Open-class-ness, Aspect, Iconicity, and Other Characteristics of Japanese Ideophones Viewed through the Lens of Closed-class Semantics

This paper adopts closed-class semantics (Talmy, 2000) to examine the semantics and morphophonology of Japanese ideophones. First, it considers the class category status of ideophones, arguing that the membership expansion of ideophones as open-class forms is impeded by iconicity, or the sound-symbolism of a phoneme. Next, it explores the relevance of three grammatical concepts expressed by closed-class forms (aspect, force dynamics, and perspective) to the meaning of ideophones, arguing that: (i) the forms of ideophones are iconic representations of (un)boundedness; (ii) ideophones can elaborate on the force enacted by the antagonist or agonist; and (iii) a proximal perspective underlies commonly used descriptions, such as dramaturgicness. The discussion touches on cross-linguistically common characteristics of ideophones, including use of a closed-class means such as reduplication to create aspect-informed forms. The paper shows that the class category status is an important measure to seize characteristics of ideophones, corroborating Dingemanse (2019, 2023).