The sound-symbolic system of Japanese By Shoko Hamano (review)

174LANGUAGE, VOLUME 76, NUMBER 1 (2000) Poeppel, David, and Kenneth Wexler. 1993. The full competence hypothesis of clause structure in early German. Language 69.1-33. Radford, Andrew. 1990. Syntactic theory and the acquisition of English syntax. Oxford: Blackwell. Schlesinger, Izchak. 1982. Steps to language. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Slobin, Dan. 1966. Comments on 'Developmental psycholinguistics'. The genesis of language, ed. by Frank Smith and George A. Miller, 88-91. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ------. 1973 Cognitive prerequisites for the development ofgrammar. Studies ofchild language development, ed. by Charles Ferguson and Dan Slobin, 175-208. New York: Holt, Rienhart, and Winston. Wexler, Kenneth, and Rita Manzini. 1987. Parameters and learnability in binding theory. Parameter setting, ed. by Thomas Roepper and Edwin Williams, 41-76. Dordrecht: Reidel. Linguistics Program University of South Carolina Columbia, SC 29208 [dubinsky@sc.edu] The sound-symbolic system of Japanese. By Shoko Hamano. (Studies in Japanese linguistics.) Stanford, CA & Tokyo: CSLI Publications & Kurosio, 1998. Pp. x, 262. Reviewed by Masako Ueda Fidler, Brown University Hamano's book is a detailed study of sound-symbolic forms that are generally called giongolgiseigolgitaigo, or mimetic words, in Japanese. The significance of expressions can be illustrated by their sheer number below: (1) dosa-dosa(-to), doka-doka(-to), kotu-kotu(-to), saku-saku(-to), yoro-yoro(-to), burabura (-to), teku-teku(-to), dara-dara(-to), noro-noro(-to), zorozoro-to, urouro-to aruku 'to walk with a loud noise, to walk noisily and violently, to walk with hard-soled shoes, to walk in soft snow, to wobble, to stroll, to hike, to walk slowly/without enthusiasm, to walk slowly, to walk in great number, to loiter' (2) Unlike other languages with a larger inventory of walking verbs (e.g. waddle, toddle, totter, wobble, stagger in English), Japanese has only one verb, aruku 'to walk'. Various manners of walking are expressed by the added mimetic adverbs. The example also shows that many mimetic words report manners or psychological conditions rather than imitate sounds. Despite their widespread use, however, mimetic words have been traditionally neglected in Japanese dictionaries and textbooks except for a few recent attempts (e.g. Chang 1990; Kakehi, Tamori, & Schourup 1996). In Ch. 1 H addresses obstacles that have held back the study of sound symbolism. The major factor that led to marginalization of sound symbolism is the prevailing Saussurean notion in modem linguistics that the relation between sound and meaning is arbitrary, a view that is diametrically opposed to iconicity—a direct relationship between the symbol and the physical features of the object it represents. The situation was compounded by the fact that sound symbolism played a negligible role in European languages where modern linguistics was first developed, insufficient formal criteria, and difficulties in translating mimetic words. As a starting point for her analysis, H introduces Ueda's findings (1898) which established that the pre-Old Japanese word-initial /p/ was replaced by /h/ in the native stramm. Word-initial /p/'s in Japanese are thus either loan words or mimetic words which are formally distinguishable. Once properties of /p/-word-initial mimetic words are defined as central to the sound-symbolic system, it is thus possible to apply them as a 'measuring stick' for other mimetic words to determine their degrees of interaction with sound symbolism. Ch. 2 defines mimetic words in terms offormal properties. By examining the syntactic compatibility of mimetic words with particles and verbs, H establishes varying degrees of expressiveness or phonosemantic iconicity of these words. Mimetic adverbs combining with quotative particles REVIEWS175 te and to are more onomatopoeic than those that combine only with to e.g. pi-pi-Q-tolte (Q = code obstruent) 'a couple of short sharp sounds, one immediately following the other' vs. piipii (-to) 'a sound similar to that of a tweeting small bird'). Among the mimetic modifiers (which are less iconic than mimetic adverbs), those combining with quotative verb iu are the most expressive (pota-pota-to iu oti-kata 'the manner of falling accompanied by the sound of potapota '). Those taking no are the least expressive (pari-pari-no nihoNgo [N = code nasal] 'unadulterated Japanese'). Mimetic words combining with the action verb sita are in the middle of this iconicity...