A Corpus of Cantonese Ideophones

63 Pages·5.642 MB·Chinese-English

by  Bodomo Adams.

A Corpus of

Cantonese Ideophones

Adams Bodomo
The University of Hong Kong

(updated on June 3, 2008)

© 2000-2008 Adams Bodomo. All Rights Reserved. 1
INTRODUCTION

Words are the seeds of syntax, and word classes like verbs and nouns project their peculiar
grammatical features. An understanding of the grammatical structure of a language therefore
subsumes an understanding of the various word classes in that language. Yet it is often challenging
to neatly group all words of a language into classes. Ideophones typify such features of wordhood
and lexicality in grammar (Voeltz and Kilian-Hatz 2001). However, there is considerable
controversy as to whether they constitute a coherent class or are indeed distributed across many
word classes (e.g. Newman 1968, 2000). This corpus is a database of potential ideophones in
Cantonese, elicited from a group of native Cantonese1 speakers in Hong Kong.

What are Ideophones?

Doke (1935) is often credited with the term “ideophone” which is defined as: “A vivid
representation of an idea in sound. A word, often onomatopoeic, which describes a predicate,
qualificative or adverb in respect to manner, colour, sound, smell, action, state or intensity.” (Doke
1935: 118, cited in Voeltz and Kilian-Hatz 2001). The term has found its way into many linguistic
texts, especially dictionaries and lexicons. Trask (1993: 131-132) defines an ideophone as “[O]ne
of a grammatically distinct class of words, occurring in certain languages, which typically express
either distinctive sounds or visually distinctive types of action.” Crystal (1997:189) on the other
defines an ideophone as a “…term used in linguistics and phonetics for any vivid representation of
an idea in sound, such as occurs through onomatopoeia.” This corpus of Cantonese ideophones,
however, shows that ideophones are not necessarily onomatopoeic.

Another issue arising from studies of ideophones is whether or not ideophones constitute a word
class. Crystal”s definition of ideophones goes on to specify that in Bantu linguistics, “it is the
name of a particular word class containing sound symbolic words.” In fact, in many other
languages of Africa and other parts of the world, ideophones are often treated as belonging to a
specific word class (Bodomo [2000] for Dagaare, Kulemeka [1997] for Chichewa, Newman [1968,
2000] for Hausa, etc.). However there is considerable controversy as to whether they constitute a
coherent class or are indeed distributed across many word classes.

1 Cantonese is a Yue dialect of Chinese that is spoken widely in many regions in Southern China, including
Guangdong and Hong Kong.
© 2000-2008 Adams Bodomo. All Rights Reserved. 2
About the Corpus

What qualifies as an ideophone in Cantonese?

“Complex Adjectives”?

In Cantonese, a group of words with striking morphophonological, syntactic and semantic features
seem to be very much comparable to the class of words called ideophones in Dagaare and other
African languages. They seem at first blush to be composed out of adjectives and, as mentioned
above, have indeed been categorized as a class of adjectives and given the term “complex
adjectives” (Lau 1999). However, a striking difference between these and “simple adjectives” in
Chinese is that it is hard to give them denotational, dictionary meaning. If they were really a class
of adjectives they ought to have identifiable meanings like other adjectives.

Morphophonological Features

Reduplication and onomatopoeia are overarching morphophonological features in the formation of
Cantonese ideophones. From our preliminary observations of the data, a typical Cantonese
ideophone consists of two to four syllables. Very often, an adjective or a part of it is reduplicated
in several ways. We have identified nine morphological types. They are:
(i) AA, as in叮叮ding1 ding1.
(ii) AB, as in巴渣 baa1 zaa1,
(iii) ABC, as in無里頭 mou4 lei4 tau4,
(iv) AAB, as in 嘭嘭聲 mou4 lei4 tau4,
(v) ABB, as in 長癩癩 coeng4 laai4 laai4,
(vi) ABCD, as in 砰擰繃 bing4 ling1 baang4 laang4,
(vii) ABAC, as in 花呢花碌 faa1 li1 faa1 luk1,
(viii) ABAB, as in霎下霎下 saap6 haa5 saap6 haa5, and
(ix) AABB. 岩岩慚慚 aam4 aam4 cam4 caam4

Syntactic Features

It appears that, like Dagaare and other African language data, ideophones in Cantonese do not
enter into morphosyntactic modification. While they may qualify or extend the meaning of some
other word class or phrase in the syntax, they are themselves not modified by other word classes,
nor do they enter into any morphosyntactic affixation to form phrases or other units of syntax
within the construction, as illustrated in examples (a)-(e).

(a) 間 房 黑黑黑黑 媽媽媽媽 媽媽媽媽 , 你 點 睇 到 書  ?
gaan1 fong2 hak1 maa1 maa1, nei5 dim2 tai2 dou2 syu1 gaa3
CL room black maa maa 2.SG how read able to book PART
“This room is so dark. How can you read?”

© 2000-2008 Adams Bodomo. All Rights Reserved. 3
(b) 佢 寫 到  字 密密密密 質質質質 質質質質 咁, 好 難 睇 喎
Keoi5 se2 dou3 di1 zi6 mat6 zat1 zat1 gam2, hou2 naan4 tai2 wo3
3.SG write dou DET words dense-zat1-zat1 –like, INTENS difficult read PART
“S/he writes in a densely-packed manner. It”s so difficult to understand (his/her hand writing).”

(c) 個 地 -下 濕濕濕濕 (cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:1) (cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:1)2 好 跣 啊
go3 dei6-haa2 sap1 det6 det6, hou2 sin3 aa3!
CL floor wet-det-det INTENS slippery PART
“The floor is so wet and slippery.”

(d) 佢 成 朝 都 頭頭頭頭 耷耷耷耷 耷耷耷耷, 咁 好 似 唔 開 心 喎
Keoi5 seng4 ziu1 dou1 tau4 dap1 dap1 gam2, hou2 ci5 m4 hoi1 sam1 wo3
3.SG all morning dou1 head-down down –like, seem NEG happy PART
“He/She seems to be in a bad mood for the whole morning.”

(e) 你   聲聲聲聲 做 埋   然 後 去 食 飯 啦
Nei5 laa4 laa2 seng1 zou6 maai4 di1 je5 jin4 hau6 heoi3 sik6 faan6 laa1
2.SG hurry up do PERF DET thing then go eat rice PART
“You should hurry up and finish your work so that you can have your meal.”

Semantic/pragmatic Functions

Ideophones in Cantonese do not seem to have independent denotational, dictionary meaning. It is
hard to gloss and translate them morpheme for morpheme. This is exactly the case with ideophones
in many languages that depend on the meaning of other words or on the context of the enunciation
for meaning ascription. Speaker-linguists often say that ideophones feature more in colloquial and
oral language situations than in formal and written language situations. This again is exactly the
situation in many cultures with ideophones attested in their languages.

Where do the data come from?

The data were collected from a variety of spoken and written sources. The corpus contains a total
of 178 ideophonic expressions with example sentences, 50 of which were collected from local
newspapers and magazines by one of the Research Assistants, Bonnie Wong. All these sources are
cited as footnotes in the corpus. The rest of the ideophones and their corresponding example
sentences were elicited from a group of native Cantonese speakers.

How is the corpus organized?

Two methods are used to organize the 177 ideophones and their example sentences. The first part
of the corpus is arranged semantically according to the entities they imitate or describe. These
categories include, but are not limited to, sound symbolisms, lights, actions, manners, and states.

2 When there is no character representation of a certain syllable, a phonologically similar character is adopted. If no
such character can be identified, the symbol (cid:1) is used.
© 2000-2008 Adams Bodomo. All Rights Reserved. 4
The second part of the corpus organizes the data in terms of the nine morphological types
identified in Bodomo (2004) and Wong (2005) – AA, AB, ABC, AAB, ABB, ABCD, ABAC,
ABAB, and AABB. All of the ideophonic items are arranged in alphabetical order under each of
their corresponding categories.

All Chinese/Cantonese data in this corpus are translated into English. For the purpose of
illustration, these examples are also glossed and translated in the following format:

Chinese/Cantonese characters: 條 繩  度 吊吊吊吊 吊吊吊吊 □□□□
Cantonese Romanization3 with tones4: tiu4 sing4 hai6 dou3 diu4 diu2 fing6
Morpheme-to-morpheme translation5: CL rope be dou6 hang-hang-fing6
Free translation in English: “The rope is hanging loosely.”

Bibliography
Bodomo, A. 2000. Dagaare: Languages of the World Materials no 165. Lincom Europa
Bodomo, A. 2003-2005. Ideophones in African and Asian Languages. Project website:
http://www.hku.hk/linguist/research/bodomo/ideophones/
Bodomo, A. 2004. The structure of Ideophones in African and Asian Languages: The case of Dagaare and
Cantonese. Paper presented at the 35th Annual Conference on African Linguistics. Harward
University. April 2-4.
Bodomo, A. forthcoming. The Structure of Ideophones in African and Asian Languages: The Case of
Dagaare and Cantonese. In: Mugane, J. and J. Hutchison (eds.). Selected Proceedings of the 35th
Annual Conference on African Linguistics: African Languages and Linguistics in Broad
Perspective. Cascadilla Press.
Crystal, David. 1997. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Blackwell Publishers
Doke, C. M. 1935. Bantu Linguistic Terminology. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
Kulemeka, Andrew Tilimbe. 1997. The grammatical category of Chichewa ideophones. In Herbert Robert
ed. African Linguistics at the Crossroads: Papers from Kwaluseni. Rudiger Koppe Verlag Koln
Lau, Wai-man Vendy. 1999. A Study of Adjectives in Cantonese. M.Phil. thesis, University of Hong Kong.
Newman, P. 1968. Ideophones from a syntactic point of view. Journal of West African Languages 5:
107-117.
Newman, P. 2000. The Hausa Language: An Encyclopaedic Reference Grammar. Yale University
Press

3 Cantonese romanizations in this corpus are based on the Cantonese Romanization Scheme, developed by the
Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK).URL: http://cpct92.cityu.edu.hk/lshk/Jyutping/index.htm, and LSHK. 1997.
Guide to LSHK Cantonese Romanization of Chinese Characters. Hong Kong: LSHK.
4 This corpus adopts 6 basic tones in Cantonese: Tone 1: High Level; Tone 2: High Rising; Tone 3: Mid Level; Tone 4:
Low Falling; Tone 5: Low Rising; Tone 6: Low Level.
5 Abbreviations used: 1/2/3.SG/PL = 1st/2nd/3rd person singular/plural, CL = classifier, INTENS = intensifier, INTJ. =
interjection, (neg.) = the expression has negative meaning, NEG = negative marker, PART = particle, POSS =
possessive marker
© 2000-2008 Adams Bodomo. All Rights Reserved. 5
Trask, R. L. 1993. A Dictionary of Grammatical Terms in Linguistics. London: Routledge.
Watson, R. L. 2001. A comparison of some Southeast Asian ideophones with some African
ideophones. In Ideophones, edited by F. K. E. Voeltz and C. Kilian-Hatz. Amsterdam &
Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Wong, P. L. Bonnie. 2005. Cantonese Ideophones: A Lexical-Functional Grammar Analysis.
Unpublished Extended Essay. The University of Hong Kong.
Voeltz, F. K. E and C. Kilian-Hatz. 2001. (eds). Ideophones. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John
Benjamins.

Acknowledgements

A number of people have contributed to the construction of this corpus. I would like to thank my
Research Assistants, Carmen Lee, Bonnie Wong, and Parco Wong, all of whom are native
Cantonese speakers, for providing some of the data for this corpus and word-processing this
document. In particular, I thank Bonnie for collecting data from newspapers and magazines. This
corpus is part of the project “Ideophones in African and Asian Languages”, funded by the
University of Hong Kong (Ref: 10205161), to which I am also very grateful.
© 2000-2008 Adams Bodomo. All Rights Reserved. 6
THE CORPUS
© 2000-2008 Adams Bodomo. All Rights Reserved. 7
PART I: SEMANTIC AND PRAGMATIC FUNCTIONS

1. SOUND SYMBOLISMS

1. baang4 baang4 seng1(嘭嘭嘭嘭嘭嘭嘭嘭聲聲聲聲)6: increasing rapidly
米 高 唔 知 係 咪 呢 排 打 官 司 打 到 窮 , 所 以
mai5-gou1 m4 zi1 hai6 mai1 lei1-paai4 daa2-gun1-si1 daa2 dou3 kung4, so2-ji5
Michael NEG know is mai1 recently attend-courts attend dou3 poor, so-that

諗 起 事 業 發 到 嘭嘭嘭嘭 嘭嘭嘭嘭 聲聲聲聲 嘅 妮 歌
lam2-hei2 si6-jip6 faat3 dou3 baang4 baang4 seng1 ge3 nei4-go1
think-of career develop dou3 baang4-baang4-sound ge3 Nicole

“Michael has recently been dealing with many court cases which cost him a fortune. And that might be the reason
why he thinks of Nicole, whose career is at its pinnacle.”

2. bing4 ling1 baang3 laang4 (砰砰砰砰擰擰擰擰繃繃繃繃), noise made by falling things
間 房 裡 面 砰砰砰砰 擰擰擰擰 繃繃繃繃  做 乜 咁 嘈
gaan1 fong4 lei5-min6 bing4 ling1 baang3 laang4, zou6 mat1 gam3 cou4
CL room inside bing4-ling1-baang3-laang4, do what so noisy
“How come the room is so noisy?”
3. caat3 laa3(嚓嚓嚓嚓喇喇喇喇)7: sound made when something passes through a hole perfectly
籃 球 “嚓嚓嚓嚓 喇喇喇喇” 一 聲 擦 過 籃 板
laam4 kau4 “caat3 laa3” jat1 sing1 caat3 gwo3 laam4 baan2
basket ball “caat3-laa3” one sound pass through basket board
“The basketball passed through the net perfectly.”

4. dik6 dik6 zai2 (滴滴滴滴滴滴滴滴仔仔仔仔), a way of playing table tennis
我 打 乒 乓 波, 最 鐘 意 打 滴滴滴滴 滴滴滴滴 仔仔仔仔 
ngo5 daa1 ping1-pong1-bo1, zeoi3 zung1-ji3 daa1 dik6 dik6 zai2 gaa3
1.SG hit table tennis , most love hit dik6-dik6-zai2 PART
“I like to play with dik6-dik6-zai2 style when I play table tennis.”

5. ding1 ding1 (叮叮叮叮叮叮叮叮), tram in Hong Kong
我 最 鐘 意 搭 嘅 交 通 工 具 就 係 叮 叮 喇
ngo5 zeoi3 zung1-ji3 daap3 ge3 gaau1-tung1 gung1-geoi6 zau6 hai6 ding1 ding1 laa1
1.SG most love take POSS transport tool zau6 be tram PART
“Tram is my favorite public transport.”

6. ding1 dong3 (叮叮叮叮噹噹噹噹), sound of door bell
做 乜 個 門 鐘 成 日 叮 噹 叮 噹 咁 嚮 嘅, ?
zou6 mat1 go3 mun4 zung1 seng4 jat6 ding1 dong3 ding1 dong3 gam2 hoeng2 ge2?
Do what CL door bell all day ding1-dong3-ding1-dong3 gam2 ring PART
“Why is the doorbell keep ringing?”

6 from Sudden Weekly (1/10/2004)
7 from Ming Pao (27/9/2004: A23)
© 2000-2008 Adams Bodomo. All Rights Reserved. 8
7. ding4 ding1 dam4 dam3 (叮叮叮叮叮叮叮叮沊沊沊沊沊沊沊沊)/ king1 ling1 kwaang1 laang1 (傾傾傾傾拎拎拎拎框框框框冷冷冷冷),
to describe somebody wearing lots of jewels
佢 好 貪 靚 , 成 日 都 成 身 叮叮叮叮 叮叮叮叮 沊沊沊沊 沊沊沊沊 
keoi5 hou2 taam1 leng3 gaa3, seng4 jat6 dou1 seng4 san1 ding4 ding1 dam4 dam3 gaa3
3.SG INTENS greedy beauty gaa3 all day dou1 all body ding4 ding1 dam4 dam3 gaa3
“She likes dressing up herself and she always wears lots of accessories on her.”

8. gei1 li1 gu1 lou1(嘰嘰嘰嘰哩哩哩哩咕咕咕咕嚕嚕嚕嚕)8, sound of a foreign language
施 南 生 忽 然 嘰嘰嘰嘰 哩哩哩哩 咕咕咕咕 嚕嚕嚕嚕 地 用 avez-vous diné 之 類
sil-naam4-sang1 fat1-jin4 gei1 li1 gu1 lou1 dei6 jing6 avez-vous diné zi1-leoi6
Si-naam-sang suddenly gei1-li1-gu1-lou1 dei6 use avez-vous diné type

法 文 跟 身 邊 一 位 朋 友 客 套 商 量
faat3-man4 gan1 san1-bin1 jat1 wai2 pang4-jau5 haak3-tou3 soeng1-loeng4
French with nearby one CL friend kindly discuss

“Si-naam-sang suddenly spoke to her friend in French, something like “avez-vous dine?”.”

9. ji4 ji4 aa1 aa1(咦咦咦咦咦咦咦咦呀呀呀呀呀呀呀呀)9, sound produced by a violin
只 見 那 老 伯 先 把 琴 架 在 肩 上, 下 巴 一 夾,
zi2 gin3 naa5 lou5 baak3 sin1 baa2 kam4 gaa3-zoi6 gin1 soeng6, haa6-baa1 jat1 gaap3,
just see that old man firstly put violin on shoulder surface, chin one hold,

咦咦咦咦 咦咦咦咦 呀呀呀呀 呀呀呀呀 拉 出... 天 鵝 湖
ji4 ji4 aa1 aa1 laai1 ceot1...tin1 ngo4 wu4
ji4-ji4-aa1-aa1 play ceot1…The Swan Lake

“(Somebody) saw the old man put the violin on his shoulder and held it under his chin. He then played “The Swan
Lake”.”

10. meou1 meou1 (喵喵喵喵喵喵喵喵), cat / sound made by a cat
隻 貓 成 日 喵喵喵喵 喵喵喵喵 咁 叫, 好 煩 呀
zek3 miu4 seng4 jat6 meou1 meou1 gam3 giu3, hou2 faan4 aa1
CL cat all day meou1 meou1 gam3 meow, INTENS annoying PART
“The cat always keeps on meowing, which is very annoying.”

11. si4 li1 saa4 laa4 (嘶嘶嘶嘶哩哩哩哩唦唦唦唦), Sounds of rain drops
出 面 好 大 雨, 成 日 都 嘶嘶嘶嘶 哩哩哩哩 唦唦唦唦  咁 聲
ceot1-min6 hou2 daai6 jyu5, seng4 jat6 dou1 si4 li1 saa4 laa4 gam2 seng1
outside INTENS big rain, all day dou1 si4 li1 saa4 laa4 gam2 sound
“It is raining in torrents out there. I can hear it.”

12. syut4 syut4 seng1 ((cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:1)雪雪雪雪(cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:1)雪雪雪雪聲聲聲聲)10, noise made when somebody eats
怪 不 得 一 向 怕 食 生 蛋 的 我 都 吃到 (cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:1)雪雪雪雪 (cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:1)(cid:1)雪雪雪雪 聲聲聲聲
gwaai3 bat1 dak1 jat1-hoeng3 paa3 sik6 sang1 gai1 daan2 dik1 ngo5 dou1 hek3 dou3 syut3 syut3 seng1
strange NEG dak1 always afraid eat uncooked chicken egg dik1 1.SG dou1 eat dou3 syut3-syut3-sound
“No wonder I still find them delicious, even though I usually hate raw eggs.”

8 from Ming Pao (4/10/2004)
9 from Apple Daily (11/10/2004)
10 from Sudden Weekly (1/10/2004)
© 2000-2008 Adams Bodomo. All Rights Reserved. 9