Antonymy in Gĩkũyũ: a Cognitive Semantics Approach
Abstract
This study endeavored to investigate antonymy in Gĩkũyũ using the Cognitive Semantics
approach and provide an analysis of both the traditional (structural) and the cognitive approaches
to this sense relation. This research looked at antonymy beyond the lexical level (following the
traditional or structural classification). From the cognitive approach, antonymy is defined as a
relation between construals, and involves the structuring of content domains. Thus, the
traditional semantic approaches to the categorization of antonymy fail to capture the notion that
oppositeness is a matter of construal and is subject to cognitive, conventional, and contextual
constraints rather than being mere comparisons. The conceptual cognitive dimension to the study
is supplied through Fillmore‟s Frame theory. The study found that the traditional analysis was
inadequate in explaining the choices of antonyms made by a speaker or hearer but the cognitive
approach was adequate since the context provided by culture, individual knowledge and
experience plays a major part in the determination of antonymy in Gĩkũyũ. Similary, sense
demarcation (boundaries) and profile are assigning sense autonomy to the antonyms and once a
word attains autonomy, it evokes a frame and its frame elements help in interpreting the
meaning. The other observation from the study is that in the radial categories of the various
senses of nouns, the prototype only matches in oppositeness with the corresponding prototype
but not with the periphery elements.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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