Cover not available

In:Ideophones, Mimetics and Expressives
Edited by Kimi Akita and Prashant Pardeshi
[Iconicity in Language and Literature 16] 2019
► pp. 101–134

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Chapter 5
Classification of nominal compounds containing mimetics

A Construction Morphology perspective

 | York University
Published online: 6 May 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ill.16.06tor
In Japanese, some nominal compounds have mimetic components (Nominal Compounds with Mimetics (NCMs)) (e.g., zaazaa-buri [mimetic(the sound of heavy rain)-a fall(from the sky)] ‘a downpour’). This paper examines how mimetics participate in word-formation of nominal compounds, applying Construction Morphology. Examination of representative NCMs indicates: (i) NCMs are mostly right-headed, although some are double-headed, and (ii) mimetics combine with the types of nouns that combine with non-mimetic components. Given this, the paper proposes NCMs are part of the inheritance hierarchy for nominal compounds; specifically, their top node diverges according to the head position, building on Booij (2010: 7). The hierarchy consists of different constructional schemas, such as <[x i-hada] nk ↔ [hada ‘skin’ with attribute SEMi]k>, wherein the variable x can be replaced by a mimetic, as in gasagasa-hada ‘rough skin’, or a non-mimetic, as in yawa-hada ‘soft skin’. The paper argues that mimetics are an integral part of nominal compound word formation, enriching lexical varieties of nominal compounds. The Construction Morphology representational system proves useful to indicate where NCMs appear in the word network.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous literature
  • 3.Background information
    • 3.1Construction Morphology
      • 3.1.1Inheritance hierarchy of nominal compounds
      • 3.1.2Constructional schemas
    • 3.2Lexical categories in Japanese
  • 4.Data
    • 4.1Consulted examples
    • 4.2Classification: method
  • 5.Attributive compounds
  • 6.Subordinate compounds
    • 6.1Subordinate compounds: Ground type
    • 6.2Subordinate compounds: verbal-nexus type
    • 6.3Verbal-nexus type with a non-mimetic head
    • 6.4Verbal-nexus type with a mimetic head
  • 7.Double-headed compounds
  • 8.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (39)
References
Akita, K. 2009. A grammar of sound-symbolic words in Japanese: theoretical approaches to iconic and lexical properties of mimetics. Ph.D. dissertation, Kobe University.
Akita, K. and Usuki, T. 2016. A constructional account of the ‘optional’ quotative marking on Japanese mimetics. Journal of Linguistics 52: 245–275. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Akita, K. and Tsujimura, N. 2016. Mimetics. In Handbook of Japanese Lexicon and Word Formation, T. Kageyama and H. Kishimoto (eds), 133–160. Boston and Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bisetto, A. and Scalise, S. 2005. The classification of compounds. Lingue e linguaggio IV.2: 319–332. [URL]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Booij, G. 2005. Compounding and derivation: Evidence for Construction Morphology. In Morphology and its Demarcations (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 264), W. U. Dressler, F. Rainer, D. Kastovsky and O. Pfeiffer (eds), 109–132. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2010. Construction Morphology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Booij, G. and Hüning, M. 2014. Affixoids and constructional idioms. In Extending the Scope of Construction Grammar, R. Boogaart, T. Colleman and G. Rutten (eds), 77–106. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hamano, S. 1998. The Sound-Symbolic System of Japanese. Stanford, CA: CSLI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jacques, G. 2013. Ideophones in Japhug (Rgyalrong). Anthropological Linguistics 55: 256–287. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kageyama, T. 1982. Word formation in Japanese. Lingua 57: 215–258. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1993. Bunpō to Gokeisei [Grammar and Word Formation]. Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1999. Keitairon to Imi [Morphology and Semantics]. Tokyo: Kurosio.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2009. Isolate: Japanese. In The Oxford Handbook of Compounding, R. Lieber and P. Štekauer (eds), 512–526. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2016. A quick guide to Japanese mimetics. Opening address at the NINJAL International Symposium 2016, Mimetics in Japanese and Other Languages of the World (slides: 1–18). Presented on December 17, 2016, at NINJAL, Tokyo.
Kageyama, T. and Saito, M. 2016. Vocabulary strata and word formation processes. In Handbook of Japanese Lexicon and Word Formation, T. Kageyama and H. Kishimoto (eds), 11–50. Boston and Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kindaichi, H. 1978. Giongo/gitaigo gaisetsu [Outline of mimetic words]. In Giongo/Gitaigo Jiten [A Dictionary of Mimetic Words], T. Asano (ed.), 3–25. Tokyo: Kadokawa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kishimoto, H. and Uehara, S. 2016. Word structure and headedness. In Handbook of Japanese Lexicon and Word Formation, T. Kageyama and H. Kishimoto (eds), 51–91. Boston/Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kita, S. 1997. Two-dimensional semantic analysis of Japanese mimetics. Linguistics 35 (2): 379–415. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2001. Semantic schism and interpretive integration in Japanese sentences with a mimetic: A reply to Tsujimura. Linguistics 39: 419–436. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kōjien Dictionary. 2008/2009. Kōjien Dictionary, 6th edition, digital dictionary version. Tokyo: Iwanami.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lieber, R. 1983. Argument linking and compounds in English. Linguistic Inquiry 14: 251–285.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matsumoto, N. 1992. Edo jidai no ryōribon ni miru tamago ryōri ni tsuite [Egg dishes described in cookery books in Edo Period.] Nihon Kasei Gakkai-shi 43: 903–913.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Namiki, T. and Kageyama, T. 2016. Word structure and headedness. In Handbook of Japanese Lexicon and Word Formation, T. Kageyama and H. Kishimoto (eds), 201–235. Boston and Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Naya, R. and Ikarashi, K. 2017. Semi-lexical categories in word-formation: a case study in Japanese mimetic compounds. English Linguistics 33: 377–414. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Noss, P. A. 1985. The ideophone in Gbaya syntax. In Current Approaches in African Linguistics 3, G. J. Dimmendaal (ed.), 241–255. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ono, M. 2007. Giongo/Gitaigo 4500: Nihongo Onomatope Jiten [Phonomimes/Phenomimes 4500: Japanese Mimetic Dictionary]. Tokyo: Shogakukan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scalise, S. and Bisetto, A. 2009. The classification of compounds. In The Oxford Handbook of Compounding, R. Lieber and P. Štekauer (eds), 34–53. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sells, P. 2017. The significance of the grammatical study of Japanese mimetics. In The Grammar of Japanese Mimetics: Perspectives from Structure, Acquisition and Translation [Routledge Studies in East Asian Linguistics], N. Iwasaki, P. Sells, and K. Akita (eds.), 7–19. London and NY: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shōgakukan Kokugo Jiten Henshūbu. 2006. Shōgakukan Seisei-ban Nihon Kokugo Daijiten [Shogakukan Japanese Language Dictionary] (digital version). Tokyo: Shogakukan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tamori, I. and Schourup, L. 1999. Onomatope: Keitai to Imi [Onomatopoeias: Morphology and Meaning]. Tokyo: Kurosio.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tsujimura, N. 2001. Revisiting the two-dimensional approach to mimetics: A reply to Kita (1997). Linguistics 39: 409–418. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Toratani, K. 2013. On the semantic uniqueness of adverbial mimetics in Japanese. In Chikazuku Oto to Imi: Onomatope Kenkyū no Shatei [Sound Symbolism and Mimetics: Rethinking the Relationship between Sound and Meaning in Language], K. Shinohara and R. Uno (eds), 85–99. Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2017a. The position of to/∅-marked mimetics in Japanese sentence structure. In The Grammar of Japanese Mimetics: Perspectives from Structure, Acquisition and Translation [Routledge Studies in East Asian Linguistics], N. Iwasaki, P. Sells, and K. Akita (eds), 35–72. London and NY: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Toratani, K. 2017b. The organizational structure of lexical compound verbs in Japanese: A Construction Morphology account. In Argument Realisation in Complex Predicates and Complex Events at the Syntax-Semantic Interface [Studies in Language Companion Series], B. Nolan and E. Diedrichsen (eds), 245–276. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tsukuba Daigaku [Tsukuba University]/Kokuritsu Kokugo Kenkyūsho [The National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics]/Lago Gengo kenkyusho [Lago Institute of Language] ‘NINJAL-LWP for TWC (NLT)’. [URL]
Uehara, S. 1998. Syntactic Categories in Japanese: A Cognitive and Typological Introduction. Tokyo: Kurosio.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Williams, E. 1981. On the notions ‘lexically related’ and ‘head of a word’. Linguistic Inquiry 12: 245–274.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yang, S. 2011. The structure of compound nouns: combined by onomatopoeia. Chūka Nihon Kenkyū 3: 1–16.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2013. Semantics of the compound nouns from onomatopoeia. Chūka Nihon Kenkyū 4: 1–20.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Akita, Kimi & Keiko Murasugi
2022. Innovative binomial adjectives in Japanese food descriptions and beyond. In The Language of Food in Japanese [Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research, 25], ► pp. 111 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue