Traveling Conceptualizations: A cognitive and anthropological linguistic study of Jamaican

267 Pages·2015·2.798 MB·Culture and Language Use

by  Andrea Hollington

Traveling Conceptualizations
Culture and Language Use
Studies in Anthropological Linguistics
issn 1879-5838
CLU-SAL publishes monographs and edited collections, culturally oriented
grammars and dictionaries in the cross- and interdisciplinary domain of
anthropological linguistics or linguistic anthropology. The series offers a forum for
anthropological research based on knowledge of the native languages of the people
being studied and that linguistic research and grammatical studies must be based
on a deep understanding of the function of speech forms in the speech community
under study.
For an overview of all books published in this series, please see
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Editor
Gunter Senft
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics,
Nijmegen
Volume 14
Traveling Conceptualizations
A cognitive and anthropological linguistic study of Jamaican
by Andrea Hollington
Traveling Conceptualizations
A cognitive and anthropological linguistic study
of Jamaican
Andrea Hollington
University of Cologne
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
doi 10.1075/clu.14
Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from Library of Congress:
lccn 2015013358 (print) / 2015017485 (e-book)
isbn 978 90 272 0297 0 (Hb)
isbn 978 90 272 6840 2 (e-book)
© 2015 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
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John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa
Table of contents
Acknowledgements ix
Lists, tables, maps and pictures xiii
Abbreviations xv
List 1: Index of languages xvii
List 2: African languages mentioned in the present study in
discussions of cultural conceptualizations in Jamaican xxi
Map 1: African languages mentioned in the present study in discussions
of cultural conceptualizations in Jamaican xxiii
chapter 1
Introduction 1
1.1 Overview of the chapters 3
chapter 2
Methods and data 7
2.1 A note on spelling and the language examples 10
2.2 Critical reflections and positioning 13
chapter 3
Cultural conceptualizations and cognitive linguistics 17
3.1 Metaphor and metonymy 19
3.2 Other conceptualizations 24
3.2.1 Categories 24
3.2.2 Schemas 25
3.2.3 Cultural model 25
3.2.4 B lending and mental spaces 26
3.2.5 Event conceptualization 27
3.3 Language, culture and cognition in a nutshell 27
3.4 The role of consciousness 30
3.5 Linguistic processes 31
chapter 4
The Jamaican setting 33
4.1 The sociohistoric background of Jamaica 33
4.2 Approaches to Jamaican and African influences in Jamaican – previous
studies 38
vi Traveling Conceptualizations
4.2.1 P revious studies on African influences in Jamaica 45
4.2.1.1 Jamaican 45
4.2.1.2 Linguistic practices and African influences in specific
communities of  practice 65
4.3 A new perspective 66
4.3.1 Language attitudes 77
4.3.2 L anguage ideologies and awareness 81
chapter 5
Body parts and conceptualizations 85
5.1 The role of body parts in African conceptualizations and languages 90
5.2 Some aspects of the Jamaican body 101
5.3 Body parts in Jamaican and African conceptualizations and their
linguistic encodings 102
5.4 Conclusion to the chapter 130
chapter 6
Serial verb constructions and conceptualizations 133
6.1 The notion of serial verb constructions 133
6.2 Serial verb constructions from a cognitive perspective 136
6.3 Serial verb constructions in West Africa: An areal phenomenon 138
6.4 Serial verb constructions in Jamaican 142
6.4.1 Asymmetrical SVCs 146
6.4.1.1 Instrumental SVCs 146
6.4.1.2 Motion SVCs 147
6.4.1.3 Benefactive SVCs 151
6.4.1.4 Comparative SVCs 152
6.4.1.5 Completive aspect 155
6.4.1.6 Complementizer 157
6.4.2 Symmetrical SVCs 161
6.4.3 A rgument-sharing and switch-subject SVCs 162
6.4.4 F ocus in SVCs 163
6.5 Conclusion and outlook: Idiomaticity and emblematicity 165
chapter 7
Kinship, names and conceptualizations of identity 169
7.1 Kinship and the African community model 169
7.2 Jamaican kinship terms and conceptualizations 171
7.2.1 K inship and the domains of healing, the spiritual world
and leadership 179
7.3 Concluding remarks on kinship 186
Table of contents 
7.4 Names and naming practices in Jamaica 186
7.4.1 Personal names 187
7.4.1.1 Day names 188
7.4.1.2 Reconnecting to Africa: Rastafari names 194
7.4.2 Kromanti 196
7.4.3 Nyabingi 203
7.5 Concluding remarks on names 208
chapter 8
Conclusion 211
References 215
Appendix 235
Language Index 239
Subject Index 241

Acknowledgements
This book presents the outcome of three years of work and research. I did not get
there all by myself; in fact, I have received invaluable support at every stage of its
completion. Above all, I want to say thank you to all speakers who collaborated
with me in the work on the present book: your knowledge, ideas, thoughts, expres-
sions and stories have built this project.1
Special thanks are due to my mentor, Anne Storch, whose continued inter-
est and enthusiasm made me feel like working on a special and fascinating proj-
ect. You have continually supported and believed in me from way before and way
beyond the work on this project. Thank you for your guidance, trust and con-
structive feedback, which have been a major source of inspiration and motivation
for me throughout the time working on the manuscript. Sharing your ideas on
language(s) with me opened the doors to new perspectives and possibilities, some
of which will be pursued on the following pages.
I also want to thank Gerrit Dimmendaal who taught me so many things
about and beyond linguistics. Thank you for your guidance, advice and continued
support.
Millions of thanks go to Ulrike Claudi, who may regret having shared an office
with me for three years but who never got tired discussing with me just about
everything I was working on. Sharing with me your knowledge on linguistics and
African languages in general, as well as on Ewe in particular was highly appreci-
ated at all stages. Thank you also for helping me to solve some tricky cases of inter-
linearization and bibliography matters.
Thanks to Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst for the continued support and for teach-
ing me to see things with different eyes.
Many other colleagues and friends have supported my work and helped me
to find answers through enlightening discussions (in and outside our regular col-
loquium). Thank you Helma Pasch, Angelika Jakobi, Angi Mietzner, Doris Richter
genannt Kemmermann, Marilena Thanassoula, Solange Andze, Jules Coly, Beatrix
von Heyking, Bernd Heine, Heike Behrend and Sasha Aikhenvald.
My research on African languages in the context of the present work was
enriched by collaborations with a range of speakers and teachers. Special thanks to
1. The present work is a revised version of my Ph.D. thesis wich was accepted by the Faculty
of Arts and Humanities of the University of Cologne in 2013.