Onomatopoeic Ideophone-gesture Couplings in Kuria

Abstract

AbstractThere has been a general consensus that ideophones tend to occur in synchronywith depictive gestures in a manner that the two enhance each other. However,there have been conflicting views with regard to this synchrony, particularlywithregard toonomatopoeic ideophones. While several studies reveal thatonomatopoeic ideophones are merely simplistic and rarely accompanied bydepictive gestures, analytical studies to ascertain these findings are scant.However, data from Kuria show that onomatopoeic ideophones are not onlynumerous in number but also accompanied by depictive gestures by 68%.Findings also reveal that onomatopoeic ideophones in Kuria are divided intotwo categories: those with sound modality alone and those that have multiplemodalities with sound being a dominant modality. This paper argues that inestablishing modality, native speakers ' intuition and body language, asreflected in verbal and gestural information, should be taken into account. Thepaper concludes that the Kuria onomatopoeic ideophones are accompanied bydepictive gestures at a higher rate than previously reported in the literature.Key words: ideophones,depiction,depictive gestures, onomatopoeic ideophones,modality, Kuria