Structural markedness and depiction
The case of lower sequential predictability in cantonese ideophones
Ideophones are marked words that depict sensory imagery and are hypothesized to be structurally marked, i.e., exhibiting unique structural properties. In this paper, “marked” is broadly used to mean phonologically marked (
Dingemanse, 2021:
Akita and Dingemanse, 2019). Using Cantonese ideophones as our case study, this paper measures sequential predictability within ideophones and non-ideophones, as a way to test their relative degree of structural markedness. We created a database of non-ideophones and ideophones from the Hong Kong Cantonese Corpus (HKCC) (
Luke and Wong, 2015) and
Mok (2001) and calculated the sequential predictability of each phoneme in various phonological contexts. The results indicate that Cantonese ideophones exhibit lower degrees of sequential predictability than non-ideophones, lending empirical support to the structural markedness of ideophones. We argue that non-ideophones exhibit a higher degree of sequential predictability because they follow the phonotactic regularities of Cantonese, whereas ideophones, to some degree, flout these regulations in favor of sequences of sounds that might better depict a given referent or percept.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Data
- Analysis
- Results
- Discussion
- Conclusion
- Acknowledgement
- Notes
-
References
References (78)
References
Akita, K. (2011). Toward a phonosemantic definition of iconic words. Semblance and Signification, 1–18.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Akita, K., Imai, M., Saji, N., Kantartzis, K., & Kita, S. (2013). Mimetic vowel harmony. In B. Frellesvig & P. Sells (Eds.), Japanese/Korean linguistics, vol. 20 (pp. 115–129). CSLI Publications.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Akita, K. & Dingemanse, M. (2019). Ideophones (Mimetics, Expressives). In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics (ed. Mark Aronoff). Oxford University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Baayen, R. H., Chuang, Y. Y., Shafaei-Bajestan, E., & Blevins, J. P. (2019). The discriminative lexicon: A unified computational model for the lexicon and lexical processing in comprehension and production grounded not in (de) composition but in linear discriminative learning. Complexity, 2019. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bailey, T. M., & Hahn, U. (2001). Determinants of wordlikeness: Phonotactics or lexical neighborhoods? Journal of Memory and Language,
44
(4), 568–591. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Beck, D. (2008). Ideophones, adverbs, and predicate qualification in Upper Necaxa Totonac. International Journal of American Linguistics,
74
(1), 1–46. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Chae, W. (2003). Hankwukeuy uysengewa uythaye [Korean onomatopoeia and mimetic words]. Seoul: Seoul National University.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Chan, H.-K. (2001). Guangzhouhua ABB-shi xingrongci yanjiu 廣州話 ABB 式形容詞研究 [A study of ABB adjectives in Cantonese]. Zhongguo Yuwen Tongxun 中國語文通訊 [Newsletter of Chinese Language],
58
1, 16–26.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Clark, H. H., & Gerrig, R. J. (1990). Quotations as Demonstrations. Language, 66(4), 764–805. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dellert, J., & Buch, A. (2018). A new approach to concept basicness and stability as a window to the robustness of concept list rankings. Language Dynamics and Change,
8
(2), 157–181. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Denistia, K., Shafaei-Bajestan, E., & Baayen, R. H. (2021). Exploring semantic differences between the Indonesian prefixes PE-and PEN-using a vector space model. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Diffloth, G. (1972). Notes on expressive meaning. In P. M. Peranteau, J. N. Nevi, & G. C. Phares (Eds.), Chicago linguistic society. Papers from the eighth regional meeting (pp. 440–447). Chicago linguistic society.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Diffloth, G. (1979). Expressive phonology and prosaic phonology in Mon-Khmer. In Studies in Tai and Mon-Khmer Phonetics and Phonology In Honour of Eugénie J.A. Henderson (pp. 49–59). Chulalongkorn University Press. [URL]
Dingemanse, M. (2012). Advances in the cross-linguistic study of ideophones. Language and Linguistics Compass,
6
(10), 654–672. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dingemanse, M. (2018). Redrawing the margins of language: Lessons from research on ideophones. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics,
3
(1), Article 1. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dingemanse, M. (2021). Ideophones (Oxford Handbook of Word Classes). PsyArXiv. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dingemanse, M., Blasi, D. E., Lupyan, G., Christiansen, M. H., & Monaghan, P. (2015). Arbitrariness, iconicity, and systematicity in language. Trends in Cognitive Sciences,
19
(10), 603–615. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dingemanse, M., Schuerman, W., Reinisch, E., Tufvesson, S., & Mitterer, H. (2016). What sound symbolism can and cannot do: Testing the iconicity of ideophones from five languages. Language,
92
(2), e117–e133. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dingemanse, M., & Akita, K. (2017). An inverse relation between expressiveness and grammatical integration: on the morphosyntactic typology of ideophones, with special reference to Japanese. Journal of Linguistics, 53(3), 501–532. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dingemanse, M., Perlman, M., & Perniss, P. (2020). Construals of iconicity: Experimental approaches to form–meaning resemblances in language. Language and Cognition,
12
(1), 1–14. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Do, Y., & Lai, R. K. Y. (2021). Accounting for Lexical Tones When Modeling Phonological Distance. Language. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Emmorey, K. (2014). Iconicity as structure mapping. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences,
369
(1651), 20130301. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ferrara, L., & Hodge, G. (2018). Language as Description, Indication, and Depiction. Frontiers in Psychology, 91. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goldin-Meadow, S. (2007). Gesture with speech and without it. In S. D. Duncan, J. Cassell, & E. T. Levy (Eds.), Gesture and the dynamic dimension of language: Essays in honor of David McNeill (pp. 31–49). John Benjamins Publishing Company. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Güldemann, T. (2008). Quotative Indexes in African Languages. A Synchronic and Diachronic Survey. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hamano, S. (1998). The sound-symbolic system of Japanese. CSLI Publications.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hatton, S. A. (2016). The onomatopoeic ideophone-gesture relationship in Pastaza Quichua [Master’s thesis, Brigham Young University]. [URL]
Hinton, L., Nichols, J., & Ohala, J. J. (1994). Sound symbolism. Cambridge University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hollander, M., & Wolfe, D. A. (1973). Nonparametric Statistical Methods. John Wiley & Sons.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Imai, M., Kita, S., Nagumo, M., & Okada, H. (2008). Sound symbolism facilitates early verb learning. Cognition, 109(1), 54–65. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Iwasaki, N., David, P. V., & Gabriella, V. (2007). What do English Speakers Know about gera-gera and yota-yota?: A Cross-linguistic Investigation of Mimetic Words of Laughing and Walking. Japanese language education around the globe,
17
1, 53–78.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Iwasaki, N., Vinson, D. P., & Vigliocco, G. (2007). How does it hurt, kiri-kiri or siku-siku? Japanese mimetic words of pain perceived by Japanese speakers and English speakers. In M. Minami (Ed.), Applying theory and research to learning Japanese as a foreign language (pp. 2–19). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. [URL]
Johansson, N. E., Anikin, A., Carling, G., & Holmer, A. (2020). The typology of sound symbolism: Defining macro-concepts via their semantic and phonetic features. Linguistic Typology, 24(2), 253–310. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Johnson, M. R. (1976). Toward a definition of the ideophone in Bantu. In A. M. Zwicky (Ed.), Papers in nonphonology (pp. 240–253). The Ohio State University.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kantartzis, K., Imai, M., & Kita, S. (2011). Japanese Sound-Symbolism Facilitates Word Learning in English-Speaking Children. Cognitive Science,
35
(3), 575–586. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kendon, A. (2004). Gesture: Visible action as utterance. Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kita, S. (1997). Two-dimensional semantic analysis of Japanese mimetics. Linguistics,
35
(2), 379–415. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kita, S., de Condappa, O., & Mohr, C. (2007). Metaphor explanation attenuates the right-hand preference for depictive co-speech gestures that imitate actions. Brain and Language,
101
(3), 185–197. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kunene, D. P. (1965). The ideophone in Southern Sotho. Journal of African Languages,
4
1, 19–39.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kwon, N. (2018). Iconicity correlated with vowel harmony in Korean ideophones. Laboratory Phonology: Journal of the Association for Laboratory Phonology,
9
(1), 1. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lai, C. (2015). A quantitative study of information structure and right dislocation in Cantonese spoken discourse [Doctoral dissertation, The University of Hong Kong]. [URL]. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Lockwood, G., Dingemanse, M., & Hagoort, P. (2016). Sound-symbolism boosts novel word learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition,
42
(8), 1274–1281. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lockwood, G., Hagoort, P., & Dingemanse, M. (2016). How Iconicity Helps People Learn New Words: Neural Correlates and Individual Differences in Sound-Symbolic Bootstrapping. Collabra,
2
(7). ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Luke, K. K., & Wong, M. L. Y. (2015). The Hong Kong Cantonese corpus: Design and uses. Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series,
25
1, 312–333.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Matthews, S., & Yip, V. (2011). Cantonese: A comprehensive grammar (2nd ed). Routledge.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
McNeill, D. (1992). Hand and mind: What gestures reveal about thought. University of Chicago Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mithun, M. (1982). The Synchronic and Diachronic Behavior of Plops, Squeaks, Croaks, Sighs, and Moans. International Journal of American Linguistics – INT J AMER LINGUIST,
48
1. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mittelberg, I. (2019). Visuo-Kinetic signs are inherently metonymic: How embodied metonymy motivates forms, functions, and schematic patterns in gesture. Frontiers in Psychology,
10
1. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mok, W. E. (2001). Chinese sound symbolism: A phonological perspective [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Hawaii.
Monaghan, P., Chater, N., & Christiansen, M. H. (2005). The differential role of phonological and distributional cues in grammatical categorisation. Cognition,
96
(2), 143–182. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Monaghan, P., Christiansen, M. H., & Chater, N. (2007). The phonological-distributional coherence hypothesis: Cross-linguistic evidence in language acquisition. Cognitive Psychology,
55
(4), 259–305. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Nasu, A. (2004). Sinzoo-onomatope-no on’in-koozoo-to bunsetu-no muhyoosei [Phonological structure of mimetic neologisms and segmental unmarkedness]. Japanese Linguistics, 161, 69–91. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Newman, P. (1968). Ideophones from a syntactic point of view.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Nuckolls, J. B. (2000). Spoken in the spirit of gesture: Translating sound symbolism in a Pastaza Quechua narrative. In K. Sammons & J. Sherzer (Eds.), Translating native Latin American verbal art: Ethnopoetics and ethnography of speaking (pp. 233–251). Smithsonian Institution Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Nuckolls, J. B., Nielsen, E., Stanley, J. A., & Hopper, R. (2016). The systematic stretching and contracting of ideophonic phonology in Pastaza Quichua. International Journal of American Linguistics,
82
(1), 95–116. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Pulleyblank, E. G. (1996). The Cantonese vowel system in historical perspective. In J. Wang & N. Smith (Eds.), Studies in Chinese Phonology (Vol. 201, pp. 185–218). De Gruyter Mouton. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Saito, M., Tomaschek, F., & Baayen, R. H. (2021). An ultrasound study of frequency and co-articulation. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Samarin, W. J. (1967). Determining the meanings of ideophones. Journal of West African Languages,
4
(2), 35–41.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Samarin, W. J. (1970). Field procedures in ideophone research. Journal of African Languages,
9
(1), 27–30.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sohn, H.-M. (1999). The Korean language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Taub 2001. Language from the Body: Iconicity and Metaphor in American Sign Language. Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Taitz, A., Assaneo, M., Elisei, N., Tripodi, M., Cohen, L., Sitt, J., & Trevisan, M. (2018). The audiovisual structure of onomatopoeias: An intrusion of real-world physics in lexical creation. PLOS ONE,
13
1, e0193466. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Thompson, A. L. (2018). Are tones in the expressive lexicon iconic? Evidence from three Chinese languages. PLOS ONE,
13
(12), e0204270. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Thompson, A. L., & Do, Y. (2019). Defining iconicity: An articulation-based methodology for explaining the phonological structure of ideophones. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 4(1), 72. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Thompson, A. L., Van Hoey, T., & Do, Y. (2021). Articulatory features of phonemes pattern to iconic meanings: evidence from cross-linguistic ideophones. Cognitive Linguistics, 32(4), 563. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tsou, B. K.-Y. (2017). Yueyu sizige guanyongyu: Chuancheng yu chuangxin [Quadrasyllabic expressions in Cantonese: Inheritance and innovation]. In B. K.-Y. Tsou & C. L. Tong (Eds.), Yueyu Yanjiu: Zhongguo Nanfang Yuyan Siyinjie Guanyongyu Yanjiu [Yue Dialect Research’s Supplementary Issue: Studies on Quadrasyllabic Expressions in Languages around South China] (pp. 109–124). Macau Yue Dialects Association.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tufvesson, S. (2011). Analogy-making in the Semai sensory world. The Senses and Society, 6(1), 86–95. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Van Hoey, T. (2020). Prototypicality and salience of Chinese ideophones: A cognitive and corpus linguistics approach [Doctoral dissertation, National Taiwan University]. [URL]
Van Hoey, T., & Thompson, A. L. (2020). The Chinese Ideophone Database (CHIDEOD). Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale, 49(2), 136–167. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Voeltz, F. E., & Kilian-Hatz, C. (2001). Ideophones (Vol. 441). John Benjamins Publishing. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Westermann, D. H. (1927). Laut und Sinn in einigen westafrikanischen Sprachen. In D. H. Westermann & E. Zwirner (Eds.), Archiv für vergleichende Phonetik 1 (pp. 154–172, 193–211). Metten. [URL]
Winter, B. (2016). The Sensory Structure of the English Lexicon [Ph.D., University of California, Merced]. [URL]
Zhang, S. (2016). Chaoyang fangyan yanjiu [Research on Chaoyang dialect]. Social Science Academic Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (2)
Cited by two other publications
Akinbo, Samuel Kayode & Michael Bulkaam
2024.
Iconicity as the motivation for the signification and locality of deictic grammatical tones in Tal.
Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 9:1
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Van Hoey, Thomas, Arthur L. Thompson, Youngah Do & Mark Dingemanse
2023.
Iconicity in Ideophones: Guessing, Memorizing, and Reassessing.
Cognitive Science 47:4
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. 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.