In:The Linguistics of Temperature
Edited by Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm
[Typological Studies in Language 107] 2015
► pp. 107–127
Unravelling temperature terms in Sɛlɛɛ
Published online: 11 February 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.107.04agb
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.107.04agb
This paper investigates the encoding of temperature in Sɛlɛɛ, a Niger-Congo language of the Kwa group, spoken in Ghana. The lexicon of temperature in Sɛlɛɛ consists of six central and two non-central temperature terms, distributed among the word classes of nouns, adjectives and verbs. The grammatical constructions associated with temperature evaluation vary according to the word-class status of each temperature term and its contexts of use. The distribution of the different grammatical constructions according to different types of temperature evaluation is discussed in the paper. Metaphorical uses of temperature-related terms are also discussed in the context of neighbouring and closely related languages. Finally, special patterns of temperature evaluation in connection with water are surveyed.
References (9)
Agbetsoamedo, Yvonne. 2009. Noun class system in Selee. Paper presented at The World Congress of African Languages and Linguistics (WOCAL 6), Cologne.
Allen, Christine Anne. 1974. Studies in the Phonology of Sele, the Language of Santrokofi. Accra, Legon: Department of Linguistics, University of Ghana.
Ameka, Felix. 2001. Ideophones and the nature of the adjective word class in Ewe. In Ideophones [Typological Studies in Language 44], F.K. Erhard Voeltz & Christa Kilian-Hatz (eds), 25-48. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Blench, Roger. 2001. Comparative Central Togo. What have we learnt since Heine? Paper presented at the 32nd Annual Conference on African Linguistics, Berkeley, 23-25 March, and subsequently revised.
Dingemanse, Mark. 2011. The Meaning and Use of Ideophones in Siwu. PhD dissertation, Radboud University Nijmegen.
Harflett, Sharon & Tate, Peter. 1999. Selee Grammar: A Preliminary Study. Accra: Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation (GILLBT).
Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Maria. 2011. “It’s boiling hot!” On the structure of the linguistic temperature domain across languages. In Rahmen des Sprechens. Beiträge zur Valenztheorie, Varietätenlinguistik, Kognitiven und Historischen Semantik, Sarah Dessì Schmid, Ulrich Detges, Paul Gévaudan, Wiltrud Mihatsch & Richard Waltereit (eds), 393–410. Tübingen: Narr.
. 2007. Guidelines for collecting linguistic expressions for temperature concepts. Version 1. <[URL]>
Cited by (2)
Cited by two other publications
Coschignano, Serena
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 7 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.