L’onomatopée en koulango : aperçu linguistique

Abstract

Onomatopoeia is a case of motivation of the linguistic sign. It is known that one of the defining features of the linguistic sign is the arbitrary link between this one and the referent. On the other hand, onomatopoeia creates a necessary link between sign and referent. This study, which is based on the results of a field survey, describes the formal and semantic properties of Koulango, a Gur language spoken in the north-east of Côte d'Ivoire (Bondoukou and Bouna regions) and in the centre-west of Ghana (Seikwa and Badou localities).The analysis accounts for the distinction between onomatopoeia and other verb modifiers such as adverbs and ideophones. It shows irregular forms of onomatopoeias in relation to the ordinary lexicon of the language. Extra-long vowel sounds can be recognized in a monosyllabic and polysyllabic structure. These are involved in the construction of different effects of meaning such as the reproduction of : an energetic or non-energetic sound; monotonous or in various successive phases sound ; which behaves discreetly, densely and compactly.