Iconicity in use: an onomasiological approach to words of enthusiasm in English
Résumé
This paper investigates iconic (onomatopoeic, echoic, expressive, ideophonic) words from an onomasiological, or conceptual, viewpoint. It aims at providing a fine-grained mix-method based on lexicographic and usage-driven perspectives on iconicity.
Currently, there are several data-driven psycholinguistic hypotheses regarding iconicity and usage of iconic words to be tested. Thus, Dingemanse (2012: 663) finds that iconic words are most likely to describe conceptual categories of sound, movement, visual impressions, inner feelings, and cognitive states. Winter et al (2023) show that certain categories of words score highest in iconicity: (1) sensory words, (2) early acquired words, (3) words occupying spare semantic neighbourhoods, (4) words which are structurally marked and ‘playful’, and (5) interjections and verbs (in English specifically).
Material and methods: In this talk, we, following our previous study (Author 2024), explore the diachronic evolution of English nouns such as rah-rah, gung-ho, zhuzh, and pizzazz depicting the idea of’ ‘enthusiasm, energy, or vitality’. We used the HTOED and the OED dictionaries and combined these data with the analysis of their collocational behaviour in several diachronic and contemporary corpora (OEC, EHBC and COHA).
Initial results indicate that the iconicity cycle (Flaksman 2020) is tied to the general phenomenon of competition and regulation within the lexicogrammatical continuum: there is a balance between (1) innovation, creativity, and expressivity on the one hand, and (2) economy, stability, and convention on the other (cf. Goldberg 2019). We conclude that describing and modelling the processes of semantic change in onomatopoeia and related phenomena can be based on the analysis of real-life interactions where iconic words occur (that is, an emphasis should be placed on exploring usage-driven data).
Thus, what is perceived as iconicity (cf. Winter et al 2023) appears at the crossroads of (1) objective iconic form-meaning configurations (acoustic qualities and articulatory properties of speech sounds comprising iconic words), (2) conventionalised meanings of iconic words (which (can) form phraseological units and collocations), and (3) their contextualised interpretation (mapping).