Clustering ideophones

MDS plot of similarity ratings for ideophones derived from a pile-sorting field task. Interpretable clusters are circled and indicated in the plot. One group, with saaa ‘cool sensation’, nyagbalaa ‘pungent’, buàà ‘tasteless’, nyɛ̃kɛ̃nyɛ̃kɛ̃ ‘intensely sweet’ and mɛ̃rɛ̃mɛ̃rɛ̃ ‘sweet’, can be characterised as TASTE. Another cluster includes dɔbɔrɔɔ ‘soft’, safaraa ‘coarse-grained’, wòsòròò ‘rough’, fũɛ̃ fũɛ̃ ‘malleable’, wùrùfùù ‘fluffy’, pɔlɔpɔlɔ ‘smooth’, fiɛfiɛ ‘silky’, kpɔlɔkpɔlɔ ‘slippery’ and pɔtɔpɔtɔ ‘soggy’. These ideophones seem to form a domain of HAPTIC TOUCH. Another group is comprised of gelegele ‘shiny’, fututu ‘pure white’, kpinakpina ‘black’ and wɔ̃̀rã̀wɔ̃̀rã̀ ‘spotted’. This domain we may summarise as SURFACE APPEARANCE. A further cluster is formed by minimini ‘spherical’ and gìlìgìlì ‘circular’ (these two tightly together) and sɔ̀dzɔ̀lɔ̀ɔ̀ ‘oblong’, miɔmiɔ ‘pointed’ and tagbaraa ‘long’, suggesting a broader domain of SHAPE.

Dingemanse, M. (2011). The Meaning and Use of Ideophones in Siwu [PhD dissertation, Radboud University]. http://thesis.ideophone.org/