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Volume 12, Issue 2
  • ISSN 2213-8722
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Abstract

Abstract

This paper investigates metaphors, idioms, and proverbs that relate to the polysemous word ‘water,’ in Akan and concentrates on water, rain, and river. It uses Farzad Sharifian’s (2015) Cultural Linguistics and George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s (1980) conceptual metaphors (CMs). The paper emphasizes that Akans see water as indispensable in all aspects of their undertakings; therefore, they apply metaphors, idioms, and proverbs to comment on the functions of water. Akans use metaphors, idioms, and proverbs to depict their indigenous knowledge, spiritual life, philosophy, worldview, and environmental knowledge about water. This study is purely qualitative, and focuses on library studies, internet sources, and interviews with renowned Akan scholars, folklorists, folksong composers, and broadcasters. The paper compares water metaphor in Akan, Chinese, English, Hindu, Javanese, and Syrian cultures. It is another interdisciplinary research in Akan language, cognition, worldview, environmental studies, and culture in the areas of cultural linguistics, cognitive linguistics, ethnography of communication, anthropology, and oral literature.

© 2025 John Benjamins Publishing Company
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2025-11-10
2025-12-04

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/content/journals/10.1075/cogls.23024.kof
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Akan water metaphors, idioms, and proverbs
Cognitive Linguistic Studies 12, 346 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1075/cogls.23024.kof
/content/journals/10.1075/cogls.23024.kof
/content/journals/10.1075/cogls.23024.kof
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): conceptual metaphors; cultural linguistics; idioms; proverbs; water metaphor

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