Analysis of Lexicon Expansion Strategies in Chasu Metaphors
Abstract
Description
This study aimed at Analysis of Lexicon Expansion Strategies in Chasu Metaphors. The study
was guided by Cognitive Metaphor Theory (CMT) by Lakoff and Johnson (1980).The objectives
of this study were to examine colours, body parts, and physical objects metaphors as lexicon
expansion strategies in Chasu. The data collection methods which were used in this study are
questionnaire, focus group discussion and introspection where the analysis was largely
qualitatively in nature. Based on the reviewed literatures, the inspiration behind this study rests
on the fact that the researcher assembled all metaphors found in Kindungu dialect of Same
District but decided to examine only colours, body parts and physical objects metaphors as they
are mostly used in Chasu day to day life. The study is significance to the field of Morphology
because new vocabulary has been created due to the mapping of two domains of source and
target. The study shows that colour, body parts, and physical object metaphors do not only
elaborate meaning of the abstract entities, but also cover the physical and abstract concepts
which are absent in the literal expression in Chasu. The concepts that are covered by these
chosen metaphors in Chasu are meanings based on Life Phenomena such as Colour metaphors as
in mwaka wa mani ‘a green year’ to mean a year of success in harvest, enough rainfall; Body
parts metaphors as in echumia itumbo ‘to produce for stomach’ that is, produce for food; or
Physical objects metaphors as in eikaa he nyumba ya ibati‘he lives in the house roofed by iron
sheets’ to mean he has wealth. Other concepts covered generally including expressions of human
behaviours, person social roles, borrowed concepts from other languages, leadership, education,
physical appearances, beliefs, physical distance, race, weather, natural calamities and technical
inventions. The study recommended that there is a need for semantic analysis of dead metaphor
in these metaphors, also more colour needs to be examined apart from that discussed, and the
need for comprehensive studies based on the analysis of metonymy of these metaphors for
lexicon expansion in other Bantu languages.
Keywords
Lexicon; Chasu Metaphors