Abstract

Ideophones are “marked words that vividly depict sensory events” (Dingemanse, 2009, p. 1). They often occur with gesture, but the link between the two is not yet fully understood. McNeill (1992) and Streeck (2008) have proposed classification schemas for gesture, and Nuckolls (2019) is developing a framework for the categorization of ideophones. This thesis categorizes ideophone-gesture composites using a combination of all three of these frameworks. I used data from Quechua RealWords, an online video corpus of 221 ideophones of Pastaza Quichua elicited by students and faculty at the Andes and Amazon Field School in Ecuador. I analyzed video clips of composite utterances and classified them according to McNeill’s, Streeck’s, and Nuckolls’s classification systems. This thesis demonstrates how using these three classification systems together allows for a more holistic analysis of ideophone-gesture composites as well as for the identification of certain patterns in the data. In this case, these were the existence of deictic + beat gestures and the pairing of sound-only ideophones with head gestures rather than with hand gestures. This thesis also suggests that head gestures may be classified using Streeckian and McNeillian categories and it points out ways in which beats paired with Quichua ideophones deviate from the criteria put forth by McNeill.

Degree

MA

College and Department

Humanities; Linguistics and English Language

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2020-07-31

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd11407

Keywords

Quichua, Quechua, Kichwa, ideophones, gesture, depiction

Language

English

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