[Lingtyp] Linguistic definition of prominence??

[Jess Tauber]

Folks have been mentioning on the list topic prominence, and I'm familiar
as well with the notion of prominence in phonetics.

But is there any linguistic definition for prominence with regard to
sensation? I'm finding in my comparative phonosemantics project that a
number of Central Asian language families appear to mark the degree of
sensory prominence in mimetic/ideophonic words via phonosemantics.

That is, does the object 'stand out' against a background (figure/ground
separation), or is it hard to make out (visually, aurally, etc.). Is this
prominence increasing, or reducing over time, or space, or both. And so on.
There may be also a kind of complementary notion of motoric prominence-
that is, what is the referent doing that makes it prominent to the senses.

Thanks,
Jess Tauber
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