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An Etymological Dictionary of English Imitative Words

by Maria Flaksman (Author)
©2024 Others 602 Pages
Series: MUSE: Munich Studies in English, Volume 50

Summary

This Dictionary is the first etymological dictionary of English imitative (onomato-poeic, mimetic) words. Imitative words (e.g. crash, bang, achoo) are words with iconic correlation between form and meaning, iconicity being a relationship of resemblance. The dictionary provides extensive information on English words of imitative origin and uncovers patterns in their diachronic development. Each entry of the altogether 1320 dictionary entries includes data on pronunciation, part of speech, source of sound, type of imitated sound, iconic word class, date of first attestation, frequency of use, origin, etymology, degree of form-meaning correspondence (stage of de-iconization), as well as a brief account of form and meaning changes. The entries also illustrate the modern usage by typical examples of the word in a sentence (the data were extracted from contemporary dictionaries and corpora of the English language) and references to relevant etymological dictionaries which confirm their imitative status.

Details

Pages
602
Publication Year
2024
ISBN (PDF)
9783631906217
ISBN (ePUB)
9783631906224
ISBN (Hardcover)
9783631906200
DOI
10.3726/b22331
Language
English
Keywords
English language linguistics onomatopoeia etymology iconicity sound symbolism & imitation historical lexicology comparative linguistics lexicography diachrony semantic change sound changes
Published
Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, New York, Oxford, 2024. 602 pp., 2 fig. col., 7 tables.

Biographical notes

Maria Flaksman (Author)

Maria Flaksman obtained her PhD from the University of St. Petersburg in 2015. She is an Alexander von Humboldt (2019-2021) and DAAD (2012-2013) research fellow and an Icelandic Government Scholarship holder (2017-2018). Currently she teaches English historical linguistics at LMU Munich. She specialises in onomatopoeia, lexical semantics, lexicology and etymology.

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Title: An Etymological Dictionary of English Imitative Words