil spirits. The remain-ing 25 forms are a semantically and formally mixed bag, including morphologicallyderived forms such as reduplications and contracted forms. Thus, in Malay, asignificant proportion of the words violating the constraint on tautomorphemicconsonant harmony belong to the expressive semantics class.

3.4 West Tarangan

West-Tarangan (Southeast Maluku, Nivens 1992) prohibits morpheme-internalconsonant clusters:

(17) *…CC …]M “Avoid morpheme-internal consonant clusters”


The vast majority of the roots in this language are disyllabic (C)V(C) V(C) roots(Nivens 1992:148, 159). We express this as the following constraint:

(18) Root= σ σ

Nivens (1992) reports that the forms in (19) illustrate the exceptional case when theconstraint on consonant clusters is violated. The initial consonant is a liquid /r, l/ ora front glide /y/:

(19) West Tarangan exceptional consonant clusters(Nivens 1992:148–149)6

C1=/r/ C1=/l/ C1=/y/

kartfwgarkfwkorkorbakorbardagfrpangarsifrmolmarnamkfr]amirlowfrj7la

‘rat’‘orphaned’‘bat (sp.)’‘shrimp (sp.)’‘white hair’‘cra(sp.)’‘sea snake’‘turtle (sp.)’‘parrot’‘cassava’‘tree’

si]al]alta7lk7ykayb7lb7lbalkildumflpftgals7ras7ranalmuns7l¢nrtfl]ummaljamajaman

‘fungus (sp.)’‘black cockatoo’‘bird (sp.)’‘turtle (sp.)’‘heron’‘tuber (sp.)’‘shadow’‘mollusk (sp.)’‘plant (sp.)’‘bed’

kayt7agaykapagaybun]aypepgaymoygaynakaay¢]taypayrframayl7wa

‘corn’‘cra(sp.)’‘large’‘womb’‘slow’‘sago leaf ’‘difficult’‘bird (sp.)’‘tree (sp.)’

Though this is not observed in Nivens 1992, in the context of the present paper it isstriking that out of the 30 forms 22 are plant/animal names and 2 belong to the Badtype (‘slow’ and ‘difficult’) , leaving only 8 forms that are not expressive. As it is,7

this data supports the hypothesis that the violation of a phonological constraint, inthis language, on consonant clusters, signals semantic expressiveness.

3.5 Evidence from other language families

The data from the few Austronesian languages discussed above can be supplied bydata on many other languages that display a correlation between marked form andmeaning. On the Symposium on ideophones (Köln, January 1999) similar observa-tions were made for expressives in e.g. Estonian and Finnish, in the Africanlanguages Hausa, Zulu, Ewe, Wolaitta, Didinga and Ciluba; the Australian languag-es Jaminjang, Warrura, Gooniyandi, Gunin/Kwini, and in Quechua.

For example, Newman (this volume) observes that Hausa ideophones usesegments from normal phoneme inventory but in an unusual position. Phonotac-tically, Hausa ideophones are marked because they can violate the constraint thatword-final consonants cannot be voiced:

176 Marian Klamer

(20) [*C*]|

voice

Examples: tsulum ‘sound of a small object falling in water’tsigil ‘emphasizing smallness’

They can also violate the constraint that final vowels should not be long:

(21) *V:]Example: batso-bàts×o ‘poorly made, ugly looking’

And Schultze-Berndt (this volume) shows that the so-called ‘coverbs’ in Jaminjung(a non-Pama-Nyungan Australian language) have coupled marked formal tomarked semantic properties. Among other things, the coverbs can violate phono-logical wellformedness constraints of Jaminjung: they may be monosyllabic ratherthan di-/trisyllabic, they allow consonant clusters (liquid-stop) in word-final codas,and they may contain the mid vowel /e/, otherwise not part of the phonologicalinventory of Jaminjung. Examples:

(22) goob ‘come off’ wirrb ‘wipe’yoorrg ‘show’ ngoojoolb ‘cough’deb ‘knock down’ thebberr ‘pierced w. something sticking out’

Finally, in Dutch, there is has a small set of words with the onset /‚r/. This onset ismarked because it violates the Sonority Sequencing Generalization, generallyapplicable in Dutch, which states that segments decrease in sonority towards theedges of a syllable (Booij 1995) (see also Klamer 2000c). The onset cluster /‚r/consists of a labio-dental fricative and a liquid — two segments with the samedegree of sonority. A standard dictionary of Dutch (Van Dale Groot Woordenboek1993) reveals that all base forms with initial /‚r/ semantically synchronically belongto the types Sense or Bad (or are historically derived from Middle Dutch Senseverbs). They are given in (23):


(23)wraakwrakwrang

wratwraddelwreedwrevelwrokwriemelenwrikkenwringenwrielenwriggelenwrijvenwroeten; wroetelenwroegingwrongwrongelwreef

‘revenge’(i) ‘wreck’ (ii) ‘rickety, ramshackle’(i) ‘sour, acid’ (ii) ‘unpleasant, nasty’(> wringen ‘squirm (mouth)’)‘wart’(> wrat) ‘neck flab’‘cruel, harsh’‘resentment, rancor, peevishness’‘resentment, grudge’‘wriggle, squirm, fiddle with’ (frequentative)‘lever, prize, scull’‘wring, squirm, wrench, pinch’‘soft cry for food of small birds’‘wind’ (frequentative of M. Dutch wrigen)‘rub’‘root (up), rout’ ; ‘rout (frequentative)’‘remorse’‘roll, knot, wreath’‘coagulated milk’ (> wringen ‘wring, wrench’)‘instep’ (> Middle Dutch wrigen ‘wind, tilt,grow bent’

In sum, it appears that crosslinguistically, certain phonologically/morphologicallymarked forms are also semantically marked. The positive correlation between themarked form and marked meaning of these lexical items is so strong that we cannotbut conclude that the relation between form and meaning in these items is notarbitrary but motivated. In the next section we will see that the motivating factor isdiagrammatic iconicity.

Note that the formal properties of expressives are not characteristically foundin the ‘core’ lexical items of a language, though some core items may share featureswith expressives. Expressives are, in a sense, systematically marked forms, whichimplies that not all the native morphemes in the lexicon are optimal and unmarked:some are optimal while being grammatically marked. In other words, the optimalshape of core lexical items is defined by a minimal violation of constraints, while theoptimal shape of peripheral items is characterized by the explicit violation of at leastone (and usually more) wellformedness constraints of the language.

4. Diagrammatic iconicity and the lexicon

Obviously, the alignment of marked forms and marked semantics in the datadiscussed above is not iconic in the strictest sense. For example, the onset cluster

178 Marian Klamer

/‚r/ in Dutch wraak ‘revenge’ or the monosyllabicity and final consonant cluster ofJaminjung yoorrg ‘show’ does not represent any factual resemblance between thesignifier and the signified. Because this relation is not strictly iconic, we appeal tothe notion of diagrammatic iconicity: the relationships among the components ofthe diagram are iconic — the relative position of an element in system A is matchedby an element with the same relative position in system B.

In Section 1 the continua for the formal, semantic and functional markednessof lexical items were introduced. They are repeated in below in a slightly differentformat:

marked

marked

marked

�

�

�

�

�

�

+

+

+

�

�

�

unmarked

unmarked

unmarked

form

function

meaning

constrained

referential

general

� �peripheral lexical items ............................................................. core lexical items

We described the formal markedness of an item in terms of the number of con-straints violated by it, its semantic markedness in terms of the more or less specificsemantics it has, and its functional markedness in terms of its referentiality. In thecases discussed, the item’s markedness values on the three continua are matched. Inother words, the item’s markedness values are iconically aligned, the iconicity beingdiagrammatic. The iconic relation is indicated by the two-sided arrows between thethree continua.

Iconicity is thus seen as the factor that is responsible for a different patterningof core and peripheral items in the lexicon, because it is responsible for the assimila-tion of the markedness values of an item on the different continua. In this view onthe lexicon, the distinction between core and peripheral lexical items is gradual, andthe iconic matching of form, meaning and function applies to both types of items.Peripheral lexical items such as expressives occupy the space towards the left-handside, while core lexical items pattern towards the right-hand side. But as thealignment of formal and semantic markedness is a tendency rather than a categori-cal property, there is some overlap of both types of lexical items. In other words, wedo find core lexical items that share the marked characteristics of expressives, and


expressives with unmarked properties. In this model, however, we predict that suchitems will form a small minority.

We know that not everything is possible in the coining and interpretation ofnew lexical items, and this model helps to see why. Because the matching offunction and formal/semantic markedness is preferably iconic, a newly coinedreferential element will never be more marked that the least constrained expressivein a language, and a new expressive element will never be more constrained than themost constrained referential element of that language. In other words, the modelexplains why languages prefer not to create expressives with canonical shapes, norreferential items with marked shapes. It predicts that items which are not motivatedby iconicity are non-preferred in creative language.

Notes

* I wish to thank Geert Booij, Adrian Clynes, Claartje Levelt and Ruben van de Vijver for

DEST "kla-n*">

discussions on the data and ideas presented in this paper, and Tucker Childs for referring me toBattistella’s work on markedness.

1. Other signs include indexes, which show a factual contingency between the sign and the object(e.g. a wind vane as the index of the wind direction) and symbols, which reflect conventionalcontiguity (Peirce 1965; Battistella 1990).

2. The non-constrainedness of marked forms implies the unmarkedness values of Battistella’s(1990): crosslinguistic ‘optimality’ and formal ‘simplicity’.

3. I.e., properties are more conceptually complex, and hence more marked, the less closely andclearly they reflect attributes of prototypical or experientially more basic categories(Battistella 1990:27, 41–44).

4. Additional constraints are discussed in Klamer (2000c).

5. The constraint does not apply to (i) combinations of initial /t/ and medial /d, n/, and (ii) initial/d, n/ with medial /t/. This suggests that a different place feature may be involved, and Adelaar(1983:65) therefore assumes that /t/ is dental, while /d, n/ are alveolar.

6. Note that the phonotactic status of the initial consonant in the third column, /y/, differs fromthat of the liquids in the first two columns. Firstly, because its consonantal status is unclear, andsecondly, because it appears to be part of a (fossilised, lexicalized) prefix Cay. As Nivens does notcontain further information on this, I follow his analysis and assume that /y/ here is a consonantin a cluster.

7. From Nivens (1992) it is unclear whether the list of 30 items is exhaustive, or indeed represen-tative for words with a consonant cluster, nor does it contain observations on the semantics ofthese forms.

References

Anttila, Raimo. 1976. Meaning and structure of Finnish descriptive vocabulary. [Texas LinguisticForum 5.] Texas.

180 Marian Klamer

Adelaar, Sander. 1983. “Malay consonant harmony: an internal reconstruction”. In James T.Collins (ed.), Studies in Malay dialects Part I. [NUSA Volume 16]. Jakarta: Universitas AtmaJaya.

Battistella, Edwin L. 1990. Markedness: The Evaluative Superstructure of Language. Albany: StateUniversity of New York Press.

Booij, Geert. 1995. The phonology of Dutch. Oxford: Clarendon Press.———. 1998. “Morpheme structure constraints and the phonotactics of Dutch”. In Harry van der

Hulst and Nancy Ritter (eds.), The syllable: views and facts. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Childs, Tucker G. 1994. “African ideophones.” In Hinton et.al. (eds.), 178–199.Clynes, Adrian. 1995. Topics in the Phonology and Morphology of Balinese [based on the dialect of

Singaraja, North Bali]. PhD dissertation, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT.Clynes, Adrian. 1998. ‘The emergence of the marked: interactions of phonology and semantics in

Balinese’. Ms., University of Brunei Darussalam.Clynes, Adrian. 2000. “Phonological structures and expressiveness: the role of iconicity in ‘the

emergence of the marked’. In: Marian Klamer (ed.) Proceedings of AFLA 7. Amsterdam: VrijeUniversiteit, Department of Linguistics.

Elders, Stefan. in this volume. “Defining ideophones in Mundang”.Haiman, John. 1994. ‘Iconicity’. In: R.E. Asher and J.M.Y. Simpson (eds.) The Encylopedia of

Language and Linguistics. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Hamano, Shoko. 1998. The sound-symbolic system of Japanese. Stanford, California: CSLI

Publications.Hinton, Leanne, Johanna Nichols, and John J. Ohala (eds.). 1994. Sound symbolism. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.Jong, Nicky de. in this volume. “The ideophone in Didinga”.Joseph, Brian D. 1994. “Modern Greek ts: beyond sound symbolism”. In Hinton et.al. (eds.),

222–236.Joseph, Brian D. 1997. “On the linguistics of marginality: the centrality of the periphery”. In Kora

Singer, Randall Eggert and Gregory Anderson (eds.), CLS 33: Papers from the main session.Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society, 197–213.

Kita, Sotaro. 1997. “Two-dimensional semantic analysis of Japanese mimetics”. Linguistics 35.379–415.

———. 1999. “Two-dimensional semantic analysis of Japanese giongo/gitaigo (sound mimetics/manner mimetics”. Paper presented at the International Symposium on ideophones, Köln,January 25–27 1999.

Klamer, Marian. 1998. A grammar of Kambera. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.———. 2000a. “How report verbs become quote markers and complementizers”. Lingua

110: 69–98.———. 2000b. “Austronesian expressives and the lexicon”. In: Catherine Kitto and Carolyn

Smallwood (eds.) Proceedings of AFLA 6. University of Toronto Working Papers in Linguis-tics.

———. 2000c. “Semantically motivated lexical patterns: A study of Dutch and Kamberaexpressives”. Ms. Leiden University. [Resubmitted for Language, Dec. 2000]

Klinken, Catharina van. 1997. A grammar of the Fehan dialect of Tetun. Ph.D. dissertation,Australian National University, Canberra, ACT.

Mithun, Marianne. 1982. “The synchronic and diachronic behaviour of plops, squeaks, croaks,sighs and moans.” International Journal of American Linguistics 48, 1: 49–58.

Newman, Paul. in this volume. “Are ideophones really as weird and extra-systematic as linguistsmake them out to be?”


Nivens, Richard. 1992. “A lexical phonology of West Tarangan.” In: Donald A. Burquest and WynD. Laidig (eds.), Phonological studies in four languages of Maluku. Dallas: Summer Institute ofLinguistics and The University of Texas Publications in Linguistics.

Onvlee, Louis. 1984. Kamberaas (Oost-Soembaas)-Nederlands Woordenboek. Dordrecht: Foris.Peirce, Charles S. 1965. Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce. Cambridge: Harvard University

Press.Schultze-Berndt, Eva. in this volume. “Ideophone-like characteristics of ‘coverbs’ in Jaminjung

(Australia).”Uhlenbeck, E.M. 1950. “The structure of the Javanese morpheme.” Lingua 2: 239–270.

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Speaking the act

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The ideophone as a linguistic rebel

Daniel P. KuneneUniversity of Wisconsin

1. Synopsis

In this paper I try to demonstrate three things: Firstly, after examining a consider-able amount of data on the ideophone, especially in Sesotho (which I also refer tofrom time to time as Southern Sotho), I have inevitably come to the conclusion thatthe ideophone is the closest linguistic substitute for a non-verbal, physical act. I findthat this position is given great credence by the fact that such physical acts, by whichI mean self-conscious gestures and other imitative acts, are more often than notseen to accompany ideophones and, indeed, sometimes to replace them completely.

Secondly, just as stage performance creates a surreal world outside of the realworld of the spectators or audience, so too does the ideophone simulate an activitythat is removed from the ordinary language act comprising subjects and predicatesand objects and adverbs and adjectives, which are open to all kinds of mutations toachieve varying nuances of meaning around the basic semantic significance of theradical around which these mutations occur.

Thirdly, and finally, I suggest that a society in which there is a prolific, or evensimply substantial, use of ideophones is ipso facto a communal society where peopletake advantage of any opportunity that presents itself, to talk.

2. The evidence

Ideophones are often accompanied by gestures whose intent is to approximate theact the ideophone represents. These are not random gestures such as those accom-panying ordinary speech acts, which are largely unconscious. On the contrary, thegesture used with an ideophone is a deliberate act, and the speaker/actor is quite

184 Daniel P. Kunene

conscious of his intention to, as it were, choreograph a suitable representationalmovement. He acts.

(1) a mo re nyemo‘he to-him did nyemo’i.e. ‘he did to him nyemo’i.e. ‘he did to him give dirty look’)i.e. ‘he gave him a dirty look’

In the above example the speaker actually simulates a dirty look. Thus the ideo-phone, as a proxy for the act, and the act itself, are used to reinforce each other.

In moments of great excitement, ideophones can be replaced completely bygestures representing the act portrayed. This is especially likely where the action isvigorous, such as a representation of two men wrestling. Obviously at this point, wehave reached the basic, raw, non-speech level of behavior. The speaker has trulyturned actor and we the spectators of his dramatic representation of life’s manifes-tations. If the ideophone is onomatopoeic, then, of course, the gesture may beaccompanied by appropriate imitative sounds. Thus the abstraction of speech isreinforced by the concrete presentation of the abstracted act.

As in oral performance, the narrator takes on the role of the subject who is theperformer of the action of the story, and acts that role. Thus we have a narrator, anactor (the subject), and the staged act (the ideophone), which isolates itself from therest of the narrative, i.e. stands ‘aloof ’ from it.

The ideophone’s ‘aloofness’ from the “normal” behavior of the rest of thelanguage manifests itself in many other ways.

(2) lehapu la re phatlo‘the watermelon did phatlo’‘the watermelon did split’‘the watermelon split’)

compare the verb -phatloha ‘become split’.

(3) a re lahapu phatlo‘he did to the watermelon phatlo’‘he did to the watermelon split’‘he split the watermelon’

compare the verb -phatlola ‘split, transitive’

The ideophone phatlo does not reflect, on its own, the states of transitivity andintransitivity. In the above examples, these states are deducible solely from theswitching of syntactic roles by the noun lehapu, which is a subject in the firstexample, and an object in the second. The second example introduces a newsubject, which plays the role of an agent of the act of splitting. As a general princi-ple, then, we may state that the ideophone, being an act, is not subject to the rulesof grammar such as reflections of tense (present, past, future), passiveness or

Speaking the act 185

activeness, mood (e.g. subjunctive, imperative, indicative, etc.), and so on. In orderfor these to be attached to the ideophone, a verbal element, namely -re, has to beadded to the predication. The equivalent in the Nguni languages is -thi. Since mostof my examples are from Southen Sotho, I shall be using -re most of the time.

Ideophones do participate in relational sequences in a variety of phraseswithout the intervention of the verbalizing element -re, i.e. by direct juxtaposition.This gives them viability within the speech chain. However, this juxtaposition is notconditional upon formal modifications on the part of such ideophones. Their‘aloofness’ from the grammatical system is therefore total, being a morphologicalphenomenon as well, and not only a syntactical one.

3. Examples of juxtapositions with and without -re

3.1 Relationship to noun-subject

(4) nkgo bjara‘the claypot bjara’‘the claypot bjara’‘the claypot broke’cf. nkgo ya re bjara‘the claypot did bjara‘the claypot did break’

(5) mahlo etlo‘the (i.e. his/her) eyes etlo’‘the (his/her) eyes cleared’cf. mahlo a re etlo‘the (his/her) eyes did etlo‘the (his/her) eyes became clear

(6) ntja photse‘the dog photse’‘the dog bolted out’cf. ntja ya re photse‘the dog did photse’‘the dog bolted out

3.2 Relationship to noun-object

(7) [ngwana] nkgo bjara‘[the child] the claypot bjara’‘[the child] the claypot break’, i.e. ‘the child did to the claypot break’‘[the child] broke the claypot’


The syntactical order of nkgo and bjara can be reversed without affecting themeaning.

(8) [ngwana] bjara nkgo[the child] bjara the claypot

The subject [ngwana arbitrarily chosen] deletes the ambiguous syntactical status ofnkgo, i.e. as to whether it is subject or object.

The noun slots in Examples (4)–(8) above can be filled by any pronoun orpronominal phrase.

3.3 Relationship to adverbials3.3.1 Adverbials of manner

(9) hanghang photse‘at once photse’‘at once bolt out’, i.e. ‘at once he/she/it bolted out’

3.3.2 Adverbials of time

(10) hara bosiu [Masopha] thoso‘in the middle of the night [Masopha] thoso’‘in the middle of the night [Masopha] suddenly appeared’

3.3.3 Adverbials of place

(11) kwena metsing bito‘the crocodile out of the water bito’‘the crocodile out of the water suddenly appeared’

As my translations show, all these occurrences of the ideophone are presumed to bepast tense through assuming an on-going past tense narrative. Formally, there is noway to tell that the action of the ideophone was enacted in the past. The ambiguityof tense can only be resolved by introducing the verb stem -re which takes a pastsubject concord to reflect a narrative past, as indicated in the above examples.

If the action’s time is other than past, then -re is indispensable:

(12) nkgo e tla re bjara‘the claypot will do bjara’‘the claypot will break’

(13) mahlo a tla re etlo‘the eyes will do etlo’‘the eyes will clear’


(14) ntja e tla re photse‘the dog will do photse’‘the dog will bolt out’

3.4 Other grammatical indicators, e.g. mood, tense aspect, etc. carried by-re

3.4.1 Habitual or repetitive

(15) nkgo e re bjara‘[then] the pot would do bjara’‘[then] the pot would break’

3.4.2 Subjunctive

(16) o re mana fatshe‘you must do mana on the ground’‘you must do lie flat on the ground‘you must lie flat on the ground’

(17) ha ba ke ba re kgefu‘let them a little do kgefu’‘let them a little take a break‘let them take a break a little’

3.4.3 Infinitive

(18) ho re mana fatshe‘to do mana on the ground’‘to do lie flat on the ground’‘to lie flat on the ground’

3.4.4 Potential/permissive

(19) ba ka re kgefu ho se hokae‘they may do kgefu a little bit’‘they may do take a break a little bit’‘they may take a little break’

3.5 Relationship to the verb3.5.1 Verb+semantically cognate ideophone

(20) a thola tu‘he kept silent tu’‘he kept silent completely’‘he kept completely silent’


The predicative idea is repeated twice, first as a verb and then as an ideophone. Thisachieves emphasis both through the restatement of the same idea twice, but alsobecause the ideophone is characterized by intensity in its presentation of an ideathat could also be presented through the verb. The verb and the ideophone could beseparated into two, virtually independent predicative formulations by introducing-re to precede the ideophone, as follows:

3.5.2 Verb+ -re+ideophone

(21) a thola a re tu‘he kept quiet he did tu’‘he kept completely quiet’

4. Creating ideophones from verbs

This is a common phenomenon in the Southern Bantu languages. In Sesotho, theprocess consists of substituting -i for the final vowel of the verb which is almostinvariably -a in the infinitive (and in several other contexts as well). The twoexceptions are -re ‘say’ and -tjho ‘say so’.

(22) a. ideophone keni from verb kena ‘enter’b. ideophone tlamolli from verb tlamolla ‘untie’c. ideophone hlotsi from verb hlotsa ‘limp’d. ideophone tswii from verb tswa ‘go out’

Unlike the first three examples in the above cluster, the ideophone tswii in the lastexample has a long i sound. This is a phenomenon that obtains for all ideophonesfrom monosyllabic verbs.

These ideophonized verbs acquire all the attributes of regular ideophones,specifically that of aloofness from all the morphological modifications that otherparts of speech undergo to adapt to their linguistic environments.

Similarly, English verbs are often transplanted into Sesotho syntactical environ-ments that are normally filled by ideophones. The English verb is then frozen intoan immutable form whose grammatical function can only be attained through thesame mechanisms used for ideophones. The one difference is that Sesotho thenmostly uses the verb stem -etsa, and very seldom -re, to make that “ideophonized”verb viable within its new grammatical environment.

(23) a. ra mo etsa discourage‘we did to him discourage’‘we discouraged him’


b. re tla mo etsa discourage‘we will do to him discourage’‘we will discourage him’

c. o se ke was mo etsa discourage‘you must not do to him discourage’‘you must not discourage him’

d. ba ile ba mo re respect haholo‘they did to him respect a lot’‘they respected him a lot’, i.e. ‘they showed him a lot of respect’

With the help of its verb -thi (cf. Sesotho -re) Xhosa engages much more freely inthis process of ideophonizing English verbs than Sesotho.

(24) a. ku funeka uyithi forget yonke loo nto‘it is necessary that you forget all that stuff’

b. baze bathi open ke, wangena‘so at last they opened then, and he entered’

c. uzumthi remind ke‘you must remind him then’

Needless to say that the code-switching in Examples (23) and (24) is engaged in bySotho and Xhosa speakers who have been exposed to English either at school or inlarge urban centers like Johannesburg, or both. While most people use it as matterof habit, it is also sometimes used self-consciously as a status symbol.

5. The ideophone and orality

By its very nature, the ideophone demands the presence to each other of thecommunicating parties, namely the speaker and the listener. That is the essence ofperformance, and the ideophone is a performative speech act par excellence, whichis often reinforced by body language. All the elements of oral performance are there:oral (the speaker transmitting the message through sound and visual images); aural(the hearer receiving and processing the sound signals); visual (the hearer simulta-neously seeing the speaker’s gestures and other body language manifestations andprocessing those). There are many indicators of this “orality” of ideophones,including the following: the speaker’s use of exclamations and interjections inconjunction with the ideophone.

(25) Hela! …Kikirikiri, kikirikiri!‘My goodness! …Kikirikiri, kikirikiri!’(reference to people fighting or wrestling)

The speaker’s use of words inviting the hearer to view an act. The word “bona”(look) is often used in this context.


(26) Bona!: Kgatla fatshe!‘Watch! Kgatla on the ground!’(reference to throwing someone forcefully on the ground)

Likewise the demonstrative may be used as if to point out to the hearer the subjectperforming the ideophonic act.

(27) Ke elwa tlole ka thota!‘There he is tlole beyond the rise!’(reference to someone disappearing beyond the rise)

These and other orality markers often accompany ideophones, underscoring theirimmediacy to the communicating parties.

6. Conclusion

I have, in a sense, already stated my conclusions in my introductory remarks. Letme simply underscore some of the points made there. The ideophone stands alooffrom the connecting tissues, the sinews and ligaments that flesh out the basiccomponents of speech into a morphological, grammatical and syntactical system.By thus isolating itself, it, so to speak, climbs the stage to become an act, thusremoving itself from the ordinary run-of-the-mill narrative surrounding it. By itsvery nature, it imposes on the subject the function of an actor or performer whosesurrogate is the narrator. The closest analogy is that of an oral narrative performerwho from time to time “becomes” the characters he/she is narrating about and actsout their parts.

Having created a surreal world, the ideophone invites the audience to perceivewith their senses that which it represents, whether aural, visual, olfactory, and so on.

Finally it cannot be over-emphasized that the “oral” character of the ideophonegives us a good clue of the kind of society we may expect where ideophones are usedon a regular basis. It is reasonable to assume that it is a society in which people formthemselves into conversational clusters, or take advantage of any situations thatthrow them together in their daily existence such as a bus shelter, a bus, a train, thevillage pump, and any situation where people find themselves so to say “trapped”for a significant amount of time. One only has to read an author like C.L.S.Nyembezi to see this phenomenon at work. The novels Mntanami! Mntanami!,Ubudoda Abukhulelwa, and Inkinsela YaseMgungundlovu simply thrive on charac-ters talking, and are marked by a generous use of ideophones.

Or, to reverse the logic of the last statement, maybe we first have to have acommunal society that provides a fertile environment for the creation and use ofideophones since it is an ipso facto oral and visual society in its communicationsystem. This creates a kind of chicken-and-egg argument which is both fascinating


and frustrating, but which ensures that we are going to be around a long, long time,trying to solve the mystery.

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Omen N. Maduka-DurunzeAgbia State University, Nigeria

1. Introduction

The following fairly general hypothesis regarding phonosemantic hierarchies inideophones is being proposed: The semantic interpretation of ideophones dependson their sounds and patterns, and on a formal sound-symbolic system of linkages.One interesting aspect of this system is that based on hierarchies of phonosemanticsuggestiveness. There are dominance relationships such that some phonosemanticlinkages are stronger than others; and when these linkages constitute an ideophoneand are in opposition, stronger linkages hold sway over the weaker and cancel themout. If they are in opposition and of equal strength, they mutually annihilate eachother and leave residues that now constitute the meaning of the ideophone. If theyare similar in suggestiveness but vary in strength, then they will often add up theirstrengths to provide the meaning of the ideophone. Given the inevitable limitationof the inventory of sound units, ideophones make use of hierarchies to cover widerranges of semantic notions. There are several far-reaching consequences of this,including those that have to do with ideophonic change and variation and that ofphonosemantic foci for the vowel space.

The principal structural phonosemantic features of ideophones discovered sofar include the following: Compositionality, creativity or generativity, phono-semantic features and phonosemantic hierarchies. Compositionality refers to thefact that ideophones are most often constituted of meaning-bearing components(also termed psychomorphs) that compose them as words compose sentences.Creativity or generativity refers to the fact that new ideophones (including thosenever heard before) can be constructed as occasion demands, based on a quasi-syntactic generative mechanism. Features are atomic components that build uplarger components. Very much like phonetic/phonological features, phonosemanticfeatures in their formal representation are signed positive/negative, so that everypsychomorph is seen as a bundle of phonosemantic features, with both a phonicand a semantic side. The term hierarchies refers to the situation in which some

194 Omen N. Maduka-Durunze

psychomorphs possess stronger cognitive sound-sense linkages than others, evenwithin the same narrow field, resulting in either complementarity collaboration,displacement or mutual annihilation of specific linkages. For a discussion seeMaduka-Durunze (1983–1984, 1988, 1990, 1992), among others.

A complete account of ideophonic characteristics must include motivationalfeatures such as iconicity and synaesthesia. Iconicity refers to the fact that soundstructures in ideophones suggest meanings only in ways that can be accounted forby the resemblances between structure and physical reality. For instance, soundswith the feature [+round] would suggest roundedness, duplication would suggestnumber or repetition, and so on. Synaesthesia refers to the transfer of meaningfrom one sense modality to another cognate modality. For instance, sounds thatbasically suggest largeness would in many languages also suggest loudness, strength,brightness, etc. Through iconicity primary/basic meanings are generated; throughsynaesthesia these meanings are multiplied by extending them to other domains.Ideally, synaesthesia should be included as an aspect of the generative capacity ofideophones as should hierarchies and compositionality. Of all the features men-tioned above, perhaps the most intriguing is the notion of hierarchies. This papergoes beyond previous work in that it considers the phenomenon in its widerramification and typological possibilities.

1.1 Ideophones and composition

As stated in the previous section, ideophones are most often composed of smallersemantic units. There are three basic typological formants of composition, namelyType A, Type and Type C.

In Type A, single segments in particular positions make contributions that addup to give an ideophone its full meaning. In Type B, melodies — consonant andvowel melodies, in particular — take meaning as opposed to single segments. InType C, the nature of syllabic structures determines meanings, but details in thistype have not been fully clarified. Again, these are elaborated in Maduka (1989).Beyond the typology above, based on segments, it is now evident that units ofcomposition may also be based on fields or features.

1.1.1 Horizontal vs. vertical compositionFurther investigation places us now in a position to give wider meaning to the term‘composition’. The typological patterns discussed above may be said to be within ahorizontal compositional frame. And since as shown in Maduka (1988, 1990, 1991),features (in the phonological sense) also convey meaning, within a single segment,we may accept that there is also vertical composition. For instance, the vowel [u] inHausa size and shape ideophones carries both meanings large and round (amongothers). The proof of their independence is in fact that they are alienable. A word-

Phonosemantic hierarchies 195

final consonant can cancel out one of them (here, large) depending on thecircumstance (cf. Maduka 1991).

1.1.2 Hierarchies and compositionHierarchies work in close correspondence with composition in ideophones. Asstated in the preceding section, they may be based on semantic fields, phonicsegments, or features. Below we clarify how they function within these realms.

1.2 Multiple-field ideophones: Scope hierarchies

Most ideophones encode meanings from different semantic sub-fields. An ideo-phone that makes principal reference to noise will often include such as the natureof object causing the noise, the space surrounding the object, the regularity of thenoise, etc. For instance, in Igbo, the ideophones yfkfyfkf and kpfkfkpfkf wouldboth refer to rattling (i.e., repetitive, short, sharp, light, hard) within almost fullcontaining vessel. However, the first would refer to a bunched-up mass, the secondto a single, hard and dry object (cf. Maduka 1983–1984).

1.2.1 Sub-field hierarchies: Core plus satellitesWithin the concept of field hierarchies, we term the major field the Core and theother associated meanings the Satellites. Many ideophones operate this way. As canbe seen from the examples used above, the core is carried by [k] (the medialconsonant) and the satellites by [y] and [kp] (initial consonants, indicating thenature of the object causing the noise) [f] (vowel, designating spatial features) andduplication (designating ‘repetitive’). With scope hierarchies, since they operatewith the full ideophone as range, cores and satellites are sometimes determined bysentential context — often the co-occurring verb. Almost always, in reduplicatedideophones either the medial consonant or the vowel acts as core and as such itsphonosemantic correlative (i.e., meaning) is higher on the scope hierarchy. Theformal rules that determine field hierarchies — although not so called — arediscussed in detail in Maduka (1989). The following set of data shows field hierar-chies in terms of cores and satellites.

(1) field scope core satellites

a. sonic noise type Loudness, regularity, intensityb. dimension size Shape, induced (e.g. elongated, inflat-

ed, truncated)c. motion speed Direction, consistency of object, tran-

sitional pattern (e.g. spreading, notspreading)

d. visual hue/brightness Intensity, reflexivitye. tactile hardness Malleability, ductility


The above is phonosemantic and also dependent on hierarchies: One sub-field,conveyed by one or two meaning-bearing units, manifests as the core, consigningothers to secondary or even tertiary satellite roles. As stated earlier, the segmentsassociated most often with sub-fields highest on a hierarchy are medial consonantsand vowels. Initial consonants hardly determine core fields.

1.3 Tactic hierarchies: Displacement and mutual annihilation

Although the case above actually functions on a hierarchical basis, it is littleappreciated and has not been seen as such or so described in the literature. Betterknown is the situation where co-occurring (‘tactic’) segmental psychomorphs (i.e.meaning-bearing units) interact with one displacing the other or both mutuallyannihilating each other in case of conflict between them. As this has been discussedin earlier papers (Maduka 1988, 1991), only a brief and simplified statement will bemade here.

In Hausa size and shape ideophones, consonants and vowels convey meaning,often of different categories, but sometimes of identical ones. The vowel [u]suggests {large and round}, while a word final, non-nasal consonant suggests small.If a word-final non-nasal, being higher on the hierarchy, should co-occur with [u]in an ideophone, the resultant would be {small and round}, the {large} componentof [u] having been displaced, although here the following hold by way of generalfunctioning:

(2) Cross or Surface Level Rules:a. C# Æ [αlarge]

[αnasal]b. [u] Æ +large

+round

The hierarchical organization is such that the rule schema (2a) is decomposed, thus:

(3) Level n: C# Æ [+large]; C Æ +large

[nasal] [+round] +round

Level n-1: C# Æ [−large][−nasal]

Level n-2: [u] Æ +large

+round

Level n-3: C Æ Ø[−round]

Thus, the constituents of the ‘gross level’ schema (2a) are on different levels at the‘finite structure level’ (cf. Maduka 1991). Although some details are not included,this is often the case: Component parts of rule schemas hardly belong to the same


level on a hierarchy. A handful of Hausa size and shape ideophones that are basedon the above hierarchy is given below:1

(4) daMMwaa-daMwàa ‘large and round’daMwal-daMwal ‘large and round’guruu-gùrùu ‘large and round’gwadaa-gwàdàa ‘huge and round’Mubul-Mubul ‘small and round’Mubur-Mubur ‘squat, podgy’gudu]-gùdù] ‘huge (of yams)’guru]-guru] ‘huge (of yams)’

The above is an example of displacement. There may or may not be residue[+round] in the examples above. Many such examples of displacement exist indifferent languages and in different semantic fields.

Sometimes in tactic hierarchies, opposing elements are on the same level suchthat when in construction, they are mutually annihilated. Our example is fromNembe shape ideophones. In Nembe, both consonant and vowel melodies functionto designate shape, in particular longitudinal shape. Polarized melodies refer tocrooked, while non-polarized melodies indicate straight. The following is aportion of the appropriate hierarchy:2

(5) Level n OQ Æ [−crooked] C−Q Æ [+crooked][αwide] [αlarge]

[αround]Level n-1 V-Q Æ [+crooked] CQ Æ [−crooked]

[αwide] [αlarge]Level n-2 EQ Æ [−crooked]

[αwide] [αlarge] ÆLevel n-3 [aQ] Æ Ø (i.e., null value)

Normal displacement takes place as in the Hausa example. However, mutualannihilation also takes place here, at Level n. Thus, we have OQ+C-Q yielding[αlarge, αround], with [−crooked] of the first and [+crooked] of the secondbeing mutually annihilated. The following ideophones exemplify both displacementand annihilation in the language (where only the relevant components are includ-ed):

(6) a. kpokorokpokoró large and round Mutual annihilationgbodoróo large and round of [−crooked] and'ogolo'ogogolo large and round [+crooked] at level ngbogboróo large and round


b. 'ekelé'ekele crooked (Displacement of'ákala'ákala crooked EQ (n−2)'akaláa twisted By C-Q (n))kadigíkadigi twisted

c. gbolológbololo straight (Collaboration betweenfeleléfelele straight OQ (n) andgorórogoróro straight CQ (n−1))

As far as longitudinal shape is concerned, mutual annihilation has taken place in(6a), value displacement in (6b) and value identity in (6c).

2. Single-field ideophones: Feature coefficients

Sometimes, ideophones — often those containing only one obstruent — carrymeanings within a single field. Consider the following data referring to brightness(Williamson 1965:23–24):

(7) g77n of an even, unblinking lightgeen of a steady light, brighter than g77ngffn of a light which is brighter than g77n, but does not bother like geen [i.e.,

geen is brighter than gffn]

In other words, the brightness hierarchy in the set of ideophones is as follows: goon> geen > gffn > g77n.

At this point, it is necessary to place Kolokuma vowels in proper perspectiveregarding their feature matrices:

(8) i I e 7 a f o ~ u

high

back

wide

low

+−+−

+−−−

−−+−

−−−−

−−−+

−+−−

−++−

++−−

+++−

If the following coefficients are assigned to the features to reflect this hierarchy inthe field of brightness in the language,

(9) + −

high

back

wide

low

0124

4000


then the following is the hierarchy for vowel features in terms of degrees of sugges-tiveness as far as this field is concerned:

(10) Level n: [−high], [+low]Level n-1 [+wide]Level n-2 [+back]Level n-3 [+high], [−back], [−wide], [−low]

If the assignment in (9) is correct, then it means that the vowels in the ideophones(and therefore the ideophones themselves) gather up numerical values as shown in(11) below (ignoring [low] because of its special relationship with [high]):

(11) high back wide sum

+ − + − + −

oef7aui|I

0000

44444

1

1

1

1

0

00

0

0

22

22

000

00

=========

765443210

Coefficients are therefore additive in this field and their gross value for each voweldetermines its position on the hierarchy, so that as stated earlier, the brightnesshierarchy is thus: goon > geen > gffn > g77n.

The issues become clearer if the numbers above are presented in such a waythat the coefficients are adjusted to take binary values, with bright and dark vowelshaving positive and negative values, respectively

(12) Vowels Unary coefficients Binary coefficients Vowel quantity

oef7aui|I

765443210

+4+3+2+1+10-1-2-3

bright4

bright3

bright2

bright1

bright1

neutral

dark1

dark2

dark3


However, as can be seen, only vowels with gross values not less than 4 (four) areattested in Williamson’s data. Although the darkness ideophones in the languageare not available to us, we can confidently say that those vowels with sums ofcoeficients less than 4 do not suggest brightness because their values are psychologi-cally low on the Unary coefficients and negative on the binary coefficients. As for[a], Williamson states that there is a word gan be light, possibly the starting pointfor the whole series, which is not itself an ideophone (p.24).

In any event, dichotomization, even in gradual fields (semantics, phonetics,etc.) is natural and in fact is the motivation for the binarity concept in phonologyand other areas such as semantics.

All the same, our analysis here does not guarantee that those vowels with thesum values below 4 would refer to darkness in the same phonetic environment. Infact, many ideophones use different formats — compositional, structural, etc. —for encoding concepts directly in opposition. For example, the following hold inNembe, Igbo and Hausa ideophones describing rigidity/looseness (cf. Maduka1993).

(13) rigid/firm lax/loosNembe gIdIgIdI kúsukúsu

kIrIkIrI wúsuwúsukItIkItI wásawása

Igbo fam-fam wokowokogam-gam wogowogogem-gem yògìyògì

Hausa dam lako-lako1as lage-lage1os laku-laku

We may consider another set of single-field ideophones in Kolokuma (Williamson1965:24–25) describing size, using her terminology (except for wide and narrow):

(14) a. Non-high vowels are associated with largeness, high vowels with smallnessgbegbereé refer to taller people than gbigbiriígbagbaraá gbIgbIrIIgbogboroó gbu|bgur||

b. Wide vowels are associated with largeness, narrow vowels with smallnessgbegbereé refers to taller people than gb7gb7r77gbogboroó refer to fatter people than gb|bgur||gbegbereé gbIgbIrIIgbigbirií

c. Back vowels are associated with largeness, front vowels with smallnessgbogboroó refers to fatter people than gbegbereégb|bgur|| refers to less thin people than gbIgbIrII


Put into linear form, the hierarchy for size ideophones in Kolokuma may beconstructed from Williamson’s data, thus gbogboroó > gbegbereé > (gbfgbfrf¢f) >gb7gb7r77 > gbagbaraá > (gbugburuú) > gbigbirií > gbIgbIrII, corresponding, in fact,with the vowel hierarchy as computed in (11) for brightness ideophones. The sizeideophones in parentheses are not included in Williamson’s data, but they logicallyshould be positioned in the places indicated.

3. Conclusion

Phonosemantic hierarchies are inevitably an inherent part of ideophonic composi-tion and creativity. The following diagram may be used to illustrate hierarchy typesso far discovered and the operational strategies they use (in square brackets) beyondplain collaboration:


Multiple field Single field

Sub-field Tactic

[core+satellites] [displacement/annihilation] [feature coefficients]

Phonosemantic hierarchies are field-specific in a language. Of course, there shouldbe correspondence between fields as seen in the Kolokuma size and brightnessideophones. Here, the reason is that both fields are synaesthetically connected, withsize as the more basic. Where synasthesia is not involved, this kind of correspon-dence cannot be expected to hold. For instance, although pharyngeal modulation(use of wide vs. narrow pharynx) is appropriate to size description and producesclear correspondences in that field, it cannot be appropriate — systematically — toshape description. Thus, the hierarchical arrangement between two vowels maydiffer from one field to another. For each field, therefore, hierarchies have to bediscovered anew.

As is evident from the points so far considered, the hierarchy phenomenon isideophones hinges on the notion of collaboration. It is interesting to note, thatwhile collaboration in multiple-field hierarchies is complementary and quanti-tatively bounded, that is, the feature value subscriptions attached to two meaning-bearing units remain the same whatever happens, or disappear entirely, collabora-tion in single-field hierarchies is elaborative rather than bounded. Something extrais added within the same narrow meaning.

In other words, we may state that what holds in single-field ideophones iselaboration or — perhaps more appropriately — collaborative elaboration, while


what holds in multiple-field ideophones is complementary collaboration. Thiscomplementary collaboration is achieved through displacement. In the same way,we may see mutual annihilation as subtractive collaboration.

Thus hierarchies have the major purpose of licensing the interaction ofdifferent psychomorphs so that the limited set of segments might be able to conveya much wider range of semantic notions. Hierarchies therefore appear to play agreater role in ideophonic creativity than the phenomenon of composition. Butthen, thy also collaborate in this venture.

There are several questions to ask in respect to phonosemantic hierarchies:

a. Is hierarchy basically in the spatial domain? Or does it extend to the spatio-temporal as well?

b. What is the nature of (domain-specific) phonosemantic fine structures inlanguages?(i) In rules involving α-notation in which the two components are on differ-

ent levels, will the positively marked phonic feature always remain higherthan the negative marked?

(ii) Is it possible that there are fine structures within fine structures? Forinstance, in rule (5), will the rules with α-notation have a finer resolutionwithin their levels as (2) is resolved in (3)?

Notes

1. Only tones that differ from the rest in an ideophone are marked in the languages, thus, ‘´’ forhigh, and ‘`’ for low. There are neither mids nor glides in our data. Words where no tone marksare inserted should be interpreted as all high in Hausa and Igbo, and all low in Nembe andKolokuma.

2. A non-polarized sequence is indicated with a sub-scripted ‘Q’ or the feature value [+Q], whilea polarized sequense is indicated with a sub-scripted ‘-Q’ or the feature value [−Q]. In addition,capitalized vowels represent a natural set differing only in respect of pharynx-size, thus O = [o]/[f]and E = [e]/[7].

References

Maduka-[Durunze], O.N. 1983–84. “Igbo ideophones and the lexicon”. Journal of the LinguisticAssociation of Nigeria 2: 23–29.

Maduka-[Durunze], O.N. 1988. “The size and shape ideophones in Nembe: A phonosemanticanalysis”. Studies in African linguistics 19: 93–113.

Maduka-[Durunze], O.N. 1989. Phonosemantic Theory. PhD theis, Port Harcourt: University ofPort Harcourt.

Maduka-[Durunze], O.N. 1990. “Pharynx size in Nembe sound symbolism”. AfrikanistischeArbeitspapier 24: 69–80.


Maduka-[Durunze], O.N. 1991. “Phonosemantic rules and hierarchies: Evidence from roundnessideophones in Hausa”. Afrikanistische Arbeitspapier 26:167–175.

Maduka-[Durunze], O.N. 1993. “Ideophonic strategies for describing rigidity and strength ofcontact”. Nigerian Language Studies 1:27–38.

Maduka-[Durunze], O.N. 1998. “Kolokuma vowel hierarchies and the notion of phonosemanticfoci”. In Phonosemantics. Lagos: 21 Century Books.

Williamson, K. 1965. A Grammar of the Kolokuma Dialect of Ijo. Cambridge: CUP.

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Ideophones as the source of verbs

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TITLE "Ideophones as the source of verbs in Northern Australian languages"


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in Northern Australian languages

William McGregorAarhuis Universitet

1. Introduction

Most languages of northern Australia exhibit a compound verb construction (CVC)consisting of two verb-like parts. One is an uninflecting verb (UV), a verbal“particle” that normally occurs in its bare, uninflected form, and admits minimalmorphological modification. All inflections go to the other unit, the inflecting verb(IV), which in most languages usually follows the UV immediately.1 (1) and (2)provide exemplification:2

(1) nguy ka-na-ngka-y Warrwareturn 1sg.nom/fut-tr-fut-say‘I will return.’

(2) yudug nyin-y1inde-n Ungarinyinbow:down 2sg.nom-fall-pres‘Bow down.’ (Rumsey 1982:18)

The main aim of this paper is to propose that ideophones represent an importanthistorical source for UVs in northern Australian languages. I begin by outliningsome features of UVs suggestive of their origins in ideophones. Because of spacerestrictions, I exemplify sparingly; however, the features are fairly typical of UVs innorthern Australian languages. The development from ideophone to verb did not,however, occur in isolation; it was part and parcel of other processes of grammaticalchange. Thus, in Section 3 I outline a historical scenario for the development ofverbal constructions in northern Australian languages that emplaces the develop-ment from ideophone to verb within a wider grammatical context. Section 4suggests some motivations for the proposed grammatical pathways of change.Section 5 winds up the paper with a brief conclusion.

206 William McGregor

2. Ideophone features of UVs

Features of UVs in northern Australian languages that are reminiscent of a sourcein ideophones include: phonotactic peculiarities, phonaesthesia, independent usageas expressive elements, limited morphological potential, and syntactic restrictions.

2.1 Phonotactic peculiarities

UVs typically show phonotactic properties that distinguish them from words ofother parts of speech. Generally, they are shorter — they show significantly fewersyllables — than other words, and quite frequently end in consonants and/orconsonant clusters, whereas words of other parts of speech tend to end in vowels.These generalizations are robust, and apply to many languages, irrespective ofgenetic affiliation. Table 1 compares the percentage of UVs with n-syllables(1£n£5) with words of other parts of speech in three Kimberley languages, Warrwa(Nyulnyulan, Dampier Land), Gooniyandi (Bunuban, southern-centralKimberley),3 and Gunin/Kwini (Worrorran, northern Kimberley).

Clearly, although monosyllables are overall rare, they are not uncommon in UVs,

Table 1.�Frequency of words of n syllables in three languages

Number of syllables: ��1 ��2 ��3 ��4 5

UVs WarrwaGooniyandiGunin/Kwini

27%30%24%

58%58%53%

13%�9%18%

�2%�3%�5%

0%0%0%

Other parts of speech WarrwaGooniyandiGunin/Kwini

�3%�1%�3%

47%29%54%

33%47%34%

16%20%�8%

2%3%<1%

Overall WarrwaGooniyandi

�8%�8%

49%35%

29%39%

13%16%

1%2%

where at least a quarter of all roots in each of the three languages are monosyllabic.Disyllables are not strikingly different in frequency in UVs and other parts ofspeech, but trisyllables are about twice as frequent elsewhere than in UVs. Andwhile UV roots of more than three syllables are rare, for other parts of speech theyare reasonably common.

Although comparable counts are not available for many other languages,4 thepattern is repeated. According to Reid (1990), UVs in Ngan’gityemerri (Daly River)are often monosyllabic, distinguishing them from nominal roots; a similar situation

Ideophones as the source of verbs in Northern Australian languages 207

obtains in nearby Jaminjung ((Schultze-Berndt, this volume)). Nash 1982:185comments that in Warlpiri (Pama-Nyungan) monosyllabic UVs exist, but notmonosyllabic nominals; the same goes for Bilinara (Nordlinger 1990:99). AndTsunoda 1981:46 says that monosyllabic UVs are fairly common in closely relatedJaru, while other parts of speech show few monosyllables.

UVs also show a higher frequency of final consonants and consonant clustersthan do roots of other classes. In most languages there is a fairly strong tendency forwords to begin with a consonant and end with a vowel — for all parts of speechother than UVs. In Warrwa, for instance, only a quarter (25%) of words of otherparts of speech end in consonants, while over a half (56%) of UVs do McGregor1994:11). Closely related Yawuru shows somewhat more consonant final words(37%) amongst other parts of speech, and slightly more consonant final UVs (65%)(Hosokawa 1991:205), but the tendency remains in evidence. Consonant clustersare also more common in UVs in Yawuru than words of other parts of speech(Hosokawa 1991:207).

In Gooniyandi almost 80% of verbs end in consonants, while less than 3% ofother words do; a number of verbs end in consonant clusters, though no otherwords do. In Wagiman the majority of UVs end in stops, whilst nominals and IVsare usually vowel or sonorant final (Wilson 1997). UVs also admit final consonantclusters, that are rare for other types of word. In Ngan’gityemerri, verbs can end inconsonants that are not admissible in this position for other word classes; inJaminjung a wider range of consonant clusters are admissible in final position inUVs than elsewhere. Similar patterns are discernible in many Pama-Nyunganlanguages from the area bordering the non-Pama-Nyungan area: in Jaru, final stopsand consonant clusters are rare for words other than UVs (Tsunoda 1981:46); inWarlpiri only UVs may end in consonants (Nash 1982:185); and in Bilinara onlyUVs permit final consonant clusters (Nordlinger 1990:99).

The peculiar frequencies of UVs of n-syllables cannot always be accounted forsimply by loss of final vowels from words that were originally like those of otherparts of speech. The frequencies of UVs of n syllables are rather different from thefrequencies of words of other parts of speech with n+1 syllables. For instance,Nyulnyul has recently undergone a process of loss of final vowels, resulting inreduction of the number of syllables in words. Nevertheless, monosyllabic UVs aretwice as frequent as monosyllables in other parts of speech, while trisyllabic UVs arehalf as frequent (McGregor 1996a:14).

More subtle differences sometimes exist between UVs and other roots. Gooni-yandi verbals show fewer initial nasals, fewer initial peripherals (labials and velars),and more initial apicals than words of other parts of speech. The χ2 test shows thesedifferences to be significant beyond the 0.001 level (i.e. there is less than one chancein a thousand that the differences are due purely to chance). And in Yawuru,according to Hosokawa 1991:207, apico-postalveolars (except r) are rare word


initially, except in verbs; long vowels are more frequent in UVs than other words;and initial velar stops are more frequently voiced (phonetically) in UVs than otherlexemes.

It seems that not only do UVs differ from words of other parts of speech inphonological and phonotactic patterning, but also their historical sources may havebeen in roots that were different from words of other parts of speech along the sameparameters.

2.2 Phonaesthesia

There is evidence, at least in some languages, of phonaesthesia in UVs. Some writershave commented on the onomatopoeia frequently associated with UVs. Nash1982:185, for instance, speaks of “something like stylized onomatopoeia” in a fewWarlpiri UVs, e.g. la(a)rr ‘hum, whine’. Hosokawa 1991:207 remarks that manyUVs in Yawuru are onomatopoeic, e.g.: ngii ‘buzzing of mosquitoes’, bany ‘bang,boom’, barr ‘fire, ignite’, bibij ‘flash’, and so forth. And Schultze-Berndt forthcom-ing comments on sound-symbolic features of UVs in Jaminjung.

Stronger claims have been made for some languages. Thus McGregor (1996)argues that the association between final consonants and meaning in verbs inGooniyandi is so systematic and iconically motivated that they may be regarded asphonaesthemes (Householder 1946). For instance, final ng is strongly associatedwith processes involving hollow or resonant sounds, blunt shapes, or bent things.These associations may be motivated by auditory and/or articulatory iconicity.Similar associations can be found in Nyulnyul UVs; the following is a smallselection:

– UVs ending in apical laterals frequently designate actions involving liquids(duburl ‘swim’, dulul ‘pour’, jibil ‘dribble’, jubul ‘splash’), or (figuratively) afluid or liquid component (bilbil ‘shine, twinkle’, jakul ‘curl’, rilil ‘spread’, jilal‘weaken’, nyilinyil ‘tangled’, yal ‘pull’), or which involve numerous repetitionsof actions (dujul ‘pound’, dul ‘hammer’, ngal ‘yelp’). Those ending in thelaminal lateral suggest flexible, flailing, uncontrolled, or lateral movement:balybaly ‘flatten’, duly ‘squeeze’, wilywily ‘wag’, and yarrkaly ‘slide’.

– UVs ending in the apical tap rr generally designate activities made up ofnumerous repetitions of a component action (barrabarr ‘think’, birribirr‘chafe’, kaarr ‘rub’, kunarr ‘move’, kurrkurr ‘rumble’, laaburr ‘pluck’, marrmarr‘twitch’, muukurr ‘rub’, ngarr ‘growl’, wanyburr ‘bark’, warr(-kaj) ‘walk(away)’, warrwarr ‘cramp’, wirr ‘graze’, wirrwirr ‘stagger’, wukurr ‘rub’ andpossibly wiyarr ‘tired’, and mungurr ‘jealous’), or movement involving contactat a point (yarr pull, darr ‘arrive at’, dibirr ‘turn over’, durr ‘bump’, jajurr‘meet’, jukurr ‘poke’, karr ‘crack’, ngurrngurr ‘drown’, warlirr ‘lie down’, yuwurr‘descend’, and possibly warirr ‘sting’ and karrirr ‘spit’).


– r-final UVs strongly tend to refer to continuous motion in a trajectory (dumbar‘fly’, jingkar ‘carry’, kalkir ‘swim’, yiryir ‘limp’, and yur ‘slide’), uncontrollednoises (dur ‘fart’, karrngar ‘cough’, ngalarar ‘snore’, and ngir ‘breathe’), andactions with actual or figurative movement involving a straight trajectory (jibar‘twitch’, jikir ‘look at’, kir ‘scrape’, kur ‘embrace’, lir’peel’, lur ‘snatch’, ngirngir‘point’ and wirwir ‘gather up’).

It is not, of course, claimed that in any language the UV final consonant is alwayssound-symbolic. The claim is that there is a statistical correlation between finalconsonant and certain semantic features of the action. UVs with a given finalconsonant are not evenly distributed over the entire semantic space of processtypes; they tend to cluster into a small number of semantic domains, whichsometimes show sound-symbolic motivation.

2.3 Independent usage as expressive elements

Although UVs normally occur in collocation with IVs in CVCs, they are sometimesfound independently, in contexts where they are clearly used expressively. Schultze-Berndt forthcoming provides discussion and examples of this phenomenon inJaminjung. It is much more rare in the non-Pama-Nyungan languages of the WestKimberley. (3) is one of the few examples in my extensive corpus of Gooniyandi.Note that doorl ‘bang’ occurs on its own intonation contour and was uttered in apeculiar voice register.

(3) mariwawirrinhiyi, nanggidbirrini, doorl; doorl; Gooniyandithey:two:were:sneaking:up:on:him they:missed:him bang bangnanggidbirriniyi,they:two:missed:him‘They were sneaking up on him, bang!, bang!, they missed him.’

One of the few Nyulnyulan languages in which expressive use of UVs is attested isYawuru, as in (5) — cf. (4), where it is used in the usual way in a verbal complex.Hosokawa comments (pers.comm.) that used ideophonically — but not when usedin a verbal complex -rdarn may be re-triplicated, or even re-quadruplicated. Hesays, however, that the expressive item need not be accorded particular prosodicprominence. Other such UVs include jaal ‘move through the air in a straight linetrajectory’; kurl ‘be starving’ (cf. kurl-kurl-kurl ‘rumble (of stomach)’); rdirlu ‘spin,turn around’ (cf. rdirlu-rdirlu rdirlu-rdirlu-rdirlu ‘spinning around (of e.g. wind-mill)’); and so forth.

(4) marlu rdarndarn wal-a-ma bunydya -marda Yawurunot tight 2sg.nom/fut-tr-put loose -perhaps‘Do not tie it up too hard; just loosely.’ (Hosokawa 1991:390)


(5) kamba yila midbad wal-a-ma rdarndarn Yawuruthat dog tie.up 2sg.nom/fut-tr-put tight‘Tie up the dog tightly.’ (Hosokawa 1991:389)

According to Heath 1976:736, Ritharngu (YolNu, Pama-Nyungan, north-eastArnhem Land) shows a set of UV-like words that typically collocate with IVs, as in(6). Such root forms are often pronounced emphatically, like an interjection, andwith expressive meaning. Thus e.g. banggurl?! ‘return!’ (Heath 1976:736).

(6) banggurl?-ya-na Ritharngureturn-go-pa‘(He) returned.’

Finally, in Mayali (Gunwinjguan), some UV elements (“prepounds”) occur mainlyas ideophones (Evans in preparation: Chapter 8). Most of these have -ke as their IV(“thematic”), though a few have -me�: lidj-ke ‘pinch’ (ideophone lidj! ‘pinch!’),wayh-ke ‘lift’ (ideophone wayh! ‘up!’), and borrh-ke ‘dance’ (reduplicated ideo-phone borrhborrh!).

2.4 Limited morphological potential

Finally, UVs show restricted morphological potential in most languages. They donot inflect, and generally occur in plain root form. The only common morphologi-cal modifications are reduplication and affixation of a small number of aspectualsuffixes.

Reduplication is the most common of these processes both within languages,and cross-linguistically; it is permissible in all languages. Typically it has an iterativesense: the derived stem represents a process that can be analyzed into componentsrepeated over time, place, or actors. Some examples are: Nyulnyul bany-bany ‘shootrepeatedly’ (from bany ‘shoot’) and dibirr-dibirr ‘stir’ (dibirr ‘roll over’); andGooniyandi gaj-gaj- ‘cut up, chop up’ (gaj- ‘cut’), maj-maj- ~ many-maj- ‘feelabout’ (maj- ‘touch’), waroong-waroong- ‘fly together in a group’ (waroong- ‘fly’),and laj-laj- ‘lie scattered (e.g. of footprints)’ (from laj- ‘lie on ground’). Sometimesa continuous meaning is involved instead.

In many languages an aspectual suffix can be affixed to a UV, although theparadigmatic options are normally severely restricted, and usage is uncommon.Nyulnyul, for instance, has a single stem-forming suffix that may be attached to aUV, -kaj cont, as in lakal-kaj (climb-cont) ‘be climbing’. The same suffix occursin Jabirrjabirr and Nimanburru (Nekes and Worms 1953), and the cognate-(ng)kay(a) in Warrwa(McGregor 1994:48). In Gooniyandi a small set of aspectualderivational suffixes can be attached to verbs, including -bi iterative, -ban continu-ous, and -gi inceptive (McGregor 1990:239–242).

In many languages certain nominal derivational morphemes can be affixed to


UVs, especially agentive suffixes: e.g. Wardaman UVs can take both the prefix nya-,as in nya-giwurrg (ag-be:sulky) ‘sulky person’, and the more productive suffix-rnan, as in yi-gerrngma-rnan (anim-cry-ag) ‘crybaby’ (Merlan 1994:220–221); andin Nyulnyul the suffix -id can be added, as in lanyb-id ‘thief ’. In many languages theword for ‘policeman’ is an agentive derivation of the verb ‘tie up’: e.g. mirnmird-galiin Gooniyandi, murdmurd-garlu in Worlaja, mern-merd-kale-ny in Gija, wayirnu-waji in Jaru, etc.. UVs may generally take case-marking postpositions, especially innon-finite clauses, as in Nyulnyul marriny-in (walk-erg) ‘by walking’, and Gooni-yandi ward-nhingi (go-abl) ‘from (as a result of) going’. These are, however, rarelyemployed in speech.

Even in Gooniyandi — and some Daly River languages — where the UV hasgrammaticized most, and synchronically must be regarded as the only type of lexicalverb, there is reason to say that it is uninflecting, that the material following thestem is not inflectional (McGregor 1990:192).

2.5 Syntactic characteristics

UVs rarely occur independently; typically they occur in syntagm with IVs. Lookingacross the north of the continent, the most usual situation is that the UV occursadjacent to the IV, either immediately before or immediately after it. Manylanguages show a preference for the order UV-IV, though in the Daly River regionthe opposite order predominates. It is unusual for other types of word in Australianlanguages to be so constrained syntactically, especially open class words, which mayusually be fairly freely permuted without affecting grammaticality. But this does nothold for the UV and IV.

A second noteworthy syntagmatic characteristic of UVs is that they show strongcollocational tendencies with IVs. Typically a given UV will collocate with betweenone and half a dozen or so IVs, rarely more. This contrasts sharply with the muchfreer collocational potential of nouns and particles with IVs.

2.6 Concluding observations

The features discussed in Sections 2.1–2.5 are reminiscent of ideophones.First, the phonotactic patterns of UVs (and their historical sources) are

unusual, and typical of ideophones: ideophones often show a strong tendencytowards closed, monosyllabic, forms — see examples in Alpher (1973:45–47) andAlpher (1994); Martin (1962:179–182), Oswalt (1971) and Zorc (1984).

Second, ideophones frequently involve non-arbitrary correlations betweenphonological form and meaning. Their final consonants show, in some languages,a tendency to be symbolic (see Oswalt 1971:177–178; Zorc 1984; and Childs1994:189–194).


Third, UVs sometimes show the potential to be used as ideophones. As far as Iam aware, words of other classes are not used ideophonically. Close associationsbetween verbs and ideophones have been noted by other scholars, including Oswalt(1971:181–184); Voeltz (1971), and Courtenay (1976:13), and similar develop-ments from ideophones to verb roots are attested elsewhere (Alpher 1994).

Fourth, minimal morphological potential is a widely known characteristic ofideophones (e.g. Voeltz 1971; Alpher 1994:164; Childs 1994), a feature which is inmany languages shared only with interjections and particles. Among the morpho-logical modifications ideophones typically permit, reduplication, re-triplication, etc.is the most characteristic (e.g. Childs 1994; Schaefer, this volume).

And finally, the syntagmatic features of UVs are reminiscent of ideophones insome languages. Alpher 1994:168 remarks that ideophones in Yir-Yoront mayoccur immediately before the verb, clause finally (i.e. typically immediatelyfollowing the verb, given the unmarked word order SOV), or independently.Furthermore, ideophones in Yir-Yoront typically collocate with either one or asmall number of verbs (Alpher 1994:167–168). This feature is also characteristic ofideophones in many African languages (e.g. Childs 1994:188).

To be sure, some features of ideophones are not characteristic of UVs: vowellesssyllables (e.g. Yir-Yoront (Alpher 1994:163), Gooniyandi); phones that do notoccur in words of other classes; and the potential to be uttered in an unusual voiceregister. It seems that phonetic and phonological regularization is concomitant withthe reclassification of ideophones — or only the phonologically regular ideophoneshave become UVs.

3. Historical development of the CVC

To begin with it must be stressed that I am not suggesting that all UVs havehistorical origins in ideophones. This is manifestly false. UVs typically form openclasses, which are amenable to borrowings, and modern languages borrow Englishverbs into the UV class. Words from other classes (especially nominals, occasionallyadverbials) often also occur in the same paradigmatic “slot” as UVs. And inGooniyandi a number of verbs clearly derive from nominals and adverbials by non-productive processes: nyamanig- ‘make big’ (nyamani ‘big’), boolgany- ‘get old’(boolga ‘old man’), goorrg- ‘make hole’ (goorrgoo ‘hole’); ngalarr- ‘roll onto back,roll over (of log)’ (ngalarra ‘back’); wangmarr- ‘go mad’ (wangmarra ‘mad’);ganybil- ‘be shy’ (ganybili ‘shy’); and many others.

My claim is, rather, that ideophones play an important role in the origin andgrammaticization of CVCs in northern Australian languages. The constructionbegan, I suggest, with ideophones, and later extended to admit other items.

This is not an entirely novel idea. Alpher (1994:165) suggests ideophones are a


(probably minor) source of UVs in northern Australian languages, and I havemyself previously suggested the same for Gooniyandi (McGregor 1996b). Furtherafield, Voeltz (1971:149) observes that many verbs in Zulu derive from ideophonesby morphological processes.

A more specific and detailed case has been made by Heath (1976:737), whosuggests that the CVC of Mara-Alawic (non-Pama-Nyungan, Northern Territory)derives historically as a “crystallization” of a Ritharngu type construction involvinginflected verb plus ideophonic particle, as in (7):

(7) maara-nh ngay bart Ritharngugrab-pa he grab!‘He grabbed it.’ (Heath 1976:737)

He proposes the following scenario for the grammaticization of the CVC in Mara-Alawic:

1. increase in the number of verbs that can produce root forms with independentoccurrence;

2. loss of the inflected forms of many of the verb stems, requiring that they bejuxtaposed to one of the set of remaining inflecting verbs, in order to indicatetense, mood, and aspect categories;

3. consequent semantic dilution of the inflecting verbs, at least in the constructionwhere they occur in juxtaposition to particles;

4. rigidification of order particle followed by IV.

For Heath, the connection between ideophone and verb is a complex one: begin-ning with inflecting verbs, ideophonic items are derived by loss of inflections. Thisloss becomes characteristic of certain verbs, which ultimately completely lose theability to take inflections. Since they remain the only means of expressing therelevant meanings, the emergence of the CVC is motivated by the need to expresstense, mood and aspect.

I am in full agreement with Heath that it is the grammaticization of theconstruction that must be accounted for, not merely the grammaticization of oneword class in it. However, it seems to me that there are too many unnatural steps inHeath’s scenario:

– Why did the inflecting verbs gain the ability to occur in root form in the firstplace — step (a) — that is, why should obligatory inflection be lost on certainverbs, and not on others? Note that what is involved is not gradual wearingdown of inflections, but irregular and exceptional failure to employ them wherenormally obligatory.

– Assuming that these verbs could occur in their root form in one context, whyshould this generalize to other contexts, especially when it means that impor-tant tense, mood, and aspect information is lost?


– Why should the processes be restricted to particular verbs? It is left unexplainedwhich verbs underwent this process, and why.

I want to propose an alternative scenario, which does not suffer from these inade-quacies, and which I believe is better motivated. This is not to suggest that chanceis not involved. Indeed, I believe it is ultimately central to the emergence of theCVC; but successful chance occurrences are unlikely to be unnatural as historicalprocesses.

My alternative goes as follows. First, let us presume an initial state in whichthere were inflecting verbs together with a class of some scores of ideophones andsound-mimicking words, including representations of noises and animal calls. Letus further presume that at an initial state these items had very restricted syntag-matic potentials — they could occur only as minor clauses, and never withinordinary major clauses, in syntagmatic relations with other words.

1. The class of ideophones expanded significantly, so that it numbered in thehundreds rather than in the scores.5

2. Simultaneously, ideophones came to be frequently used in collocation with theverb ‘say’, which in Australian languages generally also means ‘do’. This becamean alternative means of designating many processes: along with e.g. he swamwas the alternative expression splash he said/did ‘he did an action making asplashing noise’.

3. This means of expression caught on, perhaps initially for evocative or expres-sive reasons, and became the most common way of designating certain process-es, particularly less common ones. These are also more likely to be associatedwith distinctive sounds, as is the case for marked means of locomotion such asswimming, flying, running, crawling, etc.; marked types of vocalization, crying,laughing, moaning, mumbling, barking, growling, etc.; marked types ofcausatives/inchoatives, snapping, ripping, busting, cracking; and so forth.

4. Other common verbs which are not associated such characteristic noises —such as ‘go’, ‘hit’, ‘sit’, ‘put’, ‘catch’, ‘give’, ‘fall’ — either came to be usedanalogically in the same construction, or their use in this construction wasreinforced.

5. Ultimately, these alternative modes of expression came to be the conventional-ized and only ways of referring to the more marked actions, and the originalsimple verbal expressions became outmoded.

These steps need not have been sequentially related as discrete non-overlappingstages of development. Rather, I think it more likely that they overlapped, continu-ally feeding into and renewing one another. As the construction gained in favor,more ideophonic elements were introduced (possibly by borrowing), and with this,the propensity to refer to unusual actions by means of compound constructions wasreinforced.


Obviously there is no scope in the present paper to justify this scenario. Imerely cite a few pertinent observations that seem to lend support to it.

First, it is a characteristic of all languages with CVCs that the IV verb ‘say, do’is one of the compounding items, often the most frequent (this is also the case inZulu — Voeltz 1971:146). Other textually common verbs such as ‘hit’, ‘go’, ‘put’,‘catch’, etc. are also frequent in CVCs — though not as consistently as ‘say, do’.

Second, the alternative means of expression no doubt existed side by side for aconsiderable period of time, until the CVC ultimately won out. Attestation to thisis available in modern languages. In Warrwa, for instance, the CVC muk … -ji (hit… say/do) ‘hit’ exists alongside the IV -nka ‘hit’, which it has all-but replaced. Andaccording to Nicolas 1998 the Bardi IV -jid ‘go’ has recently been virtually replacedby the CVC warr … -joo ‘move say’.

Third, I am suggesting that the motivation for the expansion of the construc-tion from stage (B) was not that it filled a functional gap in the linguistic system,but rather because people liked it as a mode of expression, preferring it to anexisting construction that no longer had affective value.6 As Arthur Capell put it:

Compound conjugation is [sic] Australia developed first of all as a syntacticmatter, a device probably for vividness and clarity of expression, certainly notfor any grammatical reasons. (Capell 1979:294)

Fourth, my scenario does not account for word order restrictions typical of CVCs.These are implicit in (A)–(E): they result from word order tendencies in theconstructions that ideophones enter into. We might add, like Heath, a final step,rigidification of word order. But I don’t think this is necessary. Word orderrigidification may be a consequence of the fact that the verb ‘say, do’ represents theactual source of the construction. For it is with this verb that we tend to find thestrongest preferred for UV–IV order. If animals’ noises are quoted with the verbjijag- ‘say, speak’ in Gooniyandi, then the representation of the noise normallyprecedes the verb. And in Ngan’gityemerri the verb ‘say’ is unusual in that it followsUVs, whereas most IVs invariably precede the UV.

What of the cognations between UVs and IVs that motivated Heath’s (1976)scenario? As I said, one of the points I am unhappy with is the suggestion that IVswould simply omit inflections. It seems much more likely that IVs would havederived from UVs by gaining inflections, as proposed by Francesca Merlan forWardaman: IVs represent the result of “long-term process[es] of verbalization ofparticles” (Merlan 1994:263).

The CVC has diffused over a large area of the continent, and the modernlanguages show a range of different degrees of grammaticalization. In mostlanguages of northern and north-western Australia all of the IVs — which typicallynumber 20–50 — can occur in the compound verb construction, but in additionsome/all can still occur independently. In a few languages there are larger sets of IVs


(100 or more), of which only about 20 can occur in CVCs. In just a scattering oflanguages it has become a fully grammaticalized system in which the IVs havebecome classifier morphemes bound to the former UVs, which are now verb roots(McGregor, in preparation). There is reason to believe that the process may havegone even further in some languages, and the IVs become meaningless conjugation-class markers. The synchronic systems show the stages in the diachronic develop-ment to the fully grammaticalized systems.

I suggest that the CVC has diffused following steps (A)–(E) above. But it wasnot fully grammaticized CVCs that diffused. Rather, what diffused were construc-tions in the early stages of development. The result has been parallel developmentswithin nearby languages, which tend to exhibit comparable stages of development.All of the evidence points to the innovation of these systems beginning with ‘say’.

4. Motivation for the grammatical changes

The crucial feature of ideophones, that sets them off from (most) other words isthat they invoke some sort of stylized, yet vivid and expressive representation of anevent, action, process, or whatever. They are typically to some degree onomatopoe-ic, or sound-symbolic. The basis for this expressive representation is multifarious.As Doke 1935:118 put it, it may be “in respect to manner, color, smell, action, stateor intensity”; it may also, of course highlight a sound involved in the action.

What this means is that ideophones can be said to designate their referents bydemonstrating them (see also Clark and Gerrig 1990). What is involved is demon-strative-symbolic use of a linguistic unit, rather than descriptive-symbolic use, as istypically for words of other classes, except when used in quotation frames. Thus, in(8) the ideophone wirri wirri wirri serves to demonstrate the owl’s tumbling downhead over heels, as an accompanying gesture might. It is a vocal gesture demonstrat-ing the action of tumbling, rather than a manual one; otherwise it operates infundamentally the same way. This contrasts with the other words, baboorroo ‘below’and gardbaniwirrangi ‘he fell near them’, which basically describe the situation,without demonstrating it.

(8) wirri wirri wirri baboorroo gardbani -wirrangi, Gooniyanditumble tumble tumble below it:fell -3sg.obl‘Tumble, tumble, tumble, he fell down next to them.’

The process of grammaticization from ideophone to verb may be conceived of as aprocess of increasing the word’s symbolic, arbitrary character. Accompanying this,the word came to be used in a more descriptive fashion. Nevertheless, the funda-mental demonstrative value may remain apparent, permitting it to be used demon-stratively. A concomitant of this process of grammaticization is phonetic and


phonological normalization. Moving the other direction is de-normalization: notreplacement of regular phones by exceptional ones, but vocalization in a markedvoice register.

Granted that there is also a close association between quotation and demonstra-tion, one might wonder whether quotation and UVs do not share some characteris-tics. It turns out that they do. First, and most obvious, is the frequent collocation ofUVs with a verb of speech. As we have seen, the general verb ‘say, do’ is one of themost frequent IV to collocate with UVs cross-linguistically, and within a number oflanguages.

More interestingly, some languages show phoric elements that can designateboth quotations and UVs. This is the case in Gooniyandi. In (9), for instance, yiniga‘in some/what fashion’ serves as a determiner referring cataphorically to a quote. Itcan also be used as a verb, designating either a quotation, as in (10), or an action, asin (11).

(9) yiniga jijagjawoomi -nganggi Gooniyandisome:manner he:should:talk -2sg.obl‘What will he say to you?’

(10) ngoorroo -ngga yoowooloo yinigami -nganggi Gooniyandithat -erg man he:did:something -2sg.oblngoonyi -yirra wardgiriwhere -all he:goes‘Where did that man tell you he’s going?’

(11) nginyji yinigama migama -ngarragi Gooniyandiyou you:will:do:something you:will:tell -1sg.obl‘Tell me what you’ll do.’

Unfortunately, information on such uses is provided in few grammars, so it is notclear how widespread the phenomenon is. However, Eva Schultze-Berndt informsme (pers.comm.) that in Jaminjung there are two similar demonstrative items —maja ‘thus, thusly’ andwarndoog ‘do what’ — that can also refer to both quotationsand UVs.7

These relations between quotation and UVs provide further support for theproposed historical origins of UVs in ideophones.

5. Conclusions

While noting that UVs in various languages with CVCs may sometimes have asource in ideophones, Alpher 1994:167 does not consider that the evidenceindicates either ideophone constructions such as in Yir-Yoront, or the CVC ofnorth-western Australia as historically prior. More comparative information is now


available, and I hope to have shown that a plausible scenario for the historicalderivation the CVC in languages of northern Australia from a construction (orconstructions) involving ideophones is possible, and that ideophones represent amajor (but not the only) historical source of UVs. Constructions involving ideo-phones formed the analogical basis for the CVC. This historical scenario providesfurther illustration of the fact that ideophones actually do constitute a normal partof languages. They are not entirely separate and peculiar.

Voeltz 1971:143 has suggested a “deep” source of ideophones in Zulu incomplement constructions. What appears to have occurred in Australian languagesis the converse: it seems that there may be a “deep” source for UVs in ideophonesinvolved in complement constructions with the verb ‘say, do’.

There is reason to believe that the sequence of processes has occurred morethan once in the history of Australian languages, that it has gone through at leastone — and possibly more — cycles. Thus verbs in many Pama-Nyungan languagesmay derive from CVCs via processes of grammaticization. So CVCs are historicallyprior to ideophone constructions also.

If this is the case, grammaticization and renewal — a creative process — areboth involved. Creativity is represented by the initial stage of using ideophonesnon-ideophonically, in certain environments, and by subsequent ideophoneinvention. This is followed by a long period of grammaticization, until the stage isreached represented by many Pama-Nyungan languages.

It may not be accidental that the largest numbers of ideophones tend to befound in languages with the most grammaticized verbal constructions, with simpleinflecting verbs. A language like Gooniyandi, in which the CVC has grammaticizedto a lesser degree, we find a few ideophones, though nothing like the number in Yir-Yoront. And they are used infrequently. Rather more ideophones are found inNunggubuyu, in which the verbal construction shows evidence of a fair amount ofgrammaticization. At intermediate stages are Jaminjung and Nyulnyulan languages.The former shows a fair number of UVs that can be used ideophonically; the latterlanguages generally show few, thus indicating that things are not as simple asportrayed above. At such intermediate stages UVs may retain some expressivecharacter and use, obviating the need for many ideophones.

If my proposal is on the right track, and constructions involving the verb ‘say,do’ plus ideophones represent the historical source of the CVC, then the ‘say, do’verb should be the most grammaticized IV. The fact that it usually shows the leastspecific meaning of any IV in a CVC might be taken as evidence of this. There aremorpho-syntactic reasons in some languages (e.g. Nyulnyulan) for believing thatthe ‘say, do’ verb is highly grammaticized. One difficulty is that it is often thegeneric ‘say, do’ IV that has the greatest freedom among IVs to occur without UVs;this is the case in Worrorran languages and Bunuba. Indeed, in Bunuba -ma ‘say,do’ is the only IV that is at all common in independent usage. This would seem to


be in conflict with the proposed historical scenario: if grammaticization began with‘say, do’, this verb should show the highest degree of grammaticization. Perhaps ithas something to do with the fact that in these languages if ‘say, do’ occurs in anSVC it must frame a quotation. It cannot occur absolutely independently. Onepossibility is that when it frames a quote ‘say, do’ serves as a quotative-marker. Thetwo uses may represent two distinct but inter-related directions of grammatici-zation of this IV.

Notes

1. A variety of terminology has been employed for these two units in the literature. UVs are oftenreferred to as preverbs, particles, verbal nominals, or coverbs; IVs as verb roots, auxiliaries, genericverbs, and so on.

2. The following abbreviations are used:abl ablative iv inflecting verbag agentive nom nominativeall allative obl obliqueanim animate pres presentcont continuous sg singularcvc compound verb construction svc simple verb constructionerg ergative tr transitive markerfut future; uv uninflecting verb.1, 2, and 3 indicate the three persons. ivs are cited in small capitals, UVs in lower case and italics.

3. Strictly speaking, Gooniyandi does not show a CVC. What was once the iv has recentlygrammaticized and is no longer a lexical unit, while the uvs have become verb roots. This does notaffect the point being made in the paper.

4. One of the few exceptions is Hosokawa’s description of Yawuru (Hosokawa 1991:205), a closegenetic relative of Warrwa, which shows an almost identical distribution of words of n-syllablesas Warrwa.

5. As has been suggested to me, (A) could represent the initial state of the system, a state wellattested in African languages. The reason why I prefer the scenario as I have laid it out is becauseit sits better with cyclic application of the processes (see below), and the initial state is attested byat least a few modern languages, e.g. Yir-Yoront (Alpher 1994) and Yidiny (Dixon 1980:105).

6. Another shared feature in Jaminjung is the continuous marker -mayan, that can be attached toboth quotations and UVs (Eva Schultze-Berndt, pers.comm.). I am not aware of this usage in anyother language, however.

7. As a means of expression the CVC also has certain advantages (including lexical economy), likethe genetic mutation that results in a successful variant. Nevertheless, neither communicativeneeds, nor any of the potentially useful characteristics, could have motivated its emergence in thefirst place.


References

Alpher, B. 1973. Son of Ergative: The Yir Yoront language of north-east Australia. PhD. thesis,Cornell University.

Alpher, B. 1994. “Yir-Yoront ideophones”. In L. Hinton, J. Nichols, and J. J. Ohala (eds), SoundSymbolism, 161–177. Cambridge: CUP.

Capell, A. 1979. “The classification of verbs in Australian languages”. In S.A. Wurm (ed.)Australian Linguistic Studies, 229–322. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. C-54.

Childs, G.T. 1994. “African ideophones”. In L. Hinton, J. Nichols, and J. J. Ohala (eds), SoundSymbolism, 178–204. Cambridge: CUP.

Clark, H.H. and R. Gerrig. 1990. “Quotations as demonstrations”. Language 66:764–805.Courtenay, K. 1976. “Ideophones defined as a phonological class: The case of Yoruba”. Studies in

African Linguistics Supplement 6. 13–26.Dixon, R.M.W. 1980. The Languages of Australia. Cambridge: CUP.Doke, C.M. 1935. Bantu Linguistic Terminology. London.Evans, N. In preparation. A Grammar of Mayali.Heath, J. 1976. “North-East Arnhem Land.” In R.M.W. Dixon (ed.), Grammatical Categories in

Australian Languages 735–740. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.Hosokawa, K. 1991. The Yawuru Language of West Kimberley: A meaning-based description.

PhD. thesis, Australian National University.Householder, F. 1946. “On the problem of sound and meaning, an English phonestheme”. Word

2. 83–84.Martin, S. 1962. “Phonetic symbolism in Korean”. UAS 13:177–189.McGregor, W.B. 1990. A Functional Grammar of Gooniyandi. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.McGregor, W.B. 1994. Warrwa. Munich: Lincom Europa.McGregor, W.B. 1996a. Nyulnyul. München: Lincom Europa.McGregor, W.B. 1996b. “Sound symbolism in Gooniyandi.” Word 47:339–364.McGregor, W.B. In preparation. VerClassification in Australian languages.Merlan, F.C. 1994. A Grammar of Wardaman. A language of the Northern Territory of Australia.

Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Nash, D. 1982. “Warlpiri verb roots and preverbs”. Work Papers of SIL-AASeries A, Volume

6:165–216.Nekes, H. and E.A. Worms. 1953. Australian Languages. Freiburg: Anthropos Institut.Nicolas, E. 1998. Etude du système verbal du bardi, langue du nord-ouest australien, avec une

présentation contrastive du système bunuba. Ph.D. thesis, Université Paris VII — DenisDiderot.

Nordlinger, R. 1990. Sketch grammar of Bilinara. BA (Hons.) thesis, University of Melbourne.Oswalt, R. 1971. “Sound imitatives in Pomo”. In Sawyer, J. (ed.) 175–190.Reid, N. J. 1990. Ngan’gityemerri: A language of the Daly River region, Northern Territory of

Australia. PhD. thesis, Australian National University.Rumsey, A. 1982. An Intra-sentence Grammar of Ungarinjin, North-western Australia. Canberra:

Pacific Linguistics.Schaefer, R.P. This volume. “Ideophonic adverbs and manner gaps in Emai”.Schultze-Berndt, E. This volume. “Ideophone-like characteristics of uninflected verbs in Jamin-

jung (Australia)”.Tsunoda, T. 1981. The Djaru language of Kimberley, Western Australia. Canberra: Pacific Linguis-

tics.


Voeltz, E.F.K. 1971. “Toward the syntax of the ideophone in Zulu”. In C. Kim and H. Stahlke(eds), Papers in African Linguistics, 141–152. Edmonton & Champaign: Linguistic Research,Inc.

Wilson, S. 1997. Coverbs and Complex Predicates in Wagiman. BA (Hons.) thesis, University ofSydney.

Zorc, R.D. 1984. “Discourse verbs [ideophones] in Yolngu-Matha”. Paper presented to Top EndLinguistic Circle, October 1984.

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Ideophones in the Balto-Finnic languages

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Eve MikoneÅbo Akademi, Turku

1. Introduction

African and Balto-Finnic language vocabularies, that in one way or another do notrespect the dominating linguistic pattern of their respective language, have been asubject of interest since the end of last century. The terminology used for suchwords has been as heterogeneous as criteria, be they morphological, syntactic,semantic and functional, used to define them (see Samarin 1971:131–133; Anttila1977:27). Nowadays, the term used consistently in investigation of African languag-es is ‘ideophone’, whereas the terminology used in researches on Balto-Finniclanguages for words deviating from neutral vocabularies is still quite heterogeneous.Terms used include among others the following: onomatopoeic, descriptive andexpressive vocabulary. The latter is also used as a so-called umbrella-term for thefirst two. Discrepancies on the relevance of distinguishing the onomatopoeicvocabulary from the descriptive one or on how strongly the vocabulary is related toideophones are of current interest among researchers of both Balto-Finnic andAfrican languages. A laconic differentiation between the terms onomatopoeic anddescriptive can be found in Anttila (1977:27). According to him, a descriptivevocabulary describes physical states and actions. As we are dealing with the samelinguistic phenomena that appears in both African languages and elsewhere, theterm ideophone will be used in the present contribution based on Balto-Finnic datadrawn from the descriptive vocabulary. This paper aims first at clarifying what acommon theoretical basis that lies behind the different ideophonic vocabularies ofthe world and secondly I will offer a short review of ideophonic characteristicsfound in Balto-Finnic languages, Finnish and Estonian.

2. Theoretical starting points

The term ‘ideophone’ is a common term in the investigation of African languages.

224 Eve Mikone

Nevertheless, this does not at all mean that one can find homogeneous criteriadefining the notion ”ideophone”. For B.V. Zurakovskij, for example, ideophoneshave the following characteristics: (1) ideophones display phonological irregularity(where boundaries affecting phonological and tonological changes of othervocabulary groups cannot be applied); (2) ideophones are characterized by theabsence of grammatical auxiliary elements; (3) apart from adjectives and adverbs,ideophones can determine both verbs and substantives (1966:114).

G. Tucker Childs, on the other hand, proposes a more abstract characterizationof ideophones, according to which ideophones exhibit unusual phonological,morphological, syntactic, semantic and historical properties (Childs 1994:178). Theterm ‘unusual’ used by Childs could imply that it is a question of anomality orirregularity in the lexicon. And as a matter of fact, anomaly and irregularity havebeen the reasons for considering the ideophones as an open part of speech wherethe speaker can whenever he wishes create an endless number of ideophones, a viewwhich has led researches to the conclusion that an analysis of such elements is nota part of normal scientific activity. (Finnish philology contains colorful examples ofneglecting of research of ideophonic vocabulary). By replacing Childs’ ‘unusual’with ‘marked’ — ideophones exhibit marked phonological, morphological,syntactic, semantic and historical properties — we can describe the differencebetween ideophones’ and neutral vocabularies as follows: “ideophones form amarked part of speech, the neutral (normal) lexicon an unmarked one. The bordersbetween these two become in many cases somewhat vague.”

3. Characterization of Estonian and Finnish ideophones

3.1 Quantity

Balto-Finnic languages are known for the richness of ideophonic vocabularies, it isoften considered as their distinctive trademark (Mäger 1959:522; Hakulinen1979:325). The ideophonic proportion of the lexicon varies considerably amongBalto-Finnic languages. The presence of ideophonic vocabulary is more apparentand more commonly used in the Eastern dialects of Finnish than in the Westerndialects (Hakulinen 1979:328). Carelian, a neighboring language of Finnish Easterndialects, is also known for the richness of its ideophonic vocabulary. For example,the number of words calculated in the dictionary of the Finnish dialect of Kiihtelys-vaara (belonging to the Eastern dialects) reveals that 31,4% are ideophones, whilethe Carelian dictionary (sections I–III) contains 30,1% ideophones (Leskinen1993:97). From the seven dialects spoken in Estonia, one of them spoken in theeastern part of the country by a smaller population contains — according to theIdamurde sõnastik dictionary — 38,3% of ideophones.

Ideophones in the Balto-Finnic languages 225

The richness of ideophonic vocabularies of Balto-Finnic languages is explainedby the abundance of substantive and verb affixes. Many different derivatives can beformed from the same stem, e.g., these verbs from Finnish dialects hapuilehtaa,hapuileida, hapuilla, hapukoitella, hapulehtaa, hapuloida, hapuroida, hapuroitella,hapustella, haputella have all been formed from the stem hapu- and mean ‘goingwhile being lost, to wander; haphazard looking around’. Another fact that increasesthe number of ideophones is that in addition to the rich affix morphology, conso-nant and vowels changes in a stem of Balto-Finnic ideophones are possible whichdoes not cause any semantic change (more on this in Section 3.3.). For example, seethese variants of the Estonian word koperdama ‘to fumble, grope about’ have beenattested:

(1) koperdama ~ kaperdama, köperdama, kooberdama, koomerdama, koperdama,poperdama, pökerdämä, tokerdama, tökerdama, toterdama, tuterdama, müker-dama

3.2 Parts of speech

Balto-Finnic ideophones do not constitute a clear and separate part of speech, theyrather adapt themselves to the neutral vocabulary. Balto-Finnic ideophones canthus be divided into ideophonic verbs, substantives and particles. Neutral andideophonic vocabularies differ from each other on the basis of the parts of speechdistribution. The neutral vocabulary of Finnish is characterized by a predominanceof substantives and not too many of verbs. However, in ideophonic vocabularies,verbs constitute the largest parts of speech. For example, in word frequency countsbased on 43670 items, substantives account for 75,25%, adjectives for 10,03% andverbs for 8,16 % (Saukkonen 1979:27). From the ideophones contained in theFinnish Kiihtelysvaara dialect dictionary over 60% are verbs, 24% are substantivesand other parts of speech account for 16%; ideophones contained in the generalFinnish dictionary — Nykysuomen sanakirjan — are 76% verbs (Leskinen 1998).Verbs are not as predominant in the ideophonic vocabulary of Estonian as inFinnish. For example, the ideophones contained in the Idamurde sõnastik dictionary(total of 2631 entries), verbs represent 39,68%. This difference is explained by thefact that verb derivations in Finnish are far more abundant than in its cognatelanguage Estonian.

3.3 Phonology and phonotactics

Balto-Finnic ideophones differ from neutral vocabulary particularly in phonologicalinventory and phonotactics. The most common phonological characteristic of Balto-Finnic ideophones is the phoneme ö, which is considered as the youngest Balto-Finnic vowel. The origin of this phoneme can be described as follows: Balto-Finnic

226 Eve Mikone

ideophones are characterized by an alternation between front and back vowels;these alternations do not cause semantic changes. Following the alternations of a~äand u~ü already realized in the language, ö came into the language as an variant ofthe vowel o. When the use of alternating pairs containing o and ö expanded indifferent directions, ö strengthened its position as an independent phoneme (formore on the origins of ö, see Rapola 1966:395–398; Laanest 1982:115–116; Auster-litz 1994:250–254). The frequency of ö in ideophonic vocabulary is exceptionallyhigh, e.g. 83,1% of the words starting with a single ö and 81,7% of those startingwith Cö- are ideophones in the dictionary of the Finnish dialect of Kiihtelysvaara(Leskinen 1993:103,105). In the Estonian dialect dictionary Väike murdesõnastik,167 words start with (h)ö, from which only 15 belong to neutral vocabulary thus91% of the words starting with (h)ö- are ideophones (h- placed at the beginning ofa word is often not pronounced in colloquial Estonian; therefore, words startingwith h- are technically vowel-initial, which explains why both ö-, hö- and (h)ö-words are included). A thorough quantitative study of the phonology and phono-tactics of the ideophonic vocabulary of the Finnish Kiihtelysvaara dialect has beencarried out by Heikki Leskinen (1993).

Phonotactics of ideophones in Balto-Finnic is also characterized by consonantclusters. In the Balto-Finnic languages the phonotactic structure of the originalvocabulary is (C)V(C)CV. The initial is always either a vowel or a single consonant.In the neutral vocabulary two consonants hardly ever appear together at thebeginning of a word. Supporting evidence of this tendency can be found in theoldest Indo-European loan-words where the initial consonant clusters of the donorlanguage have been substituted by a single initial consonant in Balto-Finnic. Usuallyonly the second consonant of the original consonant cluster has remained. Exam-ples of Baltic loan-words in Balto-Finnic (2), (3):

Lithuanian: plautas ‘plank’ > Finnish, Vote lauta, Carelian lauda, Veps laud,Estonian laud, Livonian looda.

Lithuanian: préskas ‘unleavened bread’ > Finnish rieska, Carelian rieška, Vepsresk, Vote rõõska, Estonian rõõsk, Livonian rõõske.

By contrast, in the ideophones of the Balto-Finnic languages the presence of aninitial consonant cluster is fairly common and this feature can be considered as animportant identification mark. Of course, initial consonant clusters do occur inrecent Indo-European loan-words of the Balto-Finnic languages. The consonantclusters of the donor languages, have often been retained. Recent loan-words andideophones differ from each other in that the ‘menu’ of initial consonant clusters isfar larger in loan-words than it is the case in ideophones. For example in recentIndo-European loan-words in Estonian all of the following clusters are possible: fr-,fl-, gl-, gr-, kn-, kl-, kr-, pl-, pr-, sk-, sm-, sp-, st-, tr-, ts-, tš-. In Finnish the corre-sponding list is as follows: fl-, fr-, kl-, kn-, kr-, pl-, pr-, sl-, sm-, sn-, sp-, sr-, st-, sv-.


But, in the ideophones only the following four initial consonant clusters can beobserved for Finnish: kl-, kr-, pl-, pr-cf. (4), (5) and (6):

(4) klaasuta ‘hobble, stumble’

(5) kropsehtia ‘loaf around’

(6) prutkuttaa ‘move slowly, evenly, quietly’

In Estonian ideophones the inventory is slightly richer: kl-, kr-, pl-, pr-, tr-, ts-, cf.(7), (8), (9) and (10):

(7) prahkeldama ‘bustle about’

(8) plahvima ‘gobble, gulp’

(9) tragama ‘bustle, flurry’

(10) tsibõrdama ‘flounder’

Linguists differ about the origin of Balto-Finnic ideophonic consonant clusters. Itremains a subject of debate whether the presence of initial consonant clusters inideophones should be explained through their non-native origin (they are loan-words and behave accordingly) or they could be considered as part of the originalsystem of Balto-Finnic ideophonic vocabulary. It is generally accepted, though, thatthe occurrence of initial consonant clusters in ideophones is connected with markednature of the category involved (cf. Ravila 1952; Itkonen 1966:133–134, 349–350).

In Balto-Finnic neutral vocabulary, a change of vowel or consonant alwayscauses a semantic change of the word. This is because neutral words have fairlystable forms. Some examples (11), (12), (13):

(11) Finnish: tuli ‘fire’, tili ‘account’, tali ‘lard’

(12) Finnish: paha ‘bad’, raha ‘money’, saha ‘saw’, vaha ‘wax’

(13) Estonian: kari ‘herd’, kiri ‘letter’, keri ‘2sg:imp-reel’, kuri ‘angry’, kõri ‘throat’

Change in duration of a vowel or a consonant causes a change of meaning inneutral vocabulary, for example in Estonian (14):

(14) kuri ‘angry’, kuuri ‘sg:ill-shed’kala ‘fish’, kalla (II quantity) ‘calla lily’

In ideophonic vocabulary, this is not always the case. It is a typical characteristic ofthe ideophones that a change of a vowel or a consonant or a change in the durationof a sound does not necessarily cause a change of either the meaning or a shade ofmeaning of the word. In this respect, for instance, onomatopoeic words are moreclose to the neutral vocabulary than are ideophonic words because in the onomato-poeic vocabulary, a change of sound always causes a change in the shade of meaningof the word. For example in Finnish the words löyhöttää– löyhyttää– leyhyttää–läyhytellä– leuhuttaa– leuhottaa mean the same thing. They describe a ‘streaming or

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breezing of air’ or a ‘movement that makes an air stream or breeze’. Vowel variationmay occur in both the first and the second syllable. In the following example,changes of both vowels and consonants can be observed (15), (16):

(15) Finnish: läjähtää– lejahtaa– lekahtaa– lemahtaa– levahtaa‘to catch fire (suddenly)’

(16) Estonian: lomisema–momisema–nomisema–pomisama–pomisema–põmisema– somisema– tömisemä‘to speak quietly, to mutter’

The sound changes described above may seem arbitrary or haphazard, but if weexamine these types of changes more closely they turn out to be quite systematicand consistent. The following remarks can be made about vowel variation: (1) themost common type of vowel variation is the substitution of a front vowel with aback vowel or vice versa; (2) also substitution of a high vowel by a mid vowel or viceversa is fairly common; (3) substitution of a mid vowel with a low vowel is morerare (Ruoppila 1935:136).

In consonant alternation one notable tendency is that one consonant is usuallysubstituted by another only if both consonants belong to the same category in termsof either the place or manner of articulation (Ruoppila 1938:204–209). Someexamples (17), (18), (19):

(17) Finnish miemus–mievus‘fainting’

(18) Finnish tiusku– tiuhku‘pungent smell in sauna’

(19) Estonian mürgeldama–pürgeldama‘kick up a row, brawl, raise hell’

In collecting data on Finnish and Estonian dialects it has been noticed that in oralspeech, variation is common in the ideophonic vocabulary. Especially whenrepeated, different sound forms of the same word are often used. It is only naturalto assume that one speaker would not use all possible variants of a word but it canbe argued that he or she would actively use two or three variants, the other possiblealternatives belonging to his or her passive lexicon (Ruoppila 1935:132–134;Rytkönen 1940).

4. Morphology

In all Balto-Finnic languages (and in Finno-Ugric languages in general) the mostcommon way of producing new lexical items is word derivation. Correspondingly,suffixation is the most common way of affixation. Ideophonic vocabulary takes


advantage of the variety of affixes available in the neutral vocabulary; however,Finnish and Estonian additionally have many such affixes that belong exclusively tothe ideophonic canon. Ideophonic derivational affixes used to form words describ-ing people are in greater number in Estonian than the ones mentioned in the mostrecent research on Estonian affixes (Kasik 1996), for example (20), (21), (22):

(20) -ak: haidak, lidrak, lirtsak, lirvak ‘a light-minded person’roisak, rosmak, sorbak ‘smudgy, disheveled person’

-ts: hahkats, hargats, jopats, labrats, larmats, mulgats ‘babbler, chatterer’-rdis: kakerdis, komberdis, koterdis, paterdis, tolgerdis, vinderdis ‘stumbling,

clumsy person’.

The use of this suffix to form substantives from ideophonic verbs meaning ‘being inmotion’ is highly productive.

The common characteristic of these derivatives is that they are usually used todescribe the person on the basis of his/her intellectual characteristics or because ofhis/her behavior (‘babbler/chatterer; frivolous/light-minded’); physical aspects areless obvious.

Reduplication is a very rare morphological phenomenon in the Balto-Finniclanguages. It is never used as a means of producing grammatical information. But,in morphological analyses of lexical structures we notice that reduplication doesoccasionally occur in the onomatopoeic and ideophonic vocabulary. In this respect,ideophonic adverbs form the main group. Reduplication in Balto-Finnic languageshas always lexical meaning. In different languages of the world, intensification andcontinuity are known lexical meanings of reduplication (Itkonen 1996:38). InEstonian, reduplicative adverbs expressing continuity can usually be repeated manytimes consecutively, for example (23) and (24):

(23) Mine ilusti tipa-tapa, tipa-tapa …2sg-go carefully tipa-tapa‘Walk carefully with quick and short steps’.

(24) Tüdruk möödus tänavamuusikust kips-kõps, kips-kõps.girl 3sg:past-pass sg:elat-street musician kips-kõps‘The girl passed a street musician with quick and short steps, in high-heels’.

In oral texts the repetition can happen three or four times whereas the writtenrepetition is usually expressed with three dots. Here are some more examples ofcontinuity in adverbs (25), (26), (27), (28) and(29):

(25) jönt-jönt ‘[to move] steadily, heavily’

(26) liipadi-laapadi ‘[to move] heavily, cumbersome, dragging along’

(27) nika-naka ‘monotonous, regular and rhythmic sound of wagons’

(28) tinga-tinga ‘[to move] steadily, heavily with short steps’

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(29) vinka-vonka ‘[for a vehicle] when not heading straight, from one side tothe other, zigzagging’

Estonian also has a large number of reduplicative adverbs used to express the‘speed’, ‘carelessness’, and ‘negligence of movement’. In the small Väike murdesõ-nastik Estonian dialect dictionary 90 such adverbs are noted and there are certainlymany more. In Balto-Finnic languages adverbs formed by means of reduplicationare often semantically rather “free”, that is, the meaning is context-dependentrather than autonomous. This is why in many cases no exact meaning can be givenand in dialect dictionaries these words are often followed by only a short remark“onomatopoeic” or “descriptive” without any information about meanings at all.The only way of determining meaning or a shade of meaning of a reduplicativeadverb is to attest the word in actual speech or textual context. Here are someexamples of adverbs expressing ‘speed’, ‘carelessness’ and ‘negligence of movement’:

(30) hiroh-haroh ‘scattered, confused’

(31) kriima-kraama ‘carelessly, sloppy’

(32) kukeldi-kakeldi ‘carelessly, sloppy, bungling’

(33) liga-loga ‘confused, sloppy, bad’

(34) pira-para ‘scattered, sloppy, carelessly, quickly’

(35) plihva-plahva ‘bungling, carelessly’

Both possible forms of reduplication are present in Estonian, full one and partial. Inthe most typical case one repeats the whole stem but the fist vowel of the affix haschanged. In such adverbs, the stem’s first vowel is usually a, in affixes i or lessfrequently o, u, e. In the small Väike murdesõnastik Estonian dialect dictionary 226reduplicative adverbs are attested, divided on the basis of their form to the follow-ing groups:

Full reduplication

(36) kohvat-kohvat ‘[to move] slowly, cumbersome, dragging along’

(37) tinga-tinga ‘[to move] with short steps’

(38) tuikadi-tuikadi ‘[to move] swaying, staggering, waddling’

(39) volaki-volaki ‘[to move] quickly, with strides, big jumps’

(40) vuta-vuta ‘[child’s movements] quickly, easily, with short steps’

Partial reduplication in which the whole stem is repeated, but where the first vowelof the syllable is different:

(41) liipadi-laapadi ‘[to move one self] carelessly, cumbersome’

(42) limma-lamma ‘[to do something] bungling, carelessly, thoughtlessly’

(43) possa-passa ‘[to do something] carelessly’


(44) priuh-prauh ‘quickly, carelessly’

Partial reduplication repeating the whole stem, but where the first consonant isdifferent or missing

(45) aksis-raksis ‘[to be] ready, in shape’

(46) kiraldi-viraldi ‘badly, poorly, doddering’

(47) siilu-viilu ‘in strips, shreds’

(48) sussa-vussa ‘slowly’

Partial reduplication, in which only some of the phonological material from thestem appears in the affix. Phonological changes are heterogeneous: initial consonantand vowel material, internal consonant cluster, the affix can only be the stem are allsubject to change and in addition to which the adverbial suffix is missing.

(49) lotta-lattakalli ‘loosely, flabby, lazy’

(50) ripa-rapakul ‘neglected, in a bad way, disorder’

(51) siba-sillakalli ‘scattered, confused’

(52) tipp-tibinal ‘[to move] with short and quick steps’

(53) virro-harro ‘loosely, scattered’

5. Concluding remarks

Research of ideophonic vocabularies began in Finland and Estonia during the years1920–30 in connection with documenting Finnish and Estonian dialects. Thanks tothe collection of data, archives containing data on Balto-Finnic languages areabundant, 7,2 million entries on Finnish dialects and 2,3 million entries onEstonian. Nevertheless, ideophone research has time and again suffered fromprejudices, which explains why only very few detailed studies have been carried outto date (Rytkönen 1940; Mäger 1967; Põlma 1967; Veldi 1988a). Even where suchstudies exist, they tend to be ignored by researchers from outside, since they areusually written in Finnish or Estonian.

From the 1970s on, Balto-Finnic languages and especially Finnish ideophonicvocabulary were investigated by Raimo Anttila (1973, 1974, 1975a, 1975b, 1976a,1976b, 1977, 1997), who has the merit of having treated ideophonic vocabularyfrom the point of view of general linguistics and semiotics. His contributions havebrought us to realize that ideophones of different languages of the world are not acharacteristic of a particular language but rather a part of general linguistic phe-nomena. Anttila’s researches are, moreover, accessible to a larger public since mostof them are in English. Pioneering work of Estonian onomatopoeia is carried out byEnn Veldi (1985, 1986, 1988a, 1988b, 1990, 1994, 1995, 1997).

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Investigating Balto-Finnic ideophones has lots to profit from research on ideo-phones of languages of the world. On the other hand, research on Balto-Finnicideophones can well provide important insights into similar phenomena of otherlanguages.

References

Anttila, R. 1973. “Internal reconstruction and Finno-Ugric”. In T.A. Sebeok (ed.), Current Trendsin Linguistics, Vol. 11:317–353. The Hague and Paris: Mouton.

Anttila, R. 1974. “Allomorfien semiotiikkaa”. Virittäjä 3: 331–337.Anttila, R. 1975a. “Affective vocabulary in Finnish: An(other) Invitation.” Ural-Altaische

Jahrbücher 47:10–19.Anttila, R. 1975b. “Exception as regularity in phonology”. In W.U. Dressler and F.V. Mareš (eds),

Phonologica 1972. Akten der zweiten International Phonologie-Tagung Wien, 5. -8. September1972, 91–99. München and Salzburg: Wilhelm Fink Verlag.

Anttila, R. 1976a. “Affektiivis [−deskriptiivis-onomatopoieettis]ten sanojen asema kielenmerkkisysteemissä”. Virittäjä 2:126–131.

Anttila, R. 1976b. “Meaning and structure of Finnish descriptive vocabulary”. Texas LinguisticForum 5:1–12.

Anttila, R. 1977. “Toward a semiotic analysis of expressive vocabulary”. Semiosis 5:27–41.Anttila, R. 1989. Historical and Comparative Linguistics [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory Series

4]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Anttila, R. 1992. “The field theory of meaning and semantic change.” In G. Kellermann and M.D.

Morrissey (eds), Diachrony within Synchrony: Language History and Cognition, 23–83.Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

Anttila, R. 1997. “Affective vocabulary and borrowing: Finnish pirskottaa ‘sprinkle’ and patistaa‘urge, prod’.”Journal of Finnish Studies 1(2):111–114.

Austerlitz, R. 1994. “Finnish and Gilyak sound symbolism — the interplay between system andhistory”. In L. Hinton, J. Nichols and J. J. Ohala (eds), Sound Symbolism, 249–260. Cam-bridge: CUP.

Campbell, L. 1996. “On sound change and challenges to regularity”. In M. Burie and M.Ross(eds), The Comparative Method Reviewed. Regularity and Irregularity in Language Change,72–89. Oxford: OUP.

Childs, G. Tucker. 1994. “African ideophones”. In L. Hinton, J. Nichols and J. J. Ohala (eds),Sound Symbolism, 178–204. Cambridge:CUP.

Hakulinen, L. 1979. Suomen kielen rakenne ja kehitys. Helsinki: Otava.Itkonen, Erkki 1966. Kieli ja sen tutkimus. Helsinki: Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö.Itkonen, Esa 1996. Maailman kielten erilaisuus ja samuus. Helsinki: Gaudeamus.Kasik, R. 1996. Eesti keele sõnatuletus. Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Eesti keele õppetooli toimetised 3.Laanest, A. 1982. Einführung in die ostseefinnischen Sprachen. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.Leskinen, H. 1993. “Quantitative Untersuchung der expressiven Lexik im Finnischen und seinen

nächstverwandten Sprachen”. Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen 51:87–124.Leskinen, J. 1998. “Kansanmurteiden ja nykyslangin ekspressiivi-ilmausten vertailua”. In XXV

Kielitieteen päivät. (Held in Tampere 15. -16. May 1998).Mäger, M. 1959. “Onomatopoeetilisest sõnavarast eesti keeles”. Keel ja Kirjandus 9:522–526.


Mäger, M.1967. Eesti linnunimetused. Tallinn: Eesti NSV Teaduste Akadeemia Keele ja KirjanduseInstituut.

Nichols, J. 1971. “Diminutive consonant symbolism in Western North America”. Language47:826–848.

Pall, V. (ed.) 1982, 1989. Väike murdesõnastik I — II. Tallinn: Eesti NSV Teaduste AkadeemiaKeele ja Kirjanduse Instituut.

Pall, V. 1994. Idamurde sõnastik. Tallinn: Eesti Keele Instituut.Penttilä, A. 1928. “Selittämisestä kielitieteessä”. Virittäjä 3:277–285.Põlma, V. 1967. Onomatopoeetilised verbid eesti kirjakeeles. PhD.thesis, Tallinn: Eesti NSV

Teaduste Akadeemia Keele ja Kirjanduse Instituut.Rapola, M. 1966. Suomen kielen äännehistorian luennot. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden

Seura.Ravila, P.1952. “Onomatopoieettisten ja deskriptiivisten sanojen asema kielen äännesysteemissä”.

Virittäjä 4: 262–274.Ruoppila.V. 1934. “Muutamia piirteitä puheesta”. Virittäjä 1:22–34.Ruoppila.V. 1935. “Vokaalivaihtelu äänne- ja merkitysopillisena tekijänä. Piirteitä deskriptiivisistä

sanoista”. Virittäjä 2:128–136.Ruoppila, V. 1938. “Poikkeuksellisten äännevaihtelutapausten tarkastelua”. Virittäjä 3:195–220.Rytkönen, A. 1940. Eräiden itämerensuomen tm-sanojen historiaa. Jyväskylä: K. J. Gummerus.Samarin, W. 1971. “Survey of Bantu ideophones”. African Language Studies 12:130–168.Saukkonen, P. 1979. “Introduction”. In P.Saukkonen, M. Haipus, A. Niemikorpi and H. Sulkala

(eds), Suomen kielen taajuussanasto. A Frequency Dictionary of Finnish, 23–38. Porvoo/Helsinki/Juva: Werner Söderström.

Veldi, E. 1985. “Notes on onomatopes in the comic strip”. Acta et Commentationes UniversitatisTartuensis 713:90–94.

Veldi, E. 1986. “On the ‘onomatopoeic predicate’ in Estonian”. Acta et Commentationes Universi-tatis Tartuensis 747:13–16.

Veldi, E. 1988a. Anglo-estonskije paralleli v onomatopee. Doctoral dissertation. University ofTartu.

Veldi, E. 1988b. “Some cross-linguistic parallels of an expressive prefix”. Acta et CommentationesUniversitatis Tartuensis 838:145–151.

Veldi, E. 1990. “Some aspects of cross-linguistic similarities and differences in onomatopoeia”. InLinguistic Fiesta. Festschrift for Professor Hisao Kakehi’s Sixtieth Birthday, 307–318. Tokyo:Kuroshio.

Veldi, E. 1994. “Is there a presyllable in Estonian?” Eurasian Studies Yearbook 66:176–177.Veldi, E. 1995. “Sound-related vocabulary and its use in language teaching”. Issues on Applied

Linguistics 1:121–126.Veldi, E. 1997. “Some typological characteristics of Estonian onomatopoetic formations”.

Publications of the Department of Estonian of the University of Tartu 8:220–238.Zurakovskij, B.V. 1966. Ideofony kak ¦cast’ re¦ci v afrikanskix jazykax (na materiale jazyka Xausa).

Narody Azii i Afriki 6:114–116.

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The ideophone in Zulu

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AUTHOR "C. T. Msimang and G. Poulos"

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A re-examination of conceptualand descriptive notions

C.T. Msimang and G. PoulosUniversity of South Africa

1. Introduction

Before considering some of the descriptive idiosyncracies of the ideophone in Zulu,we shall look at issues which pertain to the true status of this interesting wordcategory.

The ideophone is a word category that has fascinated linguists up to this veryday, and various definitions have appeared in the literature regarding this wordcategory. Those who have researched this category are well aware of the difficultiesin some cases of providing literal translations for ideophones. In the followingexamples, the ideophone is written in bold script.

(1) Ingwe yamuthi dlaphu yamuluma‘The leopard leapt up and bit him.’Amanzi athi mo!‘The water is bitterly cold.’Inyoni yathi ndri, yedlula!lit. ‘The bird flew by, and passed.’Ngizwa imvula ithi hwa!‘I hear the pattering of rain.’Ngamuzwa esina ethi dinsi!‘I heard him stamping the ground as he danced.’

In traditional works on the Zulu ideophone, linguists classified the ideophonetogether with other word categories such as the noun, pronoun, verb, adjective,relative, enumerative, quantitative, adverb, copulative etc. A typical example of sucha classification is as follows:

236 C.T. Msimang and G. Poulos

Main categories Sub-divisionsNounPronoun Absolute, DemonstrativeQualificative Adjective, Possessive,

Relative, EnumerativeVerbCopulative Identifying, Associative,

DescriptiveAdverb Associative, Instrumental,

Comparative etc.IdeophoneInterjectiveConjunctionInterrogative

2. Word categories and grammaticalization

Traditional classifications such as the one above have been primarily based ondirectly observable morphological, syntactic and semantic issues. In this paper, wewill consider other linguistic grounds for a re-classification of the ideophone inZulu. It is our contention that what is said about the ideophone in Zulu, will alsoapply to the other languages in the same ‘family’.

The linguistic grounds on which we will base our hypothesis involves a processthat characterizes language change, namely grammaticalization. This process is onethat has received ample attention in the literature, and yet its magnetic impact onresearch does not cease to exist.

Grammaticalization refers to the dynamic, unidirectional historical processwhereby lexical items in the course of time acquire the status of grammatical forms.

The process of grammaticalization presupposes the existence of two linguisticpositions on a continuum of change.1 This continuum is probably unidirectional,the lexical item progressing to a grammatical morpheme, but not vice-versa. The lexicalitem represents the source item and the grammatical morpheme, the goal item.

If we were to hypothesize that the source items represent the basic lexicon in thelanguage and hence the basic word categories, and that the goal items are merederivations of the source items, then an identification of these source items as wellas the goal items, would assist us in pinpointing the status of the ideophone, as wellas the other so-called word categories.

Let us consider a few examples where the process of grammaticalization isoperative. Note that the process of grammaticalization involves a consideration oftypological data, and for this reason examples in other related languages are alsopresented in this article.

The ideophone in Zulu 237

In the examples that have appeared in the literature on the process of gramma-ticalization (Poulos 1999), one very important observation can be made especiallywith regard to the word categories which represent the source items. In all casesthey are either nouns or verbs. From a conceptual point of view it would be morecorrect to speak of source items (when referring to nouns) and source concepts(when referring to verbs).

Note that the source items in 2 are nouns, while those in 3 are verbs. Theseexamples have been extracted from the database in Poulos (1999).

2.1 Where source item is a noun/nominal form

(2) *-yana/-ana2 Æ diminutive suffix3

e.g. -ana*bidi, díimba4 Æ reflexive prefix*díimu, kitíi Æ e.g. -zi-unyoko Æ noun prefix e.g.uyihlo Æ -no-

Æ -so-*-ka/-kadi Æ possessive particle5 e.g. ka-

2.2 Where source item is a verb/verbal form

(3) -§to§da (Venda) Æ -§to§dou--ya (Venda) Æ -yo--sala (Zulu) Æ -sa-

*-yina/-na6 Æ unemoto*-li Æ ulisela

The observation that the source items are either nouns or verbs is a very importantone, since as has been hypothesized in this article, the identification of source itemsin the process of grammaticalization may be directly related to the true wordcategories of the language.

Certain other traditional so-called word categories are derivative in nature, inthat they show derivation from either the noun or the verb, or are based on theseforms. For example, the adverb, copulative and possessive are, generally speaking,derived from nouns. The relative may be derived from verbs, although in somelanguages, it can also be derived from nominal forms. These Zulu examples havebeen extracted from Poulos (1999).

(4) Adverbngemoto < nga+imoto‘by means of a car’ (noun)


Copulativeunemoto < u+na+imoto‘he has a car’ (noun)

Possessiveimoto yesitshudeni < ya+isitshudeni‘the car of the student’ (noun)

Relativeisitshudeni esisebenzayo < rc+-sebenz-‘the student who works’ (verb)umese obuthuntu < rc+ -buthuntu‘the blunt knife’ (noun)

Conjunctionukuthi ‘that’ < uku+thi

(verb)

We also know that pronouns and demonstratives are derivative in nature in thatthey presuppose the existence of nouns.7 They have in fact been derived from nounsthrough a concordial system and there does not appear to be any conclusiveevidence of a grammaticalization process that has created their development orevolvement in these languages.

With this viewpoint in mind, and taking into account the examples thus far, thenoun and verb still remain the two categories which appear to represent the sourcelexical items or concepts, which generate or initiate the process of grammatical-ization.

3. A re-classification of the ideophone

Considering the above observations, there is, for the purposes of this article, onespecific word category which is problematic in nature, and that is the ideophone,since generally speaking, this word category does not appear to show any lexicalderivation from other word categories.

As is commonly known, the ideophone very often makes some or otherreference to the sound produced in the carrying out of the relevant action. Thisobservation has led linguists to define the ideophone in terms of its sound import,for example, Doke (1935:118). Even though there is no doubt that the ideophoneis often onomatopoeic in nature, there are many examples of ideophones whichhave nothing to do with the phenomenon of onomatopoeia.

The ideophone in Zulu very often occurs after the verb root thi, as in theexamples below.


(5) Wawubula umlilo wawuthi bu!‘He beat out the fire’

Waphosa itshe lathi vri!‘He threw the stone and it whizzed past’

Imoto ngayizwa ithi vum, idlula‘I heard the sound of the car’s engine as it passed’

Kunephunga elide lithi khafu ngakithi‘There is a terrible smell which is frequently blown in our direction’

Ubhanana umnandi uthi ncamu-ncamu‘The bananas are very sweet’

Wamuthi ngqimu ngesibhakela ekhaleni, wopha‘He hit him with a clenched fist on the nose and the blood streamed out’

The verb root thi however does not always co-occur with the ideophone as isillustrated in the following examples:

(6) Amanzi abomvu klubhu‘The water is as red as blood’

Impuphu igcwele phama okhambeni‘The clay pot is full to the brim with mealie-meal’

Udle uphuthu waluqeda du, udadewabo uzodlani manje?‘She finished that porridge, what will her sister eat now?’

The use of the ideophone in certain related languages reveals interesting informa-tion with regard to its occurrence. For example note the following Venda exam-ples:8

(7) Venda§Duvha §li khou fhisa §li tou nzirr‘The sun is as hot as fire’ (the ideophone nzirr refers to the notion of hotness).

O posa tombo §le mvirr‘He threw the stone and it whizzed past’ (the ideophone mvirr refers to the‘whizzing’ sound made by the passing stone.

In these Venda examples, the ideophone is being used in the place of a verb root,and as such does not co-occur with any root. (The form tou is an aspect prefix, and§le in the second example is a concordial element, probably with some reductionprocess, which has led to the occurrence of the vowel e instead of the expected o).

The ideophone in the above examples is behaving like a verb root, and theseexamples are a clear indication of how the ideophone here has become ‘moregrammatical in function’, in that it has taken on various grammatical morphemesin its new role.

Turning to another related language, namely Tsonga, a very interesting


observation has been recorded by Marivate (1982), with regard to the use of theideophone.

He noted that the ideophone when it occurs after the verb root ri, can also takeon its own object concord or a reflexive prefix. In other words an object concordoccurs immediately before an ideophone. This is a very significant observation,since the only other environment in which an object concord is found, is when it isimmediately followed by a verb root. This observation suggests that the ideophonein Tsonga is behaving exactly like a verb root in these examples.

The object concord is underlined in the following examples:9

(8) TsongaYi ri xi bvonyongetosc aux oc ideo

it ‘does’ it pounce uponi.e. ‘it pounces upon it’

Gama ri ri xi bvuu, xikukwanaeagle sc aux oc ideo chicken‘The eagle snatches the chicken away’

Gama ri te (ri) xi bvuu, xikukwanaeagle sc perf (aux) oc ideo chicken‘The eagle has snatched the chicken away’

Gama a ri ri xi bvuu xikukwanaeagle neg sc aux oc ideo chicken‘The eagle does not snatch the chicken away’

With reflexive prefix tiNote the occurrence of the reflexive prefix ti immediatelybefore the ideophone in the following example. Once again it should be noted thatthe reflexive prefix is a morpheme which normally occurs immediately before a verbroot.

(9) Magezi (u ri tinka), hi xihloka(sc aux rp-ideo)

‘Magezi (he ‘does’ himself-chop) with an axe’

3.1 Summarized viewpoints

There is one very important observation that becomes clear with the examples onthe ideophone, and that is that the ideophone is represented by its own core oflexical items. Generally speaking, it is not derived from any other word categories.

However, the ideophone appears to take on certain inflections which make itmore grammatical in a sense, and in such cases it may be said that it is involved ina type of category switching. We have even seen an instance with the ideophone inTsonga where it takes on the very function of a verb. Although such instances are


not true reflections of the process of grammaticalization, one wonders whethercategory switching could perhaps play a role in, or reflect an early stage in such aprocess.

After all, as already noted, the two main categories already identified as sourceitems/concepts, namely the noun and verb, are classic examples of categories whichcan be used in such a way (i.e. category switching).

If we consider the phenomenon of category switching to be part of the initialstages of grammaticalization, and taking the above examples into consideration,then we believe we need to identify the ideophone together with the noun and theverb as the three main word categories in these languages.10 Their representation interms of the process of grammaticalization would be as follows:

The noun, representing source items.The verb, representing source concepts.The ideophone, representing source attributes.

4. The descriptive notion of the ideophone

Turning now to the descriptive function of the ideophone, we would like to use anaspect of Doke’s definition of the ideophone as our point of departure. Doke(1935:118) refers to the ideophone as the word category “… which describes apredicate, qualificative or adverb in respect to manner, color, sound, smell, action,state or intensity.” In a nutshell, one may categorize the functions of the ideophoneinto two: it dramatizes action or state, and secondly, it heightens effect. It useslanguage which is vivid, expressive and emotive. This is born out by Mamphwe(1987:33) who notes that ideophones are normally “… accompanied by gestureswhile used in speech to make their meaning more clear and effective.”

To achieve these purposes, a number of linguistic factors including morpholog-ical, phonological, semantic and syntactic, come in for consideration. In thisanalysis, these will be briefly discussed and each domain will be illustrated with afew examples.

4.1 Morphological considerations

In comparison with the morphology of the Zulu word in general, the form of theideophone is sui generis. Whereas the Zulu word is characterized by a number offormatives such as the prefix, root, stem and suffix, the ideophone comprises onlythe root which simultaneously functions as the stem and a fully-fledged word. Theuse of only the root as a fully-fledged ideophone vivifies the image that is conveyedby this word category. It will be recalled that affixes are mainly grammatical


elements whereas the root is a cognitive element of the word. Let us cite a fewexamples.

(10) Udle uphuthu waluqeda du‘She ate the porridge and finished it completely.’

Umshayisibhakela wamuthi ngqimu wawa‘The boxer hit him on the face with the clenched fist and he fell.’

Isela lathi gulukudu endlini‘The thief suddenly budged in the house.’

Ngathi qhwi umetshiso, indlu ngayithungela ngomlilo‘I struck a match and set the house on fire.’

From the above examples one may deduce that ideophones are constituted byprimary stems and as has already been noted, do not show any derivation from anyother form or word category.

(11) Derivative Ideophoneamangqimungqimu ‘boxing’ < ngqimu-ngqimuz- ‘hit with clenched fist’ < ngqimuumgulukudu ‘habitual criminal;

wild-natured person’ < gulukudu-gulukudel- ‘rush in headlong’ < gulukudu-qhwiz- ‘strike a light’ < qhwiubuqhwiqhwiqhwi ‘repeated striking’ < qhwi

Two types of ideophones that are derived from verbs form an exception to the rule,however. One class of derivatives appears to be no longer productive, i.e. the Zululanguage has a finite set of roots which end in -z and add the suffix -i to form theideophone. We assume that the root is verbal. Let us cite a few examples:

(12) Verb root Verb stem Ideophone-dindiliz- -dindiliza ‘lie exposed’ dindilizi-shishiliz- -shishiliza ‘slide/glide along’ shishilizi-qungquluz- -qungquluza ‘lie exposed’ qungquluzi

(13) Samfica ethe dindilizi ethafeni kanti usefile.‘We found her lying exposed in the veld only to notice that she was dead.’

UJeke wathi shishilizi esiweni, wayothi dakla phansi.‘Jack slid down the precipice and fell heavily down there.’

Ngezikhathi zodlame wawufumana izidumbu zithe qungquluzi emigwaqweninasiziteshini zesitimela.‘During the days of riots one used to find corpses lying exposed in the streets andat railway stations.’

In the second class the derivation of ideophones from verb roots is fully productive.This is where the suffix -iyane is used to derive an ideophone from the verb root. It


must be noted that once the verb root is transformed into an ideophone it can nolonger incorporate a prefix even though it does add a suffix. Let us illustrate with afew examples:

(14) Verb root Ideophone-bon- ‘see’ boniyane-thath- ‘take’ thathiyane-hlek- ‘laugh’ hlekiyane-khulum- ‘speak’ khulumiyane

(15) Boniyane uheshane itshwele, thathiyane lona‘The kite saw the chicken and snatched it.’

Ingane ebikhala inele yanikwa amaswidi, hlekiyane‘The child who was crying burst out laughing when he was given sweets.’

Bebethi uyisimungulu, bathe bezwa khulumiyane umfana‘They thought that the boy was dumb but they suddenly heard him speak.’

With regard to the latter class of ideophone, the argument that it is derived from theverb root is not contested. However, when it comes to the former, a certain amountof debate has taken place in linguistic circles. On the one hand it is claimed that anexample such as dindilizi is derived from the verb root: -dindiliz- ‘lie naked/exposed’. Yet it can also be argued that the verb root -dindiliz- has been derivedfrom the ideophone dindilizi. While it is difficult to produce enough linguisticevidence to refute this standpoint completely, one can argue against it, however, bytaking into consideration linguistic tendencies in derivational processes. It has beennoted, for example, that in the derivation of most forms in Zulu where differentcategories are involved, the tendency is to add elements (such as prefixes and/orsuffixes) to the original form — rather than delete.

Another morphological feature of the ideophone is the repetition of the stemfor purposes of emphasis and dramatization. It is interesting to note that themonosyllabic stems are triplicated whereas the disyllabic ones are reduplicated asthe following examples illustrate:

(16) ngqo ‘of knocking’ > ngqongqongqophoqo ‘of breaking easily’ > phoqophoqondi ‘of rumbling’ > ndindindikhence ‘of tinkling’ > khencekhenceqatha ‘of dropping easily’ > qathaqatha

An even more interesting type of repetition is when only the last syllable of adisyllabic stem is repeated. Again this is no longer productive, thus not all ideo-phonic stems can be repeated in this matter:


(17) vosho ‘of bending’ > voshoshoqatha ‘of dropping easily’ > qathathaguqa ‘of kneeling’ > guqaqaziba ‘of darkening’ > zibaba

(18) Amaphoyisa athe ngqongqongqo qede asigudlula isivalo‘The police knocked and thereafter pushed open the door.’

Ulibambe ngazo zombili irula walithi phoqophoqo‘She grabbed the ruler in both hands and broke it.’

Bezwa insimbi ithi khencekhence base begijima beya esikoleni‘They heard the bell ringing and then ran to school.’

Ngizofika kungathi zibaba‘I shall arrive when darkness falls.’

Bamshaye ngesibhakela wathi guqaqa wabuye wavuka‘They hit him with fists and he fell down on his knees but got up again.’

4.2 Phonological considerations

What characterizes the Zulu ideophone as a peculiar word category is the placementof vowel length in unusual positions in the word. As a general rule in the language,the word takes length on the penultimate syllable. This however, does not occur inthe case of ideophones. Rather, the vowel length is realized on the first or lastsyllable. This however depends on the context as the following examples illustrate:

(19) a. Akuthi du!‘Let there be silence/Keep quiet!’

b. Bathula bathi du:‘They kept completely quiet.’

Example (19a) is a command. To emphasize the immediacy of commands, theideophone has no length. In example (19b) however, du: has full length owing tothe fact that this is a mere statement.

The full length of two morae [:] can even be doubled into something longerdepending on the action or state being dramatized. Examples:

(20) Amanzi ayebelesele, co:: co:: co:: ophahleni‘The water continued dropping at regular intervals from the roof.’

(21) Bahambe bonke, uSipho usele yedwa jwi:‘They have all gone and left Sipho all by himself.’

In example (20) the time lapse between the drops is descriptively measured almostto the second. If the intervals between drops were shorter the vowel length wouldalso be shorter, e.g. co: co: co:. In example (21) the length will demonstrate just howalone Sipho was in the mind of the speaker. To emphasize the absolute loneliness,


the speaker may even clench the four fingers and raise the fourth (or pointing)finger to dramatize the lonely state.

In longer stems, the length on the first syllable would be longer than two moraeif stress is also incorporated to add more emphasis. This is most pronounced in foursyllabic stems since most disyllabic and trisyllabic stems hardly have any vowellength in Zulu. In such long stems length is again realized on the last syllable.Consider the following examples:

(22) ge::ngelezi: ‘of gaping/wide open’hu::buluzi: ‘of gulping down’bha::lakaxa: ‘of being sprawled out’fo::lokohlo: ‘of crashing through’di::ndilizi: ‘of lying stark-naked/exposed’

(23) Ngifice umnyango ge:ngelezi:‘I found the door wide open.’

Umhluzi wawuthi hu:buluzi: isitsha wasiphosela le‘He gulped down the soup and threw the dish over there.’

Bamfuqa kabuhlungu waze wayothi fo:lokohlo:‘They pushed him so hard that he fell “flop” on the ground.’

In the first example the vowel length on the first syllable in gengelezi will bedetermined by just how wide open the door was. If that state of affairs was notdesirable the length would even be more stressed to emphasize the speaker’sdisapproval. Again in the last example, the speaker would use length to dramatizethe fall. The use of voiceless, frictional fricatives /f/ and /hl/ dramatizes the fall of alight, thin, tall individual. This ideophone would not be used to describe the fall ofa short, stout person. Only a tall, especially thin person would fall all over himself,finally flopping down in a heap.

Certain actions happen abruptly and so quickly that there simply cannot be anylength, when ideophones describing them are uttered. Consider the followingexamples:

(24) Akathanga vu uDora‘Dora did not say a word.’

Ingane yazithi mbo ubuso yaqhumuka yakhala‘The child simply covered her face and burst out crying.’

Izulu lathi bani, laduma‘The lightning flashed, and it thundered.’

Ingilazi iwe yathi phahla phansi‘The glass fell smashing on the floor.’

If a person has not said anything there can never be any length of a syllable.Likewise such actions as flashing lightning and smashing glasses happen so quickly


that length in describing them would be completely incompatible with the action.Besides length, assonance (the use of similar vowels in the word) is another

important phonological feature in Zulu ideophones. Consider the followingexamples:

(25) phahla ‘of smashing/dropping’phehle ‘of breaking apart’phihli ‘of smashing to pieces’phohlo ‘of breaking’phuhlu ‘of decaying’cababa ‘of being flat’shelele ‘of slipping’ncimishi ‘of equality/fullness’coshosho ‘of perching’vuthuthu ‘of rising suddenly’bhalakaxa ‘of being sprawled out’khelekehle ‘of plunging’dindilizi ‘of lying stark-naked’fofololo ‘of falling “flop”�’gulukudu ‘of rushing off’

Of course there is a large number of words where one gets a mixture of differentvowels as well. Examples:

(26) phazi ‘of flashing’tebhu ‘of redness’bhuqe ‘of darkness’thasi ‘of snatching away’siphu ‘of rooting up’

The last phonological feature we would like to mention is the occurrence ofphonemes which are peculiar or even foreign to the language. These are usuallyonomatopoeic words which imitate certain actions as in the following examples:

(27) Inyoni indize yathi trr‘The bird flew away.’Bamuthe bhuxe ngomese igazi lathi tsa:‘They stabbed him with a knife and the blood spurted out.’

Phoneme /r/ is foreign to Zulu but in ideophones we get phonemes with /r/combinations. Also rare in this language is the /ts/ phoneme.

4.3 Semantic considerations

Since the function of the ideophone is to vivify actions or states, it is to be expected


that ideophones will feature in all semantic fields and relations such as antonymy,synonymy, and homonymy. Examples:

(28) Antonymyqwa ‘of whiteness’ bhuqe ‘of blackness’qhamu ‘of appearing’ sithe ‘of disappearing’nge ‘of gaping/opening up’ ngci ‘of closing’bhuxe ‘of stabbing’ monyu ‘of plucking out’langulangu ‘of blazing up’ cishicishi ‘of blowing out’goqe ‘of contracting’ thwishi ‘of stretching out’njo ‘of staring’ klabe ‘of glancing’thasi ‘of snatching away’ qithi ‘of putting down’

Homonymyvo ‘of being alone’ vo ‘of soaking wet’nya ‘of being quiet’ nya ‘of finishing up’du ‘of thudding’ du ‘of being quiet’

Synonymyklubhu ‘of redness’ tebhu ‘of redness’khwishi ‘of blackness’ bhuqe ‘of blackness’vo ‘of solitariness’ jwi ‘of solitariness’qhamu ‘of appearing’ memfu ‘of appearing’qwa ‘of whiteness’ wu ‘of whiteness’tshoko ‘of greenness’ cwe ‘of greenness’du ‘of being silent’ cwaka ‘of being silent’

(29) Inhliziyo yakhe ithi du, du, du, kancane‘His heart is beating very slowly.’

URose ugqoke ijezi eliluhlaza cwe‘Rose is wearing a grass-green jersey.’

Uheshane ulithe thasi itshwele‘The hawk simply snatched the chicken.’

Ufike nebhokisi walithi qithi phansi‘She arrived with the box and put it down.’

Another important semantic feature of the ideophone is collocation. This meansthat once the ideophone is used the noun to which it refers as object, subject, agentor instrument is known and it is no longer necessary to mention it. For instancebani ‘of flashing’ is used together with lightning; bhuqe ‘of darkness’ with night orblack color, bhuxe ‘of piercing’ with the knife or spear. But not all ideophonesconvey this collocational relationship, thus it is safer to include the noun. More-over, similar objects are not excluded in the meaning. For example bani ‘of flashing’may also refer to a torch light.


4.4 Syntactic considerations

Many grammarians such as Doke (ibid.) emphasize the descriptive nature of theideophone. Yet in many examples cited in this presentation the ideophone func-tions as a predicate. One of the reasons why early grammarians did not emphasizeits predicative nature could be because of its peculiar use as a predicate. Normallythe predicate brings about concordance between the subject/object and thepredicate by means of subject and object concord. Yet the ideophone does not takeconcords in Zulu.

In order to indicate tense and concordial agreement and other forms of thepredicate it becomes necessary to use the ideophone as a complement which ispreceded by the auxiliary verb -thi. It is accordingly through the auxiliary thatsyntactic aspects such as tense and number are expressed (see examples under 29).The auxiliary is used also to express the negative (see the first example in 24).

Notes

1. See Traugott (1988:406) for an explanation of this unidirectional process, as well as Heine et al(1991:45) for more detailed comments on the ‘metaphorical extension’ of the original lexicalform.

2. Guthrie (1971) has listed this stem as Item no 1922, in his postulation of Proto-Bantu forms.

3. Poulos (1985:289 f.f.) has shown how the most general feature of ‘smallness’ has survived thelongest, through semantic bleaching, and now occurs as a grammatical diminutive suffix, innumerous languages.

4. Guthrie (1971:147, 154).

5. This origin of the Zulu possessive particle ka follows the hypothesis in Bosch (1995).

6. Lanham (1953:157) postulates *-yina as the proto-form. (See Bosch 1995:171)

7. See Hendrikse and Poulos (1994:242) and Sugamoto (1989:270).

8. Examples have been extracted from Poulos (1999).

9. Examples extracted from Marivate (1982:101, 279, 280).

10. Pending further research, it is possible that the adjective could be added as a fourth majorword category. See Poulos (1999) in this regard.

References

Bosch, S.E. 1995. The Nature of Possession in Zulu — A Re-Examination.D. Litt. et Phil. thesis,Pretoria: University of South Africa.

Bosch, S.E. and G. Poulos. 1996. “The categorial status of the possessive in Zulu’ — A newperspective”. South African Journal of Linguistics, Supplement 30:1–17.

Corrigan, R., F. Eckman and M. Noonan. 1989. Linguistic Categorisation. Amsterdam: JohnBenjamins.


Doke, C.M. 1935. Textbook of Zulu Grammar. London: Longmans, Green & Co.Guthrie, M. 1971.Comparative Bantu: An introduction to the comparative linguistics and prehistory

of the Bantu languages. Volume 2. London: Gregg International Publishers Ltd.Heine, B., U. Claudi, and F. Hunnemeyer. 1991. Grammaticalization. A conceptual framework.

Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Hendrikse, A.P. and G. Poulos. 1994. “Word Categories — Prototypes and Continua in Southern

Bantu”. South African Journal of Linguistics, Supplement 20:215–245.Lanham, L.W. 1953. “The copulative construction in Bantu with special reference to Zulu”.

African Studies 12(4): 141–162.Mamphwe, C.T. 1987. “The ideophone in Venda”. Pretoria: University of South Africa.Marivate, C.T.D. 1982. The ideophone in Tsonga.D. Litt. et Phil thesis, Pretoria: University of

South Africa.Poulos, G. 1985. “Instances of semantic bleaching in South-Eastern Bantu”. In G. J. Dimmendaal

(ed.), Current Approaches to African Linguistics. Vol. III. Dordrecht: Foris Publications.Poulos, G. and C.T. Msimang. 1998. A Linguistic Analysis of Zulu. Cape Town: Via Afrika.Poulos, G. 1999. “Grammaticalization in South-Eastern Bantu and the linguistic ‘dynamics’

underlying this process”. South African Journal of African Languages. 19(3).Sugamoto, N. 1989. “Pronominality: A noun-pronoun continuum”. In Corrigan et al. (eds),

1989:267–291.Traugott, E.C. 1988. “Pragmatic strengthening and grammaticalization”. BLS 406–416.

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Are ideophones really as weird

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and extra-systematic as linguistsmake them out to be?

Paul NewmanIndiana University

Scholars working on ideophones typically emphasize their peculiar phonologicalcharacteristics and their general linguistic aberrance as compared with a language’snormal (= “prosaic”) lexicon. It is of course true that ideophones are phonological-ly and semantically unusual in some way — if they weren’t, they wouldn’t havebeen identified as such and would not have attracted the attention of linguists, notonly specialists in languages of Africa, where the term itself was first used (Doke1935), but also linguists working on languages from other parts of the world (see,e.g., Hinton, Nichols, and Ohala 1994). The claim in this brief presentation is thatscholars, attracted by the exoticism (or even “cuteness”) of ideophones, haveoveremphasized the extent of their distinctiveness. Ideophones are somewhatdifferent from prosaic words, but they are not “outre-système”, i.e., they usuallystretch the system of some language a bit, but they do not totally disregard it. Howfar ideophones deviate from the normal system will vary from language to language,in some cases more, in some languages less; but in the final analysis ideophones arepart of the structure of a specific language and have to be viewed in the context ofthat language.

I shall illustrate this general point with examples from Hausa, a language whoseideophones have been the subject of numerous studies spanning almost a hundredyears (see Prietze 1908; Galadanci 1971; Newman 1968, 2000).

1. Consonants

The first thing to note is that there are no consonants found in Hausa ideophonesthat are not part of the normal phonological inventory. (The only possible excep-tion is cwái ‘very sweet’ with the labialized /c/, which presumably is a contraction ofthe coexisting variant cákwái.)

252 Paul Newman

[Transcription note:(i) c represents the ch sound in English ‘church’.(ii) r represents the tap/roll rhotic that contrasts with the flap, indicated with

regular r.(iii) Long vowels are indicated by double letters.(iv) High tone is marked á; Low tone à; and Falling tone â. With long vowels, the

tone is marked on the first vowel only, e.g., áa, àa, âa.]

Differences between ideophones and the prosaic lexicon primarily concern phono-tactics. Most native Hausa words end in a vowel. There are some that end in asonorant (liquid or nasal), but very few that end in an obstruent. Numerousideophones , on the other hand, are consonant-final, e.g.,

(1) tíMís ‘shows intensity of tiredness’túkúf ‘very old’tsít ‘in complete silence, hush’wúlík ‘emphasizes shiny black or deep blue’tsán-tsán ‘cautiously, securely tied’tsúlúm ‘sound of a small object falling in water’tsígíl ‘emphasizes smallness’kàzàr-kázár ‘in an energetic manner’

Although word-final consonants are rare in prosaic vocabulary, syllable-finalconsonants within a word are not, i.e., CVC.CV is a normal canonical shape. Thereare, however, restrictions regarding which consonants can occur in syllable-finalposition and, interesting, these same restrictions apply to the word-final consonantsfound in ideophones. These shared restrictions include: (i) no phonation contrast;(ii) no palatal(ized) or labialized consonants; and (iii) no /h/ or /‘/.

As contrasted with native words or older loanwords from Arabic, manyloanwords borrowed from English over the past century have a final consonant. Theobstruents are limited to the same ones found in ideophones, e.g.,

(2) kámbàs ‘tennis shoes’ (< canvas)têf ‘tape’fàamît ‘permit’jâk ‘bicycle stand’ (< jack)

In addition to utilizing the same basic inventory as prosaic words, ideophones alsoobey standard phonotactic restrictions, e.g., (i) no true consonant clusters (al-though two consonants can abut across a syllable boundary); (ii) two glottalizedconsonants may not co-occur in same word, except (a) one can have the sameconsonant twice (e.g., MìiMàm (id.) ‘indicates standing silently ‘, cf. MwáaMèe ‘fade’;and (b) one can get /d/ followed by /1/ (but not /1/ followed by /d/), e.g., dú1úm(id.) ‘emphasizes darkness’, cf. dáa1íi ‘pleasantness’.

Are ideophones really weird and extra-systematic? 253

2. Vowels

Hausa has five vowels with long and short counterparts. Ideophones make use ofexactly the same inventory, e.g.,

(3) kícíi-kìcìi ‘making a serious effort’búzúu-bùzùu ‘long, unkempt (of hair)’dáráa-dàràa ‘bold and beautiful’ (of eyes or writing)záMée-zàMèe ‘unsuitably long’bátsóo-bàtsòo ‘poorly made, ugly looking’

In the normal language, short /e/ and /o/ are limited to word-final position. A fewideophones violate this restriction. Examples (complete):

(4) fés ‘very clean’sól ‘emphasizes whiteness’hóróo-hòròo ‘unusually large opening’ (esp. nostrils)

Ideophones are also limited to the two diphthongs found in the language, namely/ai/ and /au/, e.g.,wásái (id.) ‘emphasizes brightness’, cf. bákwài ‘seven’; dáMáu (id.)‘emphasizes finely ground’, cf. kíbáu ‘arrows’. (The otherwise non-occurringdiphthong /oi/ in found in one word only, namely cói (= (and derived from) cwái)‘very sweet’.)

There are two points of difference between ideophones and prosaic words whenit comes to diphthongs. First, in ideophones, diphthongs occur almost exclusivelyin word-final position, which is not the case with regular words where they oftenoccur word-medially. Second, in ideophones, the diphthongs need to be analyzedas /aC/ sequences, i.e., /ay/ and /aw/, whereas in the prosaic language they patternas long vocalic nuclei (Newman and Salim 1981).

3. Tone

Hausa has two level tones, H(igh) and L(ow), and a F(alling) tone, which onlyoccurs on heavy syllables. (For most purposes, F can be thought of as a combinationof H+L on a single syllable.) There is no rising tone. Ideophones make use of exactlythese same tones. Two things are a bit unusual regarding word formation.

First, full reduplication in Hausa normally involves copying the tones alongwith the segmentals. This can be seen both in frozen reduplicative words, e.g.,kwàlé-kwàlé ‘canoe’, dóolì-dóolì ‘a myriapod’, kwáaná-kwáaná ‘fire truck’, and inderived/inflected words, e.g., mázá-mázá ‘very quickly’ (intensive adverb < mázá‘quickly’); wátàa-wátàa ‘monthly’ (distributive formation < wátàa ‘month’); jóojì-jóojì ‘judges’ (plural < jóojì ‘judge’). ideophones, on the other hand, commonly

254 Paul Newman

have a pattern in which each duple has a single level tone with the tones of the twohalves being different, e.g.,

(5) búzúu-bùzùu (H-L) ‘long, unkempt’ (of hair)wújígáa-wùjìgàa (H-L) ‘in a disheveled state’cùkùu-cúkúu (L-H) ‘trying to obtain something in an underhanded way’kàzàr-kázár (L-H) ‘energetic nature’ (of a person or animal), vigor, rest-

lessness

Second, as observed many years ago by Leben (1971), it is extremely rare for Hausawords to end in L L tone and have a long final vowel. With ideophones, on theother hand, such occurrences are extremely common, e.g.,

(6) bútsúu-bùtsùu ‘untidy’ (hair, clothes, arrangement of teeth)'álóo-'àlòo ‘large and round’ (fruits, pimples, or other liquid-con-

taining things)hàyàa-hàyàa ‘describes people’s bustling about, talking back and

forth’dòosòosòo ‘emphasizes ugliness of face or dullness of person’shèeMèeMèe ‘contemptuously’

In other respects, however, the tonal behavior of ideophones is the same as that ofprosaic words. For example, the Hausa “stabilizer” (fem singular cee, not fem

singular nee), a grammatical particle found, inter alia, in identificational andequational sentences, has polar tone, i.e., H after L and L after H. This polarity isequally operative if the preceding item is an ideophone, e.g.,

(7) máakòo née ‘it’s a week’, cf. zágóo-zàgòo née ‘it’s dense and rich’ (eyebrows)(id.)

zóomóo nèe ‘it’s a hare’, cf. màMòo-máMóo nèe ‘it’s miserly’ (id.)

As mentioned above, final L L with a long final vowel is a disfavored sequence inHausa. It is found, however, not only in ideophones but also in a small number ofrecent English loanwords such as lóotàrèe ‘lottery’. The Sokoto dialect has under-gone a regular sound change whereby the disfavored L L sequence has been replacedby L F. All words with the requisite shape have undergone the rule, whetherideophones or not, e.g.,

(8) Standard Hausa Sokoto

sákándàrèe sákándàrêe ‘secondary school’támbùlàn támbùlân ‘drinking glass’búzúu-bùzùu búzúu-bùzûu ‘long and unkempt’ (hair) (id.)tsáláa-tsàlàa tswáláa-tswàlâa ‘long and skinny’ (esp. legs) (id.)


4. Ideophones as reflections of the past

Because of their expressive, onomatopoeic-like character, ideophones are common-ly viewed as ephemeral and as such are totally ignored in historical/comparativework. A close analysis of ideophones can, however, throw light on the linguisticpast. I give two examples. Synchronically, /h/ and /‘/ are regular Hausa consonants.In polysyllabic ideophones having shapes like CVCVC or CVCV-CVCV, theseconsonants never occur word-medially as the C2. (The word hànhái wide opening’,with /h/ in the second syllable, is an exception.) This gap provides further supportfor the analysis presented in Newman (1976) that /h/ and /‘/ historically developedfairly recently through phonemicization of what were originally phonetic mannersof attack in vowel-initial words, i.e., *#ØV > #hV or #‘V (the choice of the gutturalbeing determined by specific conditions irrelevant for the discussion here).

The fact that most ideophones are (and presumably were) consonant initial alsoexplains why /h/ and /‘/, which derived from vowel-initial words, are also rare ininitial position. But here, the situation with regard to /h/ as opposed to /‘/ is notparallel. Whereas ideophones with initial glottal stop are essentially non-existent,there are some with initial /h/, e.g., hàm ‘emphasizes width of opening’; hàyàa-hàyàa ‘describes people’s bustling about, talking back and forth’, hábáa-hábáa‘shows cheerfulness, being warm with people’. What this suggests is that thephonemicization of /h/ and /‘/ may not have been simultaneous, as I had thought,but rather that /h/ may have become established earlier, a possible temporalsequence that did not emerge in the original study from which ideophones wereexcluded.

Falling tone occurs in only a dozen ideophones, mostly indicating the sound ofsomething falling, e.g., bûm ‘sound of something heavy falling’, fâu ‘sound of a slapor beating with a whip’. The rarity of F in ideophones is consistent with the notionthat at an earlier historical period, Hausa had two level tones only, the Falling tonebeing a new addition resulting historically either from vowel loss with L tonepreservation, e.g., zôbbá ‘rings’ (< *zóobàbáa) or from tone bending with H-tone,heavy-syllable, monosyllabic nouns, e.g., mâi ‘oil’ (< *mái < *már) (see Newman1992).

5. Lexical connections

Most Hausa ideophones are lexically autonomous in the sense that they exist asindependent lexemes distinct from other words in the language. They simply existin the Hausa lexicon as such, e.g.,

256 Paul Newman

(9) fés ‘very clean’ dòosòosòo ‘emphasizes ugliness, dullnessof person’

wúlík ‘shiny black sùmùmù ‘silently’or deep blue’

zìgìdír ‘stark naked’ bútsúu-bùtsùu ‘untidy’ (hair, clothes, teeth)

In some cases, however, one can spot a phonological connection between theideophone and a semantically related noun or adjective, or, more often, verb. Onedoesn’t have a productive rule of morphological formation, but one can seerecurring patterns relating the prosaic and ideophonic word pairs like (a) finalvowel omission, and (b) reduplication, e.g.,

(10) a. 'ús (= 'ùs) cf. 'úsàa‘describes breaking through’ ‘break through’cùnkús cf. cúnkùshée‘full of people or other countable entities’ ‘be crowded into’1ís cf. 1ìsá‘sound of dripping’ ‘drip’dándán cf. dánnèe‘firmly pressed’ ‘press down’tsáy cf. tsáyàa‘still, pensively’ ‘stop, stand’

b. bà1à1à cf. bà1í‘emphasizes years hence’ ‘next year’búzúu-bùzùu cf. búzúrwáa‘long, unkempt (hair)’ ‘long-haired goat’máláa-màlàa cf. màláalà‘describes minor flooding’ ‘flow out, flow over’sákó-sákó cf. sákìi‘loosely’ ‘let loose, release’wárá-wárá cf. wáarèe‘spaced apart’ ‘separate, secede’

6. Grammatical relations

The most striking illustration of the integration of ideophones in the grammar ofHausa is found with augmentative adjectives (R.M. Newman 1988). These adjec-tives, which primarily refer to things that are exceedingly large (or stupid), containa suffix of the form -éeCèe (fem -éeCìyáa) where C is a copy of the precedingconsonant, e.g., gábjéejèe/gábjéejìyáa) ‘huge (person)’ (cf. the exclamation gábjì‘how huge!’). Semantically, augmentatives tend to be expressive, almost slangy, butin terms of their morphology and syntax, they are ordinary run-of-the-mill adjec-tives. What is curious is that the plurals corresponding to the singular augmentatives


have to be considered ideophones. To begin with, they have a distinctive ideophonicshape namely (a) full reduplication marked by non-matching level tones on the twoparts, and (b) final L L with a long final vowel, e.g., gábzáa-gàbzàa ‘huge (people)’.(Note: the /z/ seen here is underlying; in the singular, the /j/ represents palatal-ization due to the following front vowel.) Unlike the singular augmentatives, whichtypically occur pre-nominally (with a gender-sensitive linker), e.g., fír1ée1èn dóokìi‘a very large, strong horse’, sántáléelìyár bùdúrwáa ‘a slender good-looking younglady’, the corresponding plurals invariably occur after the noun, e.g., dáwáakíifír1áa-fìr1àa ‘huge horses’; ´yámmáatáa sántáláa-sàntàlàa ‘slender good-lookinggirls’. Examples:

(11) gánsaméemèe/gánsaméemìyáa (masc/fem)gánsámaá-gànsàmàa (id/pl) ‘tall and stout’

ríb1ée1èe/ríb1ée1ìyáa (masc/fem)ríb1áa-rìb1àa (id/pl) ‘huge and bulky’

shártá'ée'èe/shártá'ée'ìyáa (masc/fem)shártá'áa-shàrtà'àa (id/pl) ‘long, sharp’

tsáaléelèe/tsáaléelìyáa (masc/fem)táaláa-tsàalàa (id/pl) ‘svelte’

zúngúréerèe/zúngúréerìyáa (masc/fem)zúngúráa-zùngùràa (id/pl) ‘long, tall’

7. Conclusion

In many African languages — not to mention Asian or native American languages— ideophones constitute an extremely rich and important part of the language’slexicon and expressive potential. These words typically have distinctive phonologi-cal characteristics and highly marked semantics. Nevertheless, in focusing on whatis different about ideophones, scholars have tended to overlook the simple notionthat to a great extent ideophones are part and parcel of whatever language theybelong to. Ideophones in Gbeya (Samarin 1966), for example, may have someaberrant properties, but they can still be identified as Gbeya, and not Ewe or Kisi orZulu or Malay or Hmong or Korean or Quechua, or what have you. In this paper,I have demonstrated how ideophones in Hausa are on the one hand like and on theother hand unlike words in the normal prosaic language. I have shown that thetreatment of ideophones within the basic structure of Hausa is essential bothsynchronically and historically.

258 Paul Newman

References

Doke, C.M. 1935. Bantu Linguistic Terminology. London: Longmans.Galadanci, M.K.M. 1971. “Ideophones in Hausa”. Harsunan Nijeriya 1:12–26.Hinton, L., J. Nichols and J. J. Ohala (eds). 1994. Sound Symbolism. Cambridge: CUP.Leben, W.R. 1971. “The morphophonemics of tone in Hausa”. In C.W. Kim and H. Stahlke (eds),

Papers in African Linguistics, 201–18. Edmonton: Linguistic Research, Inc.Newman, P. 1968. “Ideophones from a syntactic point of view”. Journal of West African Languages

5:107–17.Newman, P. 1976. “The origin of Hausa /h/.” In L. Hyman et al. (eds), Papers in African Linguistics

in Honor of Wm.E. Welmers 165–75 [Studies in African Linguistics, Supplement 6]. LosAngeles: Department of Linguistics, UCLA.

Newman, P. 1992. “The development of falling contours from tone bending in Hausa”. Proceed-ings of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 18S: 128–33.

Newman, P. 2000. “Ideophones”. In The Hausa Language: An Encyclopedic Reference Grammar,chapter 35. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Newman, P. and B.A. Salim. 1981. “Hausa diphthongs”. Lingua 55:101–21.Newman, R.M. 1988. “Augmentative adjectives in Hausa”. In G. Furniss and P. J. Jaggar (eds),

Studies in Hausa Language and Linguistics. In Honour of F.W. Parsons, 99–116. London:Kegan Paul International.

Prietze, R. 1908. “Die spezifischen Verstärkungsadverbien im Haussa und Kanuri”. Mitteilungendes Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen [Berlin] 11(3):307–17.

Samarin, W.J. 1966. The Gbeya Language. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press.

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Ideas, phones and Gbaya verbal art

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Philip A. NossAfrica Inter-Regional Translation Services, Nairobi

The Grandfathers left them in their abandoned villagesand Badomo found them and arranged them in order.1

— Dogobadomo Béloko

1. Introduction

Ideophones are an inherent and prominent feature of both the daily converse of theGbaya community and of the world of myth and tradition, riddles and proverbs.They are used and appreciated by all segments of society in contexts as varied asconversation and oratory, arguments and sermons, compliments and insults.

William Samarin first brought the ideophones of the Gbaya dialect cluster ofCameroon and the Central African Republic to the attention of the scholarly world.Since the publication of his ideophone article entitled “Perspective on Africanideophones” in 1965, the shape and meaning of Gbaya ideophones has been thesubject of a number of articles (Samarin, 1965, 1970, 1991; Noss, 1975, 1985;Roulon, 1983, 1996).

The focus of this paper is on the significance of the Gbaya ideophone in artisticoral discourse. Ideophone occurrence and use is exemplified from three literarygenres, all of which are rooted in Gbaya oral tradition. The first is traditionalfolktales, the second is modern written poetry, and the third is the contemporaryideophone poems of the artist Dogobadomo. Samples of texts are cited from theYaayuwee and Lai dialects as spoken in east-central Cameroon.

Instead of seeking to demonstrate the frequency and dramatic effect ofideophones in oral art forms, for these are without dispute, the primary purpose ofthis paper is to reveal some of the ways in which verbal artists employ ideophonesstructurally and thematically. The paper concludes with observations about theGbaya ideophone as a literary device from the twin perspectives of discoursestructure and literary aesthetics.

260 Philip A. Noss

2. Folktales

The Gbaya community possesses a rich and living tradition of oral artistic expres-sion. According to Gbaya taxonomy, narrative forms are categorized as riddle,proverb, parable, tale and story. The tale is formally the most complex genre: it mayincorporate riddles; it may appear to be an expansion of a parable; it may besummarized by a proverb; and it is storylike. Tales are usually longer than the othergenres and normally they include one or more songs that invite audience participa-tion.

Ideophones may occur in each of the five Gbaya genres and in the songs as well,but they are particularly prevalent in the folktale (Noss 1972). In the introductoryformula at the beginning of the performance and in the closing formula at its end,ideophones constitute a dramatic frame for the performance.

Solo: Young men, listen to a tale,Chorus: z7k717-z7k717,

Listen to a tale, a tale z7k717.Solo: Young women, listen to a tale,Chorus: A tale z7k717-z7k717.

Listen to a tale, a tale z7k717.Solo: Children, listen to a tale,Chorus: A tale z7k717-z7k717,

Listen to a tale, a tale z7k717.Proclamation: Hirr kpi]gim a tale-o!

Prior to beginning the performance of a tale, the artist often sings a formulaic songinviting the attention of the potential audience. An interpretive description of thetale is featured in the choral response. This is the repeated ideophone z7k717 insingle or reduplicated form representing the sound of chuckling.2 The strophes maybe repeated and new ones added until, abruptly, the song is interrupted by theartist’s proclamation Hirr kpi]gim to-o!

Hirr is an ideophone that depicts a heavy weight being pulled or moved, eitherin the sound of the weight itself, or in the cry in unison of a group of men exertinggreat effort to move a heavy object. Kpi]gim is the sound of a heavy thud of a greatweight crashing down or, for example, the sound of a big truck bouncing over arough road. To-o is the noun “tale” followed by an emphatic sentence final particle.While the ideophone z7k717-z7k717 and its verbal form z7k71í refer to laughter andentertainment, the ideophones Hirr kpi]gim that comprise the performer’senthusiastic call to attention warn of the serious import of the tale.3

As closure to their performances, artists may end with the formulaic proclama-tion, “Take the boar-killing-spear and strike the fig tree rok!” Performers, whether

Ideas, phones and Gbaya verbal art 261

men or women, may allude to themselves as a hunter and announce that they arejabbing the spear that is used for hunting wild boars into the trunk of a wild fig treeforcefully rok. Thus the hunter’s activity ceases for a moment of rest in the shade ofthe leafy savanna tree, a tree that has sacrificial significance. The final word markingthe end of the performance is the ideophone rok.4

Abraham Yelem was a peasant farmer who lived in the village of Bouli acrossthe Lom River from B’tar, Oya in the Eastern Province of Cameroon. He was anunassuming man in his fifties who told, in his own words, “just a short little tale.”5

It was a tale of Wanto and Laaiso, the hero and heroine of Gbaya tradition, and oftheir misadventure with their antagonist Rain.

The setting was a small valley where Wanto lived with his wife and his sonMal7m from where he would go hunting. On one of his forays he happened uponthe home of Rain and Rain’s family. Rain welcomed him effusively and when Wantowas leaving, he invited Rain to pay him a visit sometime.

Very soon thereafter Rain honored the invitation, but whenWanto offered himfood, he refused to eat any meat that was prepared for him. He demanded thatWanto kill and prepare his son Mal7m for him to eat, and only when his demandhad been fulfilled did he express satisfaction over his reception. On his departure,he reciprocated with an invitation to Wanto to visit him again.

Wanto returned the visit, but when he rejected Rain’s offers of food anddemanded to eat one of Rain’s children, Rain thundered at him, forcing him to fleefor his life.

While Laaiso mourned her son’s death, Wanto plotted revenge. He constructeda marimba and went and hid in Rain’s granary while Rain and his family were intheir fields harvesting maize. His singing attracted the attention of Rain who senthis three children, one after the other, to destroy whatever was making that noise inhis granary. As each child came and thundered and then peered into the granary,Wanto pulled a noose around their necks and killed them. Finally, Rain’s wife cameand then Rain himself and they all met the same fate.

Wanto then returned to his weeping wife and brought her to live in the formerhome of Rain. They butchered Rain and his family and dried the meat to preserveit for eating, and they took possession of Rain’s property and fields.

The performer concluded with the observation that this tale explains why thereis vengeance when a member of one’s family has been wronged. He closed with thewords, “My tale [is set] right under the fig tree gbat.”

This is the storyline of the narrative without the texture that made it anentertaining performance. Among the discourse features and grammatical andlexical devices that are evident in the text of the tale, ideophones and ideophone-like features play a particularly significant role.

If the ideophone is an icon, there are also iconic processes of lengthening andrepetition that express meaning and that are frequently applied to ideophones

262 Philip A. Noss

(Childs 1994:166). Vowel or consonant lengthening, for example, commonlyindicates duration, and syllabic and lexical reduplication denotes repeated actionand sometimes intensity. Usually, lengthening is applied to the final vowel orconsonant, and reduplication to the final syllable. Both these processes are used bythe artist in his performance of this tale.

In Gbaya grammar these processes are most commonly applied to adverbs.Although geographic distance in this tale is never specified by the narrator, thedistances that are traveled byWanto are shown to be relatively great. This is done bythe lengthening of the adverbial n7n777 “a lo-ong time” and the repetition of n7n7n7n7 n7n7 ”on and on and on.”

More marked, however, is iconic lengthening when it occurs on a verb or noun.When Rain demands that Wanto kill his son Mal7m for him to eat, Wanto zúmmm,“Wanto lowered ….” Following the lengthened verb there is ellipsis. The narratoromits the normal object of the verthat would specify that Wanto lowered his headand he recounts Wanto’s thoughts without either introductory verb of thinking ordiscourse tag.

This depiction of Wanto’s dilemma is paralleled by the lengthening of the verbthat describes Rain’s reaction. Following the staccato citation of Wanto’s killing hisson and cooking the meat, the lengthened verb yf]ááá portrays Rain’s action, “Rainate and ate to satisfaction.” The pathos of Wanto’s despair is countered by Rain’smorbid pleasure and both are marked by the iconic lengthening of a verb.

When the performer relates that Wanto carved a marimba, he also lengthensthe verb to indicate the time-consuming nature of the task. Since the verb s7k “tochisel” ends in a plosive that phonetically cannot accommodate lengthening, thenarrator appends a nasal that can be extended s7knnn “he chiseled and chiseled.”

The narrator also lengthens nouns to indicate duration and intensity. WhenWanto finds a root to chop for making a marimba, he chops it with his kpiRiii “withhis axxx” or “for a while”. Then when he reaches Rain’s homestead, he climbs upthe dammm “[right] up the granaryyy” and fastens a mbfl'fff “a noo-oose [allaround the opening].”

If the process of syllable lengthening is an important grammatical and semanticfeature throughout the tale, the use of ideophones is even more significant. Theperformer’s style is sparse; there is no detail, only the identification of the charactersand the citation of their actions in rapid succession. Literally, the performerrecounts, “Wanto took sheep butchered, wife cooked, Rain zá1á1á.” The samesequence is repeated with the omission of the subject and the substitution of oneobject for another, “ …took goat butchered, wife cooked, Rain zá1á1á.” A thirdtime this sequence is repeated, and a third time the identical result is reported,“Rain zá1á1á.”

The ideophone zá1á1ámarks unequivocal rejection. Rain categorically refusesto eat every kind of meat that is offered to him. The ideophone is not a verb and it


does not function as a verb although it does occur in the verbal position. It there-fore stands as the predicate in relation to the subject, as the Verb Phrase followingthe Noun Phrase. It is never explained appositionally by a verb or paraphrased inany way. Its meaning is clear to the listeners. In its succinct and dramatic way, thisfirst three-fold occurrence of an ideophone signals the conflict that is the structuralbasis of the plot.

The same syntactic pattern occurs when Wanto pays a return visit to Rain.Three times Rain offers meat to Wanto and each time “Wanto zá1á1á,” each timeWanto declines in the same emphatic and elliptical manner. Thus, the battlebetween the two protagonists is joined by their common action encapsulated in theideophone zá1á1á.

When threatened by Rain, Wanto’s flight is headlong as revealed by theideophone z7r7r7r7 and Laaiso sees him come trudging dejectedly home g7]7-g7]7-g7]7. He explains that Rain thundered at him so loudly that his ears were ”com-pletely plugged” 1ékíf and that he s7k “barely” escaped death.

After making a marimba, when Wanto returns to Rain’s place, he finds theentrance to the granary to be wide open bó]. Setting an ambush, he climbs “rightup,” fastens his noose “all around the opening,” and begins singing to the accompa-niment of his marimba.

The drama is now heightened by ideophones that depict successive clashesbetween Rain’s children and Wanto. Rain’s first child rushes zananana, ’or-’or-’or-’or, it thunders, sticks its neck in, Wanto pulls the noose rot, and chops it deadtfkfflfk. The second child comes thundering 1o1o1o and meets the same fatetfkfflfk. The third child comes amid flashes tuR7-tuR7-tuR7-tuR7 with the sameresult rot tfkfflfk.

Each of the three children of Rain is described differently. They all come rapidlythrough the sky, but the first approaches zananana like a blazing fire with thunder-claps ’or-’or-’or-’or, the second comes with the sound of rumbling thunder 1o1o1o,and the third is depicted by lightning flashes tuR7-tuR7-tuR7-tuR7. The choice andsequence of ideophones supports the expectation that the oldest child is the first tocome and the youngest is the last. The performer specifies that the first child iscaught sharply rot by the noose around its neck. This ideophone is omitted for thesecond child, but it is repeated for the third. All three fall to the ground limplytfkfflfk when struck by Wanto.

Rain then sends his wife with the instruction that she should strike the granaryand shatter it into tiny pieces s717-s717, but she also is caught rot and struck andkilled tukfuluk. Finally, Rain himself comes and is treated to the same fate, rot, andthen tukfuluk.

The form tukfuluk is a variant of tfkfflfk but the meaning of the two forms isnever made explicit in the text. That is, there is no explicit indication by adverb,adjective or verb of what these ideophones represent. The context indicates only

264 Philip A. Noss

that they relate to the verb“chop/strike”. However, the listeners recognize theseideophones as a common description of the killing of a wild animal. They depictboth visually and audibly the limp lifeless fall of a corpse to the ground. Thenarrator uses the more common form for Rain’s children, and he uses the sharperand more marked form for the adult Mother and Father Rain.

The scene then shifts back to Laaiso who is still weeping endlessly z7z7z7z7z7 tothe point that she has become thoroughly emaciated g7]g7-l7]g7. Both ideophonesare indicative of the artist’s attention to cohesion. Z7z7z7z7z7 depicts Laaiso’s tearfulweeping, but it is also an allusion to Rain because this ideophone may be used todescribe an all-night drizzle. The second ideophone g7]g7-l7]g7 is remindful of theearlier description of Wanto’s forlorn gait g7]7-g7]7-g7]7 as he trudged home fromRain’s place.

The tale’s final two ideophones occur in the conclusion and in the formulaicclosing. The members of Rain’s family were all killed and lie gb7y7] on the ground.Then the tale itself is set firmly and solidly gbat under the wild fig tree as thenarrator rests from his performance.

In the performer’s development of the plotline, zá1á1á has been pointed outfor its structural significance. On the level of cohesion, the ideophones depictingWanto’s appearance as he returns from Rain’s home g7]7-g7]7-g7]7 and Laaiso’ssorrowful condition g7]g7-l7]g7 have been noted as well as the allusion of Laaiso’sweeping z7z7z7z7z7 to a long rainfall.

However, the performer’s use of ideophones in character description shouldalso be observed. Rain is anthropomorphized as a human being in both his speechand his deeds. When he demands to eat Wanto’s son, he reveals himself to be acannibal. But Rain is still a natural meteorological element and it is the ideophonesdescribing the approach of Rain’s children that reveal them to be truly thunder andlightning. Tfkfflfk/tukfuluk reduces Rain and his family to wild game to be huntedand eaten by members of human society. This is remindful of the valley in the tale’sopening setting from where Wanto went on his hunting expeditions. The finaldescription gb7y7] is an allusion to fruit fallen from a tree or to soldiers fallen on thefield of battle. The character portrayal of Rain as offered by the ideophonesstrengthens the unity and the coherence of the tale.

3. Written poetry

During the decade of the 1970’s, a poetry reading group was founded in Meigangain the heart of Yaayuwee-speaking country. Members of the group includedtranslators, school teachers, and other Gbaya intellectuals who shared a commoninterest in literature and in critiquing their writings with each other. Because of thenature of the group and its membership, the majority of the works that were


presented were poems written in the Gbaya language.The poems were often experimental. Some were adaptations of traditional song

form such as hunting songs, plaintive soliloquies, dirges and laments. Others wereimitations of poetic form that the writers had memorized as school children inFrench primary school. These included rhymed verse, free verse, and a miscellanyof strophe patterns.

An important feature of the poetic lexicon was ideophones. They were some-times plentiful in a poem, sometimes few, and occasionally the poems exhibited noideophones at all.

The poem presented below was inspired by a well-known formulaic folktalethat purports to explain the origins of the natural enmity between the big black antand the termite (Dorson 1975:375–377).

In résumé, a woman was sweeping her child’s grave when her hand was prickedby Grass Stalk that had been bitten off by Termite. She flicked the blood from herwound into the eye of Fly who flew into Drum that sounded 1í] that frightenedColobus Monkey who fled and knocked down Zio fruit that broke loose b717k thatfell onto the back of Elephant who ran and stepped on Tortoise who defecated firethat burned Black Ant’s eggs. When Black Ant retraced the sequence of events foran explanation of the origin of the fire that had burned her eggs, each characterreported what had caused it to act as it had. Twice the sound of the drum is cited1í] until the question reaches Termite who is unable to say why he cut Grass Stalk.His answer is “B777.” Asked what he had said, Termite only repeats “B777.” There-fore, black ants attack and capture termites to this very day.

In the performance of the tale cited above, the ideophones are very sparse.There is only the thrice repeated sound of the drum 1í], the sudden breaking off ofthe fruit from the tree b717k and lastly the repeated comic imitation of Termite’sempty reply “B777”.

Fire

Chick was sweeping its grandma’s grave;Termite bit its hand ]got,It flicked its hand zat, blood landed in Fly’s eye,Fly flew párám into Drum,Drum sounded kpiii,Male Monkey bounded onto a tree ]gala] and stepped on Fruit,Fruit broke loose '7r7k and fell on Elephant’s back,Elephant climbed out of the valley bata-bata and stepped on Tortoise,Male Tortoise sprayed fire vurek and burned the grass.

– Abbo Michel Théodore6

Although clearly based on the plotline of the traditional folktale, the poet ignoresthe explanation given by the tale for an event in nature. He chooses instead to select

266 Philip A. Noss

a single element from the tale, namely fire. The implications of fire as a theme areleft for the reader’s reflection.

In contrast to the version of the tale summarized above, the poet appears toexperiment with a generous use of ideophones. With the exception of the openingintroductory line, each line features an ideophone. got is the sharp bite of thetermite, zat is the abrupt flick of the hand, párám represents rapid movement overa great distance, kpiii is the sound of the drum, ]gala] depicts the monkey leapingonto a tree or a tree branch, '7r7k is the sudden detachment of a large fruit,bata-bata describes the rapid heavy footsteps of the elephant, and vurek portrayssomething that is crudely exposed or obscenely turned inside-out.

Three of the ideophones may be noted for their special use in the poem. Themost significant is the sound of the drum. Kpiii represents a loud reverberatingsound quite unlike the almost inaudible tap of a fly bumping its head against thesurface of a drum. The 1í] of the ideophone in the narrative version is a much morecredible sound for the fly to have made when it struck the drum.7 Secondly,although the action of the poem is brusque and rapid, an elephant would notnormally walk bata-bata. This is more likely to be the footsteps of a person walkingin mud, although an angered elephant might charge through the underbrushbatak-batak. Thirdly, vurek represents the violent defecation of the tortoise in theform of flames that set the savanna grass on fire.

These three ideophones introduce an element of comedy. Kpiii is onomatopoe-ia used as hyperbole because a fly is too small to cause a sound as loud as kpiii.Bata-bata is understatement because an elephant is too big and too slow and at thesame time too agile to walk bata-bata. The connotations of vurekwith its accompa-nying verb are disgusting and therefore this ideophone disparages Tortoise in itsmoment of tragedy.

4. Ideophone poems

Taking his inspiration from the power of ideophones as used in ordinary Gbayaspeech and in oral art forms, Dogobadomo, who is himself a master performer oforal tales, composes short poems that are comprised of a series of ideophones witha narrative conclusion.8

As has been demonstrated earlier in this paper, ideophones often occur inreduplicated form and in pairs. The pattern of juxtaposition may be extended tothree or more ideophones within a given speech context, whether conversation orartistic composition. In his ideophone poems, Dogobadomo cites a sequence ofideophones, providing only the conclusion as context.

In the following poem, the artist portrays an ordinary event in the life of theGbaya community.


Gi1immmF7-f7-f77Kílá]-ki-kílá]Séléléma'iii

They were taking counsel.

A series of five ideophones, two of them in triplicate form, presents a set of fivescenes. Gi1immm with its lengthened final consonant represents people gatheringtogether quietly and deliberately over a period of some time. F7-f7-f77 depicts softconsultation with one another like the sound of soft breezes blowing. The nextideophone signals a change in the people’s conduct. It implies that there is a hiatusin the ideophonic rendering of the event. Then the people are discussing amongthemselves again but in a more forceful and disjointed manner kílá]-ki-kílá]. Thisis followed by silence sélélé because those gathered for the meeting are all inagreement with the decision that has been taken. Finally, the people scatter ]ma'iiiin orderly fashion.

The poet’s conclusion makes it clear that this was a solemn communal gather-ing for taking counsel. The ideophones portray and successively reinforce the senseof decorum and dignity that characterizes the council meeting. The descriptiveprose statement elliptically affirms the successful outcome of the event.

Other ideophones would have portrayed a different set of events. For example,after the opening ideophone, had the poet said kpo]go-yo]go, this would haveindicated disorderly babbling.Gbftf]gflf]would have shown that a great argumentbroke out and kpamdal would have portrayed dispersal in disarray.

In this poem and in others like it, Dogobadomo employs individual ideophonesas complete syntactic units. Each ideophone represents a full clause. In Diffloth’sterms, each ideophone is a “microscopic sentence” (1972:444). With a firstideophone the poet sets the scene. This general setting is modified by a secondideophone and the two are further constrained by a third, and a fourth and fifthuntil the final narrative conclusion is pronounced.

5. Conclusion

Paul Zumthor has identified the density of the “ideophonic network” as one of thecharacteristics of poetic expression in African languages (1980:395). Opinions vary,however, about the true significance of that network. Isidore Okpewho appears tobe dismissive when he writes that ideophones “are simply sounds used in conveyinga vivid impression,” although he does acknowledge that they are “more frequentlyused in narratives for achieving a stronger sensual or dramatic impact than anywords available in the language could have done” (1992:92). Abiola Irele, on the

268 Philip A. Noss

other hand, draws attention to “the special role played by sonic values” in oralliterature (1990:56), and Lupenda Mphande offers an example of a ChiTumbukapoem as evidence for how “ideophonic language …exploits the phonologicalproperties of language to enhance the semantic content of the poem and tocelebrate it” (1992:127).

Ideophones are used in Gbaya oral art in the same way that they are used indaily speech, except perhaps more consciously because they enter into the processthat the Gbaya call “fixing the tale.” Ruth Finnegan writing about Limba storytellinghas observed, “A style plentifully embroidered with ideophones is one of thestriking characteristics of an effective storyteller” (1970:384–385). This is what theGbaya refers to as ólá-wen “warbling words”. This is eloquence and it is the mark ofthe oral artist.

The style of Gbaya oral narrative is sparse. Emphasis is on the storyline, onaction and not on description. ideophones and ideophone processes are a toolwhereby the artist “vividly and economically” adds description to the story, thesong or the poem (Finnegan 1970:65). In Gbaya expression, ideophones “show”what the speaker has seen or experienced. They enable the audience to participate“in a happening,” as Daniel Kunene has written about Southern Sotho ideophones(1978:12).

The Gbaya performer therefore uses ideophones in the presentation of charac-ters and in character development as well as to reveal what the characters see andexperience. Actions, feelings, appearances, sensations and emotions are portrayedby ideophones. ideophones may be used by the artist to mock, to disparage, or toflatter the characters of the tale. The artist may temper the tone of the tale byideophone choice according to connotation, whether for humor or for pathos.Through the ideophones, the audience identifies with the characters’ successes andpredicaments alike.

Ideophones are a prominent feature of the texture of the tale, but not merelyfor description and expressiveness. They are employed by the artist as an element ofstructure and intratextuality. They may be used within the tale to heighten conflictor even to establish the essence of the plot. They may express the climax andintroduce the dénouement of the conflict. The artist employs ideophones inrepetition and in variation to enhance cohesion. Between song and narrative text,ideophones frequently develop theme and provide unity.

At the same time, another perspective on Zumthor’s ideophone network is theobservation that ideophones are a familiar feature for the listeners who have heardthem used in the same tale or for describing similar events and episodes and whohave themselves used the same and similar ideophones in their own speech and intheir own songs and performances. Ideophones, like familiar folktale characters,provide an important element of intertextuality. Against the backdrop of theirwider occurrence and of listener expectation, they may be used hyperbolically,


ironically, or even metaphorically. There is not only internal coherence, butexternal coherence as well. In the choice of ideophones, the artist creates associa-tions in the minds of the listeners thereby expanding the level of the performancefrom text to intertext, from the immediate artistic context to the broader context ofGbaya culture and aesthetics.

When the artist Dogobadomo was asked about the ideophones that he used inhis performances of traditional tales and in his own poetry and drama, he spoke inmetaphors, “The Grandfathers left them in their abandoned villages and Badomofound them and arranged them in order.”

In Gbaya aesthetic tradition, arranging and manipulating ideophones isrequisite in the preparation of a tale performance. As the artists fashion andrefashion their narratives and songs and poems, they create their own structuresand they interpret according to their own perception. In their telling of the tale, theconceptualization of the Grandfathers is reborn in the expression of currentexperience.

In conclusion, the meaning of the Gbaya ideophone is found in the network ofideas and sounds from which the artist draws; the meaning is in the aesthetictradition and its interpretation before the audience; it is in the artist’s selection andplacement of the ideophones in their poetic context; it is in the social and culturalsetting that is the past and present world of the Gbaya; the meaning is in the vitaland dynamic nature of the ideophones themselves.

Notes

1. A comment about ideophones in an interview with Dogobadomo Béloko, a Gbaya comedian,playwright and poet, in Meiganga, Cameroon, on 3 June 1980. This and all other translations inthe paper are the author’s.

2. Tone is marked for each vowel. High tone is marked by an acute accent, extra-high tone ismarked by a double acute accent, and low tone is unmarked. When a high tone follows a low tone,it is lowered to a mid-tone level. Vowel nasalization is marked by a cedilla.

3. A similar phenomenon occurs in the riddler’s challenge Súmgbá! and the audience responseGirimm! The riddler’s call “Riddle!” is accepted by those whom he is challenging through theirresponse Girimm! This is an ideophone that represents a loud crashing noise such as a flock ofguinea fowl thundering into flight all at once, or the sound of an army charging into battle. Theimage of war is applied to the riddling contest.

4. This is one of several stock formulae for marking closure. In each formula ideophones areequally prominent except in the simple prosaic declarations, “That’s the end of my tale” and “Mytale is finished.”

5. The tale was told to a gathering of family and friends in the home of André Abari in Bouli on22 November 1966. It is Tale VIII, 2 in the Gbaya collection of oral tradition on deposit at theArchives of Traditional Music at Indiana University.

6. This poem was presented to the Poetry Reading Group on 31 August 1979.

270 Philip A. Noss

7. There is a Gbaya riddle, “If I beat my little drum 1í], everyone dances.” The answer is the wind.When the wind blows, all the leaves dance.

8. The poem presented here is one of fourteen ideophone poems composed by DogobadomoBéloko of Meiganga between August 1979 and June 1980. For a more complete treatment ofDogobadomo’s ideophone poems, see Noss 1989.

References

Childs, G. Tucker. 1994. “African ideophones”. In L. Hinton, J. Nichols and J. J. Ohala (eds),Sound Symbolism, 178–204. Cambridge: CUP.

Diffloth, G. 1972. “Notes on expressive language”. In P.M. Peranteau, J.N. Levi and G.C. Pheres(eds), Chicago Linguistic Society: Papers from the 8th Regional Meeting, 440–447. Chicago:Chicago Linguistic Society, .

Dorson, R.M. (ed.). 1975. Folktales Told around the World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Finnegan, R. 1970. Oral Literature in Africa. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Irele, A. 1990. “The African imagination”. Research in African Literatures 21(1):49–67.Kunene, D.P.1978. The ideophone in Southern Sotho. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.Mphande, L. 1992. “Ideophones and African verse”. Research in African Literatures 23(1):117–129.Noss, P.A. 1972. “Description in Gbaya literary art”. In R.M. Dorson (ed.), African Folklore,

73–101. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, .Noss, P.A. 1975. “The ideophone: A linguistic and literary device in Gbaya and Sango with

reference to Zande”. In S.H. Hurrreiz and H. Bell (eds), Directions in Sudanese Linguistics andFolklore, 142–152. Khartoum: Khartoum University Press.

Noss, P.A. 1985. “The ideophone in Gbaya syntax”. In G. J. Dimmendaal (ed.),Current Approach-es in African Linguistics 3: 241–255. Dordrecht: Foris Publications.

Noss, P.A. 1989. “The ideophone poems of Dogobadomo”. In P.A. Noss (ed.), The Ancestors’Beads: Oral art in contemporary africa, Special issue of Crosscurrent 2(3–4):33–43. Hamilton,New Zealand: Outrigger Publishers.

Okpewho, I. 1992. African Oral Literature: Backgrounds, character, and continuity. Bloomington:Indiana University Press.

Roulon, P.1983. “Specificité de l’adverbe en Gbaya ‘’bodoe’”. In J. Kaye, H. Koopman, D.Sportiche and A. Dugas (eds), Current Approaches to African Linguistics 2: 378–389.Dordrecht: Foris Publications.

Roulon, P.1996. “Saveur et consistances: Le goût gastronomique chez les gbáyá ‘bòdòè deCentrafrique.” Journal des africanistes 66.1–2:37–80.

Samarin, W.J. 1965. “Perspectives on African ideophones”. African Studies 24:117–121.Samarin, W.J. 1970. “Inventory and choice in expressive language”. Word 26.2:153–169.Samarin, W.J. 1991. “Intersubjective and intradialectal variation in Gbeya ideophones”. Journal

of Linguistic Anthropology 1(1):52–62.Zumthor, P.1982. “Le discours de la poésie orale”. Poétique 52:387–401.

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Ideophones in Pastaza Quechua

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Janis B. NuckollsUniversity of Alabama

1. Introduction

This paper will outline the main characteristics of ideophones in the Pastaza dialectof Ecuadorian Quechua. This is a necessary task because ideophones have receivedvery scant attention from linguists of Native South America. Data on ideophonesfrom Pastaza Quechua reveal many of the prototypical characteristics of ideophonesin African languages (cf. Childs 1994) and are therefore a potentially importantsource of knowledge about a typologically widespread linguistic phenomenon. ThePastaza dialect of Quechua applies roughly to inhabitants of the Pastaza provincewhich begins at the eastern foothills of the Andean mountain chain and stretchesinto the easternmost lowland rainforest frontier, as far as the contested borderbetween Ecuador and Peru. Although their dialect is clearly related to the Incalingua franca, the Pastaza Quechua identify most strongly in a cultural sense, withother lowland South American peoples, especially the Achuar and Shuar speakingJivaroans, with whom they actively engage in trading and also frequently intermar-ry. In fact, there are a number of unresolved ethnolinguistic issues concerning howQuechua came to be spoken in the Ecuadorian lowlands. The most likely scenarioentails some sort of diffusion from the western Andean highlands eastward into thelowlands of Ecuador after the seventeenth century, probably through Dominicanmissionization (Cerron-Palomino 1987:343–344). Despite its western highlandAndean origins, certain features of ideophone usage in Pastaza Quechua arestrikingly similar to ideophone usage in non-cognate Amazonian languages. Thiscan only be stated with utmost caution, however, as there is a real scarcity of dataon ideophones in South American languages generally.

Insofar as data on ideophones in Highland Ecuadorian Quechua can be found,there seems to be a consensus that they function as adverbs which occur with asemantically empty verb (Ross 1979:158; Catta Q. 1994:521). In Highland Quechuadialects the verb nina ‘to say, tell’, is the inflected verb that occurs with an ono-matopoeic or expressive adverb which is usually repeated. Examples from Ross

272 Janis B. Nuckolls

(1979:158–9) include: colon colon nina ‘to say’, i.e. ‘to go thump thump’ and achijachij nina ‘to say’, i.e. ‘to go shine shine’. In addition to grammatical descriptions,published texts of Highland Ecuadorian Quechua myths and folktales reveal thatverb roots can also be repeated and used as expressive adverbs which modify a finiteverb, as in the following example (Jara J. and Moya 1982:135), where the verb rootcati ‘follow’ is repeated as an expressive adverbial modifier of the verb callarirca‘began’.

(1) Chasna puri-cu-cpi, chai puncha-ca shuc jatun cunturlike that walk-dur-swrf that day-top one big condorhuarmi-ta cati cati callari-rca, pai-ta muna-shpawoman-acc follow follow begin-3:past she-acc want-cor‘That day, as they were walking along in that way, a big condor began followingthe woman, wanting her’.

The repetition of the root cati ‘follow’ is an expressive strategy which illustratesiconically, the iterativity of the action of following. There is a functional resem-blance between the repetition of verb roots in an adverbial slot and the expressiverepetition of ideophones. Besides the overlap in adverbial function betweenideophones and verb roots there exists other data from highland dialects ofQuechua outside of Ecuador which suggests that ideophones may not function asa robustly distinctive class in relation to the lexicon. In Ayacucho Quechua, spokenin south-central Peru, ideophones can be used to form verbs fully inflected fortense, person, and number (Parker 1969:75–6). In another highland Peruviandialect, that of Huallaga Quechua, ideophones are an open class of substantiveswhich can function as verbs by suffixation with an inchoative morpheme (Weber1989:37).

Contrary to typical reports of ideophones throughout the world, descriptionsof ideophones in Highland dialects of Quechua do not claim any special or peculiarsyntactic, morphological, or pragmatic characteristics for these words.1 Consider bycontrast, the lowland Ecuadorian dialect of Pastaza Quechua, which is the focus ofthis paper. In Pastaza Quechua, ideophones are distinctive as a class by theirmorphological, syntactic, and semantic properties. Although words ending inconsonants are quite rare in the lexicon, they are not at all unusual in ideophones(Nuckolls 1996:139). Word-initial affricates occur commonly in ideophones, butonly occur word-medially elsewhere in the lexicon. (Nuckolls 1996:139). Althoughideophones never take a verb’s inflectional endings, they can be used as substitutesfor a verb omitted by a speaker, and can stand for an entire predicate or proposi-tion. The pragmatic importance of ideophones in Pastaza Quechua is evident bytheir use in narratives of all kinds, and by their incorporation into the grammaticalaspectual subsystem, to be discussed below. It is, in fact, not possible to speak thisdialect of Quechua fluently and naturally without using ideophones. Reports on


ideophones from unrelated Amazonian languages suggest a number of parallelswith Pastaza Quechua. Koehn and Koehn (1986:124) state that in Apalai, a Cariblanguage of northern Brazil, the ideophone is a “noninflected onomatopoeic wordthat denotes an action that is normally expressed by a finite verb form”. Alsonoteworthy is Apalai ideophones’ ability to substitute for a verb or an entiresentence, the slight variations they exhibit from regular Apalai phonology, and thefrequency of their use in everyday conversation and storytelling (1986:124–125.)The use of ideophones as verb substitutes has also been reported for anotherAmazonian language, Canela Kraho, a Ge language spoken in central Brazil (Popjesand Popjes 1986:198).

Having mentioned briefly some of the anomalous characteristics of PastazaQuechua ideophones, I will devote the remainder of this paper to a description oftheir interesting semantic properties and functions. In attempting to compareideophones with traditional parts of speech, two comprehensive surveys find thecategory of adverb to be the most useful, generally, for the varieties of ideophonefunctions (Childs 1994:181; Samarin 1971:131). In Pastaza Quechua as well, theterm ‘adverb’ encompasses much of what ideophones do. Nevertheless, this termhas been defined so broadly as the modification of constituents other than nouns(Schachter 1985), that it can’t reveal much about the subtle mechanisms by whichadverb-like words can function. This paper, then, will outline the main adverbialfunctions of ideophones in Pastaza Quechua. When they function as manneradverbs, ideophones specify configurational patterns of an action, the direction ofan action’s movement, the medium in which it takes place, the manner in which itwas executed, and even, the shape of an action’s agent. Often, however, an ideo-phone will assume such a major collaborative role in communicating a predicate’smeaning that its function goes beyond modification. Many combinations of aQuechua verb plus ideophone encode meanings which in English are expressed inone finite verb’s lexical structure. The terms “co-verb” or “compound verb”describe this ideophonic function. In yet other uses, an ideophone seems to restatethe meaning of the verb, adding no new content whatsoever, but intonationallyforegrounding the meaning of an utterance’s finite verb. If we adopt the position ofBolinger (1985), that intonation is part of language’s gestural complex, and weconsider gestural expression along a continuum, manifested in rudimentary formby the up and down movements in voice pitch that grade into actual physicalmovements of the hand and body, then in such uses ideophones can be considereda kind of verbal gesture. The last characterization of ideophonic function willdescribe how some ideophones can function grammatically, within the aspectualsubsystem, in a way that is somewhat analogous to particles in English. Oneideophone in particular, is undergoing changes characteristic of a grammaticalizingform and giving this dialect of Quechua new tools (Hopper & Traugott 1993) forexpressing grammatical aspect.


2. Ideophones functioning as manner adverbs

Part I considers combinations of ideophones and verbs which most closely approxi-mate the kind of semantic relationship found with adverbs of manner and directionand their verbs. The verb, usually a verb of motion or bodily configuration, ismodified by an ideophonic adverb which may be performatively foregrounded byrepetition or intonational changes. The data are drawn from naturally occurringdiscourse in personal narratives, myths, and brief exchanges, and also from elicitedexamples in structured interviews. The verb lyukshina ‘to leave, emerge’ encodesonly an idea of a change of location from one physically or socially defined space toanother. It can be modified by a number of ideophones which specify configura-tional aspects of leaving or emerging, the direction of its movement, the medium inwhich it takes place, the manner in which it is executed, and even, the shape of whatis emerging. When modified by the ideophone polang, lyukshina describes emer-gence from underwater to the surface. Polang, therefore, encodes the medium —water — as well as the direction — upward, of emerging. The following example,taken from a legend, features polang in a description of the way a submarineemerges from underwater to the surface, seemingly out of nowhere.

(2) Emerging from underwater

Ilya-n! Amishkay polang lyukshi-g ma-n, ni-sha kwinta-g ma-rabe lacking-3 later emerge-ag be-3 say-cor tell-ag be-past‘(At first) it wasn’t there and then later polang it would emerge’, saying this, hewould tell (us).’

In addition to polang which occurs with at least ten different verbs besides lyukshinaand describes anything at all that emerges from underwater, there is an extremelyrestricted ideophone which also describes emergence from underwater. Theideophone bhux occurs only in descriptions of a freshwater dolphin called bugyu,which is now practically extinct due to overhunting. Bhux describes an energeticburst out of the water. The word initial aspiration is imitative of the force of theburst. The word final velar fricative is often extended to imitate an idea of thedolphin’s path of movement through the air. The following example, taken from amythic narrative describes the bugyu’s emergence from underwater to the surface,as it swims upriver.

(3) Emerging from underwater with a forceful burst

Sika-sha ri-shka-una chi bugyu-guna hanak-ta bhuxx bhuxxclimb-cor go-perf-3:pl that dolphin-pl upriver-advlyukshi-shaemerge-cor‘Climbing upriver, those dolphins went, emerging bhuxx bhuxx.’


The next two examples demonstrate how ideophones functioning as adverbs canselect for one interpretation of a verb’s senses over another. The verb urmana candescribe a falling as it is executed, or a fall that is complete. Consider the differencein English between ‘to fall’ and ‘to fall down’, where the completed fall is specifiedby the adverb ‘down’. Ideophones occurring with urmana not only specify thecompleteness of the falling action, but also encode information about the physicalproperties of what has fallen. In the first example below, the ideophone pakdescribes the moment of contact, and, or, the sound of contact made by an objector substance when it falls onto a surface and is reconfigured or changed by its fall.Its meaning might be roughly equivalent to the expressive noun ‘splat’. Thisexample is taken from a report of a dialogue between two women, in which one wasscolding another about the improper way she had dried some stingray meat. Eachrepetition of pak describes how a piece of meat fell off of the drying rack on whichit had been set.

(4) A falling down resulting in reconfiguration

Kan mana alyi chaki-chi-shka-ngi-chu, raya, pay ismu-shayou neg well dry-caus-perf-2-neg stingray it rot-corismu-sha pay pak pak pak pus pus urma-w-ta ni-nirot-cor it fall-dur-acc say-1‘Saying ‘you haven’t dried it well’, I tell her that the stingray meat is rotting,rotting away, frothing, frothing, and falling pak pak pak’.

The next example of falling down uses patang, which describes the moment ofcontact, or an idea of the sound of contact made with a surface by falling upon it,without any evident loss of wholeness or shape. Whatever falls patang tends to behigher in animacy than what falls pak. The following example, taken from apersonal experience narrative, describes how a large snake that had coiled itselfaround a man as well as the tree he was hugging, fell to the ground after beingwhacked by the man’s wife’s machete. The other ideophone dziri, describes thesliding motion, and also the sound of the snake sliding itself open from its coiledposition, as it releases its grip on the man.

(5) A falling down that leaves something intact

Piti-kta wakta-shka-y dziriririririri patanng-shi urma-ra!cut-until hit-perf-nom dziriririririri patanng-ev fall-past‘As she had hit it so hard that it was cut apart, it (went) dziriririririri (uncoilingits grip), and patanng it fell.’

Having discussed a variety of ideophones specifying configuration, medium,direction, shape, and the physical properties of a verb’s agent, I present in the nextsection combinations of ideophones and verbs in which the ideophone contributesso much semantic information to the predicate, that it is analogous to a co-verb orcompound verb.


3. Ideophones functioning as co-verbs

Co-verbs or compound verbs are common in Australian languages (McGregor, thisvolume; Schultze-Berndt, this volume) where they are described as an open class ofnon-inflecting lexical items which, together with verbs, form complex predicates. Iconsider below complex predicates consisting of ideophonic co-verbs and verbs thatare so semantically interdependent, they can be translated as one English verb. Theexamples below feature the ideophone dzir which describes a frictional movement.In the first example dzir combines with aysana ‘to pull’ to yield a meaning which isbest translated with the English verb ‘to drag’. This example comes from a mythabout malevolent forest spirits which stupefy humans with drugged beverages andthen decimate the forest while the drugged humans sleep. The following sentencedescribes the effort of one woman to drag her drugged brother along the groundand out of danger. The ideophone describing frictional movement undergoesextended reduplication to express this dragging motion.

(6) ‘To pull’ + frictional movement = ‘to drag’

Turi-ta chaki-manda dziriririririri-shi aysa-sha ri-ra.brother-acc foot-from dziriririririri-ev pull-cor go-past‘Pulling her brother’s foot dziriririririri (i.e. dragging) she went’.

Dzir combines next with pitina ‘to cut’ to describe a sawing motion. This examplecomes from a fantastic legend about an iron tooth backed anaconda that would waitfor boats to pass over it and then saw them in half. Dzir undergoes expressivereduplication to gesture the anaconda’s sawing motion. The other ideophone tas iscomparable to a completive particle insofar as it communicates the definitivemoment when the sawing is completed.

(7) ‘To cut’ + frictional movement = ‘to saw’Lancha-y-ga dziriririririririri tas piti-g a-ra.boat-loc-top cut-ag be-past‘Into the boat dziriririririririri tas it would cut (i.e. saw apart).’

Dzir combines next with urmana ‘to fall to describe a falling that slides downwardalong a surface. It occurs in a version of the jaguar myth, describing the way awoman’s dribbling saliva alerted a group of bloodthirsty jaguar brothers to herpresence. This woman had eaten a type of persimmon-like fruit, the apiyu, whichcauses excessive salivation. Although the jaguars’ mother attempted to protect theunfortunate woman by hiding her from her sons, her dribbling saliva gave her away.

(8) ‘To fall’ + frictional movement = ‘to dribble, drool, or slide’Yanga dziiiiiiir-shi urma-ra.just dziiiiiiir-ev fall-past‘(The saliva) just fell (dribbling) dziiiiiiir.’


4. Ideophones functioning as verbal gestures

The foregoing examples demonstrated that ideophones can contribute crucialsemantic concepts to a verb or predication. In this section, by contrast, I supplyexamples of ideophones which seem to simply restate the meanings of their verbs.In the literature on ideophones, it is this relationship which often suggests tolinguists that ideophones function as intensifiers of their verbs. A more daringexplanation is offered by Kita (1997) who postulates a two-dimensional semanticframework consisting of an affecto-imagistic dimension for ideophonic meaningand an analytic dimension for non-ideophonic meaning. His argument draws fromexperimental evidence demonstrating an overwhelming correlation betweenideophones and gesture (Kita 1993). Many of ideophones’ strange properties makesense if one considers them hybrid forms combining properties from what aretraditionally circumscribed as verbal and gestural domains. In all of the followingexamples, the ideophone supplies a verbal gesture of the action denoted by a verb.I do not, however, intend to claim that the following ideophones are restricted tothe verbs which match their meanings. All of the following ideophones can and dooccur with anywhere from ten to thirty different verbs. The first example featuresdzir (cf. examples (6), (7), and (8) above) with the verb kakuna ‘to rub’ in adescription of a kind of hunting magic. Dzir describes the way a type of leaf isrubbed repeatedly over a fishing hook before casting it out in the water to ensure agood catch.

(9) ‘To rub’ + dzir

Anzelo panga-ta anzelo kiru-wan dzir dzir dzir dzir kaku-ngi.hook leaf-acc hook tooth-inst rub-2‘You rub the fish hook leaf over the tooth of the hook (going) dzir dzir dzir dzir.’

The next example features the ideophone tyapi, which describes the moment ofcontact between two surfaces resulting in their adhesion. Although tyapi may oncehave been used exclusively to describe an actual physical adhesion of sticky surfaces,it is no longer so restricted. A strong attraction to another person is said to result intwo people clinging together tyapi. This particular ideophone seems to have morenon-ordinary contexts of use than any other. There are a number of horror storiesinvolving severed limbs, decapitated heads, and so on, which can cling tyapi backonto their bodies. The verb most closely associated with tyapi is lyutarina ‘to stickto’. It occurs below in a sentence from the Star Woman myth. According to thismyth a star takes the form of a human woman and goes for a time to live on theearth. The following sentence describes her return to the sky, despite all attempts byher human husband to keep her with him. Tsyun describes the sound of herwhizzing upward into the sky. Pundzhang describes the streak of light she created


while moving. Finally, tyapi describes how she appeared to stick back into her placein the sky.

(10) ‘To stick’ + tyapi

Tsyunnnnnn-shi ri-ra pundzhaaa-ng; riku-lyayta-shiTsyunnnnnn-ev go-past day-inst look-cir-evchasna-y-ga tyapi-shi lyutari-gri-ra.like that-loc-top tyapi-ev stick-trslc-past‘She went tsyunnnnnn, brightlyyy; and as he watched, she went and stuck backonto the sky tyapi.’

The next example features the ideophone ling which describes any act of insertioninto an enclosed space and also, into a malleable medium such as earth or wood,and even water or fire. One puts a stick ling into a hole to probe its depth, a manioccutting ling into the ground to propagate a new plant, or a plantain ling into a fireto roast it. The following example, taken from a myth, features ling with the verbsatina ‘to insert’. It describes a magical procedure involving the insertion of peppersinto a decaying tree stump, in preparation for burning them.

(11) To insert + ling

Chi washa-ga ling ling ling ling ling ling sati-sha-ga nina-tathat back-top insert-cor-top fire-acchapi-chi-nau-ra.catch-caus-3pl-past‘After that, inserting (the peppers) ling ling ling ling ling ling they lit the fire’.

5. Ideophones functioning aspectually

In this section I consider one ideophone takwhich is undergoing changes character-istic of a grammaticalizing form. This ideophone is undergoing semantic reanalyseswhich are having grammatical consequences for its meanings and usage. If weconsider the concept of a cline as used by Hopper and Traugott (1993), whocharacterize it as a continuum along which grammaticalizing forms develop, thentak is still closer to the lexical or content end, than the grammatical or function end.However, if we consider grammaticalization as a process of increasing generaliza-tion of semantic content with concomitant reanalysis of a form’s meaning andfunction, then we will be justified in claiming that the ideophone tak showsevidence of undergoing such a process. Nevertheless, this ideophone does not, asyet, display evidence for increasing boundedness, which is also essential for agrammaticalizing form, according to Hopper and Traugott (1993). Tak is not anaffix, and it may never fuse with its verbs. It may be the case, therefore, that this


ideophone is in an arrested state of development along its path, possibly perma-nently. At present, however, some of its meanings are becoming generalized in waysthat are congenial with non-durative aspectual functions. The ultimate outcome ofthese changes is impossible to determine at present, due to the complexity of thisideophone’s semantics. Because tak encompasses both extremely concrete, sensorilybased meanings along with relatively abstract ones it is creating some grammaticalindeterminacy within the aspectual subsystem.

Aspect encodes temporal concepts such as momentaneousness, completiveness,and durativity. It is often difficult, however, to isolate the temporal dimensions ofan action’s unfolding from the spatial and perceptual features of its greater semanticlandscape. The sentence ‘He walked around the block’ is aspectually perfectivebecause the phrase ‘around the block’ gives the action a definite spatial andtherefore temporal closure. The encoding of aspect expression is linked to spatial,perceptual experience. Ideophones assist in the expression of aspect because theyencode ideas of perceptually salient experiences such as moving from one space toanother, falling through the air, experiencing a sudden impact, or altering thephysical shape of some object. To further clarify the complex relations betweenideophones and aspect categories, it is also necessary to consider that aspect isrealized throughout different levels of linguistic structure. Chung and Timberlake(1985:214) state that aspect can be analyzed throughout the following four levels:1) the lexical semantics of a verb root or stem; 2) the verb in relation to its argu-ments, i.e., the predicate level; 3) the predicate in relation to a selected interval oftime, i.e., the propositional level; and 4) in the relations between sets of proposi-tions, i.e., the narrative level. The verb ‘chew’ for example, is lexically durativebecause it denotes an action that is repetitive. In combination with ‘up’, however,it becomes a completive predicate, because it denotes an action with closure by itssuggestion that something was chewed to its utmost capacity. In an utterance thiscompletive verb/particle combination can occur with an auxiliary verb andprogressive suffix to yield a construction that is durative at the propositional level:‘My dog was chewing up shoes all day long’. Each level of aspect expression, then,is potentially independent of any other. The particles and prepositions in construc-tions such as ‘eat up’, ‘sit down’, ‘jump over’, ‘run out’ and ‘walk in’ affect a verb’slexical aspect with perfectivity. Yet, these constructions can be further modifiedmorpho-syntactically with progressive suffixation and periphrasis to indicate theongoingness of their verbs’ actions. One linguistic level’s aspect distinction may,then, be counterpoised by another more encompassing level of structure. InEnglish, particles and prepositions provide tools for this juxtapositional process. InPastaza Quechua many ideophonic adverbs provide aspectual tools that function inan analogous way with English particles, adverbs, and prepositions. The variationsin the meaning of one ideophone in particular, tak, show how an extremely


concrete, sensorily grounded meaning can undergo reanalyzes and reinterpretationsfor grammatical purposes.

Tak is one of Pastaza Quechua’s most widely used ideophones, occurring withat least sixty-five different verbs. At its most concrete and sensorily grounded, takimitates an idea of the sound of contact between two firm surfaces, one of which,typically, is manipulated by a force higher in agency than the other. Such brief,nonreverberative sounds seem intuitively well suited for representation by amonosyllable ending in a stop consonant. The idea of contact is the most generalmeaning or Gesamtbedeutung (Jakobson 1984:62) uniting the many apparentlydiverse uses of this ideophone. Beginning with the simple idea of contact, we canbuild a semantic network of linked concepts, some of which are extremely concreteand sensorily grounded, others of which are more abstract and grammaticallysalient. My discussion of this ideophone will be divided into two main sections. Thefirst part will consider examples of tak where the momentaneousness of contact,whether concretely involving surfaces that touch each other, or metaphoricallyimplied, are all infused with the grammatical idea of punctuality. In the second part,I discuss examples where the one dimensional idea of a point of contact, or amoment of contact, becomes extended into three dimensions to suggest contactthroughout a contained space, i.e., an idea of filling, with secondarily associatedideas of pressure and pain, all of which imply the aspectually grammatical idea ofcompletiveness.

5.1 The punctual meanings of tak

The punctual uses of tak will be discussed in an order which reflects their ability tobecome more and more abstracted from the concrete notion of two surfacescoming together in a way that is acoustically evident, in a definite place or at adefinite moment of physical contact. The following are just a few of the uses of takat its most concrete: to describe the way a gourd growing on a vine can be tappedtak, to test for ripeness; to describe the way a pot filled with water can be placed takinto the center of logs pushed together to make a fire; to describe the way a stalk ofsugar cane is cut down by hitting it tak with a machete. In all of these examples, thecontact described by tak is auditorily salient. This is true as well of the example inQuechua that follows. It is taken from a conversation I had with a young boy whoexplained to me the workings of a magnet by demonstrating the way it caused anobject to cling to its surface tak, when the magnet itself was held above the object.By making explicit the exact moment when the object makes contact, the ideo-phone tak foregrounds the punctual aspect of its verb.


(12) Tak as the sound of contact

Tak taka-kpi hawa-manda lyutari-n.touch-swrf high-from stick-3

‘When it is touched tak from above, it clings.’

Not all uses of punctual tak are about auditorily evident contact. One verb it occurswith quite frequently is hapina ‘to take, catch or grab’. The example that follows,from a personal experience narrative, describes the grabbing of a machete as awoman leaves her hut to go to her agricultural field.

(13) Tak as soundless contact

Sawli-ta tak hapi-sha ri-ra-ni.machete-acc grab-cor go-past-1‘Grabbing my machete tak I went off.’

Punctual tak can also describe a positioning within a definite point in a spatial field,even though no actual contact with another surface has been made. In suchinstances the idea of contact described by punctual tak is metaphorically extendedto describe a situation where some object or entity behaved as if it had made contactwith a surface. The example that follows, from a personal experience narrative,describes an encounter with a poisonous snake. This sentence describes the snake’ssuccessive coiling of its body with repetitions of the ideophone dziri, and the finalplacing of its tail tak at a point in mid-air, in preparation for striking. Both of theseideophones are syntactically isolated insofar as neither of them has a finite verb inthe sentence’s surface representation.2

(14) Tak as contactless contacttak

dziriridziriri

dziriridziriri

Na kay- bi- ganew here-loc-top

dziriri chupa-ta hawa-y.tail-acc above-loc

‘Then here (it coiled itself) dziriri dziriri dziriri dziriri and (placed) its tail tak above.’

5.2 The completive meanings of tak

In many of its uses tak’s one dimensional idea of a point of contact, or a moment ofcontact, becomes extended or expanded into three dimensions to suggest an allencompassing contact, such as an experience of being completely surrounded,impeded, or contained. A boa constrictor wraps itself tak around a tapir. In apopular folk tale a jaguar is tricked by a rabbit into trying to pass through anopening too small for its body and is stuck there tak, unable to get through. From


the notion of three-dimensional contact that completely surrounds, impedes, orcontains, it is not a difficult leap to an idea of filling, again, using bodily experienceas the primary model. Many kinds of physical experiences described with comple-tive tak are based on a subjective experience of something from inside the bodyexpanding and pushing outward. During the late stages of pregnancy, a friend toldme, the growing fetus rose up tak inside her. It is this idea of filling, which, byimplying that a spatially bounded limit has been reached, implies the aspectuallygrammatical idea of completiveness as well. This idea of filling, furthermore, lendsitself to the expression of more concrete and sensorily grounded ideas such aspressure, swelling, and even pain. A man reported that the lymph nodes in his groin‘sat up’ (i.e., were swollen) tak after walking an extremely long distance. Theexamples that follow, then, will illustrate not only the productivity of tak ‘s threedimensional senses, but also the unifying power of the grammatical notion ofcompletiveness which underlies its varieties of three dimensional contact.

The first example of three dimensional tak is drawn from a folk tale concerningan affair between a hawk and a human woman which takes place in the woman’sdreams. The hawk appears in these dreams as an attractive man wearing a featheredheaddress that is tied around his head tak. In this extract tak’s idea of three dimen-sional contact describes how the headdress spans the complete circumference of theman’s head.

(15) Tak as contact that surrounds

Chi-ga musku-ra-shi musku-ybi-ga ima alyi runathat-top dream-past-ev dream-loc-top what good mantawasamba-ta tak watari-shka runa.headdress-acc tie-perf man‘Then, she dreamed and in her dream (appeared) such a good looking man witha headdress tied tak (around his head)’.

When three dimensional tak describes contact that surrounds the completecircumference of an object or entity, it may also suggest ideas of constraint andenforced immobility. In such contexts, the idea of completiveness, which is alreadysuggested by the notion of a complete surrounding, is reinforced by the completeimmobility of what is surrounded. The following example illustrating this sense oftak is taken from a conversation between myself and a friend who was warning meabout the dangers of traveling through the forest. My friend expressed concernabout the possibility being captured by an Achuar. She asked what I’d do if I werehugged tak, i.e., immobilized by someone.

(16) Tak as contact that surrounds and impedes

Tak kipiri-kpi-ga?hug-swrf-top

‘And what if he hugged you tak ?’


Three dimensional tak has so far been used to communicate ideas which can belinked to to a single point of contact between two objects or entities. These includean idea of contact that surrounds and an idea of contact that impedes. Another setof three dimensional meanings related to the foregoing, concern ideas of filling adefined space as completely as possible. The following example illustrating one ideaof filling describes a procedure for propagating grubs by filling up a large clay jarwith peelings from the fruit of a palm tree.

(17) Tak as filling up

Chunda kara-ta tak hundachi-u-ga, chasna chura-nawnchunda peeling-acc fill-dur-top like that put-3pl‘Filling the chunda peelings tak, they put them like that.’

When the idea of filling up communicated by three dimensional tak is experiencedwithin a body, it is expressed as an idea of swelling. Swelling implies completivenessbecause a given bodily space is filled so completely that it goes beyond its ownlimits. In the following example the swelling is described as taking place in aperson’s lymph nodes within his groin after walking an extremely long distance.

(18) Tak as swelling

Ishkandi changa-ma papa muyu tak tiyari-wa-shka-ra,both leg-dat large seed sit-1acc-perf-pastpungi-wa-shka-ra.swell-1acc-perf-past‘In both of my legs the lymph nodes sat up in me tak, they swelled up in me.’

Tak’s idea of swelling often overlaps with ideas of pain and painful pressure as well.When it communicates an idea of pain or pressure tak recalls its original, simplestmeaning, that of a point of contact. Pain or painful pressure can be conceived as anextreme form of contact, because the painful area feels as if it is being touchedexcessively, which is why touching is precisely what is avoided. Tak’s grammaticalcompletiveness, in such usages, is implied by the intensity of its meaning. The lastexample, from a personal experience narrative, illustrates the use of tak as uncom-fortable pressure and pain. A man who was about to die was reported to havecomplained of pain all over his chest, after he returned home from a lengthyhunting trek, soaked with rain and feverish.

(19) Tak as uncomfortable pressure, pain

Chi-ga pichu-ga thaaak-shi nana-shka pay-ta.that-top chest-top thaaak-ev hurt-perf he-acc‘And so his chest, apparently, it hurt him thaaak.’


6. Conclusion

I have outlined four semantic functions for adverbial ideophones within PastazaQuechua. Further study would likely reveal more. It is important to emphasize thepoint that none of these functions can be restricted to or identified with particularideophones, as there is great potential for interlocking and overlapping, even withina single usage. While tak affects its predicate with non-durative aspect, it may alsobe gesturing verbally, the meaning of its finite verb, as it does in example (12) withthe verb takana ‘to touch’, where it describes a magnet. A related observation is thateven though a number of ideophones can be identified semantically with a particu-lar verb, and compared to a gesture of that verb, most of these are not restricted totheir semantically related verb. In other words, the “tight collocational restrictions”observed for ideophones and verbs in Africa (Childs 1994:188) do not apply inPastaza Quechua. Detailed comparative data on ideophones from Amazonianlanguages is crucial for determining whether the lack of collocational restrictions istypical for Native South American ideophone usage or simply an aberration.

Abbreviations

acc accusativeag agentiveadv adverbializercaus causativecir circumventivecor coreferencedat dativedur durative

ev evidentialinst instrumentalneg negationnom nominalizerperf perfectivepl pluralswrf switch referencetop topicalizer

Notes

1. It is quite possible, however, that Highland dialects of Quechua were once replete withideophones with all of the typologically typical characteristics. The most likely explanation fortheir present moribund status would be sought in the complex sociolinguistic situation resultingfrom intensive and repressive colonization by Spanish speakers for whom ideophones were anunfamiliar form of expression.

2. All of my examples feature some kind of intonational foregrounding that coincides with theideophone. Because it was so marked in this particular example, I have attempted to give animpression of the foregrounding which accompanied this utterance.


References

Bolinger, D. 1985. “The inherent iconism of intonation”. In J. Haiman (ed.), Natural Syntax:Iconicity and erosion, 97–108. Cambridge: CUP.

Catta Q., J. 1994. Gramatica del Quichua Ecuatoriano. Quito: Abya-Yala.Cerron-Palomino, R. 1987. Linguistica Quechua. Cuzco, Peru: Bartolome de Las Casas.Childs, G. Tucker. 1994. “African ideophones”. In Leanne Hinton et al. 1994:178–204.Chung, S. and A. Timberlake. 1985. “Tense, aspect and mood”. In T. Shopen (ed.), Language

Typology and Syntactic Description . Vol. 3: Grammatical categories and the lexicon, 202–258.Cambridge: CUP.

Derbyshire, D.C. and G. Pullum (eds). 1986. Handbook of Amazonian Languages, Vol.1. Berlin:Mouton de Gruyter.

Hinton, L., J. Nichols and J. J. Ohala (eds.) 1994. Sound Symbolism. Cambridge: CUP.Hopper, P. J. and E.C. Traugott. 1993. Grammaticalization. Cambridge:CUP.Jakobson, R. 1984. “Contributions to the general theory of Russian case: General meanings of the

Russian cases”. In L.R. Waugh and M. Halle (eds.), Russian and Slavic Grammar Studies1931–1981, 59–103. Berlin: Mouton.

Jara, F. and M. Ruth. 1982. Taruca; La Venada. Quito: Consejo Provincial de Pichincha.Koehn, E. and S. Koehn. 1986. “Apalai”. In D.C. Derbyshire and G. Pullum (eds), 1986:33–127.Kita, S. 1993. Language and Thought Interface: A study of spontaneous gestures and Japanese

mimetics. PhD. thesis, Univiversity of Chicago.Kita, S. 1997. “Two dimensional semantic analysis of Japanese mimetics”. Linguistics 35:379–415.McGregor, W. This volume. “Ideophones as the source of verbs in Northern Australian languag-

es”.Nuckolls, J.B. 1996. Sounds Like Life: Sound-symbolic grammar, performance, and cognition in

Pastaza Quechua. Oxford: OUP.Parker, G. 1969. “Comparative Quechua phonology and grammar IV: The evolution of Quechua

A”. Honolulu: University of Hawaii. Working Papers in Linguistics 1 (9):49–204.Popjes, J. and J. Popjes. 1986. “Canela-Kraho.” In D.C. Derbyshire and G. Pullum 1986:128–199.Ross, E. 1979. Introduction to Ecuador Highland Quechua. Madison, WI: Foundation for Inter-

Andean Development.Samarin, W. 1971. “Survey of Bantu ideophones”. African Language Studies 12:130–68.Schachter, P. 1985. “Parts-of-speech systems”. In T. Shopen (ed.), Language Typology and Syntactic

Description . Vol. 1 Clause Structure, 3–61. Cambridge: CUP.Schultze-Berndt, E. This volume. “Traces of ideophones in complex predicates of Northern

Australia”.Weber, D. 1989. A Grammar of Huallaga (Huanuco) Quechua. Berkeley: University of California

Press.

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Le statut des idéophones en Gbaya

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AUTHOR "Paulette Roulon-Doko"

TITLE "Le statut des idéophones en gbaya"


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Paulette Roulon-DokoLLACAN du CNRS (UMR 7495) Paris

1. Introduction

L’utilisation du terme d’idéophone1 a pris une importance grandissante toutparticulièrement dans la description des langues africaines sans pour autantacquérir une définition qui fasse l’unanimité. L’importance des idéophones engbaya a déjà été soulignée dans plusieurs études (Samarin 1965, 1970, 1991; Noss1975, 1985; Roulon 1983). L’étude présente concerne plus précisément le dialecte’bodoe2 parlé au sud-ouest de Bouar, dans la commune rurale de Bingué, enRépublique Centrafricaine.Les idéophones constituent en gbaya une catégorie grammaticale que j’appelleadverbe-adjectif (Aa). Loin d’être marginaux dans le lexique,3 ces adverbes-adjectifsreprésentent plus du tiers du lexique, dont une moitié est constituée de noms et oùles verbes ne représentent qu’un sixième. Les autres catégories noms qualificatifs,adjectifs verbaux, adjectifs qualificatifs et adverbes ne représentent, tous ensemble,que 3,2% du lexique.

Ces adverbes-adjectifs ont une fréquence moyenne de 8% dans le lexique et ne sont

Figure 1.�La structuration du lexique

N (noms)Nq+Q (qualificatifs)V (verbes)Av Adjectifs verbaux)Aa (Adverbes-adjectifs)Adv (adverbes)

27510035�680005519400086

�49,6%000,6%�12,3%001%�35%001,5%

Total 5547 100%

absents d’aucun type de discours comme l’indique le tableau ci-dessous :

288 Paulette Roulon-Doko

Partout ils expriment la qualité ou la manière et sont, de ce fait, en plus grand

Tableau 1.�Fréquence des adverbes-adjectifs en discours

Type de discours Nbr total de phrases Phrases incluant des Aa %

Conte AConte BDiscoursTexte technique

114106277�10

15�714�4

13,2�6,6�5,140,�

Total 507 40 �7,9

nombre dans tout texte technique descriptif.Comme tout élément non verbal ils ne supportent pas la négation qui, en

gbaya, est une modalité verbale. Cependant ils peuvent se trouver dans une phrasenégative, ainsi :

(1) yák-t7-tfµ wèn tà'à-tà'à náimp+obligatif nÈgatif+dire parole en tous sens pas‘Il ne faut pas parler en sautant du coq à l’âne.’

(2) kà ‘f 'fl-'fl ná, kéísub+alors inac+se-tenir mou au toucher pas alors+il(di)wéí hfà ná yèinac+être cuit encore pas certes‘Si ce n’est pas mou quand il le touche, alors il n’est pas encore cuit.’

2. Analyse formelle

Afin de cerner au plus près les éléments qui peuvent être retenus pour caractériserles idéophones en gbaya, j’ai comparé le corpus des adverbes-adjectifs4 au corpus debase5 ayant servi à établir la phonologie du gbaya, en utilisant les pourcentages etnon les chiffres absolus.

Les structures syllabiques

L’importance relative des structures à syllabes ouvertes par rapport aux structuresà syllabes fermées qui est respectivement de trois-quarts à un quart dans le lexiquede base s’établit à moitié-moitié pour les seuls adverbes-adjectifs.

Toutes les structures syllabiques attestées dans le lexique de base se retrouventpour les seuls adverbes-adjectifs à l’exception de la structure CV, elle, totalementabsente.

Le statut des idéophones en gbaya 289

Aux dix-sept structures syllabiques attestées dans le lexique de base s’ajoutentsix structures (soulignées dans le tableau ci-dessous) qui ne sont attestées que pourles seuls adverbes-adjectifs (Tableau 2). Ces nouvelles structures sont représentéespar quatorze CVVV, trois CVCVVC et deux CVVCVCVV, les trois autres n’étantattestées chacune qu’une seule fois. Elles ne représentent en tout que 1,24% du totaldes Aa.

A cela s’ajoute des structures qui comportent une succession de deux consonnes,

Tableau 2.�Les structures syllabiques du gbaya

nombre de syllabes 1 2 3 4 5

type ouvertCV CVCV CVCVCV CVCVCVCV CVCVCVCVV

CVV CVCVV CVCVCVV CVCVVCVV

CVVCV CVVCVCV CVVCVCVV

CVVV CVCVVCV

CVVCVV

type ferméCVC CVCVC CVCVCVC CVCVCVCVC

CVVC CVVCVC CVVCVCVC

CVCVVC

phénomène qui n’est pas attesté dans le lexique de base. La première portion duterme est CVC, CVCVC ou CVCVCVC. Sont attestées les structures suivantes quireprésentent 7,45% du total des Aa :

Le Tableau 4 permet de visualiser les grandes tendances des particularités struc-

Tableau 3.�Les structures à succession de consonnes

1er CV CVC CVCV CVCVC CVV CVCVVC CVCVCVC Total

CVC-CVCVC-CVCVCVC-

5 48�4

37 43

�1

1 22

136 [7,1%]�006 [0,3%]�001 [0,05%]

turelles des adverbes-adjectifs. Tandis que pour les structures à syllabes ouvertes dedeux syllabes6 et pour les structures fermées monosyllabiques, leur importance seréduit de façon notable dans le corpus des Aa, de la moitié au quart pour les CVCV


et des trois-quarts à un tiers pour les CVC, et que les CVV se maintiennent à peuprès (12,9% ~ 12,4%), les structures d’un plus grand nombre de syllabes7 y acqui-èrent une importance beaucoup plus grande, doublée pour les CVCVCV, lesCVCVC, et les quadrisyllabes de structure ouverte à l’exception des CVCVCVCVdont l’importance est triplée, quadruplée pour les CVCVV et multipliée par quinzedans le cas des CVVC. Enfin ne sont attestées que pour les seuls adverbes-adjectifsdes structures à cinq syllabes qui comportent une succession de deux consonnes, àl’exception des trois structures déjà présentées (Tableau 2).

Du point de vue de la structuration syllabique, le corpus des Aa sans être horssystème, développe de façon considérable des structures qui représentent, dans lecorpus de base, moins du quart du total et y atteignent là presque les deux tiers.8

Quant aux structures à succession consonantique dont l’importance reste limitée9

elles innovent par rapport au corpus de base mais sont courantes dans les termescomposés dont le premier élément est une structure fermée. L’ensemble descomposés n’appartient pas au corpus de base mais représente cependant un tiers dulexique total.

La structuration idéophonique des adverbes-adjectifs du gbaya consiste doncà utiliser le potentiel structurel existant en lui donnant un champ effectif de réali-sation.

Les consonnes finales et intervocaliques

Sans entrer dans une analyse trop détaillée, hors de propos dans cet article, jesignalerai seulement les principales tendances qui se dégagent.

Les consonnes finales p, t et s rares dans le lexique de base (<5%) sont mieux

30

25

20

15

10

5

0p t s k m n g l r

GnlAa

Tableau 4.�Fréquence comparée en % des consonnes finales

attestées pour les adverbes-adjectifs où elles doublent leur fréquence. L’occlusive k,les nasales m et ] qui se situent entre 15% et 20% dans le lexique maintiennent ouaugmentent leur fréquence pour les Aa, le k atteignant plus de 20% et le ] dépassant


largement les 25%. La variation de fréquence du l suit également un mouvementlégèrement ascendant. Par contre la vibrante r la plus fréquente de toutes lesconsonnes finales dans le lexique chute de plus de moitié pour les adverbes-adjectifs. Ce mouvement est encore plus accentué pour la nasale m qui passe de12% à un peu plus de 1%.

Enfin, les finales intermédiaires des adverbes-adjectifs n’attestent que les quatreconsonnes les plus fréquentes en finale absolue à savoir ], k, m et r.Les consonnes attestées à l’intervocalique des adverbes-adjectifs sont les mêmes quepour le reste du lexique. Je signalerai cependant la réalisation possible du commeune vibrante sonore labio-dentale [‚], non attestée dans la phonologie.

Les doublets

Certaines structures attestent une variation régulière libre dont je présente les plusfréquemment attestées.

CVVC ∫ CVC-CVC kéé] ∫ ké]-ké] ‘bien raide’páál ∫ pál-pál ‘bien propre’

CVV ∫ CV-CV pµàµà ∫ pµà-pµà ‘en flot’CVVV ∫ CVV-CVV vµáµáµí ∫ vµáµí-vµáµí ‘complètement’

lf77 ∫ lf7-lf7 ‘hébété, stupide’CVCVV ∫ CVCV-CVCV wíyóó ∫ wíyó-wíyó ‘en totalité’

púmbéé ∫ púmbé-púmbé ‘place vidée’CVCVC ∫ CVCV-CVCV pòkòm ∫ pòkò-pòkò ‘gonflé d’eau’CVCVC ∫ CVC-CVC fùfùp ∫ fùp-fùp ‘spongieux’CVCVCVC ∫ CVCVC-CVCVC pùpùndà] ∫ pùndà]-pùndà] ‘plein de plumes’

La réduplication structurelle

La réduplication structurelle est, pour les adverbes-adjectifs, un phénomènecourant bien distinct de la réduplication expressive qui sera présentée ci-après. Jen’en donnerai qu’un seul exemple :

– \77�‘frais’(3) yì d7 \77, 1ò]áà d7 wòlòkòsò.

eau inac+faire frais après+d+cela inac+faire tiédi‘L’eau est fraîche, après elle tiédit.’

– \77-\77�‘la bouche ouverte [signe de soif]’(4) tòyó tfmbfkf n7 nf \77-\77.

chien enragé inac+aller marche la bouche ouverte‘Un chien enragé marche la langue pendante.’


Cette réduplication touche différemment les différentes structures. Le plus souventles structures redoublées sont un peu moins nombreuses que les structures simples.

Les CVC en revanche présentent un peu plus de structures redoublées que destructures simples de même que les CVVCV dont le très faible nombre ne permetaucune conclusion. Enfin les CVCV se présentent presque exclusivement sousforme redoublée, ce qui porte à s’interroger sur la faible importance des formessimples attestées. Le Tableau 5 récapitule l’importance des structures redoublées.

Tableau 5.�Les structures redoublées

Str. ouvertes simples doublées Str. fermées simples doublées

CVCVCVVCV

�20002

<<

208003

CVC 130 < 185

CVVCVCVCVCVCVVCVCVCVCV

�72192�89109

>>>>

�45�85�29001

CVCVCCVVC

264�94

>>

154008

Le redoublement expressif

Il existe par ailleurs un redoublement expressif des structures simples qui marquesoit l’existence d’un mouvement, soit qu’il s’agit d’une pluralité d’éléments :

– kfrf] ‘long et horizontal’(5) tè mf ‘µ7 yá kfrf] kfrf]

bois le ceci inac+rester long et horizontal long et horizontal‘Ces bois sont longs et à plat’

(6) ‘àµ bàá tè kfrf] kfrf]il acc+prendre+d bois long et horizontal long et horizontal‘Il porte un long bois qui touche le sol par moments’

Dans le cas des adverbes-adjectifs structurellement redoublés, ils peuvent être triplépour, de la même façon, insister sur l’expression du mouvement, ou la pluralitéd’éléments :

– póp-póp ‘large et épais’(7) gbàkµúµí bù\à póp póp póp t77 gú nù

tourterelle acc+voler+d large et épais ×3 acc+venir+d i.acc+se poser à terre‘La tourterelle à collier vole les ailes bien raides et va se poser par terre.’

– 1íkf-1íkf ‘le bec cloué’(8) ‘77 yá 1íkf 1íkf 1íkf

nous inac+rester le bec cloué‘Nous restons là sans savoir quoi dire’


Enfin il existe un triplement avec un raccourcissement du deuxième élément à CV,le tout portant un schème tonal HBH, qui permet d’exprimer à la fois la quantité,le mouvement et une forte fréquence :

– lfk ‘forme une goutte’(9) kórò ‘áí lfk lf lfk

pluie inac+tomber en pluie forme une goutte × 3‘La pluie tombe à grosses gouttes rapprochées’

sìµ ìµ ‘douleur ponctuelle en tête d’épingle’(10) súmùí \f]ám sµíµí sìµ sµíµí

fourou acc+manger+d+moi douleur sp.×3‘Les fourous m’ont piqué de partout’

pòkòm ‘qui fait une cloque souple’(11) mààdµà sí wán n7n7 sín7

venin inac+retourner donc instrumental en retournantpókó pò pókóqui fait une cloque souple ×3‘Le venin se disperse en produisant beaucoup de cloques souples.’

A l’inverse, il peut arriver qu’un adverbe-adjectif de structure redoublée soitemployé sous forme simple, cet usage insiste sur l’unicité de l’élément ainsicaractérisé.

– vfkàì-vfkàì ‘en s’emmêlant les pieds10’(12) bêm ‘µìsà bé kfrá vfkàì.

enfant acc+écraser avec le pied petit poulet en s’emmêlant les pieds‘L’enfant a écrasé le poussin en faisant un faux pas.’

]7ì-]7ì ‘fissuré, faire des lignes’(13) ngê] gfná ]7ì.

mur acc+couper+d fissuré‘Le mur a une fissure.’

Le jeu de la réduplication expressive au sein du corpus des adverbes-adjectifssouligne qu’ils sont un domaine privilégié de l’expression des choix sémantiques dulocuteur.

La structure tonale

Les adverbes-adjectifs portent un schème tonal lexical soit haut, soit bas et l’on peuttrouver des paires telles :

'ftf-'ftf ‘étroit’ 'ftf-'ftf ‘à tâtons’'7t-'7t ‘entièrement’ '7t-'7t ‘en frissonnant’


La répartition des schèmes tonals dans le lexique de base, dont sont exclus les verbesqui n’ont pas de schème tonal lexical propre, manifeste une importance deux foisplus grande du schème bas (47%) par rapport au schème haut (24,5%), le quartrestant rassemblant les schèmes modulés — HB, BH, BHB et HBH. Pour lesadverbes-adjectifs, les schèmes modulés disparaissent presque complètement(1,2%) au profit du schème bas qui voit son importance croître (73,2%) tandis quele schème haut, lui, se maintient (25,6%).

Cependant il existe, se substituant au schème tonal lexical, un usage motivé desschèmes tonals haut et bas que j’ai déjà présenté (Roulon 1983:383–385) et dont jene rappellerai que brièvement les effets de sens.

Schème haut Schème bas

petite taillevu de loinnuance, tendancedegré extrême

bonne tailleprès du locuteurqualité

– '7t7-'7t7 ‘avec un bruit régulier’(14) kórò ‘áí '7t7-'7t7.

pluie inac+tomber en pluie avec un bruit régulier‘La pluie tombe, ça fait un bruit régulier.’ [faible et lointain]

(15) 1¦fr dfk ‘áí '7t7-'7t7.excrément+d chenille inac+tomber en pluie avec un bruit régulier‘Les excréments des chenilles tombent avec un bruit régulier.’ [de près]

Dans ces conditions il est dans bien des cas difficile de déterminer, à partir des seulsexemples trouvés dans le discours, la nature du schème tonal lexical. La seule façonsûre de déterminer le schème tonal lexical de base d’un adverbe-adjectif est de voirquel est son comportement en position épithète. En effet l’adverbe-adjectif àschème tonal lexical bas est alors soumis à un relèvement tonal, tandis que celui àschème haut demeure inchangé.

- mbfr-mbfr ‘uniformément mou’(16) mbfr-mbfr tè

uniformément mou+Rt bois‘Un bois tendre’

(17) ‘èì \f] bé nf7, ká ‘f mbfr-mbfr.sub+on inac+manger petit oiseau alors inac+se tenir tout mou‘Quand on mange un petit oiseau, c’est tout mou’ [petite taille]

(18) gb7-gfrf ngáí ná, ‘àµ ‘f mbfr-mbfrarbre sp. inac+être dur pas il inac+se tenir tout mou‘Cet arbre n’est pas dur, il est tout mou’ [bonne taille]

Enfin, tout adverbe-adjectif mis en tête d’énoncé ou après une pause marquée


supporte le plus souvent un schème HHB quelque soit son schème tonal lexical :

- kàràk ‘qui tombe d’un bloc’(19) ‘àµ kúr kfí, kárâk yór

il inac+se lever pour+lui qui tombe d’un bloc inac+se tenir de boutmbf1f-nù m7sol là‘Il se lève, et comme une masse tombe à terre.’

- púrúm ‘façon de voler des petits oiseaux’(20) ká púrûm, kµáµà bù\á

alors façon de voler des petits oiseaux alors+il acc+voler‘Alors en battant des ailes, il s’envole’ (le petit oiseau)

Enfin les adverbes-adjectifs qui expriment un bruit peuvent être dits avec le schèmeBH, entre deux pauses légères :

- kìlìm ‘bruit du pilon dans le mortier’(21) kóò tó gèì kìlím, kìlím

femme inac+piler argile bruit sp. bruit sp.‘La femme pile de l’argile, ça cogne, ça cogne.’

Le schème tonal effectif est donc, le plus souvent motivé, prenant en compte deschoix sémantiques qui se surajoutent au schème lexical propre de chaque adverbe-adjectif.

3. Analyse syntaxique

Je rappellerai brièvement les constructions qu’admettent les adverbes-adjectifs.

Postposé au groupe verbal

(22) ná]áà hµàµá 'fm-'fm.jambes+d+lui acc+enfler+d enflure sur qqch de court‘Ses jambes sont en partie enflées.’

(23) bé zµí yé kf g7rám kàràk.petit mouche inac+entrer dans+d bouche+d+moi d’un bloc‘La petite mouche a foncé d’un bloc dans ma gorge.’

Postposé au verbe ‘f ‘se tenir’

(24) t7 gbàbéí ?f 'fm-'fm.corps+d personne forte inac+se tenir enflure sur qqch de court‘Les personnes fortes sont gonflées (chair molle et ramassée).’


(25) wáyá 'fìndò] ‘f 'òlò].fruit+d plante sp. inac+se tenir pointu‘Le fruit de Mondia whitei est pointu.’

Préposé à un nom [épithète]

L’adverbe-adjectif est soumis à un relèvement tonal (rt) qui n’est perceptible quepour ceux à schème tonal lexical bas.

(26) 'fm-'fm t7m7 ! ['fm-'fm]enflure sur qqch de court+rt corps+d toi‘Corps gonflé et ramassé !’ [insulte]

(27) kpír-kpír gè1à mf ‘7µ dí ná. [kpír-kpír]très amer+rt manioc le celui-ci inac+plaire pas‘Ce manioc très amer n’est pas bon.’

(28) ‘ám kfµfµ p7t7r7 nù gán kàyà. [p7t7r7]je acc+aimer+d plat+rt terre i.acc+dépasser montagne‘J’aime mieux la plaine que la montagne.’

Emploi nominalisé

Comme les qualificatifs et les adjectifs verbaux, les adverbes-adjectifs peuventsupporter l’élément -à et s’employer alors sous cette forme nominalisée, soit commen’importe quel nom, soit précédé du fonctionnel n7 ‘en tant que’.

(29) bérà wáí n7 'òlò]-'òló]à.calebasse sp. Inac+fructifier en tant que la pointue‘La calebasse Lagenaria vulgaris donne des fruits pointus.’

Emploi de prédicat

(30) kàà zer sà1ì h7µ bìít.rÈpÈtitif-additif oreille+d animal ce en morceau court‘Les oreilles du gibier font un tas de petits morceaux courts’

(31) ‘àµ ?é ndàyáà nù ná kèyà]-kèyà] nén7.il inac+poser fesses+d+lui à terre pas en tous sens en allant‘Il ne reste pas assis, il n’en finit pas de se déplacer.’

4. Analyse sémantique

Comme le fait apparaître certains des emplois syntaxiques des adverbes-adjectifs, ilsont un sens précis. Dans tous les cas ils permettent de caractériser un élément ou


une situation et correspondent au champ sémantique qu’expriment généralementles adjectifs et les adverbes. Or, en gbaya, les qualificatifs simples sont peu nom-breux. Ce sont d’une part les adjectifs verbaux qui expriment la qualité comme lerésultat du procès exprimé par le verbe et d’autre part les adjectifs qualificatifs (Q)qui, très peu nombreux, expriment certains états qui ne peuvent jamais résulterd’un procès, tels ‘neuf ’, ‘cru’, ‘nature’, etc. L’adjectif verbal et l’adjectif qualificatifsont conceptuellement complémentaires, le second prenant en compte l’expressiond’états premiers, en nombre d’ailleurs réduit, conçus comme “primitifs”, alors quele premier exprime des états qui sont conçus comme résultant d’un procès. Ce sontdonc les adverbes-adjectifs qui, lorsqu’on veut exprimer un état simplementconstaté, offrent le plus de possibilités pour manifester un grand éventail denuances. L’originalité des adverbes-adjectifs est qu’ils fonctionnent, en conservantle même sens, comme adverbes permettant de nuancer la qualité du procès exprimépar le verbe. Le Tableau 6 donne un exemple ponctuel de la finesse des distinctionsmanifestées par les adverbes-adejctifs, ici pour l’expression du ‘mou’.

L’investigation concernant des règles régulières quant à l’expression de certaines

Tableau 6.�L’expression du ‘mou’

contact tactile contact gustatif

mou sans ressort spécifique des pâtes

'fl-'flmbfr-mbfryfkf-yfkfyfkftftùµt7µ7µ'ùlà7

‘mou’‘uniformément mou’‘ramolli’‘humidifié’‘ramolli par cuisson’‘blanc-souple’

mbflà7-mbflà7tùlàì-tùlàì'ùtùkùyùhfw77yflfp-yflfp

‘en masse molle’‘ramolli’ [boule‘ramolli’ [pâte oléagineuse]‘trop ramolli’‘coule d’un trait’

spécifique des viandes et tubercules

mou avec ressort ùd7µ-mùd7µmù17k7yfr-yfr‘7tu-‘7tufùfùp ; fùp-fùp

‘tendre’‘fondant’‘délitescent’‘trop mou’‘spongieux’

fùkàmgbffl

‘élastique’‘flasque’

pâteux

hè1è-hè1èb7t7-b7t7dèkpè-dèkpèhflàli

‘en pâte’‘en pâte liquide’‘en masse boueuse’‘mou comme de la merde’

spécifique des feuilles-légumes

mbfr-gf1fhfr-gf1fr7k7-r7k7

‘onctueux’‘très onctueux’‘trop onctueux’

tendances comme je l’ai présenté à propos des schèmes tonals est ici très difficile.


Tout au plus je peux signaler, pour exemple, quelques séries intéressantes bienqu’elles ne puissent être, en l’état actuel de mon travail systématisables.

Variation de structures

'fmbft ‘enflure totale’'fm-'frfm ‘enflure longue’'fm-'fm ‘enflure sur qqch de court’zó1óm < zó1ó-zó1ó < zó1ó1ó ‘acide’ [degré dans l’acidité]z7k7-z7k7 < z7k7k7 ‘amer’ [degré dans l’amertume]

Variation de voyelles

– kpV]-kVlV]kpè]-kèlè] ‘gros et lourd’kpù]-kùlè] ‘très gros, énorme’

Le passage du e au u semblerait marquer ici une taille plus grande.

– kV]-kVtV]kè]-kètè] ‘recourbé’ [position accidentelle]

ex. ongle soulevé sous un chock7]-k7t7] ‘en forme de hameçon’ [caractérisation de

la forme définitive]kà]-kàtà] ‘décroché’ [distance plus grande que le

1er, 6ème doigt]kò]-kòtò] ‘forme en crochet qui saille’kù]kùtù] ‘célibataire’ (homme ou femme) [état temporaire]

individu décroché de son étathabituel

Dans un tel exemple, la modulation sémantique liée à la présence d’une voyelleplutôt que d’une autre est déjà beaucoup plus complexe et, de ce fait, plus difficileà cerner.

5. En conclusion

Le domaine des idéophones que manifeste le corpus des adverbes-adjectifs en gbayaa, dans cette langue, une présence bien attestée dans l’ensemble du lexique, unestructure formelle stable qui s’inscrit dans les normes phonologiques, un comporte-ment syntaxique régulier qui permet l’expression des nuances dans la caractéri-sation sémantique d’un objet ou d’un procès.


La valeur sémantique qui a pu être attribuée à certaines réduplications et àcertains schèmes tonals font de ces adverbes-adjectifs un domaine où se manifesteune transparence exprimant que certains choix sémantiques sont clairement perçuspar le locuteur. Même si l’état actuel de l’analyse ne permet pas d’étayer aussiclairement des hypothèses à propos des voyelles ou des consonnes, ce corpus estassurément un domaine motivé de façon importante.

Annexe

Fabrication du fusil jouet

(1) ‘ó bêm sá màá m7-n7les enfant inac+appeler les uns les autres i.virtuel+aller'á'árí fálá-tf1f ‘în wéí-gbf\f m7-d7i.acc+tordre arbre sp avec arbuste sp i.virtuel+fairen7 ngòmbèinstrumental jeu d’enfant‘Les enfants s’appellent les uns les autres pour aller tordre du bois de Stereo-spermum kunthianum et de Steganotaenia araliacea afin d’en faire des fusils.’

(2) kfwà hf s7n7 m7 ‘é, kfwàsub+quand+ils inac+arriver dedans là-bas déjà alors+ilskìyà dí bf\áà.acc+chercher+d bon rectiligne+d+cela‘Quand ils sont arrivés là-bas, ils cherchent un bois bien droit.’

(3) wà 'ír zúà pµí nù,ils inac+couper sommet externe+d+cela i.acc+jeter à terre‘èé wà \7k ndàyáà.puis+d ils inac+couper en rond fond+d+cela‘Ils coupent l’extrémité [qui tombe] à terre, puis ils rétrécissent le bas.’

(4) wà tír ‘á s7n7ils inac+se rassembler i.acc+mettre dedans‘Et ils s’y mettent tous dessus.’

(5) wà 'á'árí, wà dák kpòyò]].ils inac+tordre ils inac+tirer en se détachant‘Puis ils le tordent et retirent [l’écorce] en la détachant.’

(6) 1àfà núà hµá \7m màá.acc+arranger+d bout+d+cela pour que inac+convenir l’un l’autre‘Et ils arrangent le bout pour bien l’égaliser.’

(7) wà d7 wá\á gbérè, wà \í].ils inac+faire feuille Aframomum sp ils inac+frotter en rond


‘Puis ils prennent des feuilles d’Aframomum latifolium et les écrasent à la main.’

(8) wà kµ7 ngbàráà yíítòó, wà pµí màils inac+partager milieu+d+cela deux ils inac+jeter un certainhµá dúk núà m7, ‘èé wàpour que inac+rester au bout+d+cela ce(loin) puis+d ilspµí hµá dúk péí 1ò] nà.inac+jeter pour que inac+rester vers(cpète) arrière ici‘Puis ils les divisent en deux tas, ils mettent l’un au bout et l’autre pour qu’il restederrière.’

(9) wà gfn bé tè, wà 1áfí núàils inac+couper petit bois ils inac+arranger bout+d+celahµá ngbùùm.pour que bien plat‘Puis ils coupent un petit bois et arrangent le bout pour qu’il soit bien plat.’

(10) wà yúr kfµà, wà pµíils inac+enfoncer intérieur(plein ou vide)+d+cela ils inac+jeterkpòl, z7µ wèéà hf tùrùrù.qui fait un bruit de pétard fumée+d feu+d+cela inac+sortir en volutes‘Puis ils l’enfoncent dedans, ils le lancent à l’intérieur ça éclate et il sort desvolutes de fumée.’

Abréviations

Nbr = nombre imp = ImpératifStr = structure inac = Réel inaccompliAa = adverbe-adjectif acc = Réel accompliNq = nom qualificatif i.acc = Infinitif accompliQ = adjectif qualificatif d = morphotonème relationnelH = ton/schème haut rt = relèvement tonalB = ton/schème bas di = discours indirectV = voyelle sub = subordinatifC = consonne sp. = species

Notes

1. Dont la première occurrence remonte à Doke, 1935.

2. Le gbáyá 'odòè est un dialecte du gbáyá kàrà, langue du groupe gbaya-manza-ngbaka, parléeà l’ouest de la République Centrafricaine et au centre-est du Cameroun. Il s’agit d’une langue dite


“oubanguienne”, correspondant au groupe 1 de la branche orientale de la sous-famille 6“Adamawa oriental” de la famille Niger-Congo, dans la classification de Greenberg.

3. Il s’agit d’un lexique de 5821 termes.

4. Il y a 1909 adverbes-adjectifs dans mon corpus actuel.

5. Je réutilise ici les données chiffrés du corpus de base utilisé pour l’établissement de la phono-logie (Monino et Roulon, 1972) qui représente 2022 termes simples.

6. Les monosyllabes à structure ouverte étant, eux, complètement absents.

7. Au delà du dissyllabe pour les structures ouvertes et du monosyllabe pour les structuresfermées.

8. Soit respectivement de 22,6% à 58,2% pour les structures ouvertes et 24% à 57,4% pour lesstructures fermées.

9. 5% de structures ouvertes et 10% de structures fermées, soit 7,5% du total des structures.

10. Lorsqu’il ne s’agit pas de se déplacer mais de manger ce terme signifie ‘en mélangeant deschoses à ne pas mélanger’.

Références

Doke, C.M. 1935. Bantu Linguistic Terminology. London: Longmans Green.Dumestre, G. 1998. “Les idéophones : le cas du bambara”. In S. Platiel et R. Kaboré (eds), Les

langues d’Afrique subsaharienne. Faits de langues 11 et 12, 321–333. Paris: Ophrys.Kaboré, R., 1993. Contribution à l’étude de l’idéophonie. Paris: Inalco [CEROI].Monino, Y. and P. Roulon. 1972. Phonologie du Gbaya kara ’bodoe de Ndongué Bongowen (région

de Bouar, R.C.A.), Paris : Bibliothèque de la SELAF, n°31.Noss, P.A. 1975. “The ideophone: A linguistic and literary device in Gbaya and Sango with

reference to Zande.” In S.H. Hurreiz and H. Bell (eds),Directions in Sudanese Linguistics andFolklore, 142–152.Khartoum: Khartoum University Press.

Noss, P.A. 1985. “The ideophone in Gbaya syntax”. In G. J.Dimmendaal (ed), Current Approachesin African Linguistics 3: 241–255.

Roulon, P.1983. “Spécificité de l’adverbe en Gbaya ’bodoe”. In J. Kaye, H. Koopman, D. Sporticheand A. Dugas (eds), Current Approaches to African Linguistics 2: 378–389.

Roulon-Doko, P.1994. “ L’expression de la qualification (l’exemple du gbaya ’bodoe de Centr-afrique)”. In T. Geider and R. Kastenholz (eds), Sprachen und Sprachzeugnisse in Afrika,345–356. Köln: Rüdiger köppe Verlag.

Roulon-Doko, Paulette, 1996. “Saveurs et consistances : le goût gastronomique chez les Gbaya’bodoe”. Journal des Africanistes 66–1: 37–80.

Samarin, W.J. 1965. “Perspectives on African ideophones”. African Studies 24: 117–121.Samarin, W.J. 1970. “Inventory and choice in expressive language”. Word 26(2): 153–169.Samarin, W.J. 1991. “Intersubjective and intradialectal variation in Gbeya ideophones”. Journal

of Linguistics Anthropology I(1):52–62.

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Iconic morphology and word formation

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AUTHOR "Carl Rubino"

TITLE "Iconic morphology and word formation in Ilocano"


KEYWORDS ""

SIZE HEIGHT "220"

WIDTH "150"

VOFFSET "4">

in Ilocano*

INK "rub-n*">

Carl RubinoAustralian National University

Preamble

Speakers, linguists, and language students of Philippine-type languages are quick tolearn that once they have reached the state where they have entered the ‘spirit’ oftheir target language, certain words, heard for the first time, are immediatelyaccessible to them. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that certain sound sequencesshared by Philippine speech communities are conventionalized in such a way thatsemantic associations are immediately apparent. Philippine languages undoubtedlyhave well defined language-specific, seemingly iconic patterns of word formationand thus offer ample evidence for us to further uphold the idea that the relationbetween the Saussurian signifier and the signified is significantly less arbitrary thanoriginally assumed. This paper will introduce a language, Ilocano (Iloko), wheresound symbolism is a pervasive feature of the lexicon, and even manifests itself inparts of the morphology.

Ilocano is a Northern Philippine language of the Cordilleran language familyspoken by about ten million people originally from Northwest Luzon Island, thelargest island of the Philippine archipelago. Because the Ilocanos have beenhistorically a very migratory people, the language is also spoken by large groups incertain enclaves of the Philippine archipelago, and even by large communities in themajor urban centers of the United States.

1. Ilocano sounds in the lexicon

This section will focus on a class of words with one thing in common: they all referto sounds. They are true words in the language, and act as roots that may bethoroughly integrated into the highly productive derivational and inflectional

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morphology of the language. Unlike sound words in many other languages, thesewords do not have any unusual phonological characteristics; they utilize the samephonemic system of non-sound symbolic words.

Like prototypical ideophones, these words may be argued to have a phonologi-cal form that bears a resemblance to the sound they describe, but because of theirfull productivity as derivable roots, they do not resemble ideophones in the Africansense (Samarin 1965; Childs 1989, 1994). As roots, they may take verbalizing affixesto denote various actions associated with the sound they designate.

In this section, I will illustrate the noise words as roots only, categorized bysound class and phonetic structure, and then offer some examples of their use asderived verbs. I present the data as synchronic, as I believe the recurrent soundpatterns have psychological reality to the Ilocano speakers who do not have accessto the historical data which can attest to similar patterns appearing in relatedlanguages. Although the meaningful sound sequences to be detailed cannot be usedindependently, many of the sound patterns do contribute to the overall semantics.Many of the sounds involved share the final -CVC sequence of the root, recognizedby Austronesian scholars to be a meaningful unit in many languages (Brandstetter1916; Blust 1988).

1.1 Breakdown of iconic sounds

Words describing thumping sounds or violent falls that result in a thump oftenhave the back vowel ‘o’ followed by a voiced velar consonant: bitog ‘thump’, togtog‘knock on the door’, paltog ‘gun’.

The sounds of breaking, splitting or cracking are often represented in thelexicon with the low vowel ‘a’ for high pitched sounds or the back vowel ‘o’ for lowpitched sounds followed by the voiceless velar consonant ‘k’: litak ‘sound of splitting(dried) bamboo, bursting sound’, litok ‘sound of a cracking joint’, pakpak ‘sound ofa wooden club beating the laundry’, ripak ‘sound of a slammed door’, ritok ‘crack-ling sound of joints’, and toktok ‘sound of knocking on something hard’.

The velar nasal in coda position is often associated with buzzing, resonant, oreven moaning sounds: wengweng ‘buzz’, areng-eng ‘muffled moaning sound ofpain’, baeng ‘sneeze’, bariwengweng ‘sound of stone swishing in the air’, ing-ing‘sound of a violin; violin’, kiling ‘sound of bell’, kutibeng ‘sound of a guitar, guitar’,kutengteng ‘sound of a guitar’, tingting ‘sound of a small bell’, kalangiking ‘jinglingsound (of coins)’, kalangokong ‘resonant sound of a coconut shell jar’, kilang, klaang‘sound of an object in a tin can’, and sayengseng ‘buzzing sound of mosquitoes’.

The high front vowel (often followed by a voiceless consonant) is often used inwords denoting high pitched sounds: singgit ‘high pitched voice’, sing-i ‘sobbing (ofa child)’, sultip ‘whistle’, and riri ‘whimper’.

The alveolar fricative is often used to represent rustling sounds or the sound of

Iconic morphology and word formation in Ilocano 305

water. Unlike the more prototypical disyllabic roots, many of these onomatopoeticroots can be tri-syllabic: karasakas ‘rustling sound of leaves’, karasikis ‘rustlingsound of bamboo’, kiras ‘sound of slippers’, saraisi ‘sound of rippling water’,barasábas ‘sound of heavy rain, downpour’, barasíbis ‘sound of light drizzle, drizzle’,and dissuor ‘waves breaking’.

Words representing continual and repetitive instantaneous actions ofteninclude a geminate consonant in their root and are composed of 3 syllables: saiddek[sa.?id.dek] ‘hiccup’, saibbek [sa.?ib.bek] ‘sob’, sainnek [sa.?in.nek] ‘sob’, andtarattat [ta.rat.tat] ‘sound of typing’.

Words denoting abrupt, instantaneous actions are likely to have a glottal stoponset in the second syllable of the root, followed by the vowel ‘i’ for a high pitchedsound, or the vowel ‘o’ for a low pitched sound: dol-ok ‘burp’, tig-ab ‘burp’, kur-it‘sound of striking a match’, bang-es ‘sniffle through the nose’, dir-i ‘shriek’, say-a‘clear one’s throat’, ug-ug ‘weep with the closed mouth’, and kuy-at ‘kick the legs’.

The velar nasal in onset position is frequently used in words representing nasalsounds: ngongo ‘talk through the nose’, and ngesnges ‘breathe through the nose’.

Final diphthongs are used in words denoting loud shouts or screams: riaw‘scream’, onnoy ‘moan, sigh’, pukkaw ‘shout, scream’, ananay ‘moan out of pain’,dung-aw ‘lament’, and laaw ‘scream, moan’.

The following are some of the other common miscellaneous sounds that arelexicalized: aridakdak ‘noise of approaching feet’, arinebneb ‘plunge in water’,paratopot ‘sound of diarrhea’, payakpak ‘sound of diarrhea’, retret ‘sound of thespinning wheel, sound of a grating door’, arasaas ‘sound of whispering’, ariwawa‘sound of many voices at the same time’, werwer ‘sound of the sewing machine’,yubuyub ‘sound of the bellows’, eddek ‘moaning while defecating, grunt’, ibit ‘cry ofchildren, whimpering’, puglit ‘sound of a small piece of excrement; small stool’,suyaab ‘yawn’, tanabutob ‘mutter’, urok ‘snore’, uyek ‘cough’, kabbot ‘puffing soundof boiling sugar’, bayakabak ‘heavy rain’, begbeg ‘pestle and mortar sound’, berber‘strong wind’, sarua ‘vomit’, ngarasngas ‘crunch while eating’, garadugod ‘gurglingof the stomach’, saretset ‘hissing sound of frying lard’, sanerser ‘sound of anascending kite’, waneswes ‘sound of bats, people hustling’, nguyngoy ‘whimper,pant’, tabbuga ‘stomp with the feet’, kayabkab ‘sound of flapping wings’, wagwag‘shake’, and ngalngal ‘chew’.

1.2 Animal sounds

The sounds animals make are often lexicalized in Ilocano by a process of language-specific onomatopoeia. Like all roots in the Ilocano language, these sounds may alsobe verbalized with the appropriate morphology to encode the action most associat-ed with the animal as it produces the sound.

Sounds pigs and piglets make include: gokgok ‘short cry of a hog’, ungik ‘shrill

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of a hungry pig’, ngurisngis ‘cry of hungry pigs’, ngusab ‘snapping the jaws whileeating (hogs)’, and uriris ‘cry of a hungry hog, cry of piglets’.

Dog sounds include: taul ‘barking’, taguub ‘howl’, angangek ‘whining ofpuppies’, and ngernger ‘growling’.

Chicken sounds include (notice predominance of the voiceless velar k): arakiak‘sound of many hens’, kakak ‘cry of a hen’, kekkek ‘cry of a hen (when calling herchicks)’, kiak ‘shrill cry of a caught hen’, kokkok ‘clucking sound of chickens’, kotak‘cackling sound’, taraok ‘crowing sound of the rooster’, tarektek ‘cry of the roostercalling hens’,

Other specific animal sounds are: ngiaw ‘meow of a cat’, ngotngot ‘gnawing’,nguy-a ‘writhe in pain upon being slaughtered’, emmak ‘bleating sound of a sheep’,gakgak ‘croaking sound of frogs’, garraigi ‘neighing of horses’, garikgik ‘neighing ofhorses, bleating of goats’, it-it ‘the cry of a rat or snake’, kakkak ‘cry of frogs’, gikgik‘cry of the gikgik bird’, nguak ‘cry of the water buffalo’, ukik ‘cry of the fruit bat(panniki)’, riari ‘sound of a cricket, cry of a cicada’, salaksak ‘sound of the king-fisher’, sayengseng ‘buzzing sound of mosquitoes’, tektek ‘cry of the house lizard(alotiit)’, torokotok ‘cooing sound of pigeons’, tottot ‘cry of rats’, uga ‘cry of cows ordeer’, and wak ‘sound of crow; crow’.

Like most roots in the language, the above lexicalized sounds are used inIlocano discourse either alone as nouns, or as fully productive derived verbs oradjectives:

(1) N-ag-bales ti kuyegyeg ken ngaretngetpf-i-alternate art tremble and gnash‘The trembling and gnashing of the teeth alternated (in fear)’.

(2) Na-buak ni Celine idi n-ag-kilang ti kampanainvol.pf-scamper pa Celine pst pf-i-ring art bell‘Celine scampered when the bell rang’.

(3) Kasla naka-ngalngal iti sili-ti-sairo itilike adj-chew obl pepper-art-devil oblpan-ag-diwig=nanom-i-crooked.mouth=3se‘His crooked expression looks as if he chewed on hot sili pepper’.

(4) Simminggit a simminggit ti uni agingga itisinggit{in-um} a Word.1 ti uni agingga itishrill{pf-i} lig Word.1 art sound until obl

n-ag-tungpal a kasla ma-buong a baso.pf-i-end.up lig like invol-break lig glass‘The shrill sound kept screeching until it ended up like broken glass’.


2. Derived onomatopoetic words

Aside from deriving different types of verbs from onomatopoetic roots by means ofvarious affixes as described above, there are certain morphological processesinvolved solely with onomatopoetic roots. Section 2.1 will deal with some soundsymbolic morphological processes, and Section 2.2 will exemplify the three infixesthat seem to have onomatopoetic origin: the productive -an- infix, and the fossil-ized (no longer fully productive) infixes -ar- and -ag-, -al-, and -ay-.

2.1 Morphological processes associated with onomatopoetic roots

Morphological processes dealing with ‘noise words’ are not common in the world’slanguages. Childs (1994:185) asserts that African ideophones display little morphol-ogy, usually the only productive processes available to them are iconic lengtheningor reduplication. There are, however, some languages that have specific morphologyused only with sound words. Rhodes (1994:290) demonstrates that English, forinstance, could be analyzed to have a derivational prefix ka- (ker- before s, pl, andfor some speakers, w) used with some onomatopoetic words to designate extraloudness or acoustic complexity: ka-pow, ka-bang, ka-thump, ker-splash, ker-smack,ker-plop.

In Ilocano, there are a great number of onomatopoetic roots of either two orthree syllables in length whose initial phonological sequence is CV(Cx).CxVC whichundergo specific morphological processes which may be iconically associated withthe sounds and/or actions they represent. Whether they form a separate lexical classis debatable (as all lexical classes are in Philippine-type languages), but they can bedistinguished morphologically as a class which allows certain patterns of prefixationand reduplication not available to non-onomatopoetic roots. Onomatopoetic rootsthat fall into this category include are:

(5) bilong ‘explosion’ kitol ‘knock’birang ‘thump, slam’ libang ‘bang’bisit ‘crack’ libug ‘bang’bisut ‘farting’ libong ‘bang’bitog ‘thump’ lipag ‘crumble’dilug ‘thunder’ lipak ‘slap’dipag ‘crumble’ lipit ‘slap’dipak ‘crack’ litak ‘burst’dipur ‘crumble’ litik ‘click’gilong ‘rumble’ piling ‘shrill’girud ‘thunder’ ripak ‘crack’gulong ‘thunder’ ripuk ‘crash’kilang ‘clatter’ ripug ‘crumble’

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kiling ‘ring’ rissak ‘rustle’kilong ‘shaken jar’ rissibok ‘splash’kirad ‘slam’ rissik ‘spark’kiras ‘slippers’ rissit ‘crack, hiss’kiring ‘bell’ rikad ‘grating’kiris ‘shrill’ risud ‘crumble’kitek ‘tick’ rittok ‘crackle’

The onomatopoetic roots undergo no phonological alteration with the verbalizingprefixes ag- or i-. The intransitive ag- prefix is used to indicate the occurrence of thesound, while the prefix i- designates that the action denoted by the sound isperformed on another entity (a theme) which is conveyed physically or psychologi-cally. With the transitivizing suffix -en, however, the second vowel of the root mayor may not reduplicate. The prefix i- and the suffix -en create transitive verbs inwhich the sound is produced on or for something or someone.

(6) Root ag- verb i-, or-en verbkiring‘ring’

agkiring‘to ring (bell)’

kiringen‘to ring a bell’

tupak‘sound of drop, fall’

agtupak‘fall down’

itupak‘throw down’

kilang‘resonate’

agkilang‘to ring (bells)

ikilang‘to toll bells (for the dead)’

ripuk‘crash’

agripok‘crash’

ripuoken‘to smash something’

(7) Intupakna ti bagina a timmugaw.i{n}-tupak=na ti bagi=na a tugaw{in-um}t{pf}-fall=3se art body=3se lig sit{pf-i}‘He threw down his body upon sitting’.

With the intransitive verbalizing infix -um-, the roots usually undergo a majoralteration. As if reflecting phonetically the iterative or loud nature of the sound, thesecond vowel of the stem is repeated, while the first (unstressed vowel) is lost:

(8) Root -um- verb Glosskirad ‘creak, grate’ kumraad ‘to creak, grate (door)’gilong ‘rumble’ gumluong ‘to rumble (thunder)’rissit ‘hiss’ rumsiit ‘to hiss (burning meat)’tupak ‘fall’ tumpaak ‘to fall down with a thump’

The causative prefix pa- may be used with onomatopoetic roots to indicate that theaction associated with the sound of the verb root is caused or indirect. As with theintransitive -um- infix, when used with certain roots, the second vowel of the rootreduplicates. These pa- forms are verbalized into transitive verbs either with theprefix i-, or the suffixes -en or -an:


(9) Root pa- stem transitive verblibag ‘slam’ palbaag palbaagen ‘to slam (a door)’lusot ‘pop’ palsuot palsuotan ‘to shoot at someone with a pop gun’lisit ‘whish’ palsiit palsiitan ‘to shoot at someone with a slingshot’

(10) Pinalbaagna ti ridaw.pa{in}-liba{r}g ti ridawcaus{pf}-slam{onom} art door‘He slammed the door’.

2.1.1 The onomatopoetic affix C1a- -Va2-A few onomatopoetic roots take a special prefix consisting of a copy of the firstconsonant of the root and the vowel ‘a’. The vowel of the second syllable of the rootis also reduplicated, while the first vowel of the stem is lost. Most of the soundsexpressed by these words are loud and prolonged or iterative:

(11) Root C1a- stem Glossbitog ‘thump’ babtuog ‘thumping sounds’biset ‘fast sound’ babseet ‘darting out; spank’kireb ‘wave crash’ kakreeb ‘sound of crashing waves’kitol ‘click’ kaktuol ‘clicking sounds (heels)’dipor ‘crumbling’ dadpuor ‘crumbling or rumbling sound’dissuor ‘waterfall’ dadsuor ‘fall down with a thump’

These C1a- -V2- stems may be combined with a variety of prefixes, infixes or suffixesto create endless permutations of onomatopoetic lexemes, i.e. madadsuor ‘to falldown with a thump’, pababtuogen ‘to slam the door’, agbabtuog ‘to make thumpingsounds’, mababseet ‘to dart out’, pababseeten ‘to spank’, kumaktuol ‘to click (heelswhen walking)’, makakreeb ‘to crash (doors, waves)’, etc.

2.1.2 Full reduplication of onomatopoetic rootsSome onomatopoetic roots may be fully reduplicated to express the continual orrepeated occurrence of a sound or an action associated with the sound. Thereduplicated stem may be verbalized with a variety of affixes.

(12) kiras ‘scraping sound’ kumiraskiras ‘to continually scrape against theground (slippers)’

kiring ‘ring’ agkiringkiring ‘to ring continually’padak ‘trot’ agpadakpadak ‘to trot (horses)’libong ‘bang’ aglibonglibong ‘to explode continually’

(13) Kumiraskiras ti tsinelasna iti datar.kiras{um}-r ti tsinelas=na iti datarscraping.sound{i}-cont art slipper=3se obl floor‘Her slippers kept scraping on the floor’.

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2.2 Sound symbolic infixes

Of the three infixes outlined in this section, only one is still productive to a certainextent, the -an- infix. The other infixes, -ar- and -ag-, are usually not meaningfullydecomposable by Ilocano speakers and are therefore not considered separatemorphemes. They clearly derive, however, from an onomatopoetic pattern of wordformation.

2.2.1 The -an- infixThe -an- infix is responsible for a large number of lexical items in Ilocano. It is alsoused in a few morphological patterns to indicate the intensity or continual natureof an action.

(14) Root -an- derived form Gloss

sao ‘speak’ sanao ‘speak vociferously andcontinually, stomp whiletalking; blab’

sakuntip ‘smack lips’ sanakuntip ‘continual smacking oflips’

saltep ‘smack lips; sanaltep ‘continual smacking oflips’

bingrot ‘suck up (nasal mu-cus)’

baningrot ‘repeated sniffling’

singlot ‘suck up nasal mucus’ saninglot ‘sob (while sucking upnasal mucus)’

sang-i ‘sob’ sanang-i ‘sob continually’

tabbaaw ‘curse’ tanabbaaw ‘curse repeatedly andvociferously’

taul ‘bark’ tanaul ‘repeated barking’

tupra ‘spit’ tanupra ‘continual spitting (whiletalking)’

tang-ab ‘reveal’ tanang-ab ‘gossip’

Like the infixes -ar- and -ag-, the -an- infix is often used with disyllabic roots of areduplicated CVC sequence to indicate the continual aspect of the action or soundassociated with the referent specified in the root. In some cases, this creates newlexical items.

(15) Root -an- derived form Gloss

satsat ‘tear’ sanatsat ‘continual whipping’

setset ‘hissing sound’ sanetset ‘hissing sound; burningheat’


berber ‘draft of air’ banerber ‘swift breeze, strongcurrent’

batbat ‘whip, throw down’ banatbat ‘fall from high place’

besbes ‘bundle’ banesbes ‘sound of rapid move-ment’

perper ‘abundant’ panerper ‘do one after another’

pekpek ‘cram’ panekpek ‘resound’ (wood whenhit)

pirpir ‘flutter’ panirpir ‘continual fluttering’

sapsap ‘scrape’ sanapsap ‘chomp on food’

The -an- infix is placed before the first vowel of the root, not the prefix, whenderiving verbs. The vowel of the second syllable of the stem does not reduplicate inthis case if the root is a C1VC2-C1VC2 sequence:

(16) karkar Æ kanarkar Æ agkanarkar‘raspy voice’ ‘to have a raspy voice’

saltep Æ sanaltep Æ agsanaltep‘smacking lips’ ‘to smack the lips’

sapsap Æ sanapsap Æ agsanapsap‘chomping food’ ‘to chomp on food’

togtog Æ tanogtog Æ tumanogtog‘rumbling sound’ ‘to make a rumbling sound’

begbeg Æ banegbeg Æ banegbegen‘knocking sound’ ‘to knock on something’

(17) Kasla nasam-it a samiweng ti panagdengngegna dagiti.kasla na-sam’it a samiweng ti panag-dengngeg=na dagitilike adj-sweet lig music art nom-hear=3se pl

anit-it dagiti andidit iti kakawatian.anit-it dagiti andidit iti kakawati-ancreak pl cicadas obl cacao-loc.nom‘His listening to the creaking sounds of the cicadas in the cacao grove is likesweet music (to the ears)’.

The infix -an- may be combined with the intransitive affixes ag- or -um- to formiterative verbs associated with the action designated by the root.

(18) Simmanengseng ti bala iti ngatuen ti ulona.sengseng{{an}{in-um} ti bala iti ngatuen ti ulo=nawhiz{{cont}pf-i} art bullet obl over art head=3se‘The bullets whizzed over his head’.

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(19) Nagranipak dagiti bato ken naganek-ek dagiti piekn-ag-ripak{an} dagiti bato ken n-ag-anek’ek dagiti piekpf-i-slam{cont} pl stone and pf-i-sob pl chicka baddeken dagiti ayup.a baddek-en dagiti ayuplig step-t pl animal‘The stones slammed down (the mountain) and the chicks sobbed out of painfrom being trampled by the animals’.

The causative affixes pag- -en, or pa- -an may also be used with the infix -an- toform causative iterative verbs.

(20) Pinagbanesbesko ti bisikletak.pag{in}-banesbes ti bisikleta=kocaus{pf.t}-swift art bicycle=1se‘I sped up my bicycle (whizzing it through the air)’.

In order to further specify the continual or frequent nature of an iterative verb stemwith the infix -an-, full reduplication may also be employed.

(21) Sumanaosao diay balasang.sao{um{{an}-r diay balasangspeak{I{{iter}-cont dist young.woman‘That young (unmarried) woman keeps on blabbing’.

2.3 The prefix k[an]a- and m[an]a- with CV(Cx)-CxVC onomatopoeticroots

The infix -an- may be used with onomatopoetic roots of CV-CVC structure withthe intransitive prefixes ag- or ma- to designate iterative or continuous sounds orevents. The -an- infix in this case is placed before the ‘a’ of the prefix ka-, while thefirst vowel of the CV-CVC stem is dropped and the second vowel (in the secondsyllable) is reduplicated. The stress of the resulting kana- onomatopoetic noun fallson the first of the reduplicated vowels:

(22) Root kana- -V1 + V2² Gloss

dipág ‘crumble’ kanadpáag ‘sound of continuouscrumbling’

gulóng ‘rumble’ kanaglúong ‘sound of continuousrumbling’

ripák ‘cracking sound’ kanarpáak ‘successive cracking orfiring sounds’

kiláng ‘clatter’ kanakláang ‘successive clatteringsounds’


tipák ‘thump’ kanatpáak ‘falling down withthumps’

lipít ‘slapping sound’ kanalpíit ‘succession of light slap-ping sounds’

risúd ‘crumble’ kanarsúod ‘continuous crumbling’

dilúg ‘thunder’ kanadlúog ‘continuous thunder’

girud ‘thunder’ kanagrúod ‘continuous thunder’

The k[an]a- prefix may also attach to roots of a CVCi-CiVC structure, where themedial consonant is the same (geminate). In this case, the vowel of the first syllableis still dropped, and the vowel of the second syllable of the root is repeated. Theunderlying geminate consonant of the root is shortened to a single onset consonant.Roots longer than the CVC-CVC sequence that have a geminate consonant undergothe same phonological alternation with k[an]a-, but the extra phonological materialin the stem in unaltered.

(23) Root kana- noun Gloss

rissík kanarsíik ‘succession of cracklingsounds’

rittók kanartúok ‘sound of continuouscrackling’

rissibók kanarsibók ‘splashing in water’

rissibák kanarsibák ‘sound of falling rocks’

rissak kanarsáak ‘sound of crushed dryleaves’

rissit kanarsíit ‘sound of hissing (fryinglard)’

(24) Napardas ti kanaktuol ti sapatos nga immadayo.na-pardas ti ka{an}-kitol ti sapatos nga adayo{in-um}adj-fast art onom{cont}-click art shoes lig far{pf3-i}‘The sound of the clicking heels of the shoes running away was fast’.

The intransitive prefixes ma- and ag- may be employed with the onomatopoetic-an- stems to form onomatopoetic verbs. The same phonological rules apply asdescribed above. With the prefix ma-, the ka- prefix is dropped, and with the prefixag-, it is retained.

(25) rissit ‘sound of burning flesh’

kanarsiitagkanarsiitmanarsiit

‘hissing sound of burning meat’‘to produce a hissing sound’‘to produce a hissing or crackling sound’

rissibok ‘sound of splashing in the water’

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kanarsibokagkanarsibokmanarsibok

‘sound of continuous or loud splashing’‘to make a loud splash’‘to fall in the water with a splash’

With the transitive causative prefixes ipa- or pa- -en, the causative morpheme pa-functions as part of the stem with regard to reduplication. The -an- infix is placedbefore the ‘a’ of the causative prefix pa- to designate indirect verbs associated witha particular sound.

(26) rissibokipanarsibok

‘sound of splashing in the water’‘to plunge something into the water’

rittokpanartuoken

‘crackling sound of joints’‘to repeatedly crackle the joints’

libongpanalbuongen

‘sound of a gunshot’‘to fire a gun, make firing sounds’

lipagpanalpaagen

‘sound of knocking or crumbling’‘to knock down (a building)’

lipakpanalpaaken

‘sound of a slap in the face’‘to slap someone in the face’

birangipanabraang

‘sound of a slam or thump’‘to slam, produce thumping sounds’

rissakpanarsaaken

‘sound of crushed leaves’‘to step on leaves, producing a crushing sound’

(27) Pinanalbaagna ti ruangan sa pimmanaw.pa{in}-libag{an}=na ti ruangan sa panaw{in-um}caus{pf}-slam{onoma}=3se art door then leave{pf-i}‘He slammed the door and then left’.

3. The -ar- infix

The -ar- infix is no longer productive. It is often used with reduplicated disyllabicCVC sequences, placed before the first vowel of the stem to create onomatopoeticwords or lexicalized items associated with the sound of the word. In some roots itmay be morphologically decomposed, as the phonological material without theinfix also exists as a word in the language that can be related to the derived formwith the infix, i.e. satsat ‘tear, rip garments’ Æ saratsat ‘unseam; gut; disembowel’;tedted ‘drop, droplet’ Æ taredted ‘continual drops’; togtog ‘knock’ Æ tarogtog‘repeated knocking’; medmed ‘restrain’ Æ maredmed ‘hesitate to do’.

The -ar- infix seems to be quite productive in the history of the language. Manywords that contain the now fossilized prefix may no longer be semantically orauditorily associated with the non-infixed stem as shown in the table below:


(28) Root Gloss -ar- derivation Gloss

tengeteng ‘stretch, extend’ tarengteng ‘go directly to’bekbek ‘stocky’ barekbek ‘bubble’et-et ‘tight’ aret-et ‘creaking sound’gingging ‘envious’ garingging ‘straddle’

The following lexical items contain the -ar- infix and designate particular sounds.They may all be verbalized with the intransitive affixes ag- or -um-.

aret-et ‘creaking sound’, baresbes ‘sound of water (besbes- bundle)’, barekbek ‘tobubble (bekbek-stocky)’, barokbok ‘bubbling sound’, barutbot ‘frequent farting’,garakgak ‘loud laughter’, garalgal ‘stammer’, garikgik ‘neigh (horses); bleat (goats)’,karekkek ‘sound a hen makes when calling chicks’, karikkik ‘tickle’, marekmek‘bubbles coming from the bottom of a glass’, ngarasngas ‘crunch’, ngarebngeb ‘gnashthe teeth’, ngaretnget ‘gnash’, parokpok ‘rapids, bubbles’, parotpot ‘sound ofammunition’, sarangsang ‘crispy; humorous (laughter)’, saratsat ‘disembowel;unravel, unseam (sound of pulling thread to unravel)’, saretset ‘sizzle’, sarotsot‘come in quick succession (bullets)’, taredted ‘drop, drip’, tarektek ‘cry of rooster,change of voice in puberty’, tarogtog ‘knock at the door’.

(29) Agsasarotsot ti pabanto dagiti kabusor.ag-r-sarotsot ti pabanto dagiti ka-busorI-pl-quick.succession art missle pl comit-oppose‘The enemies’ missiles came in quick sucession’.

(30) Pinusiposna ti as-asarenna ket nagsaretset ti apuy.pusipos{in}=na ti R-asar-en=na ket n-ag-saretset ti apuyturn{pf.t}=3se art cont-roast-t=3se and pf-i-sizzle art fire‘He turned (on the stick) what he was roasting and the fire sizzled’.

(31) Gumluong met no dadduma ti nasarangsang a katawana.gulluong{um} met no.dadduma ti na-sarangsang a katawa=nathunder{i} also sometimes art adj-crispy lig laughter=3se‘Sometimes his crispy laughter thunders’.

The following reduplicated CVC roots contain the -ar- infix, but the semantics ofthe resulting lexical item can no longer be immediately associated with onomato-poetic processes in lexicalization. Like all roots in Ilocano, all of the following maybe derived and verbalized with affixes.

barosbos ‘grow well, shoot (plants)’, darekdek ‘stake’, daremdem ‘project, plan’,darepdep ‘dream’, darisdis ‘slope’, darosdos ‘slide’, garadgad ‘scrape, scratch’,garaygay ‘tassel’, karadkad ‘health’, karangkang ‘immodest behavior’, karapkap‘grope in the dark’, karengkeng ‘flirt’, karetket ‘wrinkle, contract’, karuskos ‘slidedown’, marangmang ‘front row’, maredmed ‘refrain’, ngaramngam ‘seine’, ngaray-ngay ‘test sharpness of knife’, ngaruyngoy ‘food craving’, saragsag ‘restless’, saramsam

316 Carl Rubino

‘snack’, sarawsaw ‘botch, do unevenly’, saribsib, sagibsib ‘shoot of banana’, saripsip‘cut grass to the roots’, saluksok, saroksok ‘insert between’, tarektek ‘cry of a rooster;change (said of pubescent voice)’, tarengteng ‘go directly to a place’, tariptip ‘sp. offish, kind of herpes’, taroytoy ‘sprinkle lightly (liquids)’, waragwag ‘spongy, porous’.

The infix -ar- also has a peculiar morphological use. When infixed to the prefix ka-,it expresses frequent action:

(32) umay ‘to come’agkaraumay ‘to frequently come’agkanalduok ‘to swallow noisily’agkarakanalduok ‘to swallow noisily and repeatedly’agpanateng ‘to have a cold’agkarapanateng ‘to always have a cold’

4. The -ag- infix

The infix -ag-, like all infixes in Ilocano is placed before the first vowel of the root.Like the infix -ar-, it is often used with disyllabic reduplicated roots of a CVCsequence. The lexical items created with the infix -ag- are less likely to representonomatopoetic words associated with the sound of the referent designated by theroot, but many form lexical items specifying iterative processes that may haveevolved onomatopoetically in the history of the language.

(33) Root Gloss -ag- derived form Gloss

sepsep ‘suck’ sagepsep ‘absorbsingsing ‘ring’ sagingsing ‘distinctive feature’sorsor ‘wander’ sagorsor ‘loose ends of thread’wayway ‘entension, wagayway ‘flag’

allowance’tadtad ‘chop’ tagadtad ‘line, row;

arrangement’

ageb-eb ‘species of black freshwater shrimp’, bagaybay ‘encircle game with a longrope made of palm leaves’, dagoldol ‘insist, force’, pagetpet ‘kind of grass’, pagawpaw‘overfill’, pagudpod ‘Bermuda grass’, pagospos ‘fade’, pagotpot ‘bamboo strips (usedin basket weaving)’, sagadsad ‘in succession’, sagaysay ‘comb’, sagepsep ‘absorb,soak’, sagiksik ‘brisk, lively’, sagerser, sagorsor ‘entangled; full of knots’, sagingsing‘distinctive feature’, sagitsit ‘hissing sound; very hot’, sagiwsiw ‘whistle’, sagorsor‘loose ends of a thread; full of knots; entangled’, tagadtad ‘arrange in a line, row’,tagamtam ‘include (what is not supposed to be included)’, tagingting ‘young bulobamboo’ wagayway ‘flag’.


Palugodannak kuma nga agpalawag ti pan-ag-sasagadsadpa-lugod-an=mo=ak kuma nga ag-pa-lawag ti pan-ag-r-sagadsadcaus-permit-t=2se=1sa opt lig i-caus-clear art nom-i-pl-succession

dagiti pasamak manipud pinanawannak.dagiti pasamak manipud panaw{in}-an=mo=akpl happen from/since leave{pf}-t=2se=1sa‘You should allow me to explain the succession of events that occurred since youleft me’.

5. C1V1.C2V.C1V1C2 Sequences

The last common pattern of word formation I will detail in this paper consists ofroot sequences with two identical CVC sequences separated by an interveningvowel, resulting in a tri-syllabic root. This particular pattern is rather marked withregard to word formation because most Ilocano roots are bi-syllabic. Theseparticular words usually carry stress on the vowel separating the two identical CVCsequences.2

It is clear that some of these lexical items denote sounds, so it is not surprisingthat they are expressed with more phonological material than the prototypical non-onomatopoetic root. Most of them, however, are no longer associated with thesounds they might have once represented. Words in this category include (Rubino1997:20):

bukibuk ‘scatter; overturn’, gusugus ‘scrub; rub hard’, ngudangud ‘knock down tothe ground’, basibas ‘hurl a long object’, pidipíd ‘closely set together’, ngurungur ‘cutthe throat’, bugabug ‘to be mixed (varieties of rice)’, supusup ‘lengthen; join; add’,guyuguy ‘suggest; convince’, widawid ‘swing the arms when walking’, dumudum ‘fallprone’, salisal ‘contest; competition’, balabal ‘scarf, muffler; wrap snugly’,wingiwing‘to shake the head’, wisawis ‘fishing tackle’, watiwat ‘long, extended (roads)’, talatal‘revolve on an axis’, palipal ‘black magic’, layalay ‘subside; slow down; species ofmarine fish’, dayuday ‘place of shelf; wooden shelf ’, kayakay ‘withdraw, stay at adistance’, payapay ‘summon with the hand, wave the hand at’, rangirang ‘dry,parched land’, samusam ‘medley; mixture of rice’, sapasap ‘common, usual,ordinary’, sapisap ‘gourd plate’, yungayung ‘jut out, protrude’, yabayab ‘flap (flags),flutter’, yakuyak ‘diffuse’, gulagul ‘struggle’, yubuyub ‘billow’, yugayug ‘tremble,shake’, kupikup ‘thrifty, holding on to possessions’, kunukun ‘pile of stones’,darudar ‘third night of a full moon’, gamigam ‘tool, implement’, garagar ‘ferventwish’, langalang ‘wilderness, uninhabited spot’, nukunuk ‘heap, pile, concentrationof things in one area’, nurunur ‘erode from water contact’, ngalangal ‘dislocated’,ngasangas ‘wear out (shoes); suffer an injury’, ngatingat ‘chew betel nut’, ngayangay‘plan, purpose’, and ngitingit ‘middle; climax’.

318 Carl Rubino

Some of these roots also include the fossilized prefix ari-: arimokámok ‘slightdrizzle’, arimasámas ‘red skies at moonrise’.

These words may also include a fossilized infix, resulting in completely newlexical items. Infixes used with these roots are -ag-, -ar-, -an-, and -ay-.

With the -ar- infix:

{ar}asaas ‘whisper’[‘a.ra.sa’.as]d{ar}asadas ‘sound of rain’ng{ar}adangad ‘sound of log over gravel’ng{ar}asangas ‘crunch’b{ar}atabát ‘following in quick succession, hustling sound’b{ar}awabaw ‘hole in a jar’b{ar}ayubay ‘fringe of cloth; hair falling on the forehead’s{ar}abasab ‘roast in the fire’s{ar}agasag ‘gauzy, transparent’s{ar}abusab ‘greedy eater; inconsiderate’s{ar}amisam ‘drive away insects at night with torch; roast’s{ar}ungusung ‘funnel’d{ar}angadang ‘faint light of heavenly body’d{ar}awidaw ‘loquacious’g{ar}amugam ‘lascivious; rash’g{ar}awigaw ‘snoopy, unruly’

With the -al- infix:

s{al}awasaw ‘prone to gossip, with a loud mouth’k{al}awakaw ‘empty’b{al}agubag ‘bark, soft wood around the core of a tree’b{al}agibág ‘temporary fence’t{al}agitag ‘bamboo poles used to support roofing’t{al}amitim ‘mumble, make a muffled sound’t{al}awataw ‘wander’s{al}ayasay ‘sparse’s{al}iwasiw ‘to meet each other from different directions; ‘transgress’s{al}abusab ‘voracious; inconsiderate’g{al}asugas ‘obstinate’

With the -an- infix:

t{an}abátab ‘sound of voices from afar’t{an}amítim ‘murmur, move the lips without speaking’t{an}akatak ‘sound of a typewriter’


With the -ag- infix:

s{ag}awisiw ‘whistle’s{ag}abasab ‘rise in body temperature’s{ag}angasang ‘pungent’

With the -ay- infix:

d{ay}asadas ‘torrential downpour, sound of showering’b{ay}ungobung ‘diarrhea; cholera’t{ay}abutab ‘loquacity, rambling talk’t{ay}amutam ‘loquacity’

6. Summary

This exposition has shown that iconicity plays an important role in the Ilocanolexicon and morphology. Many patterns outlined herein attest to the fact thatcertain actions in Ilocano are represented in the lexicon by recurrent patterns ofonomatopoetic sequences mimicking the sounds they produce. The meaningfulsound correspondences described in this paper are conventionalized by Ilocanospeakers to represent particular realities of the environment, and are in no wayuniversal in their form or function. It has also been shown that in Ilocano, wordswith an onomatopoetic origin may freely participate in the morphological processesavailable to non-onomatopoetic words and in fact may have even more morpholog-ical categories available to them, as iconic patterns of word formation have madetheir way into the morphology. It is my hope that more data are provided fromother languages to portray the use of onomatopoeia in word formation andmorphology to show that the nature of the sign in certain languages is much lessarbitrary than previously assumed, and to enhance our understanding of the role ofsound symbolism in the world’s languages, speakers, and linguistic communities.

Notes

* Special thanks to Lawrence Reid and Nikolaus Himmelmann for helpful comments on a

DEST "rub-n*">

previous version of this paper. Coding conventions are: a absolutive; adj adjective; art Corearticle;

320 Carl Rubino

caus causative;comit comitative;cont continuative;dist distal;e ergative;i intransitive;iter iterative;lig ligature;loc locative;invol involuntary/non-volitional;

med medial;nom nominalizing morpheme;obl oblique;onom onomatopoetic;pf perfective aspect;pl plural;prox proximal;pst past marker;r reduplication;t transitive.

Standard Ilocano orthography is used in this paper. Glottal stop is not represented word-initially.Word-medially, it is represented with a hyphen. A two vowel sequence is pronounced with anintervening glottal stop, e.g. saan ‘no’ > [sa.‘an]. Exceptions to this include the sequences ia, iu/o,ua, and oa. The vowel /u/ in word-final position is pronounced as [o] and thus represented in theorthography. In native Ilocano words, [o] and [u] are not contrastive. The velar nasal is represent-ed by ng.

1. The few exceptions to this rule are the words yakayák ‘sieve’ and pidipíd ‘closely set together’(Rubino 1997:20).

References

Blust, R.A. 1988. Austronesian Root Theory. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Brandstetter, R. 1916. Root and Word in the Indonesian Languages. An introduction to Indonesian

linguistics, translated by C.O. Blagden, 1–65. London: The Royal Asiatic Society.Childs, G. Tucker. 1994. “African ideophones”. In L. Hinton et al. (eds), 1994:178–204.Hinton, L., J. Nichols, and J. J. Ohala. 1994. Sound Symbolism. Cambridge: CUP.Rhodes, R. 1994. “Aural images”. In L. Hinton et al. (eds).Rubino, C. 1997. Reference Grammar of Ilocano. PhD thesis, University of California, Santa

Barbara.Rubino, C. 2000. Ilocano Dictionary and Grammar. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Samarin, W.J. 1965. “Perspective on African ideophones”. African Studies 24:117–121.

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Testing hypotheses about

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African ideophones1

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William J. SamarinToronto

1. Hypotheses

The following set of twenty-two hypotheses are being presented as guide forresearch on ideophones in the field.

1.1 Ideophones are collectable2

Although we assume that the ease of collecting a corpus of ideophones will vary indifferent parts of the world and even in Africa (see [02]), I can suggest for naturallanguages in Africa at least a few procedures I have found useful. For special cases,see the last hypothesis. (1) One can begin by tape-recording traditional tales,relations of life-threatening experiences, descriptions of landscape, etc. (see [22]).Since almost every predication, it seems to me, can contain an ideophone, I hadtraditional tales ad libbed in the following manner. Here I quote from a letter:

What I instructed the three men to do (there were four men, but the originalstory-tellers did not ad lib on their own stories) was to add [ideophones]wherever they thought they were appropriate. This was done by playing theoriginal recording on one tape-recorder and having the informant push thepause button whenever he wanted to say something. It was beautiful the waythey managed this procedure. There was no hesitation and groping for words.They put themselves into the work as if they were really a part of an audience(in spite of the fact that they were facing a microphone [that was] set on thetable within a suitcase partly opened on its end and covered by a blanket [toimprove the quality of the recording]). The first participant gave me almostnothing but ideophones, but the others couldn’t help but play a more realisticpart, so they uttered phrases and sentences, some of them containing ideo-phones, and some of them not.3

322 William J. Samarin

(2) If ideophones are used in insults, as they are in Gbeya (Samarin 1969), subjectscan be asked to insult each other in play; or individuals, stimulated by photographs,can be asked to make injurious remarks in private.4 (3) Having extracted ideo-phones from these texts, one can use them to elicit others that might be used in thesame contexts (“In the story he said [ … ]. Could you use another word?”).Naturally, the larger the number of trained assistants, the larger would be thecorpus. (4) In some languages subjects can simply be asked to provide words thatare similar to a sample. I found no difficulties with this technique among the Gbeya(see below). (5) A variety of protocols can also be used for eliciting data. One couldalso focus in one questionnaire on a few areas of meaning: e.g., shortness, heaviness,redness.

Assistants can be used in collecting a great amount of data, but unless they areexceedingly well-trained one should not expect them to record exceptional sponta-neous information.5 Thus, on one occasion when I was interviewing a young man,I was given huk huk in a sentence describing vomiting. A woman standing by saidthat a dog would vomit in this way; a person would vomit h¢fk h¢fk. And since by-standers are sometimes responsible for the word that one writes down, assistantswill have to be taught to make notations as to the source of a particular word. In thecase of this subject, for example, the female bystander jumped in three times beforethe young man responded, and another young man once in this single interview.

1.2 The ease in collecting ideophones varies from language area to lan-guage area

This is a cautionary hypothesis based on what we know about how different Africanlanguages are — even, sometimes, languages in the same closely-related group.

1.3 Children acquire ideophones at the same time that they acquireother words in their language

According to this hypothesis, ideophones constitute no challenge to the language-acquisition competence of children for phonological, grammatical, or semanticreasons. I once observed the use of an ideophonic word by a child hardly two yearsold. A single word, it was the only thing the child said to her mother at my side.When the latter smiled, I asked what the girl wanted. Apparently hungry, shewanted some pumpkin that was being cooked. The word, as I recall, was not part ofthe repertoire of another adult, but it was both phonologically and semanticallysimilar. This anecdote would suggest that the child had learned something aboutthe formal nature of ideophones and perhaps the productive process that allowsadult speakers to ‘play’ with these words in some way or another.6

On one occasion I gathered about twenty young children (between the ages of

Testing hypotheses about African ideophones 323

three and five, I would guess), dismissing others whose age disqualified them.Promising the children candy for playing a game with me, I had them sit in a circleand told them I wanted from each one a word like X, Y, Z, uttering in isolation whatI thought were some common ideophones of various phonological types. It wasimportant for the game, I told them, that each person give a different word. Thethirty or so ideophones tape-recorded on this occasion were transcribed andsubmitted to some adults for judgement without their knowing the way in whichthey had been collected. (In other words, I deliberately concealed their origin.)Every one of the words turned out being an authentic ideophone.7

1.4 Women and men differ in their knowledge and use of ideophones

I never undertook to test this hypothesis in a rigorous way. Part of the reason is thatworking with females was difficult: adolescent girls, both rural and urban, were shy,and women were generally preoccupied with chores and children. However, I washappy to learn that women, who tell their children traditional tales (and possiblyeven more frequently than their husbands), used ideophones richly in theirnarratives. An analysis of my questionnaire data might reveal some differences.

One relatively easy means of studying variation with gender and age as inde-pendent variables is to obtain recordings of the same traditional tale from differentsubjects.

1.5 Urbanized speakers of a language have a poorer inventoryof ideophones than their more traditional co-ethnics and use ideo-phones less competently

Some such hypothesis is justified even though the definition of ‘urbanized’ mightbe problematic. What I have in mind is, first, the kind of person who acquired hisor her ethnic language in a rural village, but then has lived mostly in a city where theindividual uses the ethnic language less frequently than the city’s lingua franca —Sango, in the case of Bangui. The ethnic language of such a person might befaultless in grammar, but deficient in lexicon — and especially in ideophones (seealso Childs 1994, 1996). This is a reasonable hypothesis, and it is confirmed by myown observations. Indeed, I believe that the hypothesis will be supported by ananalysis of some of the data collected from Gbeya who had lived in Bangui for sometime and had been well educated. Further evidence is the Nigerian speaker ofYoruba who was the informant in a course in field linguistics at the University ofToronto. Every attempt I made to elicit ideophones from him was in vain until heexclaimed, “Oh, you mean those slang terms!” He then recalled having used themin primary school. — The issue with which we are concerned here is something likelanguage death: because of personal history, some people become less competent


linguistically than their co-ethnics. It should be understood that urbanization initself is not an overwhelming independent variable. Language maintenance ispossible even in a city.

1.6 Ideophones are vulnerable to attrition to a degree greater than anyother part of a language’s lexicon in situations of rapid change, suchas pidginization

Therefore, eliciting ideophones in pidgins — such as Sango — may be moredifficult if for no other reason than that they are not as ubiquitous as they are in,say, Gbaya. In Sango there are very few of them (see Samarin 1967a, 1979). I wouldsay that most of the alleged ideophones in Sango are spurious or limited in knowl-edge and use. From others one might get a different impression. M. Diki-Kidiri, forexample, has claimed that there were at least thirty in Sango (personal communica-tion, ca. 1977). In putting this claim to test by examining his recent dictionary(1998), in which they are classified as adverbs, I found forty-two of them (forty-one,since two are variants), of which only six are familiar to me.8 All of his words werechecked against the dictionary compiled by Bouquiaux et al. (1978); Diki-Kidiri wasone of the three collaborators. Nineteen of these words are not in this work; twelveothers are described as being (not derived from) words in “sango riverain” (i.e., theethnic river-language, not pidgin Sango) — of which three are said to be ideo-phonic, the others just adverbs or adjectives or both adverbs and adjectives; only theremaining ten are alleged to be authentic Sango words, but only four of theseideophonic, the others being considered either adjectives or adverbs, or both.

1.7 The phonological shapes of ideophones associated with a certainmeaning are similar to some degree

It was found, for example, that many of the adverbs that collocated with gb7 ‘be red’had high tones: e.g., kpír kpír, kpírírí, kílá kílá, kítá kitá, ngbfkí ngbfkí.9 One subjectjudged all these words appropriate for a ripe t7nf (Solanum Snoussii A. Chev.,“grosses baies jaunes”). And among the thirteen words obtained for the sentence ‘Azozo’s tail is not long, so it’s …’ most of them contained the vowel /u/: thus,nguturu, nduturi, ndútúrí, ngutu kuru, ngútú kúrú, ndúsú1ú, ndususu, nduturu,ndútúrú. Of twenty-seven persons interviewed, nine of them gave nduturi in thissentence. The reason for sound-form continuities in banks of words is dealt with inthe next hypothesis.


1.8 Ideophones linked with a given essence of meaning increase in num-ber by natural evolution

In some instances variant forms can be explained by a rule that reduplicated formscan occur in another form while still showing reduplication. Thus, kpírírí, citedabove, may be derived from kpír kpír, or vice versa, of course. The pair kílá kílá andkítá kítá also seem to be related, but not so easily accounted for.

1.9 Ideophones, like other words in a language, can be borrowed fromother dialects of a language, from other co-territorial languages, andfrom foreign languages

There would not appear to be any constraint on borrowing other than that borrow-ers recognize ideophony in the form and meaning of the borrowed words (Childs1988). It is quite probable that some French and English words have becomeideophones in African languages. French depuis in a number of languages means ‘along time ago.’ In Sango it is pronounced dìpíì, but it is modified in an exaggeratedmanner, for example, by increasing the length of the final vowels to mean ‘a very,very long time ago.’

1.10 Reduplication in some ideophones is inherent in their canonical (i.e.,dictionary) form; it is otherwise an artifact of the use of language

Sometimes nonlinguistic expressive features may suggest that reduplication also isbeing used expressively. Only by taking each word one-by-one can we arrive at thecanonical form.

1.11 Ideophones vary intersubjectively in a manner that resembles geo-linguistic variation

This means that even when the contexts for the use of an ideophone are welldefined — as with a color chip, for example — a number of different words will begiven by subjects native to a particular village.10 If this hypothesis is valid, onecannot be allowed to give meanings or examples based on what one or two speakersof the language say. This is one place where many opinions must be obtained if theaim is a representative dictionary of ideophones. (On variation see Samarin 1971,1972, 1991; Childs 1998.)

1.12 The use of ideophones is constrained by stylistic factors

I tested this hypothesis in 1966 — believing that in an effort to tell a story ‘simply’


the narrator will delete some information and will also be less concerned withperformance — by having different subjects recount a traditional tale to animaginary person who was learning Gbeya. My notes also record the followingpossible experiments:

1.�Using different informants, get several to dictate a text [tale] sentence bysentence.11

2.�Have some informants start with dictating [a text] and switch to tape-recordednarration.3.�Have others start with non-interrupted narration and switch to dictated[narration].4.�Have others give uninterrupted narration.5.�Have informants shorten a text to see if they leave out ideophones.

1.13 Ideophones contribute meaningfully to an utterance

This means that they do not merely add affect. Like all words of ‘quality’ theyspecify the very nature of an object, event, phenomenon, etc.: that is, they addmeaning. (Whereas I have never made a claim to this effect, it is implied in Samarin1967b and Samarin 1974. See the paper in this collection by Philip Noss.)

1.14 Ideophones belong to the lexicon of a language

This, a corollary of the preceding, means (1) that they are liable to description asany other word in the language and (2) that they do not belong to individuals orsmall groups of individuals, but to a whole speech community. This does not mean,however, that they are invariant in form or use, or both form and use; nor does itmean that there is no Intersubjective variation.

1.15 Ideophones are definable in a lexicographic manner

(On early attempts to address this topic see Samarin 1967b). It is here assumed thatif there are enough examples of the use of an ideophone in different linguisticcontexts, one will be able to give it a dictionary meaning. It follows that definitionsare only as good as the richness and variety of the attestations. I suspect, in any case,that some ideophones have a greater range of meaning than others. I found someideophones, like zólóló, quite specific in meaning: This one means ‘pure white’ (likea newly washed white shirt). Also, for the sentence ‘The [piece of] paper is not wide,so it’s ….’ seventy-two percent of the subjects gave p7l7m p7l7m, although two otherwords were quite similar phonologically (i.e., pflfm and p7l7]). For the sentence‘His neck is not big [zı], so it’s ….’ there was even greater agreement by virtue of the


fact that only four ideophones were given, all with high tone: pírí wírí (70.3 percent)and tírírí (22.2 percent). By context is meant both ‘immediate linguistic context’and general context. In Gbeya, for example, certain ideophones collocate withcertain verbs. The word zólóló, for example, would occur with the verb f7] ‘to beclean, white.’ Here are two interviewing protocols that I used.

1.�Sentence-completion protocol. The subject is required to supply an ideophone atthe point where one stops in reading a sentence, both affirmative (1) and negative(2). Thus, in (1) the subject might say bá]:

(1) wesé d¢f-á go bá nu __sun burn-sfx so seize earth __‘The sun is shining so brightly that the earth is hot __’

(2) te-í gan tán ná, go f __.tree-det neg be-straight neg so be __‘The tree (or stick) is not straight, so it is __.’

Since it follows that if a stick is not straight, it is bent; in this way one elicitscontrastive ideophones. One would therefore be given appropriate words for ‘bent’in describing such an object. One of these is gf1ilf, which collocates with the verbbii/bir-[morphological variants] ‘to bend.’ Having obtained different ideophonesfor this sentence, one could then check them by asking subjects “What thing isgf1ilf?”2. Illustrative object. The subject is asked to name an object which would bedescribed in each of the sentences. Each sentence in this questionnaire would startwith the phrase ge mf ge ‘what thing?’:

(3) ge mf ge a yóó wey sésésé ge ndé.nt thing int link stand fire sésésé int clt

‘What thing is hot sésésé?’

The purpose of this protocol was to arrive at some idea of semantic consensus,which is hypothesized with respect to the definability of ideophones. My notesinclude this query: “Starting with the definitions, what chances [are there] of gettingthe [same] ideophones?”

3. Appropriateness test. Having found a number of ideophones with similar mean-ings, one asks the subject if he or she would use each of them (read one by one froma list) in the sentence. The subject is encouraged to modify any ideophone that isnot pronounced in exactly his or her manner. One might also include words thatcould not possibly be appropriate as a means of measuring the subject’s competencein performing the task.12


(4) 1o]-áa yu½m, ga ã gú gf1f gf1f.back-3sfx hurt, so 3s bend-over gf1f gf1f.‘Her back hurts, so she bends over in a gf1f gf1f manner.’

It is also assumed that meanings are ‘extracted’ from words by comparing them indifferent contexts. It is quite possible, therefore, that whereas zólóló can be usedwhen one wants to say ‘pure white’ (that is, it expresses that particular concept), itscore meaning may have little or nothing to do with color. Perhaps brilliance is itssemantic domain. Thus, for the word kpír kpír, which I had glossed as ‘red,’ Iobtained eight different illustrative objects: gbére (Aframomum sanguineum K.Schum., whose fruit is yellow or red), mırı (unidentified), mángo, corn tassel, corn,kuro (Striga senegalensis Bth., “les fleurs d’un beau rosé”), sízo (Cucumis melo L., var.Agrestis Naud.), tomato. (The botanical identifications are from Tisserant 1950.) Ifone is close to understanding the meaning of an ideophone, one will expect moreagreement with respect to a certain object. In this instance, gbére was cited morefrequently than anything else; the mango was next in frequency even though thevariety of mango that is found in the Central African Republic never becomes fullyred.13

It should go without saying that arriving at the semantic essence of an ideo-phone is not always easy. For example, one subject gave nduturi for both thesentence that read ‘The spear’s blade is not sharp, so it’s …’ and for ‘The zozo’s tailis not long, so it’s …’ But whereas both nduturi and ndútúrí were given by severalsubjects for the latter sentence, none gave ndútúrí for the first. The explanation maylie in the fact that high tone is frequently used with ideophones for small objectseven though some ideophones are differentiated by tone alone.

There is no reason, of course, for assuming that arriving at a dictionarymeaning for an ideophone should be easy. The naiveté of linguists who have nothad previous lexicographic experience in their own languages should not be allowedto influence what we believe about ideophones. Therefore, one must be prepared tostudy a word with as many techniques as possible. For example, kpírírí was one ofthose words that I had glossed as ‘red.’ When I went back to my data, I found thatit was cited for several different objects: viz., the surface of sorghum beer in one ofits stages of preparation, blood, the sun, the wild fruit gbére, the fruit of the palmtree Borassus aethiopumMart., the fruit of the kóló tree (possiblyCanthium venosumOliv.), mango fruit, mbongo-duwa (unidentified fruit), meat (subject pointing to acrimson object), mırı (Ximenia american L.), peanuts, pindi (unidentified), gaga (acertain pumpkin), guave fruit, t7nf (Solanum Snoussii A. Chev., “grosses baiesjaunes”), tomato, zıã (a certain tree). By comparing uses, one would hope todifferentiate, in this case, between different kinds of ‘redness.’ What frustrates thesemantic analysis, however, is variation. On the other hand, this hypothesis is basedon the presupposition that in all languages some kinds of words are more difficult


(that is, require greater effort) to define than others. These words, I speculate, are‘quality’ words — in Eugene A. Nida’s typology (Nida & Taber 1974). The definer,of course, is any person most qualified for the task. The ideal person would be afluent native speaker of the language sufficiently trained in linguistics for this task.

The following means were used to test this hypothesis. I employed two youngmen whom I had trained to write in Gbeya to provide illustrative sentences for allthe ideophones I had collected. On a separate slip of paper they translated thesentence into Sango as best they could, Sango having hardly any ideophones at all.On a third slip of paper they provided antonyms and synonyms.14

1.16 Definitions of ideophones are replicable

(a corollary of the preceding). This means that a number of lexicographers willarrive at the same or very similar definitions on the basis of the same data. This iscertainly what we would expect for other kinds of words in African languages andfor all words in other languages.

Corollary to the preceding. Ideophones cannot be invented by an individual,contrasting with one in the affirmative:

Ideophones can be created by any member of a speech community

I have been satisfied by my own research that the latter statement is not true. Ofcourse, utterances resembling ideophones can presumably be created by all humanbeings. I have myself created some, like the occasion when I said “I feel X!” in tryingto describe the terrible headache that was obliging me to spend the rest of the dayin bed. My having to describe it by X reveals that it did not enter our privatelanguage, and I am not sure if I can even remember what it was: knocky-wocky, Ithink, because I recall having the idea that I was knocked out by pain. But when wesay that ideophones can be created by an individual, we imply that the neologismsare remembered either by the creator or the interlocutor, or both of them, and thatthey become part of the ideophonic repertoire of a community of speakers, small orlarge. My argument is based on the restrictive definition of ideophones: they arewords in the linguistic sense, not gestures.

1.17 Ideophones can be incorrectly or inappropriately used

(a corollary of the above). Thus ngit is ‘short’ for a tree stump. When applied to ashort person, informants either laugh or say it can’t be used in this way.”15


1.18 In certain contexts there is variation in a range of meaning

This means that whatever the stimulus might be, subjects will respond in differentways. I learned this from my first experiment. Subjects were to describe certainobjects by touching or smelling them, and, in one instance, to describe a sound. Forexample, I had them rub their fingers over the fibers of a scrub-brush after I hadshowed them what they were to do, saying at the same time, am támmf n¢ff go ¢f __(1sg touch thing this, so be) ‘I touch this thing, and it’s __.’ This object proved tohave more stimuli than I imagined in my naiveté. All I could think of (withoutenough thinking, obviously) was that the surface of the fibers were rough, but theyhad others as well: e.g., sharp, scratchy, yielding to touch, dry, etc.

Assuming that in narrating ‘the same thing’ people would vary in the use ofideophones, I had a number of subjects relate one of the better known spiderstories: ‘How islands were made.’ (The rather large Ouham [Waam] River flowsthrough the Bossangoa sous-préfecture.) The data have not been analyzed.

I had planned on using another technique to study variation: I would providethe details of an exciting episode and have subjects relate it to different individuals:a Gbeya friend who hadn’t heard about it, a policeman or judge, an interpreter whowould translating into French, and an interpreter who would be translating intoSango.16

1.19 Some ideophones are specific enough in meaning that it is possible tofind for them synonyms and antonyms

No rigorous definition of these appositive terms is necessary, since, it should beclearly understood, we are concerned here also with ascertaining the amount ofsemantic regularity — if not, indeed, structure — there is among ideophones.17 Inmy field work, the concept of ‘same’ and ‘opposite’ was explained without difficultyto assistants in 1966. The purpose on that occasion, however, was primarily to elicitmore ideophones than I already had.

In 1972 I undertook a synonym-cycling analysis of the data that had beenentered into a computer. Its purpose was to determine the extent to which ideo-phones could be related to each other as synonyms and antonyms. This would, Ibelieved, be a delicate tool with which to test my hypothesis concerning thelexicographic nature of ideophones. Although a thorough study of the print-out hasnever been made, enough of the data have been examined to satisfy me thatideophones are conceived by native-speakers to be contrastive or complementary.18

Here, for example, is a summary of the analysis for ba1a kara ‘short, stout, fat,’ allof the glosses being those that were entered into the computer after I had studiedthe exemplifying sentences:


Synonyms:

gbi1i kiri ‘large and fat, short and fat’df½tf½] ‘short (rope)’r717] ‘short’r717k ‘short’

Antonym:

zf177 ‘tall’

For each of these words in turn were printed the synonyms and antonyms that hadbeen given for them. What I expected was that if B was given as a synonym of A, Iwould find that the assistants would cite A as a synonym of B. Exactly this kind ofcycling was found.19 For example, for r717ng ‘short’ there were these synonyms:

17t7 ngb7] ‘short, low’ri1i] ‘short and stout, stout and short’b717m ‘short’r717k ‘short’

Then antonyms were for the most part what one would expect. Thus:

yfng77 ‘long’ndongbo] ‘tall’

There were, however, some apparent aberrations, although the meanings are insome cases not distant from the expected ‘tall.’ Thus:

'7½n '7½n ‘pointed, sharp’ngfl ngfl ‘pointed, long and pointed’ng7l ng7l ‘thin, narrow, small’mb7l mb7l ‘shiny, clean, white, wide, long, tall’

And when the words are cycled again, we find happily that some of the words arefound again. Thus, since r717ng was cited as a synonym for ba1a kara, we wouldexpect that the latter would be cited as a synonym for the former. This was indeedthe case. And under yfng77 ‘long’ is found the expected df½tf½] ‘short (rope).’

1.20 Some ideophones are marked, socio-culturally not linguistically,for evaluation

The possibility that this might be true occurred to me on those occasions whenpeople laughed when some ideophone was used. Moreover, in trying to understandthe meaning of some ideophones I wondered if they might not mean ‘more’ or ‘less’of X than might be expected or desired. I proceeded to devise a ‘Value DifferentialTest.’ This consisted of sentences which ended with either ‘therefore it’s good’ or


‘therefore it’s not good’ in response to which the subject was asked to name theobject. For example:

(5) wá d7-á mf-í lfngffiyf, gó gan rfk ná3p do-sfx thing-det lfngffiyf, so neg be-good neg

‘They made the thing long, so it’s not good.’

The response from one person was, ‘When they make a spear’s shaft, and it’s toolong.’ Other kinds of sentences, of course, could be used to elicit this kind ofresponse. For example, my assistant suggested the following sentence:

(6) ge a rfk ná go f lfngffiyf, y½ın mf-í yege ndéint link be-good neg so be lfngffiyf name [of] thing-det int clt

‘What [i.e., name something that] is not good in being lfngffiy¢f?’

1.21 The meanings of onomatopoeic ideophones can be studied by thesame means as other kinds of ideophones

For a list of such ideophones the subjects were asked the question, ‘What thingsgoes (wéé/wér- [morphological variants] ‘to make a sound’)?

1.22 In some languages ideophones can be modified phonologicallyand morphologically for stylistic or expressive purposes

In making this hypothesis one presupposes that it has already been agreed thatideophones in themselves do not have expressiveness as their sole or primaryfunction. I maintain that in Gbeya at least expressiveness is a function added to thedenotative one. I base this claim, first, on observation. By this I mean all myexperience in living with Gbeya-speaking persons in all kinds of situations, but Ihave a tape-recording that alone would defend my claim. Standing at one particularspot that happened to be at the intersection of two paths, facing a garden plot, Iasked people to describe what they saw. In plain, matter-of-fact language theyenumerated them: “There’s peanuts piled up X [describing a pile] over there, whichthe owner has not yet collected”; “I see T [kind of] trees standing Y [tall] overthere”; “I see corn that is not fully ripe, so it’s Z [green, unripe, soft].” Some personssaw more than others, all varied in what they saw, but they frequently used the sameideophones in describing what they saw — and they all behaved in a ratherdisinterested manner, puzzled, I suppose, by not knowing what I was really doing.— Tucker Childs takes a view opposite to my own and despite extensive correspon-dence (Childs 1990). Ideophones, he says, form a “linguistic category whoseprimary function is expressiveness.” This is their “unique character” (Childs,personal communication, November 1998). My views are found in Samarin (1970b,1974, 1976, 1978).


In other situations, however, ideophones are indeed manipulated for expressi-vity. Although this manipulation was not formally studied by me, I can report thatthere are different patterned ways: for example, raising or lowering the height of thepitch above what might be normal in an utterance; reducing the height of the pitchof high tone in small degrees (in steps) over a stretch of syllables, as with the wordzólóló in its normal or lengthened form; adding syllables to a word that already hadreduplicated ones ( zólóló > zólólólóló ‘white’); altering the dictionary-form of acomplex ideophone (e.g., ngalang > ngáláng ngalang ngáláng); and others, not tospeak of ways that are more difficult to describe, like changing timbre, usingfalsetto, and so forth.

The expressive use of ideophones is not beyond the limits of research tech-niques. The best means, of course, is to record instances in extemporaneous speech.Traditional tales again would be the best place to start. One could follow by havingpeople engage in improvised skits in which the scenario leads to heightenedemotions. And one can easily find subjects who have had life-threatening experienc-es (like my own with lions and elephants).20

1.23 The use of ideophones varies according to the competenceof the speakers of a language

This is to be expected, because competence in the practice of language is variable inspeech communities throughout the world. The richness of one’s vocabulary, therange of complexity of one’s sentence structures, the organization of one’s dis-course, and many other features of the use of language are known to us withoutstudy. There are people in our acquaintance whose conversation is interesting,others who have a gift in narration, and so on. It should be expected, therefore, thatthere would be variation in the use of ideophones. One of my Gbeya friends whohelped me to learn his language hardly ever used them with me or in my presence,and he was also not a very good conversationalist. His blindness, with which he wasstricken at the age of fourteen during a meningitis epidemic, may have handicappedhim. But what about one woman who was asked to describe what she saw in agarden (see above)? She did not use a single ideophone. Whatever may be theexplanation for differences between speakers, we are entitled to distinguish thosewho are creative, imaginative, and expressive from those who are not.

2. Conclusion

Although this is a rather modest and ad-hoc set of hypotheses, they will, I hope, leadto more attention being paid to hypotheses when investigators address themselvesto ideophones.


Notes

DEST "sam-n*">

1. My study of ideophones must have begun while learning Gbeya, which I committed myself toon arriving in the District de Bossangoa in February 1954. (This is the pronunciation used bypeople in their own area, a variant of Gbaya. Elsewhere — in Bangui, for example — people,including natives of the area, might refer to the language as the Gbaya of Bossangoa.) Gbeya wasthe language I used most on a day-by-day basis from 1954 until February of 1960, leading to thepublication of Samarin 1966. However, I practiced it during every one of my subsequent trips tothe CAR: namely, 1962, 1966, 1972, 1988, 1991, 1992, and 1994. And I get to practice it on amonthly basis in Toronto with a Gbeya living here permanently. — It is a pleasure to acknowledgefinancial aid that helped me pursue my research on ideophones. (1) The National ScienceFoundation, U.S.A., ‘Correlates of expressive language in African ideophones,’ 1 July 1966–30June 1967. (2) University of Toronto, Humanities and Social Sciences Committee of the ResearchBoard, ‘The semantics of African ideophones,’ 1971–1972, with the assistance of Walter Berndl;(3) University of Toronto, Humanities and Social Sciences Committee of the Research Board,‘Computer analysis of semantic consistency in Gbeya,’ 1 March 1975–30 April 1976. For a briefnote on ‘Field procedures in ideophone research’ see Samarin 1970. — I am grateful to PhilipNoss and Tucker Childs for comments and questions that led to both clarification and enrich-ment.

2. This hypothesis does not imply another one: namely, that ideophones are universal. That mustbe explicitly stated as a testable hypothesis or explicitly rejected for one or more reasons. Seebelow. Philip Noss (personal communication, 21 December 1998) expresses this view aboutelicitation: “I don’t know whether it is useful to draw so basic a research distinction as thatbetween elicitation and observation …” I do.

3. I found on one occasion that young boys were uninhibited around the hearth at night evenwhen adults were present, but an adult whom I engaged refused to utter any insult in public,insisting on our going into a cotton shed and shutting the door.

4. 14 August 1966, Bata, letter to Henry Alan Gleason.

5. In the project I had planned for the summer of 1966 I was going to use “ten catechist-level fieldassistants” (i.e., men who were literate in Sango and had had a bit of religious education; twentyaccording to letter to Charles Taber, 14 August 1966) to collect words for me after training and“one full-time assistant (maybe collège trained)” (letter to Martin Garber [Bangui], 1 May 1966).What I needed were people who were already literate and able to write. At that time among theGbeya these would have been Bible-school trained men literate in Sango. I would have to teachthem to use the orthography I had devised for Gbeya. In the period 4 June–14 August I had aboutforty candidates whom I tried to train, my success being about ten percent (14 August 1966, letterto Charles Taber). It turned out, in any case, that using assistants in the field may not have beena good idea. The “bright and trustworthy” young man I sent to work in the villages aroundBossangoa was not taken seriously and accomplished little in two weeks (letter to Charles Taber).

6. Thanks to Philip Noss for inciting these remarks.

7. I draw these remarks from memory. In a letter (21 August, 1966, Bata, to Howard Law),however, I wrote that I had used this technique with eight — to ten — year — old girls. However,because of the thirty or so younger children who surrounded us in the village, I took boys into ourhouse. The novel environment awed them into good behavior but did not prevent them fromejaculating ideophones, one after another.


8. My knowledge of Sango is, of course, that of an expatriate, but it is also that of a linguist whohas recorded and studied extemporaneous speech of the kind that in ethnic languages would berich in ideophones.

9. The orthography here differs slightly from the one used in Samarin 1966, because I subsequent-ly concluded that nasal consonants and pre-nasalized stops are in complementary distribution, theformer occurring with nasalized vowels and the latter with oral vowels, but in this paper they arewritten as if separate phonemes; it was also found that pre-glottalized nasals [‘m] and [‘n] occurbefore nasalized vowels whereas the implosive stops ['] and [1] before oral vowels. The sequencengm represents a bilabial-velar nasal. In Gbeya the vowels of ideophones are either all oral or allnasalized and the tones either all high (marked) or all low. Short and long vowels are phonemicallydistinct. — I will not address myself to the question as to how ideophones should be written. It isseen from my examples that I prefer to write complex and reduplicated ideophones as a sequenceof two words: i.e., neither solid nor with a hyphen — kítá kítá (a single word) and gbi1i kiri. I haveno principled justification for my convention and could possibly be convinced to use another one.In Gbeya the vowels of a word are either all nasalized or all oral. — Abbreviations used for theexamples are the following: 3s, third person singular pronoun; 3sfx, third person singularpronominal suffix; clt, clitic; det, determiner; int, interrogative; link, linking particle; neg,

negator; sfx, perfective suffix.

10. “Some people use ngb¢f1¢f k¢fr¢f and ngbi1i kíri for a short person with apparently the samemeaning, some accept one and not the other, and some say that there is a difference of meaning.But do [both of ] these words belong in their speech? Sometimes I get very clear evidence ofrecognition [of an ideophone in the questionnaire]; but in giving the example there will be achange of pronunciation: e.g., ngb¢f1¢fng is replaced by ngmu1ung [the causative difference beingin nasalization]” (14 August 1966, to Henry Alan Gleason).

11. This was done with one story in 1966. Even the dictated narrations had ideophones.

12. I had one such protocol with instructions to assistants in Sango and another for a differentsentence with instructions to assistants in French: “Demander quels adverbes parmis les suivantss’attachent mieux à la phrase donnée. On cherche à établir la convenabilité de ces adverbes à laphrase. Mettre X devant les adverbes qui ne sont pas appréciés par la personne interviewée.”

13. To maintain some control over the range of objects that might be named I asked subjects toname things that they might find in the rural areas. If one were working with city-dwellers, onemight not want to make this requirement. In any case, constraints have to be carefully chosen. Itwould be interesting, incidentally, to learn what objects and experiences in cities are used toillustrate ideophones.

14. “I figure that if I can get four or five different illustrative sentences I will have a better-than-50percent chance of determining the meanings. Defining must come later on. I’m having enoughtrouble just getting the illustrative sentences” (14 August 1966, Bata, letter to Charles Taber).

15. 14 August 1966, letter to Henry Alan Gleason. Noss agrees (personal communication, 21December 1998) that “ideophones can be used incorrectly or inappropriately, but this is theartist’s game!” He points out (but here I state in my own words) that they lend themselves tocreative use, and this possibility lies in what ideophones connote; their use can be metaphorical.The point is developed in his paper in this collection.

16. A man sneaks up and enters a house. He is seen by a woman, who screams. The man runs

out. He falls, injuring his nose; it bleeds. Several men run up and seize him.

17. In other words, our aim is not to arrive at an understanding that would justify a dictionarylabel of ‘synonym’ or ‘antonym.’ Indeed, I would claim that this would be impossible. In fieldwork we are concerned primarily with (1) collecting data and (2) organizing them provisionally.


Ideally, a thorough analysis of one’s corpus of ideophones would (or could) result in a semanticgrouping.

18. One is justified in demurring by saying that a certain amount of consistency would be expectedfrom a person providing synonyms and antonyms. That is, if he cites B as a synonym for A, whenhe gets around to providing an example of B, he will cite A as a synonym. Although this mayindeed have happened in some instances, I do not think that, since there were three men involvedand since this work went on for several weeks, all of the consistency can be explained in thismanner.

19. The word gloss might, however, be inappropriate. Since my goal was to arrive at a rigorousdictionary of Gbeya ideophones, these ‘glosses’ were more like semantic clues that I drew from thedata as I sat before the card-punching machine.

20. When I recount these events in Gbeya, I ask someone to ad lib ideophones wherever they canbe used to prevent my narrative from being flat and banal. The performance thereby becomesmore dramatic.

References

Bouquiaux, L., M. Diki-Kidiri and J-M. Kobozo. 1978. Dictionnaire sango-français et lexiquefrançais-sango. Paris: SELAF.

Bouquiaux, L. and J.M.C. Thomas (eds). 1987. L’enquête de terrain et l’analyse grammaticale.Vol.1. Avec la collaboration de S. Arom, J-C. Rivierre et G. Guarisma. Paris: SELAF.

Bouquiaux, L. and J.M.C. Thomas. 1990. Studying and describing unwritten languages. Dallas, TX:Summer Institute of Linguistics.

Childs, G. Tucker. 1989. “Where do ideophones come from?” Studies in the Linguistic Sciences19(2):55–76.

Diki-Kidiri, M. 1998. Dictionnaire orthographique du sängö. Reading, UK: BBA.Nida, E.A. and C.R. Taber. 1974. The theory and practice of translation. Leiden: E. J. Brill.Samarin, W.J. 1966. The Gbeya language: Grammar, texts, and vocabularies. Berkeley & Los

Angeles: University of California Press.Samarin, W.J. 1967a. A grammar of Sango. The Hague: Mouton & Co.Samarin, W.J. 1967b. “Determining the meanings of ideophones”. Journal of West African

Language 4:35–41.Samarin, W.J. 1969. “The art of Gbeya insults”. International Journal of American Linguistics

35:323–329.Samarin, W.J. 1970a. “Field procedures in ideophone research”. Journal of African Languages

19:27–30.Samarin, W.J. 1970b. “Inventory and choice in expressive language”. Word 26:153–169.Samarin, W.J. 1971. “Measuring variation in the use of Gbeya ideophones”. Proceedings of the

Eighth Congress of the West African Linguistic Society, Abidjan. Vol. 2:483–488.Samarin, W. J. 1972. “Appropriateness and metaphor in the use of ideophones”. Orbis

20:356–369.Samarin, W.J. 1974. “Semantics without native intuition”. In Les langues sans tradition écrite:

Méthodes d’enquête et de description. (Actes du Colloque International du CNRS, Nice 28 juin28–2 juillet 1971.) Paris: Société d’Études linguistiques et anthropologiques de France[SELAF]. No. 3, Numéro spécial, 149–174.


Samarin, W.J. 1976. “Inventory and choice in expressive language”. In W. Winter and E. Polomé(eds), Festschrift for Archibald Hill, 313–329. Lisse: Peter de Ridder Press.

Samarin, W.J. 1978. “Linguistic adaptation to speech function”. In W.C. McCormack and S.A.Wurm (eds), Approaches to Language: Anthropological issues, 594–614. Paris: MoutonPublishers.

Samarin, W.J. 1979. “Simplification, pidginization, and language change”. In I.F. Hancock (ed.),Readings in Creole studies, 55–68. Ghent: E. Story-Scientia.

Samarin, W.J. 1991a. “Intersubjective and intradialectal variation in Gbeya ideophones”. Journalof Linguistic Anthropology 1:52–62.

Samarin, W.J. 1991b. Review of Bouquiaux and Thomas 1990. Anthropological Linguistics33(3):213–215.

Tisserant, Charles. 1950. Catalogue de la flore de l’Oubangui-Chari. Toulouse: Imprimerie P. Julia.

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Ideophonic adverbs and manner gaps

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AUTHOR "Ronald P. Schaefer"

TITLE "Ideophonic adverbs and manner gaps in Emai"


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in Emai*

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Ronald P. SchaeferSouthern Illinois University, Edwardsville

1. Introduction

This paper examines syntactic and semantic properties of ideophonic adverbs inEmai, a Benue-Congo speech variety of Nigeria’s Edoid group (Bendor-Samuel1989). As an adverb subclass, ideophonic forms express meanings augmenting eventintensity from the speaker’s point of view. To construct a typological scaffolding forthis analysis, I rely on Slobin’s (1997) two-tier hypothesis distinguishing basic fromexpressive manner verbs and Talmy’s (1985) distinction between S-languages andV-languages. The latter, where manner and motion are lexically segregated, appearsconducive to the ideophonic adverb’s highly expressive intensity meanings andspeaker perspective.

2. Ideophonic adverbs in Africa

In his useful overview, Childs (1994) reminds us of contrasting research traditionsregarding ideophone investigation in African languages. One tradition viewsideophones as a distinct word class or part of speech based on class-specificphonological and/or morphological properties. Ignored are potential syntacticrelationships between ideophones and other clausal constituents. An alternativetradition interprets ideophones as members of existing word classes, often adjunctsof adverbial or adjectival type. The latter tradition guides the present investigation.

According to Childs, ideophonic forms exhibit a range of typical properties.Among others, these include appearing in limited construction types, e.g. declara-tives only; occurring in limited discourse genres, e.g. narratives only; exhibitingpartial or complete morphological reduplication or triplication; performingadverbial grammatical functions; and showing tight co-occurrence restrictions

340 Ronald P. Schaefer

relative to verbs. The latter two lead Childs to the claim that ideophones “under-score” the meaning of a verb. In a similar vein, Welmers (1973) maintains thatideophones are not fundamental to the denotative substance of an utterance. Evenearlier, Doke (1935:118) defined an ideophone as a word which “describes apredicate, qualificative or adverb in respect to manner, colour, smell, action, stateor intensity.” Surely, a relationship exists between verbal predicates and ideophonicadverbs. But what is its typological standing? Are particular kinds of meaningsexpressed by ideophonic adverbs? Are ideophone meanings related in a particularfashion to their accompanying verbs? Let’s look more closely at ideophone syntaxand semantics in Emai.

3. Emai ideophonic adverbs

Emai manifests a subclass of adverbial forms assuming a variety of morphologicalshapes and expressing meanings typically incorporated in English verbs. A numberof such forms were investigated as part of a documentation project which initiallyrequired transcription and translation of oral tradition narratives (Schaefer andEgbokhare 1999) and subsequently involved construction of a dictionary throughdirected elicitation (Schaefer and Egbokhare, in preparation).

To begin, let’s examine a small sample of Emai adverb forms. They exhibitreduplication or triplication, properties noted by Childs as characteristic ofideophones.

1.�gbírígbírí 5.�dúdúdú2.�ghóíghóí 6.�kpákpákpá3.�púpúpú 7.�kpékpékpé4.�kpíkpíkpí 8.�gbágbágbá

Now consider the meaning difference between the following English verb pairs. Thesecond member in each pair corresponds in semantic sense to the respective adverbabove. The first corresponds to an Emai verb (see Appendix A for illustrativesentences).

1.�to tug to jerk 5.�to be dark to be very dark2.�to shine to glisten 6.�to shake to tremble3.�to beat to flap 7.�to shake to shiver4.�to beat to flutter 8.�to knock to slap

In another sample, Emai adverbs fail to exhibit the reduplication trait often used toidentify African ideophones.

Ideophonic adverbs and manner gaps in Emai 341

1.�píí 5.�wóo2.�váí 6.�gbió3.�bóí 7.�yáá4.�yóo 8.�húú

Nonetheless, these non-reduplicated forms correspond in sense to English verbs.The second member of each pair below corresponds in meaning to the respectiveadverb above, while the first has an Emai verb counterpart (see Appendix B forillustrative sentences).

1.�to throw to fling 5.�to strike to smack2.�to pick up to snatch up 6.�to hit to crack3.�to pull to pop 7.�to boil to simmer4.�to pass by to whoosh by 8.�to smell to be pungent

Forms in such sets exemplify many of the characteristics Childs has identified forthe ideophonic adverb (IA). As well, they exhibit properties typical of Emai’s adverbclass, although, as shown below, they deviate from prototypical properties in certaincrucial respects.

As already noted, some but not all Emai IAs exhibit reduplication. Other adverbclasses behave similarly. While reduplication is a property of temporal adverbs suchas édeéde ‘daily’ from éde ‘day’ and égheéghe ‘all the time’ from éghe ‘time,’ it is nota characteristic of all temporal adverbs. The basic forms ode ‘yesterday’ ákho‘tomorrow’ and éena ‘today’ fail to show reduplication.

Emai IA forms assume the canonical syntactic position of adverbs. They occupypostverbal position and affect the tonal melody of immediately preceding directobjects. Compare in this regard the melody of okposo ‘woman’ in clause finalposition to its melody before the IA form zugú ‘with a shove’ (1a–b).

(1) a. ó kpén ábo súá ólí ókpósó zugú1

3s prop hand push the woman with-a-shove‘He shoved the woman with his hands’

b. ó kpén ábo súá óli okposo3s prop hand push the woman‘He pushed the woman with his hands’

Temporal adverbs such as ode ‘yesterday’ exhibit similar positioning and similareffect on preceding direct objects, as evinced by the contrasting low and high tonalalternations of émae ‘food’ (2a–b).

(2) a. ólí ókpósó é ólí émáé odethe woman eat the food yesterday‘The woman ate the food yesterday’

b. ólí ókpósó é ólí émaethe woman eat the food‘The woman ate the food’


Unlike Emai’s temporal adverbs, IAs reveal several properties peculiar to theirsubclass. They occur in narrative discourse but not in conversation. None of theEmai IA forms listed previously occur in conversation; they are limited to prosenarratives in Emai oral tradition. Their information status in a clause is also limited.IAs represent information not open to solicitation or dispute from a hearer. Whileother adverb subclasses correspond to questions of manner (3a), frequency (3b), orextent (3c), IAs fail to correspond to any question type.

(3) a. ébé ólí ómóhé ó o í hian olí óran?how the man sc h man cut the wood‘How does the man cut the wood?’ó o hian oí dúdúdú3s h cut it energetically‘He cuts it energetically’

b. ísi éka lí ólí ókpósó ó o váre vbi ose?ass quantity pf the woman sc h come loc week‘How many times did the woman come per week?’ó váré déídéí3s come regularly‘She came regularly’

c. ébé ólí óvbékhán í víé téé sé?how the youth man cry long reach‘How long did the youth cry?’ó víéí kékéké lí ásón re réhe cry-f continuously app night seq arrive‘He cried continuously until night arrived’

Moreover, IA forms in a clause do not represent semantically redundant informa-tion, as in the case of ‘yesterday’ relative to past tense. While IA forms are syntac-tically optional (i.e. acceptable utterances can be constructed without them), theyare obligatory when expressing semantic senses identified in English by ‘seethe,’‘glitter’ and ‘quiver’ (4a, 4c, 4e). The latter sense notions fail to arise in non-IAconstructions (4b, 4d, 4f), which are limited to the corresponding notions ‘boil,’‘shine’ and ‘shake,’ respectively.

(4) a. óli ame o ó tin kútúkútúthe water sc c boil at-seething-pace‘The water is seething’/‘the water is boiling at a seething pace’

b. óli ame o ó tínthe water sc c boil‘The water is boiling’/*‘the water is seething’

c. ólí úkpiyoyo o ó jín tobótobóthe brass-bell sc c shine with-a-glitter‘The brass bell is glittering’/‘the brass bell shines with a glitter’


d. ólí úkpiyoyo o ó jínthe brass-bell sc c shine‘The brass bell is shining’/* ‘the brass bell is glittering’

e. ólí áfiánmí ó o guo yéyéyéthe bird sc h shake with-a-quiver‘The bird quivers’

f. ólí áfiánmí ó o gúóthe bird sc h shake‘The bird shakes’/*‘the bird quivers’

IAs are unlike most other Emai adverb subclasses in their restriction to single verbsor to a few verbs with similar meanings. Their greater sensitivity to verb meaningcompared to temporal, manner, extent or frequency adverbs suggests a possibleclose association with the assertion of a clause. Nonetheless, IAs stand outsideclause assertion. Unlike other adverb subclasses, IAs fail in responses to simple do

(5), happen (6) or be (7) questions. IA inclusive responses are unacceptable (5c, 6c,7c), whereas non-IA responses (5b, 6b, 7b) are acceptable.2

(5) a. émé ójé úi?what Oje do-f‘What did Oje do?’

b. ó fí áléké émi3s hit Aleke thing‘He hit Aleke with something’

c. !ó fí áléké émí peú3s hit Aleke thing with-a-smack

(6) a. émé ó rúáni?what 3s happen-f‘What happened?’

b. ékéín ísi oje yí rébelly ass Oje push d

‘Oje’s belly pushed out’c. !ékéín ísi oje yí ré gábé

belly ass Oje push out with-a-bulge

(7) a. émé ó ú?what 3s be‘What is it?’

b. ójé láiOje run-f‘Oje ran’

c. !ójé láí bóbóbóOje run-f with-a-scamper

IA behavior in question-answer pairs is similar to Emai postverbal particles andpredicates characterizing event realization and temporal contour. Both of the latter


domains are delineated in Talmy (1991). According to his analysis, realizationmorphemes express fulfillment of an intention to bring about a goal or confirm averb’s lexical implicature, while temporal contour morphemes specify an event’sdegree of temporal manifestation. In Emai, realization and temporal contourmorphemes fail to occur in responses to do questions. Two of Emai’s realizationmorphemes are illustrative: fuan (8c) specifies that the intended goal of washing hasbeen achieved, i.e. cleanliness, and a (9c) implies that washing has moved materialoff the plate. Similarly, Emai’s temporal contour morpheme lee (10c) indicates thatan event has attained a finished state. None of these morphemes is acceptable inresponses to a do question, although (8c), (9c) and (10c) are otherwise grammati-cal.

(8) a. émé ólí ókpósó ó o ú?what the woman sc h do‘What does the woman do?’

b. o ó hoo olí úkpun3s c wash the cloth‘She is washing the cloth’

c. !o hóó ólí úkpun fúán3s wash the cloth clean‘She washed the cloth clean’

(9) a. émé ólí ókpósó ó o ú?what the woman sc h do‘What does the woman do?’

b. o ó kpe óli itása3s c wash the plate‘She is washing the plate’

c. !ó kpé óli itása á3s wash the plate cs

‘She washed the plate off’

(10) a. émé ólí ókpósó úi?what the woman do-f‘What did the woman do?’

b. ó é ólí émae3s eat the food‘She ate the food’

c. !ó é ólí émae léé3s eat the food ter

‘She has finished eating the food’

With regard to question-answer discourse, Emai’s event realization and temporalcontour morphemes contrast with its postverbal situation morphemes o, li and a.The latter characterize situation types of position change (o in 11b), possessionchange (li in 11c) or state change (a in 11d). All are acceptable in response to do


questions (11). As a consequence, their meanings stand within the scope of clauseassertion. IAs and their meanings, which fail in response to do questions, thus falloutside the scope of assertion.

(11) a. émé ójé úi?what Oje do-f‘What did Oje do?’

b. ó nwú éma ó vbí úkpóde3s take-hold yam cl loc road‘He put yam onto the road’

c. ó shén éma lí óli okposo3s sell yam app the woman‘He sold yam to the woman’

d. ó gbé ólí ákhe á3s break the pot cs

‘He broke the pot’

Given these verb restrictions and scope limitations, I will briefly probe further intothe semantic aspects of IA forms. In a nearly uniform fashion, IAs appear toincrease the intensity level inherently expressed by a main clause verb; they have aheightening effect on a verb’s base intensity level. For instance, IAs heighten theintensity of the verb si “draw in” to express “jerk in” (12a–b); of shoo re “rise” toconvey “lurch” (12c–d); and of khaan “pound” to specify “poke” (12e–f).

(12) a. óli agbedé sí óí vbí éán gúómíthe blacksmith drew him loc here with-a-jerk‘The blacksmith jerked him here’

b. óli agbedé sí óí vbi eanthe blacksmith drew him loc here‘The blacksmith drew him in here’

c. ó shóó re gúáhí3s arise d with-a-lurch‘He lurched up’

d. ó shóó re3s arise d

‘He arose’e. o kháán ói nyé íyáín vbí únú guán

3s pound it against their loc mouth with-a-poke‘He poked it against their mouth’

f. o kháán ói nyé íyáín vbí únu3s pound it against their loc mouth‘He pounded it against their mouth’

As indicators of intensity, IAs characterize an event’s internal temporal phasing.They are temporal contour morphemes of a sort, perhaps part of a larger aspectual


subsystem incorporating temporal boundary particles such as Terminative lee (10c).Since they are not open to solicitation by a hearer and do not constitute an assertionshared by speaker and hearer, they appear to articulate aspectual meanings of anevent reflecting speaker perspective or speaker viewpoint.

4. Lexical typology

As an expression of event intensity from the speaker’s view, Emai IAs reflectsemantically-grounded relationships within clausal and lexical configuration types.Slobin (1997), building on Talmy’s (1985) original distinction between V-languagesand S-languages, proposes a typological difference in lexical stock correlating withthese language types. His proposal applies specifically to self-movement eventsemploying animate actors with intransitive verbs, e.g. The boy ran into the house,and their encoding of manner. In V-languages such as French, manner is encodedby a grammatical adjunct (e.g. courant), while motion and direction of motion arefused into a single verb (e.g. entre).

(13) il entre dans la maison en couranthe enter inside the house by running[Motion+Direction] [Manner]‘He runs into the house’

In S-languages like German, manner and motion fuse in a single main clause verb(e.g. lauft), while direction is encoded by a grammatical satellite or particle (e.g. in).

(14) er läuft in das Haushe run into the house[Motion+Manner] [Direction]‘He runs into the house’

Slobin postulates a two-tiered lexicon of manner verbs.3 His conclusions about thequantity and character of these verbs derive from stimuli-directed adult and childnarratives, parent-child conversations, and translations of literary fiction (Slobin1996; Berman and Slobin 1994). Tier-one consists of a relatively small class of verbslike run and fly, which classify categories of moving actors (humans, fish, insects,etc.) and generally fail to highlight manner. He refers to these as basic mannerverbs. In contrast, tier-two verbs highlight the saliency of manner, e.g. dash andswoop. He refers to them as expressive verbs, since they generally do not classifyactor categories but call attention to event manner.

Slobin’s analysis demonstrates that verbs from different tiers are not uniformlydistributed across language types. S-languages encode tier-one verbs and exhibit anextensive and elaborated set of tier-two verbs. Indeed, these tier-two verbs make


distinctions which tend not to play a role in V-languages. Accordingly, V-languagesencode tier-one verbs but relatively few, if any, tier-two verbs.

Slobin’s lexical-tier hypothesis provides a foundation for understanding thesemantic character of Emai IAs. I will initially expand his hypothesis to includeadditional verb types and then restrain its application. Like most other Africanlanguages (Schaefer and Gaines 1997), Emai is a V-language. Tier-one mannernotions like la ‘run’ are expressed as verbs in series with a verb like o ‘enter’conveying motion and direction.

(15) a. ólí ómohe lá ó vbí ékóathe man run enter loc room[Manner] [Motion+Direction]‘The man ran into the room’

b. ólí ómohe ó vbí ékóathe man enter loc room[Motion+Direction]‘The man entered the room’

Emai’s tier-two, rather than being unexpressed as Slobin implies, seems to beconveyed by IA forms. In other words, tier-two manner senses articulated by verbsin English surface as adverbs in Emai. That the meanings at tier-one and tier-twoare related and compatible, not mutually exclusive, is supported by the fact thattier-one manner verbs like la ‘run’ occur in tandem with tier-two IAs like nyényényé(16).

(16) ólí ómohe láí nyényényéthe man run-f with a dash‘The man dashed off’/‘the man ran off with a dash’

Consideration of (16) and earlier examples in (12) lead one to view the descriptor“manner” for IAs as insufficiently precise. IA forms occur relative to an eventalready specified for manner by a basic verb (e.g. la). And as noted in (3a), IAs failto correspond to manner questions. Rather, the expressiveness noted by Slobinseems to reflect variation in event intensity.

IAs specify event-intensity level in a particular fashion relative to tier-one verbs.They show a same-direction constraint. No IA denotes an intensity level contraryto the direction established by its accompanying verb. With verbs like la ‘run,’ IAsconvey running events of increased intensity levels (17). I have found no IA formsexpressing a decreased level of intensity for la ‘run,’ i.e. meanings akin to lumberingor shuffling, or for that matter walking.

(17) a. ólí ómóhé láí bébébéthe man run-f at-a-flit‘The man flitted off’


b. ólí ómóhé láí ghééthe man run-f at-a-dart‘The man darted off’

c. yán a la kítíkítí3p h run at-a-stomp‘They stomp along’

d. yán a lá shan dédédé3p h run away at-a-scurry‘They scurry away’

e. o ó lá shan bóbóbó3s c run away at-a-scamper‘He is scampering away’

f. o ó lá shan vbí íwé tétété3s c run away loc house at-a-trot‘He is trotting home’

With a verb like haa a ‘keep quiet,’ the IA increases the intensity level of the quietstate. As a result, the verb’s initial level of quiet is intensified even further by the IAhíí (18a–b).

(18) a. élí ívbékhán háá á hííthe youths be-quiet cs in-stillness‘The youths kept absolutely still’/‘the youths kept absolutely quiet’

b. élí ívbékhán háá athe youths be-quiet cs‘The youths kept quiet’

This leads me to open the aperture of Slobin’s hypothesis. The distribution of EmaiIA forms among verb types argues that tier two is not limited to self-movementevents conveyed by intransitive manner forms. Tier-two also includes transitive andintransitive verbs conveying change of position (19), change of state (20), andcontact (21). Since these various verb types are subsumed by tier two, we also havean alternative to Doke’s (1935) alignment of features in his ideophone definition.Rather than viewing intensity as a feature parallel to manner, action and state, weshould perhaps consider intensity as orthogonal to these other categories. IAs, as inEmai, intersect manner, action and state classes at various intensity levels to conveythe highly expressive tier-two meanings.

(19) a. ó shóó re gúáhí3s arise d with-a-lurch‘He lurched up’

b. ó shóó ré3s arise d

‘He rose up’


c. ó vbóó úkpíóón vbí égbé búí3s pull fist-of-feather loc body with-a-yank‘He yanked a fist full of feathers from the body’

d. ó vbóó úkpíóón vbí égbe3s pull fist-of-feather loc body‘He pulled a fist full of feathers from the body’

(20) a. élí ívbékhán háá á hííthe youths keep-quiet cs in-stillness‘The youths kept absolutely still’/kept absolutely quiet’

b. élí ívbékhán háá athe youths keep-quiet cs‘The youths kept quiet’

c. ó kókó éó gbáíngbáín3s close eye tightly‘He tightened his eyes’

d. ó kókó eo3s close eye‘He closed his eyes’

(21) a. ólí ómóhé déí guoghóthe man fall-f with-a-crash‘The man crashed’

b. ólí ómóhé déithe man fall-f‘The man fell’

c. ó fí ághán vbí órán gbógbógbó3s hit sickle loc tree with-a-smack‘He smacked a sickle on the tree’

d. ó fí ághán vbí óran3s hit sickle loc tree‘He hit a sickle on the tree’

Although Emai IAs occur with a range of verb types, they fail to appear with verbsof transfer or possession change. Illustrated in (11c), the latter express events ofgiving, selling, buying, etc. No Emai IAs appear in possession change constructions.In this respect, the aperture on Slobin’s hypothesis closes. IAs are limited to eventswhere gradations of intensity are possible; they require events open to gradation orat least the construal of gradation. Possession change, with its emphasis on thenature of transfer between individuals and the direction of transfer, is not open tosuch gradation.


5. V-language restriction

If the very preliminary description outlined in the preceding section is tenable, itsuggests that ideophonic adverbs are restricted to particular types of languages. Letme sketch the strongest hypothesis here, since that would be the easiest to falsify.

The strongest hypothesis concerning the occurrence of IA forms assumes theyare limited to V-languages, i.e. languages which incorporate motion and directionin a main clause verb, and express manner separately. IAs need not occur in theselanguages; but if they occur, they will only occur in V-languages. It follows thatideophonic adverbs will tend not to occur in S-languages, e.g. German and most ofIndo-European, which express direction in a satellite and incorporate manner andmotion in a verb.

A potential counterexample from Africa to this hypothesis is the Khoisan familyof languages. According to Childs (1994) and Samarin (1970), these languages donot exhibit ideophonic forms. They are, however, V-languages (Schaefer and Gaines1997). They incorporate motion and direction in verbs which serve as conjunctsalongside tier-one verbs. Since the V-language restriction does not mandateideophonic adverbs, Khoisan does not directly contradict our hypothesis. Still, onewould like to know how Khoisan expresses the range of tier-two notions conveyedin Emai by IA forms and in English by verbs. Perhaps Khoisan expresses tier-twonotions through adverbs which have no ideophonic character.

If the V-language hypothesis is correct, we should expect to find ideophonicadverbs in V-languages removed from Africa. This appears to be the case withJapanese (Kita 1997) and Australian languages like Yir-Yoront (Alpher 1994).Japanese is a V-language exhibiting motion+direction incorporating verbs (háiru‘enter’ and déguchi ‘exit’) along with basic manner verbs (hashíru ‘run’). Itsequivalent for the English verb ‘shine’ is the “mimetic” adverb pikapika ‘shining’combined with the main verb hikat ‘glow’ (22a); and for English ‘splash’ it is theadverb bitya ‘splashing’ with the main verb otosi ‘drop’ (22b).

(22) a. rampu ga pikapika ni hikat-te-ir-ulamp nom shining copula glow-comp-exist-pres‘A lamp is shiny’

b. tofu o 100 cm no takasa kara yuka nibean-curd acc gen height from floor dat

bitya to otosi-tasplashing comp drop-past‘Somebody splashed bean curd onto the floor from a height of 100 cm’

Yir-Yoront also appears to be a V-language, lexically incorporating motion+direction in verbs (ngee’a ‘enter’). It relies on the verbs wun ‘lie down’ and tharr‘put down’ in combination with the particle form purr ‘flopping’ to expresstransitive and intransitive senses corresponding to English ‘to flop down.’ Likewise,


it conveys the English sense ‘to split’ (23) with the main verb yeng ‘cut’ and theideophonic particle chor ‘splitting.’

(23) chor yeng ’ysplitting cut it‘I split it open’

6. Conclusion

This investigation has attempted to intertwine two hypotheses regarding thetypological embedding of ideophonic adverbs. It argued that IAs are limited toV-languages, i.e. languages which typically segregate the lexical expression ofManner from Motion. Semantic packaging of this type appears conducive to IAoccurrence. It also postulated that IAs convey Slobin’s (1997) tier-two expressivemeanings relative to not only verbs of motion but also verbs of state change,position change and contact. At the same time, it noted that IAs fail to express tier-two meanings relative to possession/transfer verbs. Whether intensity adequatelycaptures the semantic nature of these ideophonic adverbs remains for more wide-ranging investigation, but it does present an initial semantic hypothesis for thehighly expressive character of ideophones often noted. Whatever the outcome, ourunderstanding of ideophones would appear to benefit from more finely-grainedsemantic analyses combined with typologically-informed comparative study.

Appendix A

(1) a. yán a sigha oí gbírígbírí‘They jerk him back and forth’

b. yán a sigha ói3p h tug him‘They tug on him’

(2) a. ukin o ó jin ghóíghóí‘The moon is glistening’

b. ukin o ó jínmoon sc c shine‘The moon is shining’

(3) a. ólí óghohúmí gbé ábó púpúpú‘The goose flapped its wings’

b. ólí óghohúmí gbé ábothe goose beat wings‘The goose beat its wings’


(4) a. ólí ékuété gbé ábó kpíkpíkpí‘The dove fluttered its wings’

b. ólí ékuété gbé ábothe dove beat wings‘The dove beat its wings’

(5) a. ólí úkpun bíní dúdúdú‘The cloth is very dark’

b. ólí úkpun bínithe cloth be-dark-f‘The cloth is dark’

(6) a. ó o guo kpákpákpá‘He trembles’

b. ó o gúó3s h shake‘he shakes’

(7) a. yán a guo kpékpékpé‘They shiver’

b. yán a gúó3p h shake‘They shake’

(8) a. o só óbó vbí úkhúédé gbágbágbá‘He slapped his hand on the door’

b. o só óbó vbí úkhuede3s knock hand loc door‘He knocked on the door’

Appendix B

(1) a. ó ché fí ói fí ó vbí ékóá píí‘He again flung it into the room’

b. ó ché fí ói fí ó vbí ékóa3s rep throw it throw cl loc room‘He again threw it into the room’

(2) a. ó róó óvbí óí váí‘He snatched up his child’

b. ó róó óvbí ói3s pick up child his‘He picked up his child’


(3) a. oje yí ólí órán vbi otoi ré bóí‘Oje popped the tree out of the ground’

b. oje yí ólí órán vbi otoi réOje pull the tree loc ground d

‘Oje pulled the tree from the ground’

(4) a. óli imáto ráá ré yóo‘The car wooshed past’

b. óli imáto ráá réthe car pass d

‘The car passed’

(5) a. ó híán úkpasámi kú ó vbí ótóí wóo‘He smacked a cane onto the ground’

b. ó híán úkpasámi kú ó vbi otoi3s strike cane throw cl loc ground‘He struck a cane onto the ground’

(6) a. ó fí ói úkpasámí gbió‘He cracked her with a cane’

b. ó fí ói úkpasámi3s hit her cane‘He hit her with a cane’

(7) a. óli ame o ó tin yáá‘The water is simmering’

b. óli ame o ó tínthe water sc c boil‘The water is boiling’

(8) a. ólí ísón áin o ó yaa húú‘That feces smells pungent’

b. ólí ísón áin o ó yaáthe feces that sc c smell‘That feces smells’

Notes

* Data incorporated in this paper were collected as part of investigations supported by grants

DEST "sch1-n*">

from the National Science Foundation, BNS #9011338 and SBR #9409552. Principal consultant onthis project was Professor Francis Egbokhare of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, without whoseassistance this paper could not have been completed.


1. Orthographic conventions for Emai follows those in Schaefer (1987). Abbreviations used withEmai data throughout this study include the following:ass =�associativeapp =�applicativec =�continuouscl =�change of locationcs =�change of stated =�displacementf =�factative

1h =�habitualloc =�locativeman =�mannerpf =�positive focussc =�subject concordseq =�sequentialter =�terminative

2. The symbol “!” designates an utterance deemed inappropriate in response to a specificquestion. Apart from this question context, the utterance is grammatically acceptable.

3. A similar tier-based distinction is implicit in Leitner and Hesselmann (1996). In soccerreporting by the media, they note the differential distribution of the verbs dash, race, sprint andcharge (Slobin’s tier two) relative to run (tier one).

References

Alpher, B. 1994.”Yir-Yoront Ideophones.” In L. Hinton, J. Nichols and J.J Ohala (eds), SoundSymbolism, 161–177. Cambridge: CUP.

Bendor-Samuel, J. (ed). 1989. The Niger-Congo Languages. New York: University Press of America.Berman, R. and D. Slobin. 1994.Relating Events in Narrative: A crosslinguistic developmental study.

Hillsdale: Erlbaum.Childs, G. Tucker. 1994. “African Ideophones”. In L. Hinton, J. Nichols and J. J. Ohala (eds),

Sound Symbolism, 178–204. Cambridge: CUP.Doke, C. 1935. Bantu Linguistics Terminology. London: Longmans, Green.Kita, S. 1997. “Two-dimensional semantic analysis of Japanese mimetics”. Linguistics 35:379–415.Leitner, G. and M. Hesselmann. 1996. “‘What do you do with a ball in soccer?’ — medium, mode

and pluricentricity in soccer reporting”. World Englishes 15:1:83–102.Newman, P.1968. “Ideophones from a syntactic point of view”. Journal of West African Languages

2:107–117.Samarin, William. 1970. “Inventory and Choice in Expressive Language.” Word 26:153–169.Schaefer, Ronald. 1987. An Initial Orthography and Lexicon for Emai: An Edoid language of Nigeria.

Bloomington: Indiana University Linguistics Club.Schaefer, Ronald. and Egbokhare, F. 1999. Oral tradition narratives of the Emai people, part I and

II. Hamburg: LIT PressSchaefer, R. and F. Egbokhare. In preparation. An Emai Dictionary. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Schaefer, R. and R. Gaines. 1997. “Toward a typology of directional Motion”. Studies in African

Linguistics 26(2): 193–220.Slobin, D. 1996. “Two ways to travel: Verbs of motion in English and Spanish.” In M. Shibatani

and S. Thompson (eds), Grammatical Constructions, 195–219. New York: Clarendon Press.Slobin, D. 1997. “Mind, code and text”. In J. Bybee, J. Haiman and S. Thompson (eds), Essays on

Language Function and Language Type , 437–467.Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Talmy, L. 1985. “Lexicalization patterns”. In T. Shopin (ed.), Language Typology and Syntactic

Description, Vol. 3, Grammatical categories and the lexicon , 57–149. Cambridge: CUP.Talmy, L. 1991. “Path to Realization: A typology of event integration”. Proceedings of the Berkeley

Linguistic Society. Berkeley: University of California at Berkeley, Vol. 17:480–519.Welmers, W. 1973. African Language Structures. Berkeley: University of California Press.

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Ideophone-like characteristics of uninflected

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AUTHOR "Eva Schultze-Berndt"

TITLE "Ideophone-like characteristics of uninflected predicates in Jaminjung (Australia)"


KEYWORDS ""

SIZE HEIGHT "220"

WIDTH "150"

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predicates in Jaminjung (Australia)*

INK "sch2-n*">

Eva Schultze-BerndtRuhr-Universität Bochum

1. Introduction

Languages in a relatively large area in Northern Australia, comprising quiteunrelated languages both from Non-Pama-Nyungan families, and from the Pama-Nyungan family, have a small closed class of inflected verbs. These may formcomplex predicates with members of an open class of uninflected elements whichare formally distinct from both verbs and nominals. These have been termed‘preverbs’, ‘verbal particles’, or ‘coverbs’ in the literature, and cover most of thesemantic fields that are covered by verbs and adverbs in many other languages. Ashas also been noted in the literature (Heath 1976; Alpher 1994; McGregor 1996 andthis volume), these uninflected predicates have some properties of words that havebeen described as ideophones for other languages: Not only do they lack inflectionalmorphology, but a number of them also exhibit phonological and phonotacticpeculiarities, can be argued to be sound-symbolic, and may be ‘performativelyforegrounded’ (Nuckolls 1996) by the use of expressive prosody, pausing, andreiteration.

In this paper, I will discuss the properties of uninflected predicative elements inJaminjung, a language of the Victoria River District in Northwest Australia.‘Jaminjung’ is used here as a cover term for two closely related varieties, Jaminjungand Ngaliwurru. Together with the somewhat more distantly related Nungali, theyform one of the Non-Pama-Nyungan language families, referred to as ‘Djamin-djungan’ or ‘Yirram’ in the literature (Hoddinott and Kofod 1976; Chadwick 1997;Green 1995). Today, there are less than a hundred fluent speakers of Jaminjung andNgaliwurru, scattered over a number of Aboriginal Communities in a large area.

Jaminjung can be regarded as being of the agglutinating morphological typewith respect to its nominal morphology, and of the inflecting type with respect toits verbal morphology. It should be borne in mind, however, that verbs, defined as

356 Eva Schultze-Berndt

the class of roots that inflect for tense, aspect, mood and person, form a closed classwith around 30 members, and are semantically general. Most ‘verbal’ concepts arecovered by members of a class of uninflected predicative lexemes, which will betermed ‘coverbs’ here. I will point out similarities and differences between coverbsand ideophones, with respect to the criteria that have been adduced for theidentification of ideophones in the literature.

The paper is structured as follows: Section 2 presents an overview of thephonological and phonotactic characteristics of coverbs, and addresses the issue ofsound-symbolism. Section 3 describes the morphological possibilities of this lexicalcategory. Special attention will be given to the syntactic properties of coverbs inSection 4. The ‘performatively foregrounded’ use of coverbs with expressiveprosody is the topic of Section 5. The results are summarised in Section 6, and areplaced in a comparative perspective.

2. Phonology and sound symbolism1

2.1 Phonological and phonotactic peculiarities

Members of the coverb class exhibit several phonological and phonotactic peculiari-ties. First, unlike members of any other word class in Jaminjung, coverbs can be —and very often are — monosyllabic; some examples are given in (1).

(1) Some monosyllabic coverbsa. bag ‘break’b. barr ‘hit against something, smash’c. bily ‘bust, burst open’d. warrng ‘walk’e. gub ‘come off’f. bud ‘cook something on coals’g. birrg ‘take something away’

Second, coverbs allow consonant clusters in word-final codas that are not attestedin word forms of any other lexical category. Generally, Jaminjung has strongrestrictions on syllable codas: the only possible consonant clusters consist of alateral (/l/ or retroflex /rl/) or alveolar trill (/rr/) as the first element, and a peripher-al stop (/b/ or /g/) or the velar nasal (/ng/) as the second element. Of the sixresulting possibilities, only two, /(r)lg#/ and /(r)lng#/, are attested for roughly equalnumbers of nominals and coverbs (verb forms and particles never exhibit codaclusters). Clusters of alveolar trill and velar stop or nasal, /rrg#/ and /rrng#/, arefound in a few nominals (5 in a dictionary of approximately 2000 words) but in alarge number of coverbs. Finally, the two combinations with final bilabial stop,

Ideophone-like characteristics of uninflected predicates in Jaminjung (Australia) 357

/rrb#/ and /(r)lb#/, are restricted to coverbs and never occur in nominals; someexamples are given in (2).

(2) Some coverbs with final consonant clusters ending in a bilabial stopa. ngunkulurrb ‘mutter’b. yudurrb ‘grind’c. girrb ‘be quiet’d. burrb ‘finish’, ‘do to all’e. wirrb ‘wipe’f. balb ‘be flat or painted on something’g. dalb ‘light a fire’

Another peculiarity is only found in a few forms, listed in (3). These contain themid front vowel /e/, otherwise not part of the phonological inventory of Jaminjung.These forms are probably unassimilated loans from neighbouring languages withregular mid vowels.

(3) Coverbs with mid vowel /e/a. deb ‘knock down’b. thed ‘trip over something’c. thebberr ‘be pierced with something which is sticking out’d. lebleb ‘clap with boomerangs’

Phonological and phonotactic peculiarities are frequently invoked as a criterion forthe identification of a class of ideophones, although this is weighted differently bydifferent authors (cf., e.g., Newman 1968; Samarin 1971; Childs 1994; Kulemeka1995; Ameka, this volume), and possibly has to be weighted differently for differentlanguages. It has also been reported that loans which function as ideophones in thetarget language often retain their phonological shape (Childs 1989:68). Withrespect to the Jaminjung coverbs, it is important to note that phonological criteriaidentify only a subclass of coverbs, that is, they cannot be regarded as necessary, butonly as sufficient criteria for membership in the coverb class.

2.2 Sound-symbolism

Although sound-symbolism is commonly invoked in definitions of ideophones, itis always difficult, in the absence of clearly established universal correspondences ofsound and meaning, to argue convincingly for the sound-symbolic nature ofspecific lexical items. Only some preliminary observations will be offered here withrespect to Jaminjung coverbs.

The first observation concerns the distribution of recurring submorphemicelements. Although I have not investigated this phenomenon in detail, some of thesound-meaning correspondences that have been identified by McGregor (1996) forverb roots in Gooniyandi also appear to be valid for Jaminjung coverbs. For


example, an alveolar trill in medial or coda position tends to be suggestive of‘multiplicity’ and/or ‘extension’ (cf. McGregor 1996:346), e.g. contact with anextended surface (4a–e), motion along a surface (4f–j), and/or multiplicity ofparticipants (4d, e and i–l); see also (2a–e) above.

(4) Some coverbs containing /rr/ in medial or coda positiona. dudurr ‘(sit with) legs straight’b. jajurr ‘stop, halt’c. bayirr ‘on top of, supported’d. warrb ‘be/sit together’ (cf. waga ‘sit, of single entity’)e. murruny ‘be heaped up’f. ngarrang ‘stagger’g. warr ‘scratch’h. yirrirrij ‘slide’i. burrurrug ‘scatter’j. bunburr ‘take off, of many entities’ (cf. gud ‘take off, of single entity’)k. thaburr ‘smash up’l. garrb ‘pick up, of multiple entities’ (cf. durd ‘pick up, of single

entity’)

Further recurrent submorphemic elements could probably be identified. Here, I willrestrict myself to a couple of further observations. The first concerns an iconicrelationship between punctuality/durativity and word length: most coverbs that aretelic and punctual, those in the classes2 of (caused) change of state, change oflocation, and caused change of location, are monosyllabic (except occasionallywhere they lexicalise a multiplicity, or mass, of participants); for examples see (1)above.

While stative coverbs may be either monosyllabic or disyllabic, atelic dynamiccoverbs, at least those of the classes of continuous activity (5a–c), manner oflocomotion (5d–f), and internal motion (5g–h), are polysyllabic, with only fewexceptions.

(5) Some polysyllabic, atelic, dynamic coverbsa. binyinyi(b) ‘use a firedrill’b. wajama ‘fish’c. thawaya ‘eat’d. yugung ‘run’e. mingib ‘crawl’f. lilaj ‘swim’g. birdinyiny ‘rotate, spin around’h. dalala ‘shiver, shake’i. mangan ‘wave’

Another observation relevant in this context is that a number of coverbs, listed in(6), involve gestures of the vowel tract that are iconic of the denotata.


(6) Iconicity of vowel tract gesturesa. bu ‘blow with airstream from mouth’b. thubbany ‘spit’c. buny ‘kiss’d. jung ‘suck’e. yib ‘sip’f. ngalyag ‘lick’g. nginy ‘bare one’s teeth’h. mam ‘bite with tight grip’

Although I have not provided detailed arguments for the sound-symbolic nature ofJaminjung coverbs, I would like to claim, on the basis of the observations putforward in this section and also in Section 5 below, that a substantial number ofcoverbs are indeed sound-symbolic. Again, however, this cannot be seen as adefining criterion for the class as such.

3. Morphological properties

Coverbs can be established as a lexical category, distinct from both verbs andnominals, by means of morphological and syntactic criteria. The most importantmorphological criterion is the lack of inflections. This unambiguously distinguishescoverbs from verb roots, which obligatorily inflect for person andtense/aspect/mood. As we will see in Section 4.4 below, coverbs may take a subsetof nominal case markers; with coverbs these have subordinating function. However,coverbs are distinct from nominals in that they cannot occur as a constituent of anoun phrase functioning as core argument; for example, they cannot occur withdeterminers.

The distinction between coverbs and adverbs in languages like Jaminjung is asomewhat more problematic issue (cf. also Merlan 1994:60). On morphologicalgrounds, no such distinction can be maintained, although it is possible to identifya small class of adverbs on syntactic and semantic grounds.

The derivational possibilities of coverbs are scarce. Nominals may be derivedfrom coverbs by a small number of derivational suffixes. Verbs cannot be derivedfrom coverbs, or vice versa.

Reduplication of coverbs serves to express extended duration, repetition orintensity of events, as well as multiplicity (or an aggregate) of participants, as in (7).Usually, this involves full reduplication, although word-initial partial reduplicationis also found.

(7) ngiyi-ngunyi majani burl-burl burru-ruma-ny jarriny-ngunyi,prox-abl maybe emerge-rdp 3pl-come-pst hole-abl‘From here they maybe came out, out of the hole’ (a number of frogs)


The ‘continuous’ suffix -mayan is used to derive dynamic, atelic coverbs fromcoverbs of other classes. The resulting forms exhibit a striking functional resem-blance to English present participles in -ing, in that they can be used as the mainpredicate in a progressive construction with an auxiliary, as in (8), and as adverbialsin combination with a main predicate, as in (9). However, unlike English presentparticiples, Jaminjung forms in -mayan are never used referentially or attributively.

(8) jiwayurru buru-mayan ga-gba=biyabower.bird return-cont 3sg-be.pst=now

‘The bower bird was going back and forth then’

(9) ngabuj-ngabuj-mayan na-ram \ ba-jga \smell-rdp-cont 2sg-come.prs imp-go‘You come (here) sniffing, go away’ (order to an imaginary dog)

The lack of inflectional morphology is one of the features most recurrently reportedas criterial for ideophones, and is therefore one in which Jaminjung coverbs, as aclass, resemble ideophones as identified for other languages. Like ideophones,coverbs may also reduplicate, and have some derivational possibilities.

However, one has to keep in mind that in Jaminjung, verbs constitute a closedclass, and coverbs take over many of the functions of verbs in other languages. It istherefore not surprising that they occur as the main predicate in a progressiveconstruction, with the verb being reduced to auxiliary function. In the next sectionit should become even clearer that coverbs cannot simply be identified with eitheradverbial or ideophonic elements.

4. Syntactic properties

4.1 Coverbs as part of complex predicates

Since in Jaminjung the class of inflected verbs which can function as simplepredicates is small, the majority of verbal predicates in finite clauses are complex.The combination of a coverb (or sometimes two coverbs) and a verb in a singleintonation unit, with no intervening pauses, will be referred to as ‘canonicalcomplex verb’.

Although Jaminjung is a free word order language as far as the order ofarguments and the verb is concerned, a coverb and a generic verb in a canonicalcomplex verb construction are usually contiguous (except for intervening clitics).Only very rarely are they separated by other constituents.The preferred word order,found in 90% of complex predicates, is that of the coverb immediately precedingthe generic verb, as in (10), (12) and (13) below, although the reverse order — as in(11) — is also possible. In both cases, it is the coverb that receives primary phrasalstress.


The examples in (10) to (13) also illustrate some of the types of semanticrelationships between coverbs and verbs in Jaminjung. It is important to note thatalmost all of the closed-class verbs are employed for complex predicate formation.The combinations underly semantic restrictions. For example, the general perfor-mance verb -yu(nggu), illustrated in (10), only combines with a number of semanti-cally circumscribed subclasses of coverbs, including coverbs of speech act andsound emission such as winy ‘whistle’, and coverbs of internal motion and bodily oremotional condition.

(10) winy nganth-unggu-m nganthan jalag nanthi-ngawuwhistle 2sg:3sg-say/do-prs what good 2sg:3sg-see.pst‘You whistle, what (kind of) good (thing) have you seen?’

Rather rare are combinations where the coverb is semantically almost synonymouswith the verb, and ‘underscores’ its meaning, like waj ‘leave behind’ in (11),restricted to combining with the quasi-synonymous verb -unga ‘leave’.

(11) yawayi, jawug ba-wunga wajyes short.time imp-leave leave.behind‘Yes, leave it for a short time’

Very frequent are combinations of a positional coverb with a general verb of stanceor a verb of change of location; of a coverb of manner or direction of motion withone of the general verbs of locomotion; or of a coverb of change of state or causedchange of state such as ning ‘break off’ with an impact verb such as -wa ‘bite’ in(12).

(12) ya, wajgany ning gani-wa wirib-ni \yes honey break.off 3sg:3sg-bite.pst dog-erg‘Yes, he bit off the beehive, the dog’

Finally, coverbs may also encode more abstract notions (i. e. events not involvingphysical contact), like desire, or transfer of information. These coverbs combinewith one of a small set of high-frequency, semantically generic verbs like -angga‘get/handle’ in (13), which take on extended senses when combining with coverbsof this type.

(13) gurrany ngunthug gan-angga-m gilinyneg desire 3sg:3sg-get/handle-prs bait‘They don’t like the bait’ (fish)

The combinations of coverbs and verbs in (10) to (13) qualify as complex predicatesnot only by their contiguity, but also because the constituents share their values forperson, tense, aspect and mood, and polarity. Moreover, complex predicates of thistype have a single set of syntactic arguments. The coverbs can be shown to be


semantically relational, and contribute to the argument structure of the complexverb (for details see Schultze-Berndt 2000).

For a number of languages, a syntactic position in close-knit unit with a finiteverb has been described as one of the syntactic possibilities of ideophones or othersound-symbolic elements (e.g., Newman 1968:110�f.; Samarin 1971:149; Childs1989:61; Nuckolls 1996:72; Alpher 1994:168). Ideophones influencing the syntacticargument structure of the complex predicates they appear in have been reported forZulu (von Staden 1977:214ff; Voeltz 1971:144).

A difference between ideophones and coverbs is that in many languages,ideophones appear in a quasi-synonymous relationship to the verbs they accompa-ny much more frequently than is the case for Jaminjung coverbs (see e.g., Samarin1971:141; Voeltz 1971:146f; Childs 1995:140; Nuckolls 1996:141; and also Heath1976). Obviously, since verbs in Jaminjung form a very small class, and are semanti-cally generic, such an extensive synonymy is ruled out.

In yet other languages (see e.g., Samarin 1971:149�f. for Bantu languages, Voeltz1971:148�f. for Zulu, Hutchison 1981:229 for Kanuri, Amha, this volume, forWolaitta, and Childs 1994:187�f. for a number of other African languages), ideo-phones may only form complex predicates with a single general performance verbor a verb introducing quoted speech. Jaminjung coverbs, on the other hand, are notrestricted in this way in their combination with verbs.

Most importantly, while ideophones are often only found in declarativeaffirmative contexts (see e.g., Newman 1968:116; Childs 1994, 1995:138; Kita1997:389f.; Schaefer, this volume), there is no such restriction for coverbs as part ofcanonical complex predicates; for example, (13) above shows a negated clause, and(11) a complex verb in the imperative. In this respect, Jaminjung complex verbsexhibit more similarities to other types of complex predicates, e.g., serial verbconstructions, than to ideophone-verb constructions.

4.2 Coverbs as secondary predicates

In the previous section, canonical complex verbs were defined as consisting of oneor more unmarked coverbs, combining with a verb under a single intonationcontour, and usually preceding the verb.

Coverbs are also found in a different construction, where an intonation unitboundary intervenes between a simple or complex verb, and a following unmarkedcoverb. This boundary can consist in a non-final pitch rise (indicated by “,”), or afinal falling contour (indicated by “\”), both usually accompanied by a clear pause.The coverb in this case typically, but not always, constitutes an intonation unit byitself. Some examples are given in (14) to (16).


(14) juwud majani yawurr-inangga-ji, yuno, {1.2}(ESB: yawayi) bily \eye maybe irr:3pl-chop-refl you.know bust‘They might hit each other in the eye, you know, busting it’ (discussing thedangers of a sling shot)

(15) jamang ngarrg burr-angga-m \ {0.5} digirrij \finally strangle 3pl:3sg-get/handle-prs die‘Finally they strangle it, dead’ (bird)

(16) ngiyi=biya wurlgba gan-antha \{0.6} burdurdubba \prox=now carry.on.shoulder 3sg:3sg-take.prs gallop‘Here it is carrying him away�\ gallopping�\’(deer Æ boy, in picture book)

I would argue that coverbs in this construction can be analysed as secondarypredicates. Secondary predicates are defined in the literature (e.g., Nichols 1978;Müller-Bardey 1990; Winkler 1997) as elements which are syntactically dependenton a main predicate, without forming a constituent with it, and which predicate onone of the arguments of the main predicate. The most important correlate ofsyntactic dependence is that secondary predicates are non-finite forms, and dependin their temporal interpretation on the main verb. On the other hand, they are focalconstituents and are asserted independently of the main predicate.

The unmarked coverbs3 in (14) to (16) qualify as secondary predicates in thatthey clearly predicate on one of the arguments in the preceding intonation unit(and therefore, by definition, share an argument with the main predicate), in thatthey are asserted independently of the main predicate, and in that they receive aresultative ((14) and (15)) or a depictive, i.e. simultaneous, reading with respect tothe main predicate (16).

Remarkably similar uses, in a position separated by a juncture from the mainpredicate, have also been reported for the ideophones of various languages (see e.g.,Childs 1994:187; Alpher 1994:168). These have usually been analysed either asadverbials (e.g., Nuckolls 1996:142) or as reduced sentences (e.g., Noss 1985:149�f.).

The distinction between secondary predicates and adverbials is indeed aproblematic one, and it looks as if languages could chose one or the other codingstrategy in certain semantic areas (see e.g., Halliday 1967:64�f., Müller-Bardey 1990;König and van der Auwera 1990). A secondary predicate analysis seems preferablein those cases where the constituent in question is not a modifier of the verb or thewhole clause, but only predicates on one of the arguments.The analysis of secondary predicates as a reduced clause (‘small clause’) has beenfavoured in treatments within the framework of Generative Grammar (e.g.,Chomsky 1981:110�f.; Hoekstra 1988). In a mono-stratal account, however, it is notnecessary to derive such expressions from an underlying sentence. Rather, by theirinherent lack of inflectional morphology that would indicate finiteness, Jaminjungcoverbs are well suited to a use as secondary predicates, since, as already indicated,


secondary predicates are non-finite forms, and depend in their temporal interpreta-tion on the main verb.

4.3 Coverbs as semi-independent predicates

Coverbs functioning as secondary predicates, as described in the previous section,are always semantically, if not syntactically, dependent on a finite verb serving as themain predicate. However, not all unmarked coverbs in a separate intonation unitcan be analysed in this way. While unmarked coverbs used as secondary predicatescan always combine with the verb in the main predicate as a canonical complex verb(see 4.1), coverbs in the other type of construction do not necessarily have to besemantically compatible with the verb (if there is any) in the preceding intonationunit. Moreover, several coverbs of this type can occur in immediate sequence,without an accompanying verb, as in (17) below.

(17) ning burra-wa-na=gurra \ ngilthig \{1.1} ning \ ngilthig \break.off 3pl:3sg-bite-impf=emph swallow break.off swallow‘They were biting (some meat) off, swallow�\ off, swallow�\’(crocodiles attacking cattle)

The coverb ngilthig ‘swallow’ in (17) cannot form a complex predicate with -wa‘bite’, but only with the verbs -arra ‘put’ or -minda ‘eat’. Moreover, this coverb heredescribes a separate event in a sequence, that is, an event that is not integrated withthe preceding predicate either by a resultative or a depictive semantic relationship.This becomes even more apparent when the coverbs ning and ngilthig occur inimmediate sequence, without an accompanying verb.

All textual genres where predicates of this type occur could be described as‘highly contextualised discourse’. Their interpretation is, to a large extent, depen-dent on the linguistic and extra-linguistic context; for this reason, they are termed‘semi-independent predicates’ here. Not only are coverbs non-finite and unable toencode temporal and aspectual information or to cross-reference arguments, butalso semantic information that would be encoded by a verb in a canonical complexverb construction is missing from these expressions. Two main types of semi-independent predicates can be distinguished: First, coverbs on their own may haveimperative illocutionary force, and are often used in orders to children. Compare(18a), with an inflected imperative verb form as part of a complex verb, and thecoverbs used with imperative force in (18b, c).

(18) Coverbs as semi-independent predicates with imperative illocutionary forcea. gabardag, gad ba-manggu, ^gad / {0.25}

quick cut imp-hit cutb. ^jarr::�\ {0.5}

put.down.one


c. ^gurdij�/stand

‘Quick, cut it! cut! put (it) down! stand up!’ (to boy cutting up a kangaroo whilebeing videotaped)

Coverbs in narrative sequence, already illustrated in (17) above, constitute thesecond type of semi-independent predicates. In this function, coverbs are often, inaddition, ‘performatively foregrounded’ (see also Section 5 below) by means ofexpressive prosody, indicated by ‘!’ in (19) below. This text fragment is from aprocedural text about the traditional technique of making fire with a firedrill, andillustrates coverbs without an accompanying verb (i.e. as semi-independentpredicates) as well as coverbs as part of canonical complex verbs.

(19) Coverbs as semi-independent predicates in narrative sequencea. thanthiya=biya janyung dud yirr-angga-m \ {0.25}

dem=now other hold.one 1pl.excl:3sg-get/handle-prs‘Then we pick up another one,’

b. !bag … jungulug juwal \ {2.0}break one long‘Break! One long one’

c. jurl-jurl naib-ni jamang \ {0.4}remove.skin-rdp knife-erg/instr ready‘clean it with a knife (until it’s) ready,’

d. wij-wij \ {3.3}scrape-rdp‘scraping’

e. jama binyinyi na, {1.8}ready use.firedrill now‘then we use the firedrill’ (demonstrating rolling firedrill between palms)

f. binyinyi biya::::::::::::::::::::::ng warnda dud \ {0.5}use.firedrill now grass hold.one‘use the firedrill the::::::::::::::n, pick up grass’

g. larrman \ {2.1}dry‘dry grass’

h. andanith jarr yirr-arra-m=ngarndiunderneath put.one 1pl.excl:3sg-put-prs=sfoc

thamurru-yun \ {0.7}below-l.abl‘we put it underneath at the bottom’

i. binyinyib na, ngu’un buliki-gina tu, {0.5}use.firedrill now dung cow-POSS too‘use the firedrill then, cow-dung too’


j. jarr andanith \ {1.4}put.down.one underneath‘(we) put underneath’

k. ngiya=biya langiny binyinyib na, {1.2}prox=now wood use.firedrill now‘This stick we use as firedrill then’

l. binyinyib=biya::, thurnkulajbi::::: ({0.8}) \use.firedrill=now smoulder‘use it as drill then, (then it’s) smouldering,’

m. jama bu:: yirr-arra-m=ngarndi, {0.4}ready blow.with.mouth 1pl.excl:3sg-put-prs=sfoc

‘Then we blow (on it)’n. meikim. {1.1} me- dili ga-rna-ya \

make ·false.startÒ light 3sg-burn-prs‘make it light up’

It is in their use as semi-independent predicates that Jaminjung coverbs are mostlike ideophones. A similar usage of ideophones has been described for manylanguages,4 and is sometimes treated as evidence for the ‘sentential’ character ofideophones. The observation made by Noss (1985:254) with regard to a textfragment consisting almost exclusively of ideophones in sequence — that theinterpretation here relies to a large extent on the contextual knowledge of thehearer(s) — also applies to this use of Jaminjung coverbs. It is as if the hearer isinvited to become more involved in the ‘decoding’ of the reported event by havingto supply the information about the participants and temporal reference whichwould be contained in the verb in a canonical complex verb construction. Inaddition, the hearer may also have to reconstruct some semantic information thatwould be adduced by the generic verb. When asked to repeat an intonation unit forclarification, or for translation out of context, speakers will always supply theappropriate verb.

4.4 Coverbs in non-finite subordinate clauses

There is one other syntactic context where coverbs can function as predicateswithout an accompanying inflected verb. This is in nominalised subordinate clausesin adverbial function. Verbs in Jaminjung cannot be nominalised; rather, a clausemay be nominalised and subordinated by means of a case marker which attachesdirectly to the coverb, and optionally, as in (20), to its arguments (which howeverare only rarely present). Since coverbs do not have a finite form, and are thereforenot specified for illocutionary force, person, or tense/aspect/mood, there is no needto overtly mark coverbs in this function as non-finite forms.

The most frequent types of adverbial clause headed by coverbs are purposiveand causal subordinate clauses. Purposive adverbial clauses are marked with the


dative case -gu ˜ -wu , which can have a purposive or benefactive reading also withnominals.

(20) buru yirr-anjama-ny skul-binareturn 1pl.excl:3sg-bring-pst school-alljalig-gu birrgab-birrgab-guchild-dat make-rdp-dat‘We took them back to the school for the kids to make (baskets)’ (pandanusleaves)

As has already been pointed out by Alpher (1994:166), their ability to function as mainpredicates in subordinate clauses constitutes amajordifferencebetween theuninflect-ed elements in languages like Jaminjung, which have closed-class verbs, and proto-typical ideophones, like those in some Australian languages of North Queensland.

5. Performative foregrounding

Although, as shown in Section 4, coverbs may occur in syntactic environments thatgo beyond those that are allowed for prototypical ideophones, they share onefurther, crucial property with ideophones. This is the possibility of ‘performativeforegrounding’ by the use of expressive prosody, such as interruption of rhythmicflow by pausing immediately before or after the coverb, lengthening, higherintensity, and larger pitch range. Another feature that is indicative of the expressivenature of coverbs, the frequency of co-occurring gestures,5 should also be men-tioned at this point, although so far this phenomenon has not been investigated inenough detail for Jaminjung.

In the following examples, as in (19) above, expressive prosody is indicated byan exclamation mark preceding the coverb. The example in (21) is from a narrativeabout a flying fox biting a woman, and (22) is from a similar narrative about agoanna that had climbed up a woman who was hunting it. In both cases, the animalhad to be killed to rescue the person.

(21) ning=biji yirri-ma gurunyung !barr:: \break.off=only 1pl.excl:3sg-hit.pst head smash‘We only killed it, smashing its head’ (flying fox who had bitten a woman)

(22) nguyung-ngunthu-ni=biya yugung=ung ga-ruma-ny +husband-kin3-erg=now run=cotemp 3sg-come-pst+ ngiya-ngunyi !deb … gani-ma \prox-abl knock.down 3sg:3sg-hit.pst!digirrij=jung ngayin=marlangdie=cotemp meat.animal=given

‘Her husband came running from here and knocked it down\dead, the animal’(goanna who had climbed up a woman hunting it)


A further stylistic effect can be achieved through repetition of coverbs, iconicallyrepresenting a repeated action. While reduplicated coverbs (see Section 3 above)only carry a single word stress, each repeated coverb receives its own word stress. Allinstances of jang ‘chew’ in (23) have emphatic stress; this example is from a textdescribing how a stick for obtaining tree honey is made from a piece of fibre bychewing it intensely.

(23) wardi gad yirra-nangga:,tree.species cut 1pl.excl:3sg-chop.pst‘jang ‘jang ‘jang ‘jang, yathang=ung \chew all.right=cotemp

‘We cut (bark off) the wardi tree, chew!, chew!, chew!, chew!, all right then’

It is not completely clear at present whether performative foregrounding throughexpressive prosody or reiteration is restricted to certain semantic types of coverbs.In all attested cases, the coverb encodes a concrete type of contact and/or change ofstate. Also, the frequency of this ideophone-like use of coverbs varies greatly withspeakers, depending on the ‘liveliness’ of their general narrative style. As alreadyindicated in Section 4.4, expressive prosody frequently accompanies the use ofcoverbs as semi-independent predicates, but, as shown in (21) and (22), is alsopossible in canonical complex predicates.

6. Summary

In this paper, the properties of members of an open class of uninflected predicativelexemes (coverbs) in Jaminjung, a Northern Australian language, were discussedand compared with properties of ideophones in languages of various families, asdescribed in the literature.

One of the crucial features in which coverbs are reminiscent of ideophones istheir lack of inflectional morphology. Furthermore, at least a substantial subclass ofcoverbs exhibit a certain degree of phonological and phonotactic peculiarities, canbe regarded as sound-symbolic, and — presumably related to their sound-symbolicnature — can be performatively foregrounded by the use of expressive prosody.

In terms of their syntactic properties, coverbs show some further similarities,but also clear differences, to ideophones. Their main function is as part of complexpredicates, in combination with an inflected verb from a closed class. Although thepossibility to form complex predicates has also been described for ideophones insome languages, coverbs in this construction, or in the related secondary predicateconstruction, usually do not have an expressive function (however, as shown inSection 5, they may be performatively foregrounded in these constructions too).


Furthermore, coverbs can serve as main predicates in non-finite subordinateclauses, without any particular expressive force.

On the other hand, coverbs may function as semi-independent predicates,without an accompanying verb and without any sign of subordination. In this —expressive — use, coverbs are restricted to highly contextualised discourse, and, interms of illocutionary force, function either as imperatives or as affirmativestatements.

From a typological perspective, one could argue that several universal tenden-cies have conspired, in Jaminjung and other Northern Australian languages, to‘produce’ a typologically unusual open class of uninflected predicates, resulting, atthe same time, in a reduction of the number of inflected verbs to a closed class.

The first tendency is that of complex predicate formation, which manifests itselfin other languages in serial verb constructions, particle verb constructions, orcomplex predicates consisting of nouns or nominalised verb forms and light verbs.Jaminjung coverbs, although covering most ‘verbal’ concepts semantically, have areduced verbal status in that they cannot take verbal inflections. Therefore, in themajority of their uses, they have to “share a spotlight” (Hopper and Thompson1985:172) with an inflected verb, either as part of a complex predicate, or as asecondary predicate which likewise depends in its temporal interpretation on themain predicate.

A second universal tendency concerns the use of predicates with reduced verbalstatus in subordinate clauses expressing — in the terminology of Lehmann (1982,1988) — a ‘typified proposition’. In Jaminjung, there is no need to employ subordi-nate or nominalised verb forms for this purpose (and in fact there are no suchforms), since the open class of predicative elements is already uninflected, i.e.inherently unspecified for illocutionary force and tense/aspect/mood.

The third tendency was the focus of investigation in this paper; this is thetendency to put to expressive use uninflected, and often sound-symbolic, elementswhich have been described as ideophones for many languages. ‘Expressiveness’ canbe measured, to some extent, in terms of the degree of inherent illocutionary force,as reflected in syntactic restrictions e.g. to affirmative statements, and probably alsoin terms of the degree of ‘extra-systematicity’, e.g., phonological peculiarities, orparalinguistic features. As I have tried to demonstrate in this paper, the uninflectedcoverbs of Jaminjung, or at least a subclass of sound-symbolic coverbs, easily lendthemselves to an expressive use, in addition to their other functions.

In a typology of ideophones, the coverbs of Jaminjung and other NorthernAustralian languages would therefore probably indicate the upper bound ofsyntactic possibilities of uninflected elements which, because of the small numberof inflected verbs available in this language, take over functions of non-finite verbforms as well as ‘ideophone-like’ functions.


Finally, one might ask how verbal systems like the Jaminjung one could have arisenin diachronic terms. In fact, it has been suggested (see Heath 1976; McGregor 1996and this volume) that ideophones could have provided a starting point and modelfor coverbs. In other words, systems where uninflected predicates form an openclass and inflected verbs a closed class could have developed from systems with asmaller class of true ideophones in constructions with verbs from an open class. Itwould therefore be no accident that coverbs in Jaminjung, as I have argued here,still betray their ideophonic origins.

Abbreviations

1, 2, 3 1st, 2nd, 3rd person pronominal categoryabl ablative case suffixall allative case suffixcont continuous derivational suffix on coverbscotemp cotemporal cliticdat dative case suffixdem neutral demonstrative (‘given’) demonstrativedist distal demonstrativedu dual pronominal categoryemph emphasis focus cliticerg(/instr) ergative(/instrumental) case suffixexcl exclusive pronominal categoryfut future/potential modal prefiximp imperative modal prefiximpf (past) imperfective tense/aspect suffixincl inclusive pronominal categoryirr irrealis modal prefixkin3 his/her kin suffix on kinship termsloc locative case suffixl.abl ablative (locationals) case suffix on locationalsneg negative particlenow “now”, “then” focus cliticposs possessor case suffix / free pronoun stempl plural pronominal categoryprox proximal demonstrativeprs present tense suffixpst past (perfective) tense/aspect suffixrefl reflexive/reciprocal derivational suffix on verbsrdp reduplicationsfoc sentence focus focus cliticsg singular pronominal category


Other notational conventions. short pause within an intonation unit{1.1} pause in seconds:(:::) lengthening\ falling intonation (‘sentence-final intonation’), pause but non-sentence-final (mostly raising) intonation/ rising intonation^ emphatic stress! prosodic foregrounding (e.g. extra high/low pitch, extra intensity)wed (underline) Kriol

Notes

* For their comments on previous versions of this paper, and/or general discussions on the topic,

DEST "sch2-n*">

I would like to thank Barry Alpher, Felix Ameka, Tucker Childs, Nikolaus Himmelmann, SotaroKita, Christian Lehmann, Bill McGregor, and David Wilkins. I also owe a great debt to theAboriginal Communities in Bulla Camp, Timber Creek, and Mirima (Kununurra), and to theJaminjung and Ngaliwurru speakers who taught me some of their language, in particular VioletBalidi, Dolly Bardbarriya, Daisy Bitting, Judy Marchant, Dinah and Duncan McDonald, DorisPannikin, Iza Pretlove, Doris and Laurie Roberts, Eileen Roberts, and Margaret Wilinygari.Financial support for my fieldwork, which is gratefully acknowledged, came from the DAAD(Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst), for six months in 1993, and from the Max-Planck-Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, between 1994 and 1997.

1. The orthography used here follows common Australianist practice. Digraphs are employed forthe palatal nasal ·nyÒ and lateral ·lyÒ, the velar nasal ·ngÒ, the interdental stop ·thÒ, the retroflexstop ·rdÒ, nasal ·rnÒ and lateral ·rlÒ, and the alveolar trill ·rrÒ. The grapheme ·jÒ represents a palatalstop. There is no contrast between voiced and voiceless stops; stops are phonetically voiced insyllable onset and medial position and voiceless in coda position.

2. For the formal criteria for establishing coverb classes in Jaminjung, and an overview of theclasses identified in this way, see Schultze-Berndt (2000, Ch. 6).

3. In Jaminjung, coverbs can also be marked as secondary predicates in a number of ways. Theseconstructions are left out of consideration here; see Schultze-Berndt (2000) for details.

4. See e.g. Hamano (1986:17f.) for Japanese, Samarin (1971:149) for Bantu languages, Noss(1985:254) for Gbaya, von Staden (1977:217) for Zulu, Alpher (1994:168) for Yir-Yoront,Nuckolls (1996:72) for Pastaza Quechua.

5. For the tight coupling of ideophonic linguistic expressions and gestures see e.g. Samarin(1971:153), von Staden (1977:219), Childs (1994:196), Kita (1997:392ff. and this volume).

References

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35(2):379–415.König, E. and J. van der Auwera, 1990. “Adverbial participles, gerunds and absolute constructions

in the languages of Europe”. In J. Bechert, G. Bernini and C. Buridant (eds), Toward aTypology of European Languages, 337–355. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

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Lehmann, C. 1988. “Towards a typology of clause linkage”. In J. Haiman and S.A. Thompson(eds), Clause Combining in Grammar and Discourse, 181–225. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

McGregor, W.B. 1990. A Functional Grammar of Gooniyandi. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.McGregor, W.B. 1996. “Sound symbolism in Gooniyandi, a language of Western Australia”.Word

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al. (eds), Internationales interdisziplinäres Kolloquium “Sprache und Denken: Variation undInvarianz in Linguistik und Nachbardisziplinen”, 1–20. Köln: Universität Köln: Arbeiten desKölner Universalien-Projekts (akup) 81.


Newman, P. 1968. “Ideophones from a syntactic point of view”. Journal of West African Linguistics5(2): 107–117.

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to African Linguistics, Vol. 3:241–255. Dordrecht: Foris.Nuckolls, J.B. 1996. Sounds Like Life: Sound-symbolic grammar, performance, and cognition in

Pastaza Quechua [Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics 2]. Oxford: OUP.Samarin, W. 1971. “Survey of Bantu ideophones”. African Language Studies 12:130–168.Schultze-Berndt, E. 2000. Simple and Complex Verbs in Jaminjung. A study of event categor-

isation in an Australian language. PhD thesis, Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen.Staden, P.M.S. von. 1977. “Some remarks on ideophones in Zulu”. African Studies 36:195–224.Voeltz, F.K.E. 1971. “Toward the syntax of the ideophone in Zulu”. In C.-W. Kim and H. Stahlke

(eds), Papers in African Linguistic, 141–152. Edmonton: Linguistic Research, Inc.Winkler, S. 1997. Focus and Secondary Predication. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

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La formation des radicaux déidéophoniques

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AUTHOR "Okombe-Lukumbu Tassa"

TITLE "La formation des radicaux déidéophonique et des idéophones déverbatifs en t7t7la (dialecte ewango)"


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et des idéophones déverbatifs en t77t77la(dialecte ewango)

Okombe-Lukumbu TassaUniversité de Bruxelles

1. Généralités

Cette étude porte sur les mécanismes de formation des radicaux verbaux déidéo-phoniques et des idéphones déverbatifs dans la langue t7t7la. Celle-ci occupe unvaste domaine évalué à une superficie de 90.000 km2 au Sud-Est de la Cuvettecentrale en République Démocratique du Congo. Située entre les 22° et 26°longitude-Est et les 2° et 5° parallèles-Sud, la langue t7t7la est parlée par environ unmillion de locuteurs. La majeure partie de ces locuteurs vit dans le district duSankuru l’une des entités administratives de la Province du Kasaï oriental. Dans lesclassifications de Guthrie (1948, 1970) et Bastin (1978), le t7t7la figure sous l’indiceC.71. Le parler ewangó qui est au centre de cette étude est l’un des nombreuxdialectes de cette langue bantoue. Il sert de dialecte standard pour tout le réseaud’évangélisation et d’enseignement protestant.

Nous identifions des radicaux déidéophoniques et des idéophones dérivésexclusivement de radicaux verbaux parce qu’à notre avis, le processus dérivationnelpeut se produire dans deux sens distincts. L’identification de ce processus se fondesur cinq critères:

1.�Il y a des affinités morphosémantiques indéniables entre un certain nombre deradicaux verbaux et les idéophones qui ler servent de formes de base.2.�Il y a aussi des affinités morphosémantiques entre un certain nombre deradicaux verbaux considérés comme formes de base et les idéophones qui endérivent.3.�Les idéopones qui réitèrent partiellement ou totalement les radicaux verbauxavec lesquels ils sont en corrélation morphosémantique et syntaxique s emploientfacultativement à des fins iconiques. Ils servent ainsi de circonstants descriptifs etadverbiaux aux verbes qui leur correspondent.

376 Okombe-Lukumbu Tassa

4.�Les radicaux verbaux déidéophonique et les idéophones dérivés des radicauxs’organisent avec leur formes de base respectives, en petits ensembles paradig-matiques et en petites séries syntagmatiques.5.�Par rapport à la forme des base, la forme dérivée d’un radical ou d’un idéophonese caractérise par un suffixe. Celui-ci est soit déidéophonique, soit idéophonique.

La description d’un certain nombre d’idéophones de base et d’idéophones dérivésde radicaux verbaux suppose qu’ à certains égards, l’on admette l’existence d’unephonologie et d’une morphologie marginales ou iconiques. Ngulinzira(1977:17–19) reconnaît leur existence en t7t7la et sa contribution a le grand mérited’en avoir fait la description. D’une part, cet auteur indique que “la phonologiemarginale comporte un certain nombre de mérismes et d’ensemble de mérismesexclus de la phonologie générale de la langue et utilisés principalement dans lamorphologie marginale”. D’autre part, il note que cette phonologie marginale “estliée à l’expressivité et aux emprunts aux langues étrangères”. C’est dans ce cadre quenous traiterons un certain nombre de phonèmes marginaux attestés dans bonnombre d’idéophones.

Nous avons en effet observé des phonèmes et des traits morphologiquesmarginaux dans bon nombre d’idéophones qui servent de formes de base et dans uncertain nombre d’idéophones dérivés de radicaux verbaux. Parmi eux, figurent lesvoyelles et les consonnes ultra-longues que Ngulinzira n’a pas explicitement décritesmais qui ne sont pas des éléments constitutifs de la phonologie canonique.

Du point de vue de la création lexicale spontanée, le processus dérivationnelexerce certaines contraintes sur les morphophonèmes marginaux. Ceux-ci semodifient et se confondent avec les morphophonèmes canoniques qui leur sontproches sur le plan articulatoire. Tout indique que ces adaptations sont la conditionsine qua non de l’intervention des mécanismes et des procédures de dérivation.

Nous notons deux tons ponctuels haut (´) et bas (`) dans la structure sous-jacente. Nous n’indiquons que le ton haut (´) et les tons modulés dans la représen-tation de surface où cependant le ton bas et deux tons haut placés sur une mêmevoyelle indiquent une voyelle longue. Les symboles (+) et (−) marquent respective-ment la limite initiale d’un radical verbal ou d’un thème et la limite quelconqued’un morphème. L’astérisque (*) sera affecté à un radical verbal lié ou entravé.Enfin, signalons que le phonème /d/ a deux réalisations: [l] devant les voyelles allantdu second jusqu’au quatrième degré et [d] devant les voyelles du premier degré etderrière la nasale alvéolaire. Pour des raisons d’ordre pratique, nous notons lesréalisations du phonème /d/.

Radicaux déidéophonique et des idéophones déverbatifs en t7t7la 377

2. La formation des radicaux verbaux déidéophonique

Un certain nombre d’idéophones sont dotés de structures monosyllabiques,dissyllabiques et trisyllabiques. Ils sont posés comme des formes de base à partirdesquelles les radicaux verbaux déidéophooniques sont formés. Les mécanismesutilisés dans leur formation se présentent de la manière suivante:

2.1 Redoublement de la consonne d’un idéophone monosyllabique

Le redoublement de la consonne d’un idéophone monosyllabique de structure CVsert à former des radicaux déidéophoniques de structure +CVC−. Le redoublementde la consonne initiale de l’idéophone intervient comme facteur de “déidéo-phonisation” sans modifier le ton de l’idéophone. Exemples:

(1) t7 évoque un petit bruit sec d’un objet qui se casse ou se brisefi +t7t- ‘casser, briser; frapper’

fi +t7t-ám-á ‘être cassé, être brisé, être frappé’fi +t7t-án-á ‘se frapper mutuellement’

(2) má évoque/amplifie l’adhésion, le rapprochement entre deux êtres ou deuxobjetsfi +mám- ‘�“coller; calomnier, diffamer” mámá’

fi +mám-ém-á ‘être collé;être calomnié’fi +mám-án-á ‘se coller mutuellement, calomnier mutuelle-

ment’

(3) ká évoque l’incrustration, le coincement, l’attachementfi *+ká-k-

fi +kák-è- ‘incruster, coincer, attacher’fi +kák-ém-á ‘être incrusté, être attaché’fi +kák-ól-á ‘détacher, décoincer’fi *+kák-át-

fi +kákát-7 ‘s’approprier de, usurper’fi +kákát-án-á ‘s’attacher l’un à l’autre’

2.2 Abrègement d’une voyelle ultra-longue et redoublement de la con-sonne initiale d’un idéophone monosyllabique

Quelques idéophones qui se caractérisent par des voyelles ultra-longues servent deformes de base pour former des radicaux déidéophoniques. La formation d’uncertain nombre de radicaux déidéophoniques s’opère en appliquant deux méca-nismes dans l’ordre suivant:

1.�Abrègement de la voyelle ultr-longue: Cet abrègement vise à créer un cadre


propice à la formation d’un radical verbal déidéophonique; et intégration éventuellede la consonne dans la phonologie canonique.2.� Redoublement de la consonne initiale de la syllable de structure CV: ceredoublement permet de former un radical doté d’une structure de type +CVC-:

(4) b777 imite/évoque le bêlement (chèvre, mouton)fi *+b7b-

fi +b7b-7l-á ‘ennuyer(qqn) par une demande pressante, intermittente etirritante (sous-entendu: la manière d’un bouc mâle en rutderrière une femelle)’

(5) sààà évoque le déploiment d’un habit qu’on est en train de secouerfi *+sàs-

fi +sàs-òl-a ‘déployer (habit) en le secouant (pour en ôter la poussière oula poudre)’

fi +sas¢f ‘se déployer après avoir nsas été secoué’fi lo+sas-ó 11 ‘morceau de pagne fripé’

2.3 Abrègement de la voyelle ultra-longue et adjonction du suffixe déi-déophonique -l-

Deux attestations:

(6) hooo évoque/amplifie la descentefi *+hòl-

fi +hòl-¢f ‘descendre’fi +hòl-ó-yá- ‘faire descendre’fi o+hol-ol-a 3|4 ‘descente, vallée’

(7) heee imite le bruit d’un pot mis sur le feu ou le bruit lointain d’un enginmotorisé en marche

fi +hèl- ‘faire du bruit (pot sur feu), faire du bruit (engin motorisé qui estau loin)’

fi lo+hel-o 11 ‘bruit d’un engin motorisé qui est au loin’

2.4 Abrègement de la vibrante apico-alvéolaire ultra´longue [rrr] en [r] ettransformation de celle-ci en une latérale alvéolaire [l]

(8) kfrrr imite le ronflementfi +kfl-á ‘ronfler’

fi lf+kfd-u ‘ronflement’

(9) t7rrr imite le bruit d’une machine à coudre en marche ou d’un enfant à lafois bavard et indiscret

fi +t7l-á ‘coudre; parler beaucoup et avec indiscrétion (enfant)’fi n+t7di ‘9|10 aiguille’fi f+t7dí 3 ‘bavardage et indiscrétion’


Selon toute vraisemblance, l’idéophone t7rrr n’est apparu dans la langue qu’aprèsl’introduction de la machine à coudre dans l’aire t7t7la. Il est donc postérieur auradical verbal -t7l-‘coudre’. L’idéophone est aligné sur l’idéophone kfrrr. Néan-moins celui-ci sert de forme de base au radical verbal -kfl- ‘ronfler’, ce qui n’est pasle cas de t7rrr vis-à-vis du radical t7l qui en est la forme de base.

2.5 L’adjonction d’un suffixe déidéophonique

Un suffixe déidéophonique s’adjoint à un idéophone de structures CV, CVCV,CVCVCV pour former respectivement des radicaux déidéophoniques dotés destructures +CVC-, +CVCVC-. La suffixation d’un morphème déidéophonique estenvisagée comme un élément de morphologie expressive avec un rôle de déidéo-phonisation. Ce suffixe déidéophonique n’a aucun rapport formel avec les con-sonnes initiales ou médianes des idéophones. Il sert simplement à former un radicaldéidéophonique.Le premier ton du radical verbal déidéophonique est lexical. Toutautre ton d’un radical verbal dissyllabique ou trisyllabique est grammaticalementbas. Et tout ton qui se situe entre le ton lexical et le ton de la finale appartient aupost-radical. De ce fait, il est soumis à l’application des règles d’assimilation tonalerégressive et progressive(Ngulinzira 1977). Les suffixes déidéophoniques seprésentent de la manière suivante:

2.5.1 Le suffixe déidéophonique -m-Le suffixe déidéophonique -m- s’adjoint à un idéophone monosyllabique oudissyllabique pour former un radical verbal déidéophonique de structure +CVC-ou+(N)CVCVC-:

(10) ká évoque la densité, la compacitéfi +kám-á ‘devenir dense, compact’

fi +ká\-á[<+kam-i-a] ‘rendre dense, compâct’

(11) kó évoque la fin d’un voyage ou une initiative qui va jusqu’au bout, jusqu’à sonterme

fi +kóm- ‘arriver’fi +kó\-á [<+kóm-i-á] ‘faire arriver’

(12) ngadi-ngadi ‘évoque l’éclair, la réverbération’fi *+ngàdìm-

fi +ngadím-ól-a ‘produire des éclairs, réverbérer’fi +ngadím-¢f ‘se réfléchir (lumière)’

2.5.2 Le suffixe déidéophonique -n-Le suffixe déidéophonique -n- s’adjoint à un idéophone dissyllabique pour formerun radical verbal déidéophonique de structure +CV(N)CV-:


(13) baba-baba évoque le crépitement d’une grande flamme ou d’unefournaise

fi +bab-áná ‘crépiter (grande flamme, fournaise)’fi +babá\á [<+baba-n-i-a] ‘faire crépiter’

(14) papa-papa évoque le fait de se débattre (oiseau)fi +haháná ‘se débattre violemment’

2.5.3 Le suffixe déidéophonique -l-

Le suffixe déidéophonique -l- s’ajoute à un idéophone dissyllabique ou trisyllabiquepour former un radical verbal dissyllabique ou trisyllabique de structure +CVCVC-et +CVCVCVC-

(15) bálo évoque la consommation très rapide d’un grand plat de nourriture oul’écoulement rapide d’un grand stock de marchandises

fi +bálólá ‘consommer en un laps de temps très court (denrée alimentaire);écouler en si peu de temps (grand stock d’articles de commerce)’

(16) kámo kámo évoque le clignement des yeuxfi +kámól-á- ‘cligner (yeux)’

Dans les radicaux déidéophoniques des exemples (15) et (16), il n’est pas possibled’arguer que la syllabe finale renferme le suffixe -òl-. Si, par exemple, nous con-sidérons le radical +kámòl- de l’exemple (16) et les deux radicaux homonymes+kám- des exemples (17) et (18) ci-dessous, nous noterons d’abord qu’ils diffèrentpar leur structure et par leur contenu mais aussi qu’ils ne sont pas suivis du mêmeidéophone.

(17) +kám- devenir dense, compactfi nkámá ká ‘devenir dense, compact (sous-entendu: à la manière d’un

bloc solide)’

(18) *kám-fi +kám-ól-á ‘faire éclater, faire exploser’

fi nkámólá bw¦a ‘faire éclater avec détonation ou avec déflagration’fi +kám-¢f ‘éclater, exploser’

fi nkám bw¦a ‘éclater/exploser avec détonation ou avec déflagration’

Il est frappant de noter que les formes verbales citées qui renferment des radicauxdéidéophoniques n’acceptent pas le suffixe (réversif) intransitif, ce qui confirmebien l’existence de radicaux dissyllabiques et trisyllabiques. La productivité de cesmécanismes est faible.


3. La formation des idéophones déverbatifs

Plusieurs idéophones dérivés ont des affinités d’ordre morphosémantiques avec desradicaux de base. Ces idéophones sont formés par adjonction de suffixes idéo-phoniques. Ceux-ci attribuent aux radicaux réitérés le statut d’idéophones. Lesidéophones dérivés des radicaux verbaux attestent une structure bipartite. Lessuffixes idéophoniques sont soit des voyelles brèves, soit des voyelles ultra-longues.Ils se présentent de la manière suivante:

3.1 Le suffixe idéophonique -à

Le suffixe idéophonique -à s’adjoint au radical verbal de structure+(C)VC- en vuede former un idéophone qui évoque ou amplifie l’action verbale.

(19) *sén-fi +sénénálá ‘devenir raide/rigide’fi +sénáséná ‘se contorsionner, se tordre de douleur (avant de mourir ou

de dormir’fi o+séná ‘raideur, rigidité’fi séna ‘idéophone’, n.b. séna évoque la raideur d’une partie du

corps (cou, colonne vertébrale.)

(20) *+k¢f\fi +k¢f\7 ‘plier’fi +k¢f\ámá ‘être plié’fi +k¢f\¢f\álá ‘se replier sur soi-même se recroquevillerfi +k¢f\a ‘idéophone’ n.b., k¢f\a évoque/amplifie le repli sur soi, le

recroquevillement.

3.2 Le suffixe idéophonique -ò

Le suffixe idéophonique -ò s’adjoint au radical verbal de structure +CVC- et+CVCVC- pour former un idéophone qui évoque de manière expressive ouiconique l’action verbale.

(21) *+sók-fi +sókólá ‘pousser brutalement ou énergiquement; répudier (femme)

sans ménagement’fi +sók¢fmá ‘être poussé brutalement être répudiée sans ménagement’fi sóko-sóko ‘idéophone’ n.b., sóko-sóko évoque les coups que l’on donne

en poussant (engin, quelqu’un).


(22) +tók- transvaser (nourriture)fi +tókólá ‘transvaser en grande quantité (nourriture)’fi +tók¢f ‘se transvaser en grande quantité’fi tóko-tóko ‘idéophone’ n.b., tóko-tóko évoque l’action de transvaser de

grandesquantités de nourriture.

3.3 Le suffixe idéophonique -ààà

Le suffixe idéophonique -ààà s’adjoint au radical verbal de structure -(C)VC- pourformer un idéophone qui évoque ou amplifie l’action verbale.

(23) *+kàl-fi +kal7 ‘abandonner au sol’fi +kalémá ‘être abandonné (au sol), être couché sur le dos’fi kal-aaa ‘idéophone’ n.b., kalaaa évoque/amplifie l’abandon, le déla-

issement.

(24) *+màt-fi +matátálá ‘s’affaisser, se dégonfler’fi +di-mata 5 ‘affaissement, dégonflement’fi mataaa ‘idéophone”’ n.b., mataaa évoque l’affaissement, le dégonfle-

ment.

3.4 Le suffixe idéophonique -óòò

Le suffixe idéophonique -óòò s’adjoint au radical verbal de structure +CVC- en vuede former un idéophone qui évoque l’action verbale. Le premier ton de ce mor-phème idéophonique est en contraste avec le ton du radical verbal de base lorsquecelui-ci se caractérise par un ton bas.

(25) *+kfk-fi kfk¢flá ‘desserrer’fi +kfk¢f ‘se desserrer’fi kfk¢fff ‘idéophone’, n.b., kfk¢fff évoque le desserrage

(26) *+sòmb-fi +sombólá ‘ensorceler par des procédés magiques; rendre pâle’fi +somb¢f ‘être ensorcelé par des procédés magiques; devenir pâle’fi o-sombó 1|2 ‘esprit de mort qui, dans la conception populaire, s’attaque à

des victimes humaines pour les tuer;se dit aussi d’un hommeaudacieux ou hardi

fi sombóoo ‘idéophone’, n.b., sombóoo évoque la pâleur d’une victime dela sorcelle-rie ou de la magie malveillante.


3.5 Le suffixe idéophonique -íìì

Le suffixe idéophonique -íìì s’adjoint au radical verbal de structure +CVC- pourformer un idéophone qui évoque/amplifie l’action verbale. Le premier ton de cettevoyelle ultra-longue est en contraste avec celui du radical verbal de base. Voici uneseule attestation1:

(27) +lfw- se mouillerfi lfwíii ‘idéophonique’, n.b. lÓwíii évoque/amplifie l’action de se mouiller

complètement.

4. Conclusion

Etant donné que les corrélations morphosémantiques et syntaxiques permettent dedresser l’inventaire des suffixes déidéophoniques et des suffixes idéophoniques, il estimportant de valoriser les idéophones et d’étendre le champ de recherche de lamorphologie dérivationnelle dans le cadre de la création lexicale spontanée ent7t7la. Pour ce faire, nous suggérons que:

1.�La description des mécanismes de formation des radicaux déidéophoniques etdes idéophones déverbatifs fasse l’objet de la morphologie marginale.2.�Les radicaux déidéophoniques et les idéophones déverbatifs apparaissent demanière claire et nette dans la description morphologique.3.�Les idéophones soient inclus dans le lexique et le dictionnaire t7t7la.

En outre, cette étude vient de montrer que le ton bas du suffixe idéophonique n’estpas assimilé par le ton haut du radical verbal. En d’autres termes, le ton de cet affixeest réfractaire à la règle d’assimilation tonale progressive posée par Ngulinzira(1977).

Au-delà de ses aspects grammatical et lexical, la description des mécanismes dedérivation déidéophonique et idéophonique a pour but d’intégrer, dans lesgrammaires t7t7la, des procédures expressives et iconiques que nos prédécesseursont traitées de manière excessivement timide.

Notes

1. Il y’a aussi l’idéophone yambíii qui ne dérive d’aucun radical verbal et qui évoque l’étreinte.


References

Guthrie, M. 1948. The Classification of the Bantu Languages. London: OUP.Guthrie, M. 1970. Comparative Bantu. Vol. III. London: Gregg International Ltd.Ngulinzira, B. 1977. Esquisse phonologique et morphologique du Tetela(C71). Mémoire inédit.

Bruxelles: Université Libre de Bruxelles.

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A comparison of some Southeast Asian

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AUTHOR "Richard L. Watson"

TITLE "A comparison of some Southeast Asian ideophones with some African ideophones"


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ideophones with some African ideophones

Richard L. WatsonSummer Institute of Linguistics, Nairobi

1. Definition

Whether in Africa or Southeast Asia, we can safely say that ideophones are wordswhich share special phonological, morphosyntactic, semantic and pragmaticcharacteristics that differ from other words, whether the analyst treats them as aseparate word class or as subclasses under other classes or both.

Although the terms ‘expressive’ and ‘descriptive’ have been used in SoutheastAsia, rather than ‘ideophone’, it is clear that we are talking about words with thesame characteristics. We find similar problems in classifying Southeast Asian andAfrican ideophones, though not to the same extent. There are those in both areaswho insist that ideophones constitute a separate word class and those who insistthat they are only subclasses of other word classes. This difference of opinion restson both the nature of the languages described and the rules of word class definitionthat we are willing to recognize.

Diffloth (1976:249) states regarding Semai, “… this language and most othersof the Austroasiatic family have a third basic word-class of the same order ofmagnitude as the first two.” He proceeds to describe expressives, i.e. ideophones, interms of syntactic and morphological uniqueness. In addition he shows that“expressives are indeed a totally different kind of linguistic animal” (251).

Another Mon-Khmer language, Pacoh (Watson 1966b) has most of the samedistinctions. The relationship between ideophones and adverbs is close enough thatsome analysts would feel justified in treating ideophones as only a subclass ofadverbs, unless they admitted phonological, semantic and pragmatic evidence aswell. Banker (1965:22) treats Bahnar ideophones under both “Nominative Descrip-tives,” belonging to Adjectives and “Descriptive Adverbs”, belonging to Adverbs,though he says “another analysis might have classed these two together.”

386 Richard L. Watson

Svantesson (1983:78) says of Kammu ideophones (still Mon-Khmer), “Syntac-tically they are verb-phrase constituents, which follow the verb, and they can beregarded as adverbs. However, because of their special phonological, morphologicaland semantic properties, they will be treated as a class of their own.” In 1992 he goeseven further to say, “In Kammu there is a separate word-class of expressives(sometimes called ideophones), which in a way extends the class of onomatopoeicwords found in all languages. The expressives describe how the speaker perceives asituation with the senses — how it sounds, looks, smells, tastes or feels — as well asdescribing the speaker’s feelings. Syntactically they are verb complements, giving amore precise or intense meaning to the verb.” (369).

This is generally the same range of definitions we find in Africa, except that inAfrica the picture is further complicated by the realization of ideophones as verbs,nouns and adjectives, as well as adverbs. Doke’s (1935:118–119) original definitionopened the door to the inclusion of phonological and semantic characteristics.Cole’s (1955:370) likewise. Samarin (1970:153) has long promoted the study ofideophones as a special “set of words different in each language but manifesting inall languages certain phonologic and semantic similarities.” P. Newman (1968)showed that even when ideophones are syntactically subclasses of other classes, it isimportant to analyze what may be unique functions in those classes, e.g. “that therestriction of a subset of ideophones to certain basic sentence types is probably acommon syntactic feature of ideophones in all African languages.” (116) Similarfunctions have been noted for SEA ideophones.

Childs (1988:181) opts for a prototype category, based on a constellation ofcharacteristics. Kilian-Hatz (1997:160–163) rejects the prototype category whichranges from a core of good ideophones to a fringe of poor ideophones. She ratherrecognizes that while Baka ideophones are syntactically subclasses of verbs, nounsand adverbs, the characteristics which they share with typological characteristics ofideophones around the world set them clearly apart from other verbs, nouns, andadverbs and demonstrate their oneness.

In summary, whether a particular analyst is able to define ideophones in aparticular language of SEA or Africa as belonging to a single syntactic word class ornot, it is clear that we are all talking about the same kind of words. Definitions likethat of Kilian-Hatz, which include typological comparisons, will help to confirmthat fact.

For comparative purposes I will consider phonological, morphological,syntactic, semantic, iconic, and pragmatic characteristics separately.

2. Phonological comparisons

Apart from reduplication, discussed under morphology, the addition of unique or

Some Southeast Asian ideophones vs. some African ideophones 387

rare phonological characteristics in ideophone inventories does not appear to be ascommon in SEA languages as in Africa. I found no reference to it in Mon-Khmerlanguages, most of which have large vowel and consonant inventories. However,Matisoff (1994) illustrates from Lahu (Tibeto-Burman) that its mono-syllabic,highly tonal word shape: (C) V/T, is considerably extended for sound symbolism:(C) (w) V/T/(N) y/w/‘‘/E/˜, either single or reduplicated. That is, a labial glide maybe added to the onset, nasalization may be added to the peak, and the peak may befollowed by a y, w, ‘, E or length. He points out that these otherwise unused itemsadd salience to a special class of words, as well as avoiding a high level of homo-phony with ordinary words (121–122).

On the one hand, I assume that in SEA the addition of phonological character-istics is especially true of ideophones in mono-syllabic, tonal languages because theyhave lost both initial and final consonants, leaving them with a high degree ofhomophony. Whether ideophones have preserved some of those lost consonantsand word shapes or they have simply added them according to need is debatable.Matisoff (1994:125), for example, claims that Lahu nasalized vowels have norelationship with the much earlier loss of final nasal consonants.

In Africa new writers often ask me how to write a word when the coda isstretched out many extra lengths. Whereas Matisoff uses a single length mark forLahu, Africans may need to repeat a letter many times.

On the other hand, what I believe is true everywhere, including SEA and Africa,is that ideophones are not spoken in a droll, business-as-usual tone of voice. Thereis always added enthusiasm in the enunciation of ideophones, as the vividness ofmeaning is reflected in more vivid, emotionally heightened articulation. H.A.Gleason demonstrated this by playing a recording of Ewe for a person who hadnever before heard the language, but whose language also made free use of ideo-phones. He asked him to signal each time he heard what he thought was anideophones. Dr. Gleason estimated that the person recognized more than half of theideophones present and never identified as an ideophone any word that was notone.1 I believe that results to a large part from enthusiastic enunciation true of allideophones whether reduplication is present or not. A number of analysts in SEAand Africa report that ideophones are set off by pauses. I don’t know how well thatcan be substantiated, but there are very often at least special prosodic characteris-tics.

3. Morphological comparisons

In Mon-Khmer and Tibeto-Burman languages ideophones are adverbial and theirroots do not usually overlap with verb or noun roots (cf. Svantesson 1983:79 reKammu). The same could be said of adverb and adjective roots, allowing that


ideophones are at least separate subclasses. In Pacoh (Watson 1966b:71–72) onlyone noun root and six verb roots could be identified out of 610 ideophone roots.For example:

(1) ño¦ay‘ 2 to¦ay‘ ño¦ay‘‘small fish with pointed head’ ‘of a steep pointed mt. peak’]o¦ay ]uy-]o¦ay‘to turn head’ ‘descr. of turning head to avoid meeting’we¦an te¦an-we¦an‘to lie curled’ ‘descr. of lying curled up’wi6‘ wi6‘-w6r‘to twist’ ‘descr. of twisting/prancing’

The direction of derivation is not clear. (I have heard that Munda ideophones canbe verbs. Although it is Austroasiatic, that may push it into a South Asian groupingwith respect to ideophones.)

3.1 Ideophone reduplication and affixation

In Austroasiatic languages, I believe it is safe to say that there is more reduplicationand certainly more kinds of reduplication (including alliteration, rhyming, etc.) inideophones than in the rest of the language. Mon-Khmer affixation only involvesderivational prefixes and infixes. Ideophones can be affixed and reduplicated.Svantesson (1983:81) describes both as operations upon expressive roots. Kammuexpressives have five prefixators: gl, gr, kl, r, or C, which all differ from those ofother word classes. They have four reduplicators which overlap with verbs andnouns: R(Ø) complete reduplication without any change, R(O) onset changing,R(P) peak changing, R(C) coda changing, and R(R) rhyme-changing reduplication.The prefixators and reduplicators combine to account for fourteen derivedexpressive shapes, summarized as double affixation, affixation followed by redupli-cation, reduplication followed by affixation, and double reduplication.

Two of these combinations can also operate on verb roots and one on nounroots. So, although there is very little overlap of roots, there are two reduplicativeverb shapes and one reduplicative noun shape which match those ideophoneshapes. An African linguist might be tempted to identify these nouns and verbs withideophones, i.e. assuming three subclasses of ideophones. However, this involvesrelatively few verbs or nouns and most do not carry ideophone-like meanings,though they may carry the meaning of the reduplicator. For example, lù‘-lù‘ ‘to benaked’, but pìit-pffc ‘to make fire by rubbing’. The latter shape is often associatedwith the notion of irregularity or back and forth motion. The following shape isoften associated with irregularity or carelessness in either verbs or expressives: kltà‘-kltùm ‘to wrap loosely’. The reduplicative nouns are mostly insects and birds. Someare imitative of their sound or action and a few seem to be either derived from


ideophones or to have shifted from the ideophone class, e.g. tàl-tàl ‘kind of cicada’,kltffñ-tèeñ ‘firefly’ related to tffñ-tèeñ ‘expr. of twinkling light’.

Pacoh (Watson 1966b) ideophones have a similar number of prefixators andreduplicative shapes as Kammu, although they were not described so well in 1966.In fact, they were described as phonological reduplication, but more recent workproves the morphological nature of reduplication. All twenty-four of the non-ideophone reduplicative words which I found were nouns, seventeen of which wereinsects and birds. Thirteen disyllabic words with reduplicative prefixes includedseven nouns and six adjectives, e.g. kak¦fl ‘round’, kakf˜ng ‘oval’.

By contrast, most Baka (Kilian-Hatz 1997) ideophones are verbs, and all Somali(Dhoorre & Tosco 1998) ideophones are nouns. However, in spite of their mixedclassification Baka ideophones are characterized by considerable reduplication, andKilian-Hatz (1997:126) says it is significant that Baka ideophone can never besuffixed and have no markings for tense, mood or aspect, as verbs.

Childs (1988: ??) says that “Ideophones display very little morphology.” In fact,all he mentions is “repetition, sometimes morphologized as reduplication.” Somaliideophones have a suffixed determiner and feminine gender marking, but cannotcarry a plural marker as other nouns can. There is no indication of derivationalaffixation.

3.2 Binomial reduplication

Many Mon-Khmer and Tibeto-Burman languages have couplets formed by a kindof reduplication in which second members have been called ‘echo words’ or‘attendant words’, probably not to be confused with Wolf Leslau’s (1961) Semitic‘echo words’ referred to by Samarin (1970) . In shape and euphonic use many ofthem resemble ideophones. Some analysts have grouped them with ideophones andothers have asked why not? Banker (1964) included Bahnar noun, adjective, verb,and temporal couplets with expressives under ‘intensive’ reduplication. Some of theBahnar verb examples resemble Pacoh augmentatives, however, all of the nouns andsome of the others resemble Pacoh couplets.

Rabel (1961:116) called such couplets in Khasi “imitatives” and said that “theirfrequent and correct use is one of the measuring sticks of a Khasi speaker’s linguisticadroitness.” Cadière (1958:9) defined Vietnamese “mots doubles”, as follows:

Par mot double il faut entendre la réunion de deux éléments de même nature(verbes, substantifs, adjectifs, etc.) groupés pour donner quelquefois un sensplus général, plus abstrait, aux mots qui le composent, ou tout simplementplus d’harmonie à la phrase.

For the wider world, Malkiel (1959:113) used the term “binomials” and definedthem as


… a sequence of two words pertaining to the same form-class, placed on anidentical level of syntactic hierarchy and ordinarily connected by some kind oflexical link.” (SEA binomials are not connected by lexical links.)

Might these be ideophonic subclasses of nouns, adjectives and verbs, such as foundin African languages? There are three significant differences. First, couplets not onlyinclude reduplicatives in which the second member is a bound form, but they alsoinclude synonym pairs in which the second member may or may not be bound orreduplicative, and pairs in which the second member may not even be a synonym,but belongs to a lexically related set.

Secondly, couplets can be modified, which ideophones cannot. Thirdly, themeaning of such coupling is ‘amplification or generalization’ rather than ‘intensifi-cation or specificity’. Examples of semi-bound binomials:

(2) noun: da˜q-dfñg ‘water generally, e.g. all the water in a particular place’verb: papi-papf˜y ‘to converse’adjective: prek-pre ‘clean completely, e.g. the whole house’

Examples of synonymous binomials (some second members never occur freely):

(3) noun: kun aw ‘clothing, literally pants and shirts’verb: clo¦ñ añ6˜y ‘play and play’adjective: bu˜y e˜m ‘happy and joyful’

Examples of non-synonymous binomials:

(4) nouns: a-am a-i ‘parents, literally father mother’, dung ve¦˜l ‘houses andvillages’

verbs: cha ngf˜y‘ ‘eat and drink’, chicha liloñ ‘eat and swallow’adjectives: ho˜y tube¦‘ ‘able and wise’, i6n-o ‘easy+good = peaceful’

Gorgoniev (1976:318–321) says that since the ‘attendant words’ in such Khmerpairs are meaningful morphemes, the formations are compounds, or ‘pseudo-reduplicatives’. However, when an ‘attendant word’ is a reduplicator, as in manyAustro-Asiatic languages such as the Vietnamese siêc in sách-siêc ‘books and such’,such pairs are true reduplicatives. But he would not call them ‘expressives’ orideophones.

3.3 Multinomial reduplication

What has been said of binomials can also be said of trinomials and quadrinomials.They resemble ideophones, e.g. trinomials kawiñg-wañg-irañg ‘clear around’,kantYp-kantep-me¦ap ‘orphans’, ta‘-wa‘-s7˜‘ ‘work-borrow-beg=get by any and allmeans’. Likewise, quadrinomials, e.g. kh6p-khum-um-muh ‘good fortune’, klo¦ñ-ngañ-lañ-pa ‘to play’, ho˜y-tube¦‘-ple¦‘-pinhe ‘wise and able’.


Some (Trongdee 1992; Wayland 1996) have described Lao ideophones, butothers in describing Lao ‘elaborate expressions’ have rather described binomials andmultinomials. Roffe (1975:285) says:

The absence of these expressions from the continuum of speech or from thecontinuity of a text will rob that speech or that text of something essentiallyLao and their presence will add to such speech or such a text a flavor and/or asparkle which identify them as Lao. They are to the language what spice is tofood, what polishing or setting is to a gem. Without them the speaker or writerwill make himself understood, but prove to be rather dull and pedestrian. Withthem, he enthralls his audience with both lilt and light, making his messageboth meaningful and melodious.” Further on he says, “It may be an innate partand parcel of the métier of those who seem to be able to vie — often extempo-raneously — with the minstrels and troubadours of the Middle Ages, stringingtogether expressions of this kind in seemingly interminable production, to theunending delight of their audience.

It is easy to see why it is tempting to group these with ideophones. They involve akind of creative play with words, including both morphological reduplication and‘semantic reduplication’ (cf. Voegelin 1966:43). However, the differences outweighthe similarities.

3.4 Syntactic reduplication of binomials and multinomials

This section is here rather than under Syntactic comparisons in order to completethe issue of binomials and show that even in their special syntactic use, they aredifferent from ideophones. Binomials and, to a lesser extent, multinomials enterinto a process of stretching out clauses and whole sentences to further extend thereduplicative effect of amplification and euphonic rhythm. This phenomenon ismore fully described in Watson (1966a, 1980), and in Filbeck (1996) “Couplets andDuplications in Mal.”

Ideophones are occasionally included in such constructions because they arealso euphonic and help liven up the scene with their expressiveness. However, theyare not necessary to the euphony and are much less common than binomials.

The following example contains three binomials marked by hyphens, but threeothers, lom-pallúng, klo¦n-anyo’i and ngoy‘-cha, are spread out:

(5) Te lom te pallúng buy-be lu’, ính pôk klo¦n pôkfrom liver from stomach happy-hap very want go play goanyo’i, chachâp-baboy‘, pôk ngoy‘ pôk cha pôk yok-ye.play sing sing go drink go eat go entertain-tain‘Everyone feels very happy inside and wants to go play, sing, eat, drink and entertain.’

Of particular significance here is that whereas binomials of all types can be separat-


ed by this kind of duplication, ideophones cannot. They must always remain joined,as the three binomials above which just happen to remain joined while others areseparated. While proverbs and whole texts are amplified and stylized by repetitionand binomial reduplication, with or without a few ideophones inserted here andthere like spice, we must conclude that it is a different use of reduplication andparallelism than found in ideophones, except that it is also a kind of word play,demonstrating the speaker’s language skills.

4. Syntactic comparisons

In the discussion of definitions (2) above, it was concluded that, even thoughideophones might be classified syntactically as a subclass of one or more otherclasses, typologically, they can be defined as members of a distinct class. In addition,there are syntactic differences which are significant, even if not adequate in them-selves to distinguish a separate syntactic classification. Pacoh ideophones cannot bemodified in any way, whereas other words can be negated, intensified, etc.

In Mon-Khmer languages ideophones are often characterized as not onlyadverbials modifying verbs, but also a special class modifying events at the clause-level. This position is supported for Mon-Khmer languages by a number oflinguists, including Diffloth (1976), and Svantesson (1983). Diffloth says,

Whereas adjectives and adverbs follow head nouns or verbs, expressivesprecede sentences or isolated noun phrases. … expressives cannot be quanti-fied …. They cannot be either the head or the modifier of any other part ofspeech; in fact, they are not at all integrated in the syntax of the language andfunction mostly in the manner of independent clauses, all by themselves.(255–256)

Svantesson says, “Expressives are often uttered in isolation as “minor sentences”.Sentences with expressives are generally non-negatable, …” (79)

Related to that is the fact that ideophones do not appear to be tied as closely tospecific verbs or dummy quotatives, as they are in many African languages. Mon-Khmer ideophones usually only relate hyponymically to one adverb or adjective,but they are relatively free in relating to several verbs, and some verbs relate to anumber of ideophones.

On the other hand, Matisoff (1994:120) reports that in Lahu (Tibeto-Burman)ideophones occur directly before a “dummy” verb qáy, generally translated ‘go’, asin qáw-qáw qáy ve ‘go bow-bow’.

Moving to Africa and a Euro-African Creole, Shanks and Velanti quote Kunene(1965:20) in defining the ideophone as “a dramatization of actions and states, andthe conclusion is that two predicative types must be recognized …, viz. the ‘narra-


tive’ and the dramatic.” As Shanks and Velanti say, “The ideophone is not a part ofthe nucleus of a clause, but a separate constituent which adds dramatic effect.” Theyfurther point out that the dramatic function is usually seen as modifying actions,but it may also modify the characteristics of objects.

5. Semantic comparisons

5.1 Hyponymy

Three keywords in semantic descriptions of ideophones are ‘specificity, intensity,and vividness’. One characterization of ideophones, at least in Mon-Khmerlanguages is that they are the ultimate hyponyms. Nuclear words, e.g. ‘run’, ‘quick’are only rarely reduplicative or sound-symbolic. Hyponyms, such as ‘wiggle’,‘wobble’, ‘hurried’ or ‘harried’, begin to show more signs of sound-symbolism.Ideophones are not only highly reduplicative and sound-symbolic, but they are sospecific that they cannot be modified nor can there be hyponyms below them (cf.Akimoto 1991).

When words involve sound-symbolism they carry an element of description,even if they are typically naming words, perhaps ideophone-like nouns, such as‘butterfly’ in Pacoh apa˜ng-pYk, Kammu ‘aam-plaam, Ma’di (Sudanic) arapapa,occur because they are not nuclear words but are hyponyms of insect, bird, etc.,which include an element of description. The descriptive word classes, adverbs andadjectives or stative verbs, on the other hand, tend to be fairly small, closed classes,and need ideophones to increase their specificity, so it is to be expected thatideophones are most commonly adverbial.

However, verbs can also be descriptive. Dhoorre and Tosco (1998:130) say,“While Somali ideophones are morphosyntactically nominals, semantically they areverb-like in expressing actions and changes of state, rather than situations.” Theyillustrate by saying, ideophones express intensive or exaggerated shades of meaning:not just ‘eating’ but ‘wolfing down’; not ‘killing’ but ‘wiping out’; not ‘breaking’ but‘smashing.’�”

However, Kilian-Hatz (1997:143) says that many ideophones in Baka are nomore explicit or intense than their nominal, verbal or adverbial counterparts.Instead she says that these are merely stylistic variants of the ordinary word classes.Perhaps this indicates that some Baka ideophones simply carry the stylistic functionthat binomials carry in many SEA languages. These are ordinary words dressed upby morphological and/or semantic duplication to give eloquence to speaking. Theyhave a semantic function of amplitude or generalization, but a pragmatic functionof eloquence.


5.2 Meanings of ideophones compared

It is not possible to give the real meanings of ideophones in a list of English terms.They must be felt by a speaker of the language. For example, Semai (Diffloth1967:258–9) spsrajã˜p ‘many tears falling in a large and fast flow’, or rñruhf˜ñ ‘theodd appearance of a snake’s head, sharp yet not pointed, rounded-off yet notround’. In addition to the feel of such words there is the combining of severalelements, such as a ‘small, thin, long thing’ vs. a ‘large, short, flat thing’. Carr(1966:371) refers to Uhlenbeck (1949:198) as follows:

He emphasizes how misleading are the usual colorless translations of Javaneseexpressives. A translator or lexicographer tends to use a style too urbane, tooelevated, or too commonplace to render the colorful and concrete language ofthe people. Often it is due to the translator’s ignorance of the exact meaningand usage in the foreign tongue. Even if he knows the meaning and usage, hemay find it impossible or too time-consuming to find a near-equivalent in hisown language.

However, for the sake of comparison, I will give a list which I have summarized forSEA ideophones. Most are drawn from Pacoh (Watson 1966b) but can be support-ed in all the languages I have data for:

sounds: bird and animal sounds, including calls, wings flapping,nature sounds: rain drizzling or pouring, waterfall roaring, stream trickling,

thunder, wind, rocks bouncing on rocks, things falling or striking, silencehuman sounds: speech, emotional, physical, striking the ground or a target with

a variety of instruments — both violent and musical, bell ringing, drumming,regular and alternating sounds, shooing, chewing, chopping, gunfire, or beingquiet

light, fire: bright, dazzling, flickering, dying, small, largeactions (single and multiple and combined with the manners below): falling,

beating, talking, crying, laughing, walking, rubbing, crawling, scratching,panting, smiling, nodding, jumping, perching, puffing smoke, crouching,hanging (bat-like), flopping, prancing, twisting, listening, marching, carryingloads

manners: graceful, awkward, strong, tired, gradual, haphazard, confused, hopeless,fast, slow, limping, in line, in bunches, continuous, with long steps, on one leg,legs spread like frog, nimble, bobbing up and down, bubbling, swelling, cross-legged, loquacious, sudden

involuntary actions (single and multiple): twitching, shaking, floating, rubbing,swinging, vibrating, boiling, smoldering, smoke puffing, smoke or mist rising,flowing, appearing, disappearing, protruding, penetrating, dying


states:number: few, many (at least 26 of 610 in Pacoh can modify klú’ng ‘many’)physical appearance (of many objects, human, animal, nature): big, small,

tiny, massive, tall, short, long, thin, fat, narrow, thick, toothy, buck-toothed,striped, spotted, pregnant, fluffy, pretty, disheveled, filthy, peeled, stiff,straight, steep, bald, kinky, waving, winding, incongruous, flat, pointed, blunt,irregular, curved, curled, round, circular, rectangular, hole, humped, heaped,full, wide, spacious, steep, sharp, red, black, white, loose, tight, patterned,broken, hanging down, zigzagged, crooked, arched, bulging, drooping, loadeddown, baggy, floppy, frayed, staring, puckered

positions: lying, standing, sitting, squatting, stooping, bent over, leaning, open,closed, scattered, sticking out, stuck

social position: rich, poor,physical feelings (including tactile): prickly, pain of bite, burn or sting,

headache, dizziness, warm, cold, smooth, soft, smoke rising in nostrils, wet,heavy, light

emotional feelings: lonely, longing for, happy, sad, anxious, shy, angry, bitter,hatred, waiting in vain, asking in vain, uninhibited

tastes: bitter, sweet, flatodors: stink, fragrance (roasting fish)

Having gone through all the examples in articles I have on African ideophones, Ifound only differences in detail, that is, most of the above concepts were found, afew were not, and there were a few more in African ideophones not found in SEAexamples.

Comparing Awoyale’s (1983–4) list of semantic fields, I can put SEA examplesin every field. Although I cannot adequately compare the contents of the fields sinceI have only a small fraction of either SEA or African ideophones, I was surprised bya few apparent gaps. Pacoh has many terms for beauty, ugliness, and incongruitywhich the African lists lack. On the other side, it appears that there are more Africanideophones for colors (cf. Schaefer 1984). I suspect that in the long run the onlysignificant differences will be cultural ones, such as differences of musical instru-ments.

Likewise, with the list of 22 semantic domains given by Kilian-Hatz(1997:146–147), I can put Pacoh examples into almost every domain and have nodoubt about filling the others with a little more time on Pacoh, or other Mon-Khmer languages.


6. Iconic comparisons

Except for articles which are only concerned with reduplicative templates, I believeit is safe to say that everything written on ideophones is concerned with iconicity,i.e. sound-meaning correlations. I have divided these into three types. First arethose ‘phonesthemes’ or ‘psycho-morphs’ for which there is growing evidence ofsome degree of universality. Second is the remainder of potential phonesthemes,which may involve a scale from not yet discovered universals to culture-specificcorrelations to the arbitrary. Childs (1988:189) refers to these as ‘conventional (orlanguage-specific). The distinction between onomatopoeia and synesthesia can besubdivisions under both ‘universal’ and ‘conventional’. Third are morphological or‘sub-morphological’ processes, such as reduplication and affixation.

6.1 ‘Universal’ phonesthemes in ideophones

As Childs (ibid.) points out, onomatopoeic forms which directly imitate sounds innature, as seen in similarities around the word, such as a rooster’s crow, reflectsome kind of universals. Comparing how they are adapted to speech sound systemsaround the world is interesting and may contribute to understanding somecorrelations in synesthesia as well. However, I don’t have any comparative data ofrelevance at this point.

Regarding synesthesia and correlations posited as universal, the best docu-mented in both SEA and Africa are those which concern the notions ‘big’ and ‘little’and all their semantic extensions. The phonological correlates are sometimespresented as an opposition between high front vowels and low back vowels, or hightones and low tones, or pharynx width, seen in retracted tongue root and advancedtongue root. Edward Sapir already stated in 1929 (235) that “… a spatially extendedgesture is symbolic of a larger reference than a spatially restricted gesture.” Greger-son (1984:219–220) formulated this as Mf=Mc ‘magnitude of (linguistic) form issymbolically associated with magnitude of referential concept’ and Cf=Cc ‘closureof form is associated with closure of concept’.

I am partial to Gregerson because his description of pharynx involvement inRengao, a Mon-Khmer language of Viet Nam, is insightful for the many SEAlanguages which replaced an initial consonant opposition with either an ATRopposition or a tonal opposition. Rengao represents those which, like Pacoh, wentthe ATR route, giving a system in which all narrow pharynx vowels symbolizesmaller referents than all wide pharynx vowels, e.g.


(6) chah7h chahah chahfh‘sight of a ‘…small mouth’ ‘ …medium-sized mouth’very small mouth’chahuh chah6h chahoh‘ …rather large ‘…large mouth’ ‘ …very large mouth’.mouth’

So it is that a high front /i/ may refer to something relatively large, if it is either+ATR, or on a low tone, if in a tonal language.

Gregerson refers to David Sapir’s (1975) description of big and thin in Fognyof West Africa. The focus there is on a sociolinguistic difference between dialects,but Sapir also shows that −ATR ‘lax’ vowels, especially in ideophones, symbolizesmaller referents than +ATR ‘tense’ vowels. It is very interesting that Poedjosoe-darmo (1993) describes a similar sociolinguistic phenomenon in Javanese, butbetween members of the same dialect rather than across dialects.

Maduka (1988, 1991) has described pharyngeal correlation to size in Nembeand Hausa. High vs. low tone pairs are even more common. (cf. Awoyale 1983/84;Childs 1988.)

Kammu is an interesting case where the southern dialect still has a contrastbetween voiceless and voiced initial consonants while the northern dialect hasreplaced it with a contrast between high and low tone. So there is no ATR differenceand the tonal difference is recent. And so different sizes are indicated in expressivesby only the oral vowel differences. Svantesson (1992a:371) says, “As seen in theseexamples the vowels quality is related to the size of the entities involved. The orderis fairly consistent, going from i and e via ö, a, 6 to o and u. In phonetic terms thevowels are ordered approximately by the second formant frequency (F2). High-pitched F2 is associated with small entities, and low F2 with bigger ones.”

Although Thai is highly tonal and largely monosyllabic, I find references tovowel size and Ohala’s (1982, 83, 94) ‘frequency code’, but not to tone. (cf. Ross(1996), Thongkum (1979), and Wayland (1996).)

Matisoff (1994:122–124) describes several correlations between sound and sizein expressives in Lahu. “To its rarity it (high-rising) joins its highness, which makesit appropriate for a sound-symbolic diminutive function.” There is also a proto*/-y/ suffix which can still be found to mark diminutive in its reflexes. Diminutiveis also indicated by an initial /s/, which does not occur in the regular consonantinventory and requires the insertion of a barred-i before any other vowel. He says,“The fusional diphthongs described in Sections 9.62 and 9.6.3 represent the samemorphophonemic process — suffixation of a palatal diminutive element. Thesephenomena furnish a further teeny-weeny bit of corroboration for the universalsound-symbolic connection between high-front vowels and notions of smallness.”

Matisoff (1994:125) also states that nasalization is used to indicate intensity,as he says it also does in some Japanese expressives.


6.2 Culture-specific phonesthetic correlations

It is common for people to have a feeling that all of the sounds of their ideophonescorrelate directly with meanings. Kilian-Hatz (1997:125) says, “Many Bakaideophones are in fact arbitrary words. Yet all of them are categorized by the Bakaas “sound” words.” In other words, they are all perceived by the Baka as imitative.This feeling is not altogether naïve, as we have noted from the previous twosections. Other sounds and combinations of sounds also have a level of validity asculture-specific phonesthemes.

In Pacoh the initial tr cluster appears to indicate length, e.g. t6w‘ -tr6w‘ ‘longspindly legs’, to¦a]-tro¦] ‘long tusks on an elephant’, ta˜w-tra˜w ‘huge tusks or teethof elephant/boar/tiger’. The final w also seems to correlate with largeness, e.g. t6w-ng6w ‘smthg. large sitting in the dark’. The vowel ¦6 occurs in thirty-one ideophonesat least twelve of which have the meaning ‘thin and conspicuous’. The word t¦6w‘-k¦6w‘ ‘very skinny’ besides having the ¦6 vowel, belongs to the k- group consisting ofnine words, at least five of which have the meaning ‘stretched out thin’, and to the-w‘ group consisting of three words, all of which mean ‘skinny’. All five words withthe prefix b6l- or b6r- contain the meaning ‘always’ or ‘continuously’, and four offive words beginning with la- involve ‘water in motion’.For Lao Trongdee (1996:194–195) presents examples to show that “Final stopconsonants signify the abrupt ending of sound and movement whereas final nasals,semivowels or none signify the lingering sense of sound, smell, taste, light, feelingand the smooth ending of movement …. Initial stop consonants seemingly signifya sudden happening or forceful movement whereas nasal consonants signifyflexibility of movement or of thing.”

Carr (1966:373–374) suggests a lot of sound symbolism in Malay/Indonesianexpressives and quasi-expressives, giving an example of fourteen words in the shapeof lecVC almost all of which carry the meaning of ‘wet or slippery’.Maduka’s (1988, 91) description of shapes, especially roundness, sound similar tosome in Pacoh and deserve comparisons with other languages.

Childs (1988:188–194) brings together a number of examples of onomatopoe-ia, synesthesia and conventional sound symbolism in African languages, so I referthe reader to him for African examples.

6.3 Morphological or sub-morphological processes in ideophones

Svantesson’s (1983, 1992a) descriptions of morphological processes in Kammuideophones is the most productive I have seen. Many of these processes would bedescribed as sub-morphemic in other languages where they are not so productive,but Kammu is notable for its “highly organized morphology of this word-class”(1992a:369). Perhaps, more ideophonic features previously thought to be sub-


morphemic will eventually be brought into morphology. Svantesson’s (1992a:370)table (Figure 1) is reproduced below:

Form Meaning Example (with the root ]ùk ‘nod’)1a. R-R dynamic durative ]ùk-kn]ùk ‘one person keeps nodding’1a. (or R-knR)1b. R-r]R3 -”-, plural ]ùk-r]]ùk ‘many people keep nodding’2a. CR punctual c]úk ‘one person nods once’2b. rR -”-, plural r]ùk ‘many people nod once’3a. CR-CR iterated punctual c]úk-c]úk ‘one person nods at intervals’3b. rR-rR -”-, plural r]ùk-r]ùk ‘many people nod at intervals’4a. CCfR static ck]ùk ‘one person bends his head

down’4b. rCfR -”-, plural rk]ùk ‘many people bend heads down’

Figure 1.�Svantesson’s (1992a) table of Kammu Expressive shapes and meanings

Some of the reduplicative shapes and affixation do not carry the same meaning iffound in other word classes, though some do. Although complete reduplicationcarries some common notions around the world, e.g. iteration, duration, andintensification, Vietnamese and some other Mon-Khmer languages reduplicatequantitatives to indicate de-intensification, e.g. VN traÔng traÔng ‘rather white’, Pacohnya˜‘-nya˜‘ ‘somewhat fast’.

The use of /r/ for plurality or multiple action is common in Austroasiaticlanguages. I expect others of these patterns will be matched as time goes on. Thereare several in Pacoh just waiting for better analysis.

Another process is that of vowel alternation indicating something alternatingor irregular. This is particularly found in onomatopoeic words, e.g. English clippety-clop, Pacoh tip-tup ‘sound of two people pounding rice alternately’, e˜t-o˜t ‘sound ofbamboo rubbing together in the wind’. By extension we find kluk-klek ‘two personsagreeing’, pe˜l-klYp ‘hobbling lamely’.

Returning to Africa, Kilian-Hatz (1997) divides Baka ideophones into tengroups according to their syllable structure. This isolates several processes with theirsemantic correlates. The clearest of these are: (a) a monosyllable with short vowelset contains almost all onomatopoeic words indicating sounds of falling or beating,which just happen once, and come to a sudden halt; (b) reduplication indicatesmultiple actions/motions, and (c) length generally indicates duration, speed, andloudness.


7. Pragmatic comparisons

Pragmatically, the importance of ideophones is seen very clearly in the largenumbers of them found in many languages of both SEA and Africa. Diffloth(1976:249) referring to ‘expressives’ in Semai, says, “It has not been commonlyrecognized that this language and most others of the Austroasiatic family have athird basic word-class of the same order of magnitude as the first two.” Svantesson(1983:78) calls them “a third major class of Kammu words.” Most studies note thatideophones make up a very significant proportion of the words of the language (e.g.ten percent in Pacoh without even trying) and that only the surface has beenscratched. In Gbeya, where Samarin (1979:55) has spent the most effort, he has inhis ideophone file “between 8,000 and 9,000, and there is no evidence that we haveapproached the limit.” There must be very significant functions for a people tomaintain such an inventory. Large numbers are overwhelming evidence, but evenwhere the numbers are smaller they must have important functions.

Kilian-Hatz (1997:125) reports that “All kinds of Baka narration are character-ized by a frequent occurrence of ideophones.” She goes on to ask why they are onlyused in narrative texts. She learned from Baka storytellers and informants thatideophones function as a stylistic means to underline that a story is really true. Theyauthenticate a story by showing that the narrator knows the world in which thestory is set. I am not aware of this function in SEA uses of ideophones, but it bearsfurther investigation.

De Jong (1999) reports that Didinga ideophones occur at significant points innarrative, which he will describe later in this conference.

Although we hear most about ideophones in narrative, they do occur else-where. The Pacoh also use them in conversation and in descriptive texts.

Mphande (1992) describes heavy use in ChiTumbuka narrative, poetry andlullabies and care-givers songs. In lullabies and care-givers songs “they constitute animportant part of the linguistic input that children receive during early languagelearning; they play a particularly significant role in the acquisition of intonation.”In narrative and poetry ideophones assist the narrator “to convey an exact impres-sion of individual events or situations.” They represent “mastery over the mediumof imaginative expression in ChiTumbuka.” They enable the narrator to create “theillusion that we are having a sensual perception thereof, which endows the ideo-phone with its ability to intensify a situation. In this way, ideophones dramatize theaction.” Mphande also refers to “poetic power,” “melody,” and “harmony.”

These descriptions seem to be identical to those expressed to me by the Pacohin Viet Nam concerning the use of both binomials and ideophones. When anarrator made good use of binomials and ideophones, the people responded with“alang” meaning ‘melodious’. If it was highly loaded with these terms, they wouldkeep saying “alang alang” at every pause. The same could be said of binomials and


their syntactic duplications alone, but ideophones add vividness, intensity andeuphony, as well as specificity, and have a share in the praise of the speaker.It has been reported that in some places ideophones are the realm of children andyoung people and not appropriate for literature (cf. S. Newman 1964:375).Whatever may be the case against adult use in such languages, even the function ofword play among children and young people should not be dismissed too lightly.Undoubtedly this must be at least partly responsible for the ability to maintain largenumbers of ideophones in a language. Mphande alludes to this when he refers totheir use in lullabies and care-giver songs. More research is needed in this area as weconsider materials for children’s education and enjoyment in societies developingwritten literature.

Many references have been made to the neglect of ideophones, even in Africanlinguistics, where they have probably received more attention than elsewhere. It hasalso been observed that ideophones are strangely lacking in written Africanliterature. Mphande (1992:119) lays the charge at the feet of Western influence. Hesays, “Yet, ideophones are visibly absent from African folk narrative texts translatedunder the influence of missionaries and missionary-trained scholars who were thepioneer researchers in the field of African language study.” He points out that evena highly acclaimed African writer like Ngugi wa Thiong’o uses few, if any, ideo-phones because of his European based education. He further says that a westernscientific bias against ideophonic language caused it to be dismissed by linguists ascolloquial and therefore an inappropriate subject of serious linguistic investigation.”Furthermore, “Such an attitude constituted “textual genocide” in the sense that itcontributed to the annihilation of a fundamental cultural component of Africanlanguages.”

This is a very serious charge, but we are hearing similar suspicions from SouthAmerica as well. Brody (1998:153) in her review of Janis Nuckolls (1996) reportsthat “In comparison with other dialects of Quechua that have had more experiencewith literacy, the Pastaza dialect has a larger and more active inventory of soundsymbolic terms. N speculates on the relationship between literacy and loss of thesocial and performative situations in which these words are most frequently found.”I think that we can agree that our research has convinced us of the value of ideo-phones, not just as something to be studied out of curiosity, but to continue to bean important part of African languages and cultures. Some of us should be investi-gating how their appropriate uses can be promoted to overcome whatever damagehas been done. As we study pragmatics, we can also practice it.

In some parts of SEA at the annual feast of harvest a main event was a speakingcontest in which the men were divided into two teams and one by one they wouldhold forth with their best eloquence, until the opposing team caught them in a pooruse of language skills — words, proverbs, sayings or reasoning — and shouted themdown while their next man took over. These events have been lost in some places


because of political problems or replacement by radio and television. This isanother area needing investigation. What part do ideophones play in speakingcontests and how much do such contests stimulate the honing of ideophone skillsbetween times? What are the deterrents? Why not promote the development ofsome radio and television programs around speaking contests and other uses ofideophones and related language skills?

In the Sudan Branch of SIL we are teaching the use of ideophones in writer’scourses which are prerequisite to both literacy and translation projects. I now haveseveral examples of ideophones in national-authored literature and in translation.I was very pleased to see the excellent article by Philip Noss (1985) “Ideophone inBible translation: child or stepchild.” Articles like this need to be written orreprinted more often and in more places in order to maintain an impact on moretranslators, both national and expatriate.

8. Conclusion

We have noted a great many similarities between SEA and African ideophones anda few differences. It is obvious that more work is needed to make valid comparisonsbetween ideophones of Africa and of SEA. Enough studies are now available in eacharea in order to begin classifying languages according to the characteristics ofideophones manifested in them. These groupings can then be more thoroughly andaccurately compared across areas and knowledge gaps discovered and filled in. Inthe case of Austroasiatic ideophones we know that Munda represents somesignificant differences from most of the languages. Does it represent a subgroupwithin Austroasiatic or should it be grouped with Indic languages with respect toideophones? I hope that more of these questions will have been answered by thenext ideophone conference.

At the same time I hope that the influence of our research and practical effortswill grow on behalf of promoting the use of ideophones in Southeast Asian andAfrican literature.

Notes

1. The above account was given in a class lecture at the Hartford Seminary Foundation and usedwith permission (Watson 1966:10).

2. Breve is used in the orthography for retracted tongue root.

3. (R=root, r=/r/, C=initial Consonant, Cf=final Consonant)


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Bibliography of ideophone research

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F.K. Erhard Voeltz and Christa Kilian-HatzUniversität zu Köln

The present bibliography is at best a preliminary listing of entries from the linguisticliterature dealing mostly with ideophones. While a serious attempt at completenesshas been made, the bibliography is nearly complete only in the area of Africanlinguistics, the area we are most familiar with. Moreover, we have included hereonly those references dealing with ideophones and less items dealing with soundsymbolism, even though a separation of these two domains is not always so evident.Additional information about ideophones is sometimes but not always available inany comprehensive grammar of a given language. This bibliography has benefitedfrom suggestions and addition of all the participants of the symposium. Specialthanks go to Dick Watson and Paul Newman who provided additional entries inseparate listings. The list presented here contains only items actually published.Unpublished contributions no matter how interesting they may be are considerednot to be available to the general public and have thus not been included. To theextent to which it was possible, it has been avoided to use any abbreviations,particularly not for journals. Many of these abbreviations are well known in someparts of the world, but remain a mystery to researchers elsewhere.

Abbi, Anvita. 1977. Reduplicated adverbs in Hindi. Indian Linguistics 38: 125–135.———. 1992. Reduplication in South Asian languages: An areal, typological, and historical study.

New Delhi, Allied Publishers.Adams, Douglas, John Lloyd & Sven Böttcher. 1992. Der tiefere Sinn des Labenz: Das Wörterbuch

der bisher unbenannten Gegenstände und Gefühle. Hamburg: Rogner & Bernhard.Agbadja, Kokou Sénamé. 1983. Pour une approche nouvelle des prétendus ”adverbes” eße. Afrique

et Langage 19:32–51.Aitzet, Jon & Gerard, Harold B. 1965. A study of phonetic symbolism among native Navajo

speakers. Journal of Personality and social Psychology 2: 524–527.Ajello, Roberto. 1995. The icon as an abductive process towards identity. In: Raffaele Simone, ed.,

Iconicity in language. Amsterdam, John Benjamins, pp. 77–83.Alexandre, Pierre. 1966. Préliminaires à une présentation des idéophones bulu. In: Johannes

Lukas, ed., Neue afrikanistische Studien. Hamburg, Deutsches Institut für Afrika-Forschung,pp. 9–28.

Allan, W. Sidney. 1968. Varia onomatopoetica. Lingua 21: 1–12.


Alpher, Barry. 1994. Yir-Yiront ideophones. In: Leanne Hinton et al., eds., Sound symbolism.Cambridge, University Press, pp. 161–177.

Amanuma, Y. 1974. Giongo-gitaigo iten [dictionary of onomatopoeic and ideophonic expressions].Tokyo, Tokyodo.

Ameka, Felix K. 1992. The meaning of phatic and conative interjections. Journal of Pragmatics18:245–271.

Annamalai, E. 1968. Onomatopoeic resistance to sound change in Dravidian. In: BhadrirajuKrishnamurti, ed., Studies in Indian linguistics: M. B. emeneau sastpurti volume. Poona, Centerfor Advanced Study in Linguistics, pp. 15–19.

Anscombre, J.C. 1985. Onomatopées, délocutivité et autres blablas.Revue Romane 20. 2: 169–207.Anshen, F. 1991. Insults, names and phonetic symbolism. Wratislava, (Studia Anglica Wratislaviensia

16).Anttila, Raimo. 1975. Affective vocabulary in Finnish: An(other) invitation. Ural-Altäische

Jahrbücher 47: 10–19 1976. Affektiivis [−deskriptiivis-onomatopoieettis]ten sanojen asemakielen merkkisysteemissä. Viritttäjä 2: 126–131.

———. 1976. Meaning and structure of Finnish descriptive vocabulary. Texas Linguistic Forum5: 1–12.

———. 1977. Towards a semiotic analysis of expressive vocabulary. Semiosis 5: 27–41.———. 1997. Affective vocabulary and borrowing: Finnish pirskottaa ‘sprinkle’ and patistaa ‘urge,

prod’. Journal of Finnish Studies 1–2: 111–114.Anttila, Raimo & Embleton, Sheila. 1995. The iconic index: From sound change to rhyming slang.

In: Raffaele Simone, ed., Iconicity in language. Amsterdam, John Benjamins, pp. 87–118.Aoki, Haruo. 1994. Symbolism in Nez Perce. In Leanne Hinton et al., eds., Sound symbolism.

Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 15–22.Apte, Mahadeo L. 1968. Reduplication, echo formation and onomatopoeia in Marathi. Poona,

Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute. (Deccan College Building Centenaryand Silver Jubilee Series, 38)

Asano, Tsuruko & Kindachi, Haruhiko, eds. 1978. Giongo-gitaigo jiten [a dictionary of mimeticwords]. Tokyo, Kadokawa.

Asayama, Shinji. 1959. Gobi ni ‘ni’ o yu suru kodai shochoji no ichi mondai [the problem of the‘ni’ at the end of the word in classical symbolic words]. Kogugogaku 39: 16–19.

Asher, J.L. 1965. Comment: Phonetic symbolism re-examined. Perceptual and Motor Skills 20:824.Attridge, Derek. 1984. Language imitation: Jakobson, Joyce and the art of onomatopoeia. Modern

Language Notes 99: 1116–1140.Austerlitz, Robert. 1994. Finnish and Gilyak sound symbolism — the interplay between system

and history. In: Leanne Hinton et al., eds., Sound symbolism. Cambridge, University Press, pp.249–260.

Awobuluyi, A. Oladele. 1975. Some traditional Yoruba ‘adverbs’ in true perspective. Journal ofWest African Languages 10. 1: 28–54.

Awoyale, Yiowola. 1978. On the deep structure of the ideophone in Yoruba. Research Papers in theLinguistic Sciences (University of Ilorin) 1. 1: .

———. 1979. On the grammatical reality of the ideophone in Yoruba.———. 1981. Nominal compound formation in Yoruba ideophones. Journal of African languages

and linguistics 3. 2: 139–157.———. 1983–1984. On the semantic fields of Yoruba ideophones. Journal of the Linguistic

Association of Nigeria 2: 11–22.———. 1989. Reduplication and the status of ideophones in Yoruba. Journal of West African

Languages 19. 1: 15–34.

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Language Index

AAlamblak 39Apalai 273Atlantic 67

BBaka 4, 5, 155–165, 393, 398, 399, 400Balinese 5, 170, 173–174Balto-Finnic 111Bambara 27Bantu 3, 64, 103, 140Bilnara 207

CCamtho (IsiCamtho) 66, 67Canela Kraahop 273Carelian 224, 226Chadic 104Chaga 26Cherokee 29Chinese 38, 70, 158Creole 64, 65–67

DDangme 26Didinga 4, 5, 121–138, 166, 175, 400Dutch 166, 170, 176, 178–179Dyirbal 38, 39

EEmai 4, 5, 7, 27, 29, 42, 87–96, 339–354English 14, 39, 55, 113, 166, 167, 212,

307Estonian 4, 6, 170, 175, 223–233Ewe 4, 25–48, 175, 257

FFinnish 4, 5, 6, 111–119, 170, 175,

223–233Finno-Ugrian 115Fulfulde 26, 107

GGbaya 4, 6, 7, 103, 259–270, 287–302Gbeya 4, 257, 321–337, 400German 112, 158, 346Giziga 106Gooniyandi 175, 206–218, 357Greek 170Gunin/Kwini 175, 206

HHausa 4, 6, 39, 69, 175, 194–198, 200,

251–258, 397Hmong 257Hua 39

IIgbo 6, 39, 200Ijo 69, 198–201Ikoro 27Ilocano 3, 4, 7, 303–320Indo-European 226

JJaminjung 3, 4, 7, 162, 175, 176, 209,

217, 355–373Japanese 3, 4, 70, 350

KKambera 4, 5, 166, 169, 170–173Kammu 386, 393, 397, 398, 399Kana 27Kanuri 67, 362Karelian 111Kera 103Khoisan 350Kiihtelysvaara 224, 226Kisi 69, 167, 257Koka-Bera 12Korean 55, 257Kujamatay 64Kxoe 4, 5, 155–165

426 Language index

LLahu 387, 397Lao 398Limba 268Livonian 226Luba (CiLuba) 4, 5, 139–154, 175

MMa’adi 393Malagasy 158Malay 170, 174, 257, 398Mara-Alawic 213Mayali 210Mon-Khmer 387–392, 395, 399Moru 102Munda 402Mundang 4, 5, 97–110, 170

NNdyuka 66Nembe 6, 197, 200, 397Ngan’gityemerri 206Nimanburru 210Nunggubuyu 218Nyulnyul 208, 209, 210, 211, 218

OOlkola 12, 18–21

PPacoh 4, 385, 387, 393, 394, 395, 398,

400Pama-Nyungan 207, 218Pastaza Quechua 4, 271–285Pidgin 65–67

QQuechua 6, 27, 38, 64, 156, 175, 257,

271–285

RRengao 396Ritharngu 210Russian 5, 111, 115, 116, 117, 118

SSamoan 38Sango 4Saramaccan 66Semai 385, 394Shona 155Somali 393Sotho (SeSotho, Southern Sotho) 3, 4,

5, 155, 156, 183–191, 268Sranan 66Swedish 117

TTarangan 5, 174–175Tetela (T7t7la) 4, 7, 27, 375–384Thai 397Tibeto-Burman 387Tsonga 239, 240Tswana (SeTswana) 4, 75–85Tumbuka (CiTumbuka) 64, 268, 400

UUngarinyin 205Uw-Oykangand 11, 12, 13

VVenda 237, 239Veps 111, 226Votic 111

WWalpiri 38, 207, 208Wardaman 211, 215Warrura 175Warwar 205–206, 210Wik 4, 11Wik-Ngatharr 12, 21–23Wolaitta 4, 49–62, 162, 175, 362Wolof 64, 130Worlaja 211Worrorran 218

XXhosa 4

Language index 427

YYawuru 207, 209–210Yirrk-Mel 11, 12Yir-Yiront 4, 9–24, 212, 217, 218, 350Yoruba 11, 28, 69, 87, 114

Yurok 38

ZZulu 1, 4, 6, 27, 66, 67, 68, 69, 175, 213,

215, 218, 235–249, 257, 267, 268,362

Name index

AAdams 60Aitchison 65Alpher 4, 11–13, 211, 212, 217, 350,

355, 363, 367Ameka 4, 27, 29–30, 32, 36, 39–40, 42,

43, 357Amha 4, 162, 362Andersen 102Ansre 30, 32, 35, 37Anttila 112, 113, 115, 119, 170, 223, 231Araujo 64Austerlitz 226Auwera, van der 363Awoyale 11, 87, 114, 395, 397Awuku 30

BBailey 68Baker 66Banduki 152Banker 385Bartens 64, 65Bastin 375Battistella 166, 167, 168Bendor-Samuel 339Berlin 43Berman 346Bernard-Thierry 158Bolinger 273Booij 170, 176Bot Ba Njock 28Breedveld 26Brody 401Brown 64

CCapel 215Carr 394, 398Catta 271Cerron-Palomino 271Chadwick 355

Chase 23Childs 4, 25–27, 29, 53, 57, 64, 65, 66,

67, 68, 69, 87, 100, 126, 128, 167,168, 211, 212, 224, 262, 271, 273,284, 304, 307, 323, 324, 332, 339,340, 350, 357, 362, 363, 386, 396,397

Chomsky 363Chung 279Ciccotosto 65Clark 216Clynes 165, 169, 170, 173–174Cole 77, 78, 386Courtenay 69, 212Creissels 4

DDakubu 26DeCamp 65DeClercq 152Dhoorre 49, 393Dialo 64Diffloth 267, 385, 394, 400Dixon 34, 37–43Dogobadomo 269Doke 1, 2, 3, 77, 78, 216, 238, 241, 248,

251, 340, 348, 386Doneux 64Dorson 265Dumestre 26–27Duthie 30, 32, 36

EEbert 103Egbokhare 4, 5, 29, 37, 42, 340Elders 5, 97, 170Essegbey 32Evans 210

FFal 64Filbeck 391

430 Name index

Finnegan 268Fivaz 69Fortune 155French 126

GGaines 347, 350Galadaanci 251Gaye 64Geraldo 30Gerrig 216Gleason 387Gorgoniev 390Green 355Greenberg 64Gregerson 396, 397Guthrie 375Guy 68

HHahmo 117Haiman 165Hakulinen 112, 116, 224Halliday 14, 363Haspelmath 59Hata 64Heath 210, 213, 215, 355, 362, 370Hinton 87, 166, 251Hoddinott 355Hoekstra 363Hopper 65, 273, 278, 369Hosokawa 207, 208, 209Householder 208Hutchison 67, 362Huttar 66

IInnes 67Itkonen 111, 227

JJakobson 64, 280Jara 272Jarva 5Jong, de 5, 400

Joseph 165, 170

KKabuta 5Karlsson 112, 113Kay 43Kilian-Hatz 2, 5, 64, 163, 386, 393, 395,

398, 399, 400Kita 26, 65, 168, 350, 362Kiviniemi 117Klamer 5, 169, 170Koch 155, 156, 157Koehn 273Kofod 355König 363Konrad 33Korhonen 112Kroch 68, 69Kulemeka 55, 64, 77, 357Kunene 5, 155, 268, 392

LLaanest 111, 112, 113, 116, 226Labov 65, 68, 69Lanham 64Leben 254Leskinen 224, 225, 226Li 158Lindsey 29Louw 67Lukas 106Lyons 34, 39

MMa Newman 256Madugu 28, 37Maduka-Durunze 4, 6, 55, 194, 195,

196, 397, 398Mäger 224Mamphwe 241Marivate 240Martin 211Masica 61Matisoff 26, 387, 392, 397

Name index 431

McGregor 6, 7, 26, 64, 67, 162, 207, 208,210, 211, 213, 216, 355, 357, 358,370

Merlan 211, 215, 359Mfusi 66Mikone 2, 6Milroy 65Mithun 167Mok 64Moore 69Morel 106Moshi 26, 29Mosisidi 158Moya 272Mphande 64, 268, 400, 401Msimang 6, 27, 66Mülhäusler 66Müller-Bardey 363Munro 64

NNash 208Nekes 210Newman 6, 26, 29, 64, 97, 104, 130, 175,

251, 253, 255, 357, 362, 401, 407Ngulinzira 379, 383Nichols 251, 363Nicolas 215Nida 329Nivens 174, 175Nordlinger 207Noss 6, 70, 103, 259, 260, 287, 326, 363,

366, 402Noye 107Ntshangase 66Nuckolls 6, 27, 63, 64, 70, 156, 272, 355,

362, 363, 401Nyembezi 190

OObianim 31Oesterreicher 155Ohala 70, 87, 251, 397Okpewho 267Oswalt 211

PParker 272Peirce 165, 168Plöger 115, 116Popjes 273Poulos 6, 27, 237Prietze 251

RRamat 65Rapola 226Ravila 227Reid 206Rhodes 307Roncador, von 155Ross 271, 397Roulon-Doko 7, 259, 287Rubino 7Ruoppila 228Rytkönen 228

SSalim 253Samarin 7, 64, 65, 67, 69, 70, 103, 121,

130, 163, 223, 257, 259, 273, 287,304, 322, 324, 325, 326, 332, 350,362, 386, 400

Santos 64Sapir 64, 396, 397Saukkonen 225Scancarrelli 29Schachter 38, 273Schadeberg 104Schaefer 7, 27, 29, 37, 42, 212, 340, 347,

350, 362Schultze-Bernd 7, 26, 64, 67, 176, 207,

208, 209, 217Scripture 2Senghas 31Serle 106Shanks 392–393Slobin 339, 346, 349, 351Smith 66Sommer 11, 13Staden, von 362

432 Name index

Steriade 31Sutton 21Svantesson 386, 387, 397, 398, 399

TTaber 329Talmy 339, 344, 346Tassa 7, 27Thompson 37, 158, 369Thongkum 397Timberlake 279Todd 66Tosco 49, 393Traugott 273, 278Trongdee 391, 398Tsunoda 207

UUhlenbeck 167, 394

VVan Dale 176Velanti 392–393Veldi 231Voegelin 391Voeltz 212, 213, 215, 218, 362

WWatson 7, 385, 387, 394, 407Waugh 64Wayland 391, 397Weber 272Wekker 65Welmers 28, 340Wendland 64Wescott 63Westermann 27, 29, 30, 34, 35Wilkinson 174Willems 152Williamson 69, 198, 200, 201Wilson 207Winkler 363Wissemann 64Worm 210

ZZorc 211Zurakovskij 224

Subject index

Aadjectives 4, 25–48, 56adverbs 78, 97–103, 186–187, 274–275,

340–349assonance 246

Ccomplement construction 3, 218compound verbs 49–62, 205converbs 59, 79–83, 276coverbs 360–367

Ddeideophonization 66direct discourse 155discourse 128, 160–162dummy verbs 53, 185–188

Eexpressive adverb 27

Fforegrounding 4, 367–368

Ggrammatical category 225, 236–238

Hhyponymy 393

Iiconicity 92–93, 165–181, 294–295,

304–305, 396–399ideophone poems 266–267ideophones-as-verbs 355–373ideophones-to-adjectives 124, 256–257ideophones-to-adverbs 151, 229–230ideophones-to-nouns 105–107, 124,

149–150, 228–229, 242, 307–317ideophones-to-numerals 107ideophones-to-verbs 6, 7, 103–104,

123–124, 143–146, 151–152,

171–173, 212–217, 242–244,307–317, 377–380

imperative 32interjections 30

Lloan words 5, 30 111–119

Mmarkedness 5, 168–170, 173–174microscopic sentence 267

Nnarrative genre 27negative 32new information 9–24

Oobject 185–186onomatopoeia 2, 65, 127, 145–146,

305–306orality 189–190

Pphonoaesthesia 193–203, 208, 398–399phonotactics 30, 98–99, 122–123,

139–143, 172–173, 206–208,225–228, 244–245, 251–254,288–295, 317–319

phrasal verbs 14picture word 30prohibitive 32

Qquestion 33

Rreduplication 4, 31, 50–53, 88, 98–99,

127, 142–143, 149–150, 158,230–231, 262, 291–293, 309,359–360, 377, 387–391, 399

434 Subject index

Ssemantics 89–93, 127–128, 147–149,

159–160, 246–248, 296–298sound symbolic affixing 310–317sound symbolism 5, 26, 92–95,

126–127, 356–359, 394–395subject 185

Ttense-aspect-modality 187, 278–280tones 87, 98, 253–254, 293–295

Uuniversals 5, 156–158

Vverbal art 5, 6, 259–270verbal gestures 277–278verbs-to-ideophones 102, 188–189,

381–383

Wword order 4, 125–126, 146–147,

183–185, 211, 295–296

In the series TYPOLOGICAL STUDIES IN LANGUAGE (TSL) the following titles havebeen published thus far:

1. HOPPER, Paul J. (ed.): Tense-Aspect: Between semantics & pragmatics. 1982.2. HAIMAN, John & Pamela MUNRO (eds): Switch Reference and Universal Grammar.

Proceedings of a symposium on switch reference and universal grammar, Winnipeg, May1981. 1983.

3. GIVÓN, T.: Topic Continuity in Discourse. A quantitative cross-language study. 1983.4. CHISHOLM, William, Louis T. MILIC & John A.C. GREPPIN (eds): Interrogativity: A

colloquium on the grammar, typology and pragmatics of questions in seven diverse lan-guages, Cleveland, Ohio, October 5th 1981-May 3rd 1982. 1984.

5. RUTHERFORD, William E. (ed.): Language Universals and Second Language Acquisi-tion. 1984 (2nd ed. 1987).

6. HAIMAN, John (Ed.): Iconicity in Syntax. Proceedings of a symposium on iconicity insyntax, Stanford, June 24-26, 1983. 1985.

7. CRAIG, Colette (ed.): Noun Classes and Categorization. Proceedings of a symposium oncategorization and noun classification, Eugene, Oregon, October 1983. 1986.

8. SLOBIN, Dan I. & Karl ZIMMER (eds): Studies in Turkish Linguistics. 1986.9. BYBEE, Joan L.: Morphology. A Study of the Relation between Meaning and Form. 1985.10. RANSOM, Evelyn: Complementation: its Meaning and Forms. 1986.11. TOMLIN, Russel S.: Coherence and Grounding in Discourse. Outcome of a Symposium,

Eugene, Oregon, June 1984. 1987.12. NEDJALKOV, Vladimir (ed.): Typology of Resultative Constructions. Translated from the

original Russian edition (1983). English translation edited by Bernard Comrie. 1988.14. HINDS, John, Shoichi IWASAKI & Senko K. MAYNARD (eds): Perspectives on

Topicalization. The case of Japanese WA. 1987.15. AUSTIN, Peter (ed.): Complex Sentence Constructions in Australian Languages. 1988.16. SHIBATANI, Masayoshi (ed.): Passive and Voice. 1988.17. HAMMOND, Michael, Edith A. MORAVCSIK and Jessica WIRTH (eds): Studies in

Syntactic Typology. 1988.18. HAIMAN, John & Sandra A. THOMPSON (eds): Clause Combining in Grammar and

Discourse. 1988.19. TRAUGOTT, Elizabeth C. and Bernd HEINE (eds): Approaches to Grammaticalization,

2 volumes (set) 199120. CROFT, William, Suzanne KEMMER and Keith DENNING (eds): Studies in Typology

and Diachrony. Papers presented to Joseph H. Greenberg on his 75th birthday. 1990.21. DOWNING, Pamela, Susan D. LIMA and Michael NOONAN (eds): The Linguistics of

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