Comments on: On playthings and tools http://ideophone.org/playthings-and-tools/ Sounding out ideas on African languages, vivid sensory words, and iconicity Sat, 12 May 2012 10:14:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Mark Dingemanse http://ideophone.org/playthings-and-tools/comment-page-1/#comment-762 Mark Dingemanse Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:38:30 +0000 http://ideophone.org/?p=112#comment-762 It does hold water — ideophonic speech acts are definitely like performances. This has been noted by people like Daniel Kunene (on Sotho), G. Fortune and Doreen Helen Klassen (on Shona), and Janis Nuckolls (on Pastaza Quechua). On that issue, I love the following quote from Kunene 2001: <blockquote>"The ideophone stands aloof from the connecting tissues, the sinews and ligaments that flesh out the basic components of speech into a morphological, grammatical and syntactical system. By thus isolating itself, it, so to speak, climbs the stage to become an act, thus removing itself from the ordinary run-of-the-mill narrative surrounding it. (p. 190)</blockquote> It does hold water — ideophonic speech acts are definitely like performances. This has been noted by people like Daniel Kunene (on Sotho), G. Fortune and Doreen Helen Klassen (on Shona), and Janis Nuckolls (on Pastaza Quechua).

On that issue, I love the following quote from Kunene 2001:

“The ideophone stands aloof from the connecting tissues, the sinews and ligaments that flesh out the basic components of speech into a morphological, grammatical and syntactical system. By thus isolating itself, it, so to speak, climbs the stage to become an act, thus removing itself from the ordinary run-of-the-mill narrative surrounding it. (p. 190)

]]> By: khawaji http://ideophone.org/playthings-and-tools/comment-page-1/#comment-760 khawaji Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:47:35 +0000 http://ideophone.org/?p=112#comment-760 Another aspect of what SAE speakers view as 'playfulness' in ideophones, though, is not imitative or mimetic, but (to use a play on words) that it is like a play - it is performative and dramatic. Perhaps I projected and jumped to a conclusion in saying this reflects a sense of taking one's language less seriously (a rather frightening cultural assumption of which I repent). It is very tempting to try to find some sort of cultural generalization(s) that accompany the use of ideophones, and maybe associating an ideophonic speech act with a performance would hold some water. Or maybe I just need to stop trying to think about it from my own perspective... Another aspect of what SAE speakers view as ‘playfulness’ in ideophones, though, is not imitative or mimetic, but (to use a play on words) that it is like a play – it is performative and dramatic. Perhaps I projected and jumped to a conclusion in saying this reflects a sense of taking one’s language less seriously (a rather frightening cultural assumption of which I repent). It is very tempting to try to find some sort of cultural generalization(s) that accompany the use of ideophones, and maybe associating an ideophonic speech act with a performance would hold some water. Or maybe I just need to stop trying to think about it from my own perspective…

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