In comics, for example those by Walt Disney, interjections that describe or emphasize in words what the characters in the image are doing are quite commonly used (cough, sigh, tweet).
According to the German Wikipedia, a grammatical term for this type of word has been introduced only recently, in 1998. It’s called Inflektiv.
I could not find an English translation, neither on these pages nor in any search engine. Is there a term for this?
Best Answer
The German Wikipedia page for Inflektiv also provides a synonym—Erikativ—which is "named for Erika Fuchs, who translated Mickey Mouse comics into German and used the form frequently". Going by Google's results, Erikativ (or Ericativ, sometimes with an 'e' at the end) appears to be just as popular as Inflektiv.
There is an interesting (and exhaustive) paper by a Mark Lindsay [PDF] on the subject of the Erikativ from a linguistic point of view. He states:
Later:
The Erikativ is essentially the same as "actions" or "emotes" (WP) seen in most IRC channels and other chat rooms such as
*dies*
,*dances*
,*rolls his eyes*
,*coughs*
, etc.In comic lettering, emotes, when inserted within dialogue, are punctuated differently. These punctuations are called breath marks, crow's feet, cat's whiskers, or fireflies. I am unaware of any standard term that describes the "breath words" themselves.