lexicalization

[Jess Tauber]

Hi, folks. Just subscribed (after reading HISTLING off LINGUIST for the last
couple of years).

I've been collecting references to the lexicalization of ideophones and
expressives, to bolster a working hypothesis. Various Australianists have
noted the apparent shift to lexical status of expressive forms, as have
people working with Mongolian and other Central Asian languages. And many
Bantu languages (and perhaps larger Niger-Kordofanian) show clear traces of
massive shift of ideophones to lexical status. Tucker Childs, though, claims
the reverse is more likely (maybe bi-directional in these languages, perhaps
a typological trait?).

Anyway, even IE languages show many old expressive forms have been thoroughly
lexicalized, often with enough derivation to obscure the old root.

Have any of the list-lurkers noted any good references to the phenomenon in
other languages/families? Thanks in advance.

Best regards,
Jess Tauber
zylogy at aol.com
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