De-iconization and (re-)iconization

Abstract Imitative (onomatopoeic, mimetic) words are words with an original iconic correlation between form and meaning. Diachronic language change causes form and meaning changes in imitative words. These changes, in turn, collectively contribute to iconicity loss, as the original form–meaning similarity of imitative words becomes vague and eventually disappears. This chapter discusses the factors that play a major role in “de-iconization”—(1) sound changes as well as changes in (2) morphology and (3) semantics of imitative words. Thus, it explores the ways and circumstances in which regular sound changes may obscure iconicity; it also examines how expansion of meaning through metaphor and metonymy and the subsequent loss of the original meaning may make imitative words unrecognizable. In addition, it considers to what extent de-iconization is counterbalanced by the opposite process—“(re-)iconization”—and how words at different de-iconization stages coexist in the present-day imitative lexicon.