Construing Joy as Body Parts in Akan: Synergizing Conceptual Metaphor and Transitivity Analyses

Abstract

The present study examines the lexicogrammar of Akan (Niger-Congo: Kwa) body part joy expressions using transitivity in Systemic Functional Linguistics and Conceptual Metaphor Theory. The study is based on discourse data, supplemented with data from secondary sources and elicited data from a focus group discussion. The findings show that body part terms associated with joy in Akan comprise ani “eyes”, ho “skin”, akoma “heart” and the non-corporal human components kra “soul” and honhom “spirit”. These body part emotion terms occur as nouns, possessives, compounds and nominal groups. Joy is conceptualized as a container, typically as SUBSTANCES CONTAINED IN A BODY PART, as AN OBJECT OR PRESENT and as A LIVING ORGANISM. Also, the transitivity configuration of body part joy expressions reveals three process types, comprising material process (“doing-&happening”), mental process (“sensing”), and relational process (“having-&-being”). Body part terms occupy various participant roles across these process types, namely Actor, Goal, Accompaniment, Phenomenon, Carrier, Attribute and Possessed. The study provides a finer analysis of the grammatical configuration of body part emotion expressions by showing that different domains of experience reveal unique patterns of configurations. It also illustrates a rewarding synergy between conceptual metaphor theory and systemic functional transitivity framework in metaphor analysis.

Keywords:

• Akan
• cognitive linguistics
• conceptual metaphor theory
• emotion expressions
• systemic functional linguistics
• transitivity

Acknowledgements

This paper has been further developed on an aspect of a postgraduate thesis produced by the first author and supervised by the co-authors. An earlier version of a preliminary report was presented at the 1st International Online Systemic Functional Linguistics Interest Group Conference and has appeared in the conference proceedings. Many thanks to the anonymous reviewers and editors of WORD for their insightful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Abbreviations: comp – complementizer, Conj – conjunction, def – definite, dem – demonstrative, det – determiner, dup – duplication, emp – emphasis, foc – focus, fut – future, imp – imperative, interj – interjection, perf – perfect, pl – plural, prog – progressive, prt – undefined particle, pst – past, neg – negative, quant – quantifier, sg – singular, sm – structural marker, sub – subordinator, 1 – first person, 2 – second person, 3 – third person.