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2-3 The search for universal roots
As mentioned in 2-2, our sense organs
have a universal structure. Therefore human activity of linguistic
representation may well result in a similar one. What is different between the
Japanese and the Indo-European is that the linguistic circumstances of the former
contain much more onomatopoeic and sound-symbolic adverbs abundant in
a
vivid
sense of description than the latter.
Surrounded
with those words and having a good command of coining new sound-symbolic
expressions, the Japanese are suited to reconsider the
IE roots that have been classified according mainly to sound
laws. The
reconsideration could prove that a certain sound has similar symbolism in and
outside the Indo-European languages. Thus it is
our while to search for
universal roots common to humankind.
According to
conventional comparative linguistics, onomatopoeia and sound-symbolism are a
kind of heresy and incompatible to it since it is hardly possible to trace back
derivative relationship of the words coined on the principle of these root-creation. The etymology of
the onomatopoetic IE *gwous ‘ox,
bull, cow’, for example, has been regarded as ‘unknown’ because there has been no
evidence to
prove whether the root
was borrowed
from
non-IE Sumerian
gu(d) or
from
ancient Chinese
Niog.
However, it is not too far from the truth to say that
because of their natural origin, etymology of onomatopoeic
and sound-symbolic words cannot be fully evidenced. It is not in the geographical derivation but in the human brain that
etymology of these words should be sought for.
The search for universal roots even means an attestation of
universality of human brain from a linguistic point of view.
2-1
Germanic mind reflected in etymology
2-2
Sound-symbolism
Return to
2 New Etymology of the English Philological Society of
Japan
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