Expressions of Perception and Cognition in Akan

Abstract

This study gives a thorough description of the sensory signals of the body in Akan (Kwa, Niger Congo) within the Cognitive Linguistic Approach. The study shows how these senses capture our cognitive experiences as they relate with things in the world. The sensory signals of the body that this thesis focuses on includes seeing, tasting, smelling, hearing and touching under the broad concept of perception and cognition. The data collected for the study was based on natural discourses from 40 native speakers in Mfantse speaking communities. Data comprises of spontaneous spoken text of diverse genres and elicitation from stimuli.

A significant feature observed from the cognitive perceptive verbs are that they do not only display physiological roles but also demonstrate diverse evidences of what is represented in the cognitive structure as the brain receives visual stimulus. It was noted from the study that though these two verbs differ in terms of their linguistic features; morphological, grammatical and semantic properties, they can co-occur in a sentence structure and can establish grammatical meaning. The study illustrates that hwε ‘look’ involves durative process but it depends on the event. On the other hand, hu is seen as a natural and instantaneous occurrence; a visual activity described as ‘on the spot’ or ‘inceptive’. In some situations, hu can take durative function where the visual line is directed towards activity of monitory and caring. Hwε is volitional while hu displays both volitional and non-volitional roles. These two cognitive perceptive verbs are classified under two domains, intra psychologinal and social psychological experiences. The intra psychological experiences captured visual notions connected to self-philosophies such as personal opinions/beliefs, principles and values. The visual experiences of the social psychological type involve purpose, assurance, examining, and interdependency.

On gustatory (taste) expressions, it is revealed that taste distinguishes the various forms of flavours and preferences people have towards the food they eat or something they like. Apart from the physiological roles, majority of the meanings of taste expressions indicate metaphorical meanings. Findings from the study show that Akan realises five primary taste sensations in the language (sweet/pleasant, salty, sour, bitter, congealing) and a semantically derived form, tablabaa ‘devoid of taste’ (bland). From the ethno-cultural background, dέw ‘sweet’ can be descried as a type of pleasant taste that includes +/- sugary entities, and non-food related experiences and has wider usage than the other taste forms. The expression dέw, selects an animate argument [+/-human] as the percipient of the taste but the perceived objects can be either animate or inanimate [+/- human – bodily feelings]. Further, it is shown that Akan has different forms of expressing sour taste - kὰw, fém sé, yerὲyerὲw and nkekaankekaa. The choices for a specific taste display the perception people have for things. Taste, thus can be linked to the personal idiosyncratic frame of mind of the perceiver as well as their cultural background.

Per the discussions on olfactory, auditory and tactile it is established verbs derive their core meanings from the word tse ‘to perceive’ show that perception verbs exhibit several senses of modalities in Akan. The study also revealed that though these senses derive their basic meanings from the basic word tse ‘to perceive’, the language also displays other ways of representing and interpreting basic and extended meanings of olfactory, auditory and tactile sensory information. This might not be the same for all cultures in the world since experiences differ in cultural milieu.

Finally, in examining the senses in Akan, it came to light that the condition of synaesthesia is a feature of all the senses. In the Mfantse dialect of Akan, it is established that majority of the synaesthesia examples illustrate physiological meanings. And only few of the synaesthesia touched on metaphorical concepts.

The study recommends that the idea of a sense revealing several senses be given further attention to find out whether it is a universal phenomenon among African languages.