Onomatopoeia in German Verb Suffixes

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article falls within the framework of lexical semantics and word formation and includes a theoretical framework and an empirical study based on a literary corpus. It aims to analyse onomatopoeia in German verbs with the suffixes ‘-(e)l(n)’ and -‘(e)r(n)’ and to study the behaviour of these verbs in the corpus. The corpus of reference has been extracted from "Der goldne Topf" by E.T.A. Hoffmann. Due to the richness of the content concerning these verb suffixes, the author has already carried out a study about the iterative aspect of these suffixes in this literary work, and the present paper aims to extent the research with the analysis of the onomatopoeic verbs in it. Specifically, the following topics will be addressed. 1) What is onomatopoeia? 2) What is the relationship between these German verb suffixes and onomatopoeia? 3) How is the frequency of appearance of these suffixes in relation to onomatopoeia quantified in the corpus? 4) What semantic and morphological characteristics are shown by the suffixed verbs that express onomatopoeia? The current study presents a theoretical framework with the aim of analysing onomatopoeia and its relationship with German word formation. Taking this theoretical framework into account, in the empirical part of the study, the corpus is qualitatively and quantitatively analysed, and conclusions are drawn bearing in mind the function of the verbs with the suffixes of interest. R software was used for pre-processing the text needed for generating the corpus. Excel was used for analysis