The Role of Ideophones in Khalkha Mongolian Motion Descriptions

Abstract In studying ideophones in motion descriptions, this article focuses on Khalkha Mongolian ( sov , agglutinative), a verb-framed language (Talmy, 2000) with occasional satellite-framed constructions and a rich inventory of manner verbs (cf. Matsumoto and Badema, 2025). Drawing upon a database of ideophones built within our project and supplemented by elicitation questionnaires, we (i) scrutinize the semantics of Mongolian ideophones in motion descriptions (partially using Ibarretxe-Antuñano’s (2019) Semantic Grid), and (ii) define the role of ideophonic constructions in forming core predicates or satellites in motion constructions (Talmy, 2000). We also examine the status of ideophones in relation to manner verbs, particularly if they are used in place of manner verbs (cf. Slobin’s (2006) discussion of manner salience) or as their secondary modifiers (cf. Schaefer, 2001). We have identified the prominent role of ideophones on the periphery of motion construction, whereas the contribution of Mongolian ideophones to manner salience remains disputable.