The focus of this essay is on examining the meanings of the onomatopoeia (sound imitating words) snap, crack and pop. Previous studies on onomatopoeia and sound symbolism are used to define the terms and create a model for an alternative categorization of these meanings. This model is then applied in a corpus study, conducted on the COCA (Corpus Of Contemporary American English) and BYU-BNC (The British National Corpus) corpora, to find a way to more accurately describe the meanings and functions of these words.  For this purpose the context in which snap, crack and pop are used is also addressed by observing how frequently they occur in formal and informal texts and which adjectives and adverbs frequently modify them. In the study it was discovered that these three words took on many different meanings that would be hard to list separately in a dictionary. These meanings did follow a pattern linked to the properties associated with the word. The study found snap, crack and pop to be informal words with a tendency to add emotion or effect to a statement. It is therefore concluded that sorting onomatopoeia by sound and non sound-related meaning and describing the informal characteristics of these words leads to a greater understanding of how they are used.   Keywords: Arbitrariness, crack, emotive, ideophones, mimetics, mimes, non-arbitrariness, onomatopoeia, phenomimes, phonomimes, pop, psychomimes, register, semantics, snap, sound symbolism and style.

This dissertation deals with the poetry of C.S.Z. Ntuli, with specific reference to themes, diction and form. The introductory chapter deals with the aim of study, the author's biographical background, the development of modern Zulu poetry, the state of critical studies in modern Zulu poetry, the scope of study and the method of approach. Chapter 2 examines the main themes manifest in the poetry of Ntuli. Chapter 3 is devoted to diction, with particular reference to imagery, compound words, ideophones and deideophonic derivatives. Comment is also made on ways in which these amplify the theme in selected poems. Chapter 4 discusses outstanding formal features and techniques including stanza formation, refrains, alliteration, parallelism, linking and rhythm. Chapter 5 concludes the study by giving observations about the quality of Ntuli's contribution to modern Zulu poetry, and by exploring some possibilities regarding future studies on the poetry of Ntuli / African Languages / M. A. (African languages)

This dissertation deals with the poetry of C.S.Z. Ntuli, with specific reference to themes, diction and form. The introductory chapter deals with the aim of study, the author's biographical background, the development of modern Zulu poetry, the state of critical studies in modern Zulu poetry, the scope of study and the method of approach. Chapter 2 examines the main themes manifest in the poetry of Ntuli. Chapter 3 is devoted to diction, with particular reference to imagery, compound words, ideophones and deideophonic derivatives. Comment is also made on ways in which these amplify the theme in selected poems. Chapter 4 discusses outstanding formal features and techniques including stanza formation, refrains, alliteration, parallelism, linking and rhythm. Chapter 5 concludes the study by giving observations about the quality of Ntuli's contribution to modern Zulu poetry, and by exploring some possibilities regarding future studies on the poetry of Ntuli / African Languages / M. A. (African languages)

Die vorliegende Arbeit befasst sich mit dem großen Oberthema der Ikonizität und ihrer Verbreitung auf verschiedenen linguistischen Ebenen. Ikonizität bezeichnet die Ähnlichkeit zwischen der sprachlichen Form und ihrer Bedeutung (vgl. Perniss und Vigliocco, 2014). So wie eine Skulptur einem Objekt oder einer Person ähnelt, kann auch der Klang oder die Form von Wörtern der Sache ähneln, auf die sie verweisen. Frühere theoretische Ansätze betonen, dass die Arbitrarität von sprachlichen Zeichen und deren Bedeutung ein Hauptmerkmal menschlicher Sprache ist und Ikonizität für die Sprachevolution eine Rolle gespielt haben mag, jedoch in der heutigen Sprache zu vernachlässigen ist. Im Gegensatz dazu ist das Hauptanliegen dieser Arbeit, das Potenzial und die Bedeutung von Ikonizität in der heutigen Sprache zu untersuchen. Die einzelnen Kapitel der Dissertation können als separate Teile betrachtet werden, die in ihrer Gesamtheit das umfassende Spektrum der Ikonizität sichtbar machen. Von der sprachevolutionären Debatte ausgehend wird in den einzelnen Kapiteln auf die unterschiedlichen Ebenen der Ikonizität eingegangen. Es werden experimentelle Untersuchungen zur Lautsymbolik, am Beispiel der deutschen Pokémon-Namen, zur ikonischen Prosodie und zu ikonischen Wörtern, den sogenannten Ideophonen, vorgestellt. Die Ergebnisse der einzelnen Untersuchungen deuten auf die weite Verbreitung der Ikonizität im heutigen Deutsch hin. Darüber hinaus entschlüsselt diese Dissertation das kommunikative Potenzial der Ikonizität als eine Kraft, die nicht nur die Entstehung der Sprache ermöglichte, sondern auch nach Jahrtausenden bestehen bleibt, sich immer wieder neu entfaltet und uns tagtäglich in mündlicher, schriftlicher Form und in Gesten begegnet. / This dissertation is concerned with the major theme of iconicity and its prevalence on different linguistic levels. Iconicity refers to a resemblance between the linguistic form and the meaning of a referent (cf. Perniss and Vigliocco, 2014). Just like a sculpture resembles an object or a model, so can the sound or shape of words resemble the thing they refer to. Previous theoretical approaches emphasize that arbitrariness of the linguistic sign is one of the main features of human language; iconicity, however, may have played a role for language evolution, but is negligible in contemporary language. In contrast, the main point of this thesis is to explore the potential and the importance of iconicity in the language nowadays. The individual chapters of the dissertation can be viewed as separate parts that, taken together, reveal the comprehensive spectrum of iconicity. Starting from the language evolutionary debate, the individual chapters address iconicity on different linguistic levels. I present experimental evidence on sound symbolism, using the example of German Pokémon names, on iconic prosody, and on iconic words, the so-called ideophones. The results of the individual investigations point to the widespread use of iconicity in contemporary German. Moreover, this dissertation deciphers the communicative potential of iconicity as a force that not only enabled the emergence of language, but also persists after millennia, unfolding again and again and encountering us every day in speech, writing, and gestures.

This is a semantic study, dealing with style and technique in the short stories of D. B. Z. Ntuli. The study as a whole analyses Ntuli' s first six volumes of short stories. The first chapter is an introduction, dealing with the aim of the study. The second sub-section after aim is Ntuli's biographical notes. Full details of this author from high school attendance to his contribution during his working experience are given. Ntuli's biography is followed by the scope of study. Under this sub-heading, short story volumes to be analysed are clearly stated. The fourth sub-heading is the method of approach and a conclusion. Chapter two deals with various types of repetition, a literary technique. It analyses Ntuli's use of language, and repetition of sentences approaching it from different angles. Chapter three and four deal with choice of words. The former chapter handles the various types of language elements semantically and the latter deals specifically with the ideophone. The ideophone is sub-divided into two sub-sections: classification and usage. Chapter five deals with proverbial expressions and these are sub-divided into two sections: idioms and proverbs. The usage of idiomatic expressions is discussed under: verbs, nouns and qualificatives, while the proverbs are analysed under classification and syntax. Imagery is dealt with in chapter six. Imagery is further sub-divided into four categories: metaphor, simile, personification and symbolism. Style and structure are discussed in chapter seven. In this chapter various elements of language forms are handled: types of sentenceidiophonic; negative forms of the ideophone, with conjunctives; sentences with adverbs; the demonstratives; titles of short story volumes and naming of characters. Chapter eight is the general conclusion, reflecting on Ntuli's style and technique with special emphasis on his unique use of the language. Reference is made to discoveries regarding the author's use of vocabulary, and his techniques in using repetition as well as avoiding it, which is part of his style. His choice of words and how he arranges them on paper is also discussed. Ntuli's choice of titles in naming his short story volumes is summed up showing that these have been influenced by his background. The study concludes by suggesting areas that still require further analysis in Ntuli 's short stories. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

This is a semantic study, dealing with style and technique in the short stories of D. B. Z. Ntuli. The study as a whole analyses Ntuli' s first six volumes of short stories. The first chapter is an introduction, dealing with the aim of the study. The second sub-section after aim is Ntuli's biographical notes. Full details of this author from high school attendance to his contribution during his working experience are given. Ntuli's biography is followed by the scope of study. Under this sub-heading, short story volumes to be analysed are clearly stated. The fourth sub-heading is the method of approach and a conclusion. Chapter two deals with various types of repetition, a literary technique. It analyses Ntuli's use of language, and repetition of sentences approaching it from different angles. Chapter three and four deal with choice of words. The former chapter handles the various types of language elements semantically and the latter deals specifically with the ideophone. The ideophone is sub-divided into two sub-sections: classification and usage. Chapter five deals with proverbial expressions and these are sub-divided into two sections: idioms and proverbs. The usage of idiomatic expressions is discussed under: verbs, nouns and qualificatives, while the proverbs are analysed under classification and syntax. Imagery is dealt with in chapter six. Imagery is further sub-divided into four categories: metaphor, simile, personification and symbolism. Style and structure are discussed in chapter seven. In this chapter various elements of language forms are handled: types of sentenceidiophonic; negative forms of the ideophone, with conjunctives; sentences with adverbs; the demonstratives; titles of short story volumes and naming of characters. Chapter eight is the general conclusion, reflecting on Ntuli's style and technique with special emphasis on his unique use of the language. Reference is made to discoveries regarding the author's use of vocabulary, and his techniques in using repetition as well as avoiding it, which is part of his style. His choice of words and how he arranges them on paper is also discussed. Ntuli's choice of titles in naming his short story volumes is summed up showing that these have been influenced by his background. The study concludes by suggesting areas that still require further analysis in Ntuli 's short stories. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

The aim of this thesis is to create an ethnolinguistic analysis of two corpuses of Mongolian riddles (Lovor and Ölziikhutag 1990 and Ölziikhutag 2013). The work contains over one hundred riddles appended with translations and morpheme-to-morpheme glosses. The riddles are further analyzed on a phonetic level, including descriptions of specific sound patterns and alliterations, as well as their lexical and semantic properties. This complex analysis, in conjunction with findings gained in field research, renders possible the description of a specific language of Mongolian riddles, characterized by the frequent occurrence of borrowings, the presence of semantically and phonetically 'damaged' words, ideophones, metaphors and many specific cultural expressions. The language of Mongolian riddles also often skilfully exploits overt abstractions, allusions, and lexical and morphological ambiguities, in addition to other techniques which facilitate conceptual mapping and cognitive blending. This linguistic analysis makes possible a description of the various aspects of the worldview of Mongolian nomads concealed in these riddles, including the characteristic linking of the 'sacred and profane,' as well as the relationship of these riddles to mythology and religious ideas.