Japanese Onomatopoeic Expressions with Quantitative Meaning

Abstract

Grammatical category of quantity is absent in the Japanese language but there are many different grammatical, lexical, derivational and morphological modes of expression of quantity. This paper provides an analysis of the lexical mode of expression of quantitative meanings and their semantics with the help of onomatopoeic (giongo) and mimetic (gitaigo) words in the Japanese language. Based on the analysis, we have distinguished the following semantic groups: mimetic words A) existence of some (large or small) quantity (things, phenomena and people), B) degree of change of quantity; and onomatopoeic words A) single sound, B) repetitive sounds.