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Abstract

Abstract

Disease names are words that exist in the lexicon of a language, and constitute part of the native speaker’s linguistic intuition. In some African contexts, disease names are often constructed to reflect symptoms or conditions of diseases. This article explores the linguistic strategies of naming diseases among the Efik people of south-eastern Nigeria. The study is anchored on the socio-onomastic theory which focuses on the social, cultural and situational contexts in which names are given and used in everyday interaction. Drawing of ethnographic approach involving semi-structured interviews with twenty-five research participants, I discovered that varying linguistic strategies such as phonological adaptation, transliteration, non-euphemistic neologism, personal (and ethnic) naming, compounding, and colour terms are deployed in creating names of diseases in the Efik language. The study concludes that language influences the conception of disease as it provides vital knowledge and local understanding of health conditions behind disease names and experience of illness.

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2026-01-13
2026-02-14

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She contracted eight
John Benjamins ; https://doi.org/10.1075/lcs.24056.men
/content/journals/10.1075/lcs.24056.men
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keywords: disease names ; linguistic creativity ; Efik ; socio-onomastic theory ; identity ; medical semantics

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