A semantic map for ideophones

2022/07/06 by Thomas Van Hoey · 1 voice
Psychology · #Categorization, perception, and language #Language, Metaphor, and Cognition #Multisensory perception and integration

paper · pdf · doi:10.31219/osf.io/muhpd

openalex publication_date 2022/07/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/14

Abstract

This chapter studies the semantics of ideophones, alternatively known as mimetics or expressives. The surveyed approaches include Image Schemas, Idealized Cognitive Models, Frame Semantics and Diachronic Prototype Semantics. These are compared to a cross-linguistic implicational hierarchy for the sensory domains, depicted by ideophones: SOUND < MOVEMENT < VISUAL PATTERNS < OTHER SENSORY PERCEPTIONS < INNER FEELINGS AND COGNITIVE STATES. After charting the impact of this hierarchy on ideophone studies, a case is made for a semantic map approach. This involves the development of a conceptual space with four contiguous zones: (I) SOUND, (II) VISION, (III) SOMATOSENSATION, (IV) INNER SENSE. The zones contain subschemas: (I) HUMAN, ANIMATE, INANIMATE; (II) MOVEMENT, SIZE, SHAPE, BRIGHTNESS, COLOR, POSITION, CONFIGURATION; (III) TOUCH, SMELL, TASTE, KINAESTHESIA, TEMPERATURE, PAIN; (IV) INNER FEELINGS, EVALUATION, TIME. Subsequently, the semantic maps of ten different languages are drawn and discussed.

Citations

• Expressiveness and system integration: On the typology of ideophones, with special reference to Siwu
• The Structure of a Semantic Theory
• Against markedness (and what to replace it with)
• General Principles of Classification and Nomenclature in Folk Biology
• Vision verbs dominate in conversation across cultures, but the ranking of non-visual verbs varies
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• Toward a frame-semantic definition of sound-symbolic words: A collocational analysis of Japanese mimetics
• An inverse relation between expressiveness and grammatical integration: On the morphosyntactic typology of ideophones, with special reference to Japanese
• Redrawing the margins of language: Lessons from research on ideophones
• The Challenge of Olfactory Ideophones: Reconsidering Ineffability from the Totonac-Tepehua Perspective

Discussions

• A Semantic Map for Ideophones, exciting new preprint by @Simazhi (to appear in Handbook of Cognitive Semantics) http://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/muhpd 1/2 [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]