1887
  1. Home
  2. e-Journals
  3. International Journal of Language and Culture
  4. Volume 3, Issue 2
  5. Article
Volume 3, Issue 2
  • ISSN 2214-3157
  • E-ISSN: 2214-3165
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

This case study examines variation in idiomatic fixed expressions (FEs) in British and West African varieties of English. Using a corpus of newspapers containing FEs with the source domain monkey, I contrast those expressions shared by both varieties — the Common Core — with those found only in the African sources. In so doing, I seek to illuminate to what extent uniquely African cultural influences have affected idiomatic language use in these ‘New Englishes’ beyond the mere adoption of British expressions. The corpus contains 24 FEs, of which 8 belong to the Common Core and 16 classify as potentially new African ones. The analysis of the FEs reveals that West African speakers make use of a much broader spectrum of main meaning foci (Kövecses 2010) when instantiating the human behavior is monkey behavior metaphor than do their British counterparts. This wider (Black 1954) can be linked to the African natural environment on the one hand and to broader cultural influences on the other, including power and corruption issues as well as African models of community and kinship (Wolf & Polzenhagen 2009). On a more global level, this paper lends evidence to the importance of (Sharifian 2011) as a further dimension of variation in the study of World Englishes.

© 2016 John Benjamins Publishing Company
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/ijolc.3.2.03fie
2017-02-10
2025-04-23

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.1075/ijolc.3.2.03fie
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Achebe, C
    (1958) Things fall apart. London: Penguin Books.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Adegbija, E
    (2003) Idiomatic variation in Nigerian English. In P. Lucko , L. Peter , & H.-G. Wolf (Eds.), Studies in African varieties of English (pp. 41–56). Frankfurt (Main): Peter Lang.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Awiapo, T
    (2009) Monkeys play by sizes: An African proverb. Catholic Relief Services. RetrievedAugust19 2009 fromcrs-blog.org/thomas-awiapo-monkeys-play-by-sizes-%E2%80%93-an-african-proverb
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Bello, U
    (2012) The semantics of ‘the dog and the baboon will be soaked in blood’. Sahara Reporters. RetrievedMay18 2012 fromsaharareporters.com/2012/05/18/semantics-%E2%80%9C-dog-and-baboon-will-be-soaked-blood%E2%80%9D-umar-bello
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Bennett, D. , & Ross, C
    (2011) Fulani of the highlands: Costs and benefits of living in national park enclaves. In V. Sommer & C. Ross (Eds.), Primates of Gashaka: Socioecology and conservation in Nigeria’s biodiversity hotspots (pp.231–266). New York: Springer.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Black, M
    (1954) Metaphor. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society , 55, 273–294.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Cienki, A
    (2007) Frames, idealized cognitive models, and domains. In D. Geerarets & H. Cuyckens (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of cognitive linguistics (pp. 170–187). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Dirven, R
    (1994) Metaphor and nation: Metaphors Afrikaners live by. Frankfurt (Main): Peter Lang.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Doyle, C.C
    (2007) Collections of proverbs and proverb dictionaries: Some historical observations on what’s in them and what’s not (with a note on current ‘gendered’ proverbs). In P. Skandera (Ed.), Phraseology and culture (pp. 181–203). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. doi: 10.1515/9783110197860.181
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110197860.181 [Google Scholar]
  10. Fauconnier, G. , & Turner, M
    (2002) The way we think: Conceptual blending and the mind’s hidden complexities. New York: Basic Books.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Fillmore, C
    (1982) Frame semantics. In The Linguistic Society of Korea (Ed.), Linguistics in the morning calm [Selected papers from SICOL-1981]. Seoul: Hanshin Publishing Company.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Foley, W.A
    (1997) Anthropological linguistics: An introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Kachru, B.B
    (1983) The indianization of English: The English language in India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. (1992) Teaching World Englishes. In B.B. Kachru (Ed.), The other tongue. English across cultures (2nd ed.) (pp.355–365). Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Kövecses, Z
    (2010) Metaphor: A practical introduction (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. (2015) Where metaphors come from: Reconsidering context in metaphor. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190224868.001.0001
     https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190224868.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  17. Kouega, J.-P
    (2007) A dictionary of Cameroon English usage [Contemporary studies in descriptive linguistics 10]. Bern: Peter Lang.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Lakoff, G
    (1987) Women, fire, and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. doi: 10.7208/chicago/9780226471013.001.0001
     https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226471013.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  19. Lakoff, G. , & Johnson, M
    (1980) Metaphors we live by. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Lakoff, G. , & Turner, M
    (1989) More than cool reason: A field guide to poetic metaphor. Chicago: Chicago University Press. doi: 10.7208/chicago/9780226470986.001.0001
     https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226470986.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  21. Lovejoy, A.O
    (1936) The Great Chain of Being. A study of the history of an idea. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Lucko, P
    (2003) Is English a ‘killer language’?In P. Lucko , L. Peter , & H.-G. Wolf (Eds.), Studies in African varieties of English (pp. 151–165). Frankfurt (Main): Peter Lang.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Moon, R
    (1998) Fixed expressions and idioms in English: A corpus-based approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Norrick, N.R
    (1985) How proverbs mean: Semantic studies in English proverbs. Berlin: Mouton. doi: 10.1515/9783110881974
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110881974 [Google Scholar]
  25. Owomoyela, O
    (2005) Yoruba proverbs. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Palmatier, R.A
    (1995) Speaking of animals: A dictionary of animal metaphors. Westport: Greenwood Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Phillipson, R
    (1992) Linguistic imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Polzenhagen, F. , & Wolf, H.-G
    (2007) Culture-specific conceptualisations of corruption in African English: Linguistic analyses and pragmatic applications. In F. Sharifian & G.B. Palmer (Eds.), Applied cultural linguistics: Implications for second language learning and intercultural communication (pp.125–168). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/celcr.7.09pol
     https://doi.org/10.1075/celcr.7.09pol [Google Scholar]
  29. Quinn, N. , & Holland, D
    (1987) Culture and cognition. In D. Holland & N. Quinn (Eds.), Cultural model in language and thought (pp. 3–40). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511607660.002
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511607660.002 [Google Scholar]
  30. Schmied, J.J
    (1991) English in Africa: An Introduction. London: Longman.
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Shank, R. , & Abelson, R
    (1977) Scripts, plans, goals, and understanding. Hillsdale: Erlbaum.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Sharifian, F
    (2003) On cultural conceptualisations. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 3(3), 187–207. doi: 10.1163/156853703322336625
     https://doi.org/10.1163/156853703322336625 [Google Scholar]
  33. (2011) Cultural conceptualisations and language [Cognitive linguistic studies in cultural contexts 1]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/clscc.1
     https://doi.org/10.1075/clscc.1 [Google Scholar]
  34. (2015) Cultural Linguistics. In F. Sharifian (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of language and culture (pp. 473–492). London: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Sheppard, J.M
    (2012) Cracking the code: The confused traveler’s guide to Liberian English. Berlin, Wis.: Sheppard’s Books.
     [Google Scholar]
  36. Skandera, P
    (2003) Drawing a map of Africa: Idiom in Kenyan English. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.
     [Google Scholar]
  37. (Ed.) (2007) Phraseology and culture in English. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. doi: 10.1515/9783110197860
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110197860 [Google Scholar]
  38. Skutnabb-Kangas, T
    (2003) Linguistic diversity and biodiversity: The threat from killer languages. In C. Mair (Ed.), The politics of English as a world language: New horizons in postcolonial cultural studies (pp.31–52). Amsterdam: Rodopi.
     [Google Scholar]
  39. Spears, R.A
    (1997) Straight from the horse’s mouth: And 8,500 other colorful idioms. Lincolnwood: NTC Publishing.
     [Google Scholar]
  40. Taylor, A
    (1931) The proverb. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Tillyard, E.W.M
    (1963) The Elizabethan world picture. London: Penguin Books.
     [Google Scholar]
  42. Turner, M
    (2007) Conceptual integration. In D. Geerarets & H. Cuyckens (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of cognitive linguistics (pp. 377–418). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  43. Weinrich, H
    (1976) Sprache in Texten. Stuttgart: Klett.
     [Google Scholar]
  44. Wolf, H.-G. , & Polzenhagen, F
    (2009) World Englishes: A cognitive sociolinguistic approach [ACL applications of cognitive linguistics 8]. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. doi: 10.1515/9783110199222
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110199222 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/ijolc.3.2.03fie
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): Africa; animal metaphors; cognition; fixed expressions; idioms; metaphor; proverbs; World Englishes

Most Cited

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error