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Article published In: Cognitive Linguistic Studies
Vol. 12:2 (2025) ► pp.346–376

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Akan water metaphors, idioms, and proverbs

ORCiD logo with link | University of Ghana
Published online: 10 November 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cogls.23024.kof
Abstract
This paper investigates metaphors, idioms, and proverbs that relate to the polysemous word nsuo ‘water,’ in Akan and concentrates on water, rain, and river. It uses (2015). Cultural linguistics. In F. Sharifian (Ed.) The Routledge handbook of language and culture (pp. 473–492). London. Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar Cultural Linguistics and George Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar conceptual metaphors (CMs). The paper emphasizes that Akans see water as indispensable in all aspects of their undertakings; therefore, they apply metaphors, idioms, and proverbs to comment on the functions of water. Akans use metaphors, idioms, and proverbs to depict their indigenous knowledge, spiritual life, philosophy, worldview, and environmental knowledge about water. This study is purely qualitative, and focuses on library studies, internet sources, and interviews with renowned Akan scholars, folklorists, folksong composers, and broadcasters. The paper compares water metaphor in Akan, Chinese, English, Hindu, Javanese, and Syrian cultures. It is another interdisciplinary research in Akan language, cognition, worldview, environmental studies, and culture in the areas of cultural linguistics, cognitive linguistics, ethnography of communication, anthropology, and oral literature.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1The Akan language and people
    • 1.2Literature review
    • 1.3Methodology
  • 2.Theoretical framework
    • 2.1Cultural Linguistics
    • 2.2Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT)
  • 3.Data analysis, discussions, and findings
    • 3.1What is water metaphor?
    • 3.2Basic meaning of water
      • 3.2.1Water as crucial part of nature
      • 3.2.2Water as part of sustenance
  • 4.Data analysis and discussion of proverbs on water
    • 4.1Water is power/control
    • 4.2Water is life sustainer
    • 4.3Water is purity and truth
    • 4.4Water is movement, water is control, and water is hierarchy
    • 4.5Water is visible
  • 5.Idioms, simile, and metaphors on water
  • 6.Major findings
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Appendixes
    • Appendix 1
    • Appendix 2
    • Appendix 3
    • Appendix 4
  • References
References (39)
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