Ideophones and the Evolution of Language

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

List of contents

1. The gestural origin theory of language genesis; 2. What are ideophones?; 3. Lexical origins of ideophones; 4. Suiting the word to the action: oral charades; 5. Ideophones as a possible solution to the ritualization problem; 6. Taming ideophones: from showing to telling; 7. Repetition in the genesis of signs, art, and ideophones.

About the author

John Haiman is the author of Hua: A Papuan Language of the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea (1980), The Rhaeto-Romance Languages (with Paola Beninca, 1992) and Cambodian: Khmer (2011). He pioneered the resurgence of interest in iconicity in language with Natural Syntax (Cambridge, 1985), and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship 1989 for the study of sarcasm, which resulted in his book Talk Is Cheap (1998).

Summary

This cross-linguistic study explores the role of the ideophone - a single word that conveys an impression of what it describes - in language evolution. It argues that ideophones provide the 'missing link' in our knowledge of how communication has evolved from early gestured performance through to spoken language today.

Product details

• Authors: John Haiman, John (Macalester College Haiman, Haiman John
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 11.01.2018
• EAN: 9781107069602
• ISBN: 978-1-107-06960-2
• No. of pages: 390
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > Other languages / Other literatures; Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Phonetics, phonology, Historical & comparative linguistics, Semantics, discourse analysis, stylistics, Historical and comparative linguistics, Semantics, discourse analysis, etc