Polysemic Onomatopoetic Words in the Japanese Language
The paper discusses polysemic onomatopoetic words of the Japanese language. Certain models of the meaning development are found among 371 words from the “Japanese-Russian Dictionary of onomatopoetic words” including both giseigo and gitaigo (sound and image mimetic words). It is observed that the meaning of a polysemic onomatopoetic word is mostly developing from speciﬁc to more ﬁgurative and abstractive, for example from the description of a sound to the description of a movement associated with such sound, or from the description of shape or condition associated with movement to the description of human feeling and emotions paralleled to such condition. Existence of some universal features in the development of the meaning of polysemic words, such as metaphorical or metonymical transfer are conﬁrmed.