Re: Morphems

thanks for your answer i feel abit enlightened now.
well,
1.some interjections got a clear meaning like "wow!" (=wonder), "yay" (=joy).
2.some got a more unclear meaning, like "ntch!" or "ts ts ts", but may express a certain feeling.
3.some got no meaning just imitate a sound, like "meow!","plop" called onomopoeia.

is "ideophones" catch-all-term for these ?
the words described in point 2 are the most interesting.

regards,
c.s.

JC> claudio scripsit:

>> the helazoids ( my con-society )
>> improvise funwords without common meaning, intended to express feelings,
>> words which "sound" like the actual mood of the speaker e.g. funny, angry,
>> pleasent, etc. no matter if they imitate a sound or not.
>> so this is not the same as pure  onomatopoeia's.
>> and it isnt nonsense, it got its sense. it just got no common meaning.
>> how would you call something like this ?
JC> "Ideophones".  Tamil, among natural languages, is especially rich in these,
JC> to the point of having a special dictionary containing nothing but.
JC> They are also very common in African languages.

JC> Here's an excerpt from an old post of mine, which somehow got mixed
JC> up in the Lojban archives:

>>Modern Standard Tamil has a vast variety of these words,
>>and uses the frame "saying X" to introduce them:
>>1)      kaacu n.ang eNRu kiiz.ee vizuntatu
>> coin *clang* saying down fell
>> The coin fell down with a clang.
>>is a fairly literal usage (note the SOV order).  The word
>>"n.ang" is interesting for being phonologically bizarre:
>>Tamil words do not ordinarily begin with a retroflex nasal,
>>nor end with a velar nasal.  A less literal use is exhibited by:
>>2)      avaN maNacu kuRukuRu eNRu mayankiNatu
>> mind his *throbbing-pulsing* saying was-confused
>> His mind was confused by guilt.
>>where the term "kuRukuRu", literally denoting a throbbing-
>>pulse sound, is transferred to mean "guilt".  There is a large
>>dictionary of Tamil containing only ideophones.


JC> --
JC> John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
JC> One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore
JC>         --Douglas Hofstadter


"rurmlor entflöt, fluppseveri trimel akre wopel larf."
- alte redensart