daria said:
Is there a broader definition of onomatopoeia?
I have spent some time working on this and would like to share. Yes, there is a broader definition of onomatopoeia beyond merely imitating animal voices and actions. [AHD's "Imitative" falls into a narrower definition]
Narrow definition:
animal voices: meow, bow-wow
action: boom, click, rumble
Broad definition:
Some hold that any sound effect is one, for example: rattle, whistle, whine. Below is what I got from 2 sources from the Internet:
"Strictly speaking, the formation or use of words which imitate sounds, like whispering, clang, and sizzle, but the term is generally expanded to refer to any word whose sound is suggestive of its meaning whether by imitation or through cultural inference. "
"Human actions:
Aha, ahoy, chomp, clap-clap, crunch, gulp, gurgle, hush, rap, screech, slap, slurp, achoo/sneeze, ouch, tap, whoops/oops."