Publications

Publication details [#61074]

Agyekum, Kofi. 2016. Bodily state and metaphors relating to ho, ‘body’, in Akan. Metaphor and the Social World 6 (2) : 326–344.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Language as a subject
Place, Publisher
John Benjamins
Journal DOI
10.1075/msw

Annotation

This paper addresses metaphorical extensions of ho, which means ‘body’ in Akan, a Ghanaian language. In Akan, as in many other languages, body part expressions and bodily functions have extended meanings that still relate to the basic sense of the words. Expressions derived from ho are used to talk about emotions and character traits, perhaps more extensively and pervasively than equivalent lexis in English. The data for this study are taken from interviews, questionnaires, an Akan dictionary, Akan literature, the Akan Bible and recorded materials from radio discussions. The paper supports claims in the literature that there is a strong relationship between people’s conceptual, environmental, and cultural experiences and their linguistic systems.