What is onomatopoeia?

Onomatopoeia is the use of a word that denotes a

• sound suggested by the phonetic quality of the word, or
• thing that produces such a sound.

• gong
• crackle
• twitter

• What is a trope?

Corbett 1971 490–491

Mish 1991 825

Context for this page:

• Concept module: onomatopoeia
• In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): O
• In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
• In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

© 2004 SIL International