Metaphor and Bilingual Cognition: the Case of Akan and English in Ghana
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
TITLE: METAPHOR AND BILINGUAL COGNITION: THE CASE OF AKAN AND ENGLISH IN GHANA GLADYS NYARKO ANSAH (Mres Cognitive Linguistics, Mphil Linguistics, BA English and Linguistics) This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Linguistics and English Language Lancaster University August 2011 i DECLARATION I hereby do declare that apart from references to works which have been duly cited, this work is the outcome of an original research I conducted, and that it has not been presented, in part or whole, for another degree elsewhere. CANDIDATE ……………………………………. MRS GLADYS NYARKO ANSAH SUPERVISOR 1 …………………………………… DR. VERONIKA KOLLER SUPERVISOR 2 ......................................................... PROF. ELENA SEMINO ii ABSTRACT This study employs a cognitive linguistics approach, conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) to investigate bilingual conceptual representation. The study analyses the metaphorical and metonymic expressions commonly used among Akan-English bilinguals in Ghana to talk about different aspects of two basic emotion concepts (ANGER and FEAR) when they speak English. On the one hand, findings from psycholinguistic research on the nature of the bilingual mental lexicon appear somehow inconclusive. On the other hand, cognitive linguistics research on human mental representation tends to focus on evidence from native/monolingual populations. Consequently, this study combines methods from the two related fields of research to explore the nature of the bilingual conceptual representation. In other words, the study analyses bilingual figurative language in order to test two psycholinguistics claims about bilingual conceptual representation. In order to do this, the study includes a cross-linguistic/cross-cultural analysis of the conceptualisation of ANGER and FEAR in Akan and English. A combined method of elicitation and native speaker‟s intuition was used to collect conventional metaphorical expressions of ANGER and FEAR (in English) among Akan-English bilinguals in Ghana. Conceptual metaphors that are believed to underlie these metaphorical expressions were then inferred for analysis. The bilingual metaphors (both linguistic and conceptual) were analysed in the light of conventional metaphors (linguistic and conceptual) of the two concepts among native/monolingual speakers of each of the bilinguals‟ two languages, Akan and English. Findings from this study show further support for the shared storage hypothesis. The findings also confirm the assertion that the bilingual‟s conceptual structure is not a simple addition of the cognitive processes associated with each of his/her languages (Kroll and De Groot 1997) but rather a product of a complex iii interaction between the two or more languages of the bilingual in intricate ways - what Pavlenko (2009) has called “a conceptual restructuring”. iv DEDICATION I dedicate this work to my family - my two young sons, Kojo and Kobby, who were deprived of a mother‟s full attention for most part of the period of writing this thesis, and to my Kwaku for being such a devoted and supportive husband throughout. I also dedicate it to my parents and sibblings, including Sarah, for their tremendous support throughout the period of this programme. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT To Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all I ask or imagine, to Him be glory and honour forever and ever. I am also very grateful to my supervisors, Dr. Veronika Koller and Professor Elena Semino, for their immense contribution towards the successful completion of this work. I am equally grateful to the government of Ghana (GetFund) and the University of Ghana, Legon for providing funding for this study. Special thanks go to my parents, my siblings, Sarah and friends who supported my husband to take care of my young children so I could be away to do this work. I am equally grateful the following friends and collegues: Afra, Esi, Kwamina, Ako, Nana Ama and John for their tremendous support and encouragement. To the first two colleagues I say the „tebolistic days are over‟! vi Contents DECLARATION .................................................................................................................................... II ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................................... III DEDICATION.....................................................................................................................................V ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ......................................................................................................................VII CONTENTS.......................................................................................................................................VII LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.................................................................................................................XII LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ...................................................................................................... XIVIV CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 KEY TERMS ............................................................................................................................ 3 1.3 THE PROBLEM ........................................................................................................................ 4 1.3.1 Rationale ............................................................................................................................ 8 1.4 AIMS/OBJECTIVES ........................................................................................................................... 9 1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................................ 10 1.6 THE CHOICE OF CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS ................................................................................... 11 1.7 THE CHOICE OF ANGER AND FEAR .............................................................................................. 12 1.8 EVIDENCE ............................................................................................................................ 13 1.9 OVERVIEW OF STUDY ..................................................................................................................... 15 1.9.1 Organisation of Study ............................................................................................................. 16 CHAPTER TWO: BILINGUALISM, COGNITION AND CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR..................................18 2.1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 18 2.2 ISSUES IN DEFINING BILINGUALISM ............................................................................................ 18 2.2.1 Issues of terminology ........................................................................................................ 22 2.2.2 Approaches to studying bilingualism ................................................................................ 25 2.3 COGNITION .......................................................................................................................... 26 vii 2.3.1 Language and cognition ................................................................................................... 27 2.3.2 Emotion and cognition ...................................................................................................... 29 2.3.3 The language of emotion concepts ................................................................................... 30 2.4 PSYCHOLINGUISTIC RESEARCH ON BILINGUAL COGNITION ................................................................ 33 2.4.1 The separate underlying proficiency model of bilingualism .............................................. 35 2.4.2 The common underlying proficiency model of bilingualism. ............................................... 35 2.4.3 The distributed feature model (DFM) .............................................................................. 36 2.4.4 The revised hierarchical model (RHM) ................................................................................. 37 2.4.5 The modified hierarchical model (MHM) .............................................................................. 38 2.5 COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS AND CONCEPTUAL REPRESENTATION .......................................................... 44 2.5.1 Conceptual metaphor theory ................................................................................................. 46 2.5.2 Metaphor and bilingual cognition .......................................................................................... 53 2.6 SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................... 55 CHAPTER THREE: BILINGUALISM IN GHANA.................................................................................57 3.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 57 3.2 THE LINGUISTIC SITUATION IN GHANA .......................................................................................