Ideophones in Arusa Maasai

Syntax, morphology, and phonetics

Datos Bibliográficos

ID21240004
AutoresMichael Karani (0000-0003-0810-6267, University of Dar es Salaam, autor de correspondencia), Alexander Andrason (0000-0002-8507-9824, University of Cape Town)
Año2022
Volumen8
Número1
Páginas440-458
Fecha de publicación2022-11-03
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaOpen Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2300-9969 • E-ISSN: 2300-9969
EditorialWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/opli-2022-0220
OpenAlexW4312282673
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas32

The present article is dedicated to the syntax, morphology, and phonetics of ideophones in Arusa Maasai. After examining the compliance of 69 ideophonic lexemes with the typologically driven prototype of an ideophone, the authors conclude that Arusa ideophones may range from canonical to non-canonical even within a single language module. When syntax, morphology, and phonetics are considered jointly, holophrastic and asyntagmatic ideophones are more canonical than ideophones used as verbal modifiers and parts of complex predicates, which are, in turn, more canonical than predicative ideophones. The extent of canonicity is inversely correlated with the systematicity and integration of ideophones in sentence grammar and their diffusion into other lexical classes: predicative ideophones have been fully incorporated into the category of verbs; for ideophones employed as verbal modifiers, a comparable incorporation into the category of adverbs has not been completed; for all the other types, especially holophrastic and asyntagmatic, ideophones still maintain their categorical individuality. Overall, ideophones constitute an “old” category in Arusa, one that is well advanced on its grammaticalization cline

Iconicity · Linguistics · Onomatopoeia · Phonetics · Phonology · Predicative expression · Sound symbolism · Syntax · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation