Linguistic causes of onomatopoeic verbs de-etymologization

Abstract

This article presents the results of the etymological analysis of ten onomatopoeic verbs, illustrating the projection of the deetymologization theory onto onomatopoetic material. The loss of phonetic motivation is determined on a semantic analysis of the word meaning in modern language by the presence or absence of a connection with the onomatopoetic complex in the core or peripheral semes, where the sounding sema can reveal itself explicitly or implicitly. It has been established that de-etymologization of onomatopoeic verbs is caused by phonetic, word-building and semantic factors. The results of de-etymologization are most evident if the derivational links connecting the verb and onomatopoeia are lost in the modern language.

Keywords

• onomatopoetic verbs
• phonetic motivation
• de-etymologization
• etymon
• sounding sema