Ištiktukų galo priebalsių ikoniškoji funkcija (lingvistinės pastabos)
The Iconic Function of the Final Consonants of Interjections (Linguistic Remarks)

Summary/Abstract: In Lithuanian a certain variety in the forms of interjections can be observed: taukšt : taukš , plekšt : plekš, bam : bamp, kliu : kliuk : kliukt, etc. The final consonant -t slightly changes the meaning of the interjection by adding some additional undertones. The aim of this paper is to determine the function of the ‘falling-off’ consonant in the implosion of a monosyllabic interjection. The present analysis is related to the phonotactic clusters of the interjections. One-member clusters can be found in pairs – ending in -t and without -t. The genuine two-member implosive clusters can be only of the types TT or ST. The interjections, ending in the clusters of the TS, RT and RS types, are pairs of three-member implosive clusters. The phonotactic analysis shows that the consonant t is virtually indispensable to the phonetic structure of the interjections. This consonant is referred to as a formant of the interjection in Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos gramatika [Grammar of Contemporary Lithuanian] (Vilnius, 1996 ). The implosive -t,however, can influence the semantic structure of the interjections, i.e. it can serve as an indicator that the imitated action, feeling or experience is treated as completed in contrast to its ‘unfinished’ (-t-less) counterpart. The author of the article makes a suggestion that the -t should not be treated as a formant, but as a sound which in the interjections performs a specific iconic function (in the broad sense of the word) and can indicate that the impression is produced by a one-time action, feeling or experience of short duration or that that action (feeling, experience or, possibly, sound) has definitely been completed. Conceived in this way, the function of the implosive -t would be a peripheral variety of the function of the sounds of the representational speech.

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