Ideophones

Ideophones PDF Author: Erhard Friedrich Karl Voeltz
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027229465
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 454

Get Book Here

Book Description
The present volume represents a selection of papers presented at the International Symposium on Ideophones held in January 1999 in St. Augustin, Germany. They center around the following hypotheses: Ideophones are universal; and constitute a grammatical category in all languages of the world; ideophones and similar words have a special dramaturgic function that differs from all other word classes: they simulate an event, an emotion, a perception through language. In addition to this unique function, a good number of formal parallels can be observed. The languages dealt with here display strikingly similar patterns of derivational processes involving ideophones. An equally widespread common feature is the introduction of ideophones via a verbum dicendi or complementizer. Another observation concerns the sound-symbolic behavior of ideophones. Thus the word formation of ideophones differs from other words in their tendency for iconicity and sound-symbolism. Finally it is made clear that ideophones are part of spoken language — the language register, where gestures are used — rather than written language.

Ideophones

Ideophones PDF Author: Erhard Friedrich Karl Voeltz
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027229465
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 454

Get Book Here

Book Description
The present volume represents a selection of papers presented at the International Symposium on Ideophones held in January 1999 in St. Augustin, Germany. They center around the following hypotheses: Ideophones are universal; and constitute a grammatical category in all languages of the world; ideophones and similar words have a special dramaturgic function that differs from all other word classes: they simulate an event, an emotion, a perception through language. In addition to this unique function, a good number of formal parallels can be observed. The languages dealt with here display strikingly similar patterns of derivational processes involving ideophones. An equally widespread common feature is the introduction of ideophones via a verbum dicendi or complementizer. Another observation concerns the sound-symbolic behavior of ideophones. Thus the word formation of ideophones differs from other words in their tendency for iconicity and sound-symbolism. Finally it is made clear that ideophones are part of spoken language — the language register, where gestures are used — rather than written language.

Ideophones and the Evolution of Language

Ideophones and the Evolution of Language PDF Author: John Haiman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108183654
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 395

Get Book Here

Book Description
Ideophones have been recognized in modern linguistics at least since 1935, but they still lie far outside the concerns of mainstream (Western) linguistic debate, in part because they are most richly attested in relatively unstudied (often unwritten) languages. The evolution of language, on the other hand, has recently become a fashionable topic, but all speculations so far have been almost totally data-free. Without disputing the tenet that there are no primitive languages, this book argues that ideophones may be an atavistic throwback to an earlier stage of communication, where sounds and gestures were paired in what can justifiably be called a 'prelinguistic' fashion. The structure of ideophones may also provide answers to deeper questions, among them how communicative gestures may themselves have emerged from practical actions. Moreover, their current distribution and behaviour provide hints as to how they may have become conventional words in languages with conventional rules.

Ideophones, Mimetics and Expressives

Ideophones, Mimetics and Expressives PDF Author: Kimi Akita
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027262608
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Get Book Here

Book Description
This volume explores new frontiers in the linguistic study of iconic lexemes known as ideophones, mimetics, and expressives. A large part of the literature on this long-neglected word class has been dedicated to the description of its sound symbolism, marked morphophonology, and grammatical status in individual languages. Drawing on data from Asian (especially Japanese), African, American, and European languages, the twelve chapters in this volume aim to establish common grounds for theoretical and crosslinguistic discussions of the phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, acquisition, and variation of iconic lexemes. Not only researchers who are interested in linguistic iconicity but also theoretical linguists and typologists will benefit from the updated insights presented in each study.

Ideophones and the Evolution of Language

Ideophones and the Evolution of Language PDF Author: John Haiman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107069602
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 395

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book argues that ideophones provide the 'missing link' in our knowledge of how communication has evolved to become the spoken language of today.

Ideophones

Ideophones PDF Author: F. K. Erhard Voeltz
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027297231
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 448

Get Book Here

Book Description
The present volume represents a selection of papers presented at the International Symposium on Ideophones held in January 1999 in St. Augustin, Germany. They center around the following hypotheses: Ideophones are universal; and constitute a grammatical category in all languages of the world; ideophones and similar words have a special dramaturgic function that differs from all other word classes: they simulate an event, an emotion, a perception through language. In addition to this unique function, a good number of formal parallels can be observed. The languages dealt with here display strikingly similar patterns of derivational processes involving ideophones. An equally widespread common feature is the introduction of ideophones via a verbum dicendi or complementizer. Another observation concerns the sound-symbolic behavior of ideophones. Thus the word formation of ideophones differs from other words in their tendency for iconicity and sound-symbolism. Finally it is made clear that ideophones are part of spoken language — the language register, where gestures are used — rather than written language.

Geographical Typology and Linguistic Areas

Geographical Typology and Linguistic Areas PDF Author: Osamu Hieda
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027273952
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 329

Get Book Here

Book Description
Is Africa a linguistic area (Heine & Leyew 2008)? The present volume consists of sixteen papers highlighting the linguistic geography of Africa, covering, in particular, southern Africa with its Khoisan languages. A wide range of phenomena are discussed to give an overview of the pattern of social, cultural, and linguistic interaction that characterizes Africa's linguistic geography. Most contributors to the volume discuss language contact and areal diffusion in Africa, although some demonstrate, with examples from non-African linguistic data, including Amazonian and European languages, how language contact may lead to structural convergence. Others investigate contact phenomena in social-cultural behavior. The volume makes a large contribution toward bringing generalized theory to data-oriented discussions. It is intended to stimulate further research on contact phenomena in Africa. For sale in all countries except Japan. For customers in Japan: please contact Yushodo Co.

Tongue and Mother Tongue

Tongue and Mother Tongue PDF Author: African Literature Association. Meeting
Publisher: Africa World Press
ISBN: 9780865439962
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 220

Get Book Here

Book Description
Tongue and Mother Tongue takes on two compelling challenges: the language question and the place and role of the mother tongue in African literature. This collection is the culmination of the fierce, decades-old debate on the question of African literature and its criticism. The fourteen essays range from a variety of critical and theoretical perspectives, covering the theoretical and ideological aspects of the language question, the nature of criticism, the influence of the oral tradition, critical analysis of mother tongue literature and textual analyses.

Sound Symbolism

Sound Symbolism PDF Author: Leanne Hinton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521026772
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 396

Get Book Here

Book Description
A study of the relationship between the sound of an utterance and its meaning.

The Linguistic Typology and Representation of African Languages

The Linguistic Typology and Representation of African Languages PDF Author: John M. Mugane
Publisher: Africa World Press
ISBN: 9781592211555
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 350

Get Book Here

Book Description
For the thirty-third consecutive year, the Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL) has provided the major forum for the discussion of linguistic data geared towards understanding how African languages are constituted, acquired and used. This volume represents a selection of 25 peer-reviewed papers from the 33rd AWAL held in March 2002 at Ohio University in Athens. The papers cover language acquisition, syntax, phonetics, phonology, morphology, historical linguistics, as well as language use and function in Africa.

A Grammar of Xong

A Grammar of Xong PDF Author: Adam Sposato
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110764938
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 682

Get Book Here

Book Description
Despite the fact that Miao-Yao (or Hmong-Mien) is one of the major language families of East and Southeast Asia, this work is only the second full-length descriptive grammar of any Miao-Yao language published in English. It focuses on Xong, a language belonging to the Miao branch of the family. Xong has approximately 900,000 speakers, the vast majority lives in Hunan and Guizhou Provinces in South-Central China. In particular, this description concentrates on several fully mutually intelligible Xong varieties spoken in Fenghuang County, located in the Hunan Province. In producing this work, the author primarily relies on the fieldwork data he collected over a period of ten months in Fenghuang County. He also made use of many of the previously published Chinese-language descriptions of Xong. The results are of use to scholars with an interest in the Miao-Yao family in particular or in the languages of East and Southeast Asia more in general.