The dance of expressive adverbials (“ideophones”) in Jamsay (Dogon)

Abstract

AbstractIn addition to nouns, adjectives, numerals, postpositions, and verbs, Dogon languages such as Jamsay have an open-ended class of expressive adverbials (EAs). EAs partially overlap with what have been called ideophones or mimetics in other languages, but these labels conceal a range of grammatical statuses. EAs have no fixed position within larger syntactic phrases except as predicates. Unlike other constituents, they cannot be syntactically focalized, and they cannot be targeted by tonosyntactic operations. However, EAs do have a mini-morphosyntax of their own. All three of nouns, adjectives, and EAs can be made predicative, but the three use different morphosyntactic frames. Under limited conditions, an EA can fuse into a compound with a preceding noun or numeral that it is closely associated with. Most importantly, ordinary adjectives and numerals are convertible into EAs by morphological processes. In sum, Jamsay EAs constitute a distinct stem-class that functions as part of the grammar, but in a uniquely Dogon manner.