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In:Anthropological Linguistics: Perspectives from Africa
Edited by Andrea Hollington, Alice Mitchell and Nico Nassenstein
[Culture and Language Use 23] 2024
► pp. 83–103

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Chapter 4
Mouths, tongues, and ears

Source concepts for ‘language’ across Africa

 | University of Cologne
 | University of Cologne
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

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Published online: 1 February 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/clu.23.04mit
Abstract
This paper investigates words for ‘language’ and their possible source concepts in 130 African languages. Radden (2001) noted that words for ‘language’ almost always draw on more basic meanings and proposed a metonymic chain from (i) speech organs to (ii) speaking as activity to (iii) speech as “object” to (iv) language. Our sample provides additional evidence for these semantic pathways, showing that ‘tongue’ and ‘mouth’ are important source concepts for ‘language’ across Africa, as well as concepts relating to speech. After summarizing the survey results, we consider the novel extension ‘ear’ to ‘language’ in Datooga. While frequently attested metonymic processes point to widespread conceptualizations of language as embodied, we nonetheless find cultural variation in which aspects of speech behavior provide conceptual material for words for ‘language’.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data collection and coding strategies
  • 3.Cross-linguistic findings
  • 4.‘Language’ in Datooga
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
References (30)
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