Categories
The sound-symbolic words of Japanese can be classified into three main categories (Akita 2009):
- Phonomime or onomatopoeia (擬声語 giseigo or 擬音語 giongo)
- words that mimic actual sounds. Giseigo refers to sounds made by living things, while Giongo refers to sounds made by inanimate objects.
- Phenomime (擬態語 gitaigo)
- words that depict non-auditory senses.
- Psychomime (also called 擬態語 gitaigo or 擬情語 gijōgo)
- words that depict psychological states or bodily feelings.
In Japanese grammar, sound symbolic words function as adverbs. Just like ideophones in many other languages, they are often introduced by a quotative complementizer と (to) (Kita 1997:384). Most sound symbolic words can be applied to only a handful of verbs or adjectives. In the examples below, the classified verb or adjective is placed in square brackets.
| Sound Symbolism | Meaning |
|---|---|
| じろじろ(と) jirojiro (to) |
intently (= stare) |
| きらきら(と) kirakira (to) |
sparklingly |
| ぎらぎら(と) giragira (to) |
dazzlingly |
| どきどき doki doki |
with a throbbing heart |
| ぐずぐず guzu guzu |
procrastinating or dawdling (suru not optional) |
| しいんと shiin to |
quiet (suru not optional) |
| ぴんぴん pinpin |
lively (shite iru not optional) |
| よぼよぼに yoboyobo ni |
wobbly-legged (from age)¹ |
- に (ni) instead of と (to) is used for なる (naru = become)
Read more about this topic: Japanese Sound Symbolism
Famous quotes containing the word categories:
“Of course I’m a black writer.... I’m not just a black writer, but categories like black writer, woman writer and Latin American writer aren’t marginal anymore. We have to acknowledge that the thing we call “literature” is more pluralistic now, just as society ought to be. The melting pot never worked. We ought to be able to accept on equal terms everybody from the Hassidim to Walter Lippmann, from the Rastafarians to Ralph Bunche.”
—Toni Morrison (b. 1931)
“all the categories which we employ to describe conscious mental acts, such as ideas, purposes, resolutions, and so on, can be applied to ... these latent states.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
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—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)