ABSTRACT
The study investigates spatial orientation in Ga, two frameworks were adopted for this work namely; Cognitive Semantics and grammaticalization. Cognitive semantics attaches more importance to conceptual structure and our embodied experience and also deals with extended meanings while grammaticalization accounts for meaning related to body parts, time and other grammatical notions. The main methodology adopted for this study is the Topological Relation Picture Series (TRPS), the (1993) edition designed by Penelope Brown and Eric Pederson. The aim of the work is to present comprehensive analyses of Spatial Orientation in Ga from the cognitive linguistics perspective. Looking at the the similarities and differences which are expressed in the language.
Speakers of Ga have ways of locating entities in the language using specific spatial concepts. Spatial concepts indicate the exact location of objects. Svorou (1994), writes that most spatial concepts are derived from human body parts. The body part terms are grammaticalized and are used as spatial concepts in Ga. The study also discusses some conditions necessary for grammaticalization. The conditions for grammaticalization include phonetic bleaching, semantic force, frequency of form, pragmatics influence and conceptual strategies. The study also examines non-metaphorical and metaphorical use of body part terms in Ga. Metaphorical use of body part terms were discussed
under three major headings namely: Face and its parts- yitso „head‟,
hiŋmɛi „eye‟ and naabu „mouth‟, Internal parts- tsui „heart‟, musu
„stomach‟ and Intangible part- jwɛŋmɔ „mind‟. Metaphorical use of body parts terms was discussed with reference to metaphor and metonymy which are used in everyday language.
The study further explores positional verbs in Ga. “Positional verbs” is used in this thesis as a cover term that refers to a class of verbs that semantically encode the static assumed body posture or position of animate entities such as humans and animals or the static location of inanimates (objects) in space. The study discusses Ga data in the context of cross-linguistic studies on posture, positional and locative verbs (Newman, 2002a; Levinson & Wilkins 2006a, Ameka & Levinson 2007a). Languages use verbs to describe a wide range of semantic notions involving different locative relations between the Figure and the Ground such as body position, elevation, attachment, containment, and distribution. The findings of the study are that positional verbs such as damɔ „to stand‟ are used for humans and inanimate objects whereas ma „to stand‟ is used for inanimate entities and ka „to lie‟ is used for both animates and inanimate objects. Again, yɛ „be at‟ is a general verb used to describe animate and inanimate objects in the language.
Table of Contents
DECLARATION………………………………………………. Error! Bookmark not defined.
DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………………………………… ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……………………………………………………………………………… iii
ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………………………….. v
LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………………………………………………………. x
LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………………………………. xi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS……………………………………………………………………….. xii
CHAPTER ONE……………………………………………………………………………………………. 1
GENERAL INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………….. 1
1.2.4 The Phonology of the Ga language………………………………………………………… 8
- Scope of the study…………………………………………………………………………………. 9
CHAPTER TWO…………………………………………………………………………………………. 15
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK………………….. 15
- Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………… 15
Section 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK………………………………………………… 24
- : Cognitive Linguistics Approach……………………………………………………………. 24
CHAPTER THREE……………………………………………………………………………………… 44
SPATIAL CONCEPTS IN GA……………………………………………………………………… 44
- Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………… 44
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..59
CHAPTER FOUR……………………………………………………………………………………….. 69
POSITIONAL VERBS IN GA……………………………………………………………………… 69
4.3.1. Body position or posture verb…………………………………………………………. 80
4.3.2 Damɔ „be in a standing posture‟ (animate) …………………………………………… 82
4.3.5 Grip attachment verbs…………………………………………………………………… 104
CHAPTER FIVE……………………………………………………………………………………….. 109
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………….. 109
REREFENCES………………………………………………………………………………………. 114
Appendices…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 135
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Table showing concepts typically employed as target and source domains respectively…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 33
Table 2: parts of the human body of Ga…………………………………………………………… 45
Table 3: A list of internal body part terms in Ga……………………………………………….. 52
Table 4: List of body position or posture verbs…………………………………………………. 81
Table 5: list of verbs of elevation……………………………………………………………………. 95
Table 6: list of distribution verbs in Ga………………………………………………………….. 101
Table 7: lists of attachment verbs in Ga…………………………………………………………. 104
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2: Ga speaking areas in Accra (Wentum 1997)…………………………………………. 4
Figure 3: The Gã-Dangme Language Family……………………………………………………… 5
Figure 4: Language map of Ghana……………………………………………………………………. 6
Figure 5: Two pictures scenes from the Topological Relations Picture Series (TRPS) in the 1993 edition…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 13
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
| DEF | Definite Article |
| PST | Past |
| SG | Singular |
| PL | Plural |
| LOC | Location |
| HAB | Habitual |
| PREF | Prefix |
| SUFF | Suffix |
| NEG | Negative |
| COP | Copular |
| POSS | possessive |
| TR | transitive |
| INTR | intransitive |
| FUT | future |
| NOM | nominalizer (lexical) |
| PROG | progressive |
| PERF | Perfect |
| 1 | 1st person |
- 2nd person
- 3rd person
