An ideophone is a non-inflecting and non-governing word – thus, a particle s.s. or an adverb – which designates a situation mimetically and holistically as a type. i.e. without articulating its composition. An ideophone conveys a minimum message which may be explicated, but which is left inarticulate. The situation is typically perceptible or at least represented as if it were perceptible. The mimesis evokes sensory perceptions characterizing the situation.
Example: whoosh.
Linguistic mimesis is based on the similarity relation between a sign and its designatum. An ideophone is a kind of mimetic sign or icon. The mimesis of an ideophone is based either on onomotopoeia or on sound symbolism.
By their distribution, there are two types of ideophones, ideophonic particles and ideophonic adverbs. An ideophonic particle is holophrastic, like an interjection. An ideophonic adverb can modify a verb like other adverbs. Besides, an ideophone can be converted into a noun or verb. These are then onomatopoetic or sound-symbolic nouns or verbs, but no ideophones.
By the kind of designatum, ideophones are classified as follows:
- A phonomime designates a sound. It is onomatopoetic. E.g. bang, plop, whoosh.
- An anthropomime is an ideophone that renders a sound produced by men, e.g. ha ha, bla bla, achoo.
- A zoomime is an ideophone that renders a sound produced by animals, e.g. moo, cockadoodledoo.
- An organomime is an ideophone that renders a sound produced by a musical instrument or other device, e.g. ding-dong, strum strum.
- A phenomime designates a visual impression. It is sound-symbolic. E.g. chop.
- A psychomime designates an emotion. It is felt as sound-symbolic by the speech community. All available examples are Japanese, e.g. zuki-zuki ‘sharp, piercing pain’.