Revised and published as:
- Dingemanse, M. (2019). “Ideophone” as a comparative concept. In K. Akita & P. Pardeshi (Eds.), Ideophones, Mimetics, Expressives (pp. 13–33). John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/ill.16.02din
This chapter is about the nature of ideophones as a phenomenon in human language. It defines ideophones as marked words that depict sensory imagery, a definition that is broad enough to serve as a general cross-linguistic characterization of the phenomenon while leaving room for the details to be spelled out for specific languages. I develop the argument that a fundamental characteristic of the ideophonic phenomenon is depiction, and show how this semiotic characterization throws light on many aspects of ideophony.
Audio clips
- Example 2: “Our neighbours, he silenced them kananananananana” (also example 4)
- Example 3: “Now this stuff here, it looks ɖɔbɔrɔɔɔɔɔ [soft]”
- Extract 2.1: Geckos
Video clips
- Extract 2.2: “Words that illuminate matters”
