Sociolinguistic ISSN: 1750-8649 (print)

Studies ISSN: 1750-8657 (online)

Article

Onomastic strategies:
A pragmatic approach to the use of personal names
among the Kabye of northern Togo
Atoma Batoma

Abstract
In this article I propose to analyze three verbal strategies underlying the use of personal
names by the Kabye of northern Togo. Such strategies fulfill a variety of purposes,
including attempts to influence the behavior of a name-bearer in the context of
interpersonal or social relationships. They are often implemented with the intent to help
name-bearers live up to their name. Among these strategies I examine (1) the choice of a
name, (2) its intonation and (3) its amplification. All three strategies fall within the scope
of the socio-pragmatic approach to naming (the giving of names as well as their use)
defined here as essentially an act of interpellation.

KEYWORDS: AMPLIFICATION, CHOICE, INTERPELLATION, INTONATION, KABYE

(TOGO), PERSONAL NAMES

Affiliation

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States

email : batoma@illinois.edu

SOLS VOL 13.2-4 2019 193–208 https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.37846

© 2020, EQUINOX PUBLISHING
194 SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDIES

1 Introduction
It is now well established within African onomastics that several categories of
African proper names, including personal names, function as vehicles or means of
verbal communication. This includes interpersonal, social and numinous
communication. What remains to be studied more extensively are the verbal
strategies that facilitate African onomastic communication. Key to understanding
these strategies is the pragmatic concept of interpellation, a concept which refers
to the act of naming as a baptismal act as well as to the use of the name once it
has been bestowed upon an individual. Interpellation aims to convey a message to
the named individual and may also be intended to influence their attitude or
behavior. It can also be directed towards other members of the community. I
examine here three onomastic strategies at work in the use of African personal
names in order to define their linguistic nature and illustrate their specific
rhetorical efficacy. The first is choice, that is, the choice of which name, among
the plurality of names borne by an individual, should be used. The second
strategy, amplification, is a syntactic strategy based on the sentential nature of
most African names. Finally, the third strategy is intonation, a supra-segmental
feature of language that can be used to reinforce the praxeological effect of an
interpellation act. I illustrate these three onomastic strategies drawing primarily
on personal names of the Kabye, a community of farmers that lives in northern
Togo. I begin with a discussion of the onomastic background of the meaning of
Kabye personal names. I then provide a synoptic presentation of the Kabye
onomastic system which I use to illustrate my analysis. Finally, in the last three
sections, I discuss the strategies of choice, amplification and intonation
respectively.

2 Kabye personal names

2.1 Meaning
Names are semiotic strings that can be composed of language signs such as words
and sentences, or they might mimic a sound such as in the case of onomatopoeia.
The meaning of these signs is accessible to those with a linguistic competence in
the language, but, as I argued in earlier articles (Batoma, 2009a, 2009b), the full
or entire meaning of a name is not reducible to linguistic meaning. Houis (1983:8)
emphasizes this important characteristic of African names when he writes, ‘It is
necessary for names to be carefully identified beforehand as signs of the language.
Practically speaking, they are not distinct from other signs with respect to their
form, signifiers and morphology. It is easy to explain the literal meaning. But this
is just a necessary but insufficient prerequisite. Otherwise we completely miss
 ONOMASTIC STRATEGIES AMONG THE KABYE OF TOGO 195

that which gives anthroponyms their specific character.’1 The question of what
constitutes the specific character of anthroponyms has been the subject of
numerous publications in the broader field of onomastics and in African
onomastics more specifically (see the edited works by vom Bruck and Bodenhorn,
2006, and Huah, 2016, as well as Koopman, 2009). One way to sum up this
research might be to say that onomastic meaning is constituted by layers of
meanings, including lexical or literal meanings, socio-cultural meanings and
socio-pragmatic meanings. For example, a Kabye name such as Patokdeou
literally means ‘they do not eat well’, a phrase readily understood by any person
who knows the Kabye language; but the social context that motivates the choice
and bestowal of this name and its cultural meaning may be beyond the reach of
anyone who is not familiar with or initiated into the Kabye onomastic tradition.
Furthermore, the use of the name Patokdeou in everyday encounters can carry a
host of meanings, depending on the kind of social or interpersonal interaction
which forms the background of the usage. In other words, the literal meaning of
the name always gets contextualized in the process of communication, whether
the purpose of this communication is identification, reference, or interpellation.
When it comes to the use of personal names in general, and specifically Kabye
personal names, interpellation is the primary characteristic of the specificity of
anthroponyms.

2.2 Function
It is now generally accepted that personal names are used to communicate in a
variety of ways, that is, to identify, to refer to, or to address an individual. I
showed in Batoma (2009b) that this third communicative function of African
proper names is an interpellative function, that is, anthroponyms are used in
everyday encounters to orient or influence interaction based on the context of the
use, the status of the name users and their intentions. The belief that African
names have influence on the behavior and the personality of their bearers is not
uncommon in African cultures. For example, Guma (2001) in his analysis of the
cultural meaning of Basotho names, writes: ‘The meaning attached to names by
Basotho plays a significant role in the definition of ‘personhood’ because it is
believed that a given name does not only serve as an identity but also determines
the type of person the individual will be. Names are believed to have influence on
the character of the bearer.’ It is also believed that names, by their very mystical
nature shape the personality, even the person2 of the named individual. Notions
such as ‘incarnation’, ‘name taboo’ and ‘secrecy of names’ all imply the belief
held in many African societies that supernatural forces have influence on the
character and person of the named individual. All these notions have been
196 SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDIES

analyzed and explained by several authors such as Amin (1993), Brinkman

(2004), Mensah (2015), and Piot (1993). I contribute to the analysis of the
influence of personal names on their bearers by proposing a pragmatic approach: I
suggest that the praxeological effect of naming practices is intrinsically related to
the interpellative nature of anthroponyms, and that there are at least three
strategies that render that interpellation effective.

2.3 Interpellation
In an earlier article (Batoma, 2009b), I proposed a definition of the interpellative
function of African personal names by using what I termed the Geach–Granger
theory. Both authors took issue with the analytical model of the uniquely
referential function of proper names. In his book Reference and generality, in a
chapter which deals with the relationship between the concepts of subject and
predicate, Geach (1962:52) writes: ‘A name may be used outside of the context of
a sentence simply to call something by name – to acknowledge the presence of
the thing. This act of naming is of course no proposition, and while we may call it
correct or incorrect, we cannot properly call it true or false. It does however, as
grammarians say concerning sentences, express a complete thought.’ Let me
emphasize the two characteristics of this use of names which Geach calls vocative
and which he opposes to the denotative or referential use. First, its function is to
call, as the etymology of the term implies (vocare). Second, the vocative use of
names can express a complete thought, although the name is not couched in the
form of a proposition.
In his contribution to the issue dedicated to proper names of which
anthroponyms are a sub-category, Granger (1982) expands Geach’s notion of the
vocative function of proper names by reframing it into the more pragmatic and
inclusive notion of interpellation. Geach has stated that common nouns as well as
proper names can be used as vocative signs. Granger generalizes this statement by
saying that any linguistic sign can function as a proper name as long as it is used
to interpellate the named thing or individual.
Granger takes issue with, on the one hand, the structuralist theory of Claude
Lévi-Strauss for whom the function of proper names is to classify others and
oneself (Lévi-Strauss, 1966:179–181), and on the other hand, Kripke’s theory that
expands the definition of proper names to include common nouns such as gold
and heat (Kripke, 1980:134–135). To Lévi-Strauss, Granger observes that it is not
so much the classificatory content of the naming act as its form that is the
essential characteristic of a name. This characteristic, which is the presence of the
name-giver in his own naming act, constitutes the name as an interpellative
(Granger, 1982:28). To Kripke’s extended definition Granger opposes a definition
 ONOMASTIC STRATEGIES AMONG THE KABYE OF TOGO 197

of proper names stricto sensu. Proper names thus defined are interpellatives,3 that
is, semiotic entities used to interpellate the name-bearer. It is, therefore ‘based on
this possibility for proper names to function as interpellatives that we propose to
characterize the pure case of proper names, even if this possibility is actualized
only with personal names’ (Granger, 1982:28). Moreover, Granger seems to
hypostasize interpellation by defining it as the essential function of proper names.
Geach-Granger theory sheds light on important aspects of African onomastics.
When names are used denotatively or referentially the pragmatic function of
interpellation is bracketed; but when names are used as interpellatives, the literal
or linguistic meaning as well as the socio-cultural meaning are foregrounded and
stand ready to be used in the complex act of interpellation whose content depends
on the following factors: the meaning of the name, which can be literal or
onomastic or both; the intention of the interpellator, who can seek to manipulate,
blame or harangue the interpellated; the context of interpellation, which can be
social, cultural, situational, interpersonal or a combination of part or all of the
above. There is a whole set of strategies, which I term onomastic strategies, that
make it possible to carry out the act of interpellation in some African naming
practices such as those of the Kabye of northern Togo. These strategies include
the choice of the name, its expansion and its intonation.

3 Kabye onomastic system

3.1 The community
The Kabye are a community of farmers who live in the northern region of Togo.
The Gur language spoken by this community is also referred to as Kabye.4
According to Ethnologue (ethnologue.com), there are approximately 730,000
native speakers of Kabye spread over three countries: 700,000 live in Togo,
30,000 in Benin and a small group in Ghana. In Togo, the Kabye constitute the
second largest ethnic group after the Ewe. They inhabit the Kabye massifs located
in the northern region of Togo and there is also a small Kabye community that
lives in the central and southern parts of the country where they were initially
brought by the German colonial power, and then by the French colonizers to build
railroads, which explains the proximity of these communities to railroads. Later,
the overpopulation on the Kabye massifs and the overuse of arable soil led many
Kabye farmers to emigrate to the south of their country where the land is fertile
and favourable for cultivation. While Kabye are essentially crop producers, they
also raise some livestock, especially small animals and poultry. Dogs have a
special status in relation to other animals. They are close enough to humans to
deserve to be named (in fact they are the only animals to be singled out), and they
are close enough to other animals to never reach the status of pets. The strategic
198 SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDIES

importance of dog names in polemical communication among the Kabye is shown

in Batoma (2009b). Two important characteristics of Kabye society are
noteworthy here due to their impact on naming practices. First, it is a hierarchal
society, based on a system of masculine and feminine groups, as well as on
initiation rites. Initiation rites are at once a process of gender differentiation based
on Kabye metaphysics of the original androgyny of humans (Piot, 1999), and a
process of structuring moral awareness and religious sentiments through an
internalization of three basic experiences: community life, mystical life and the
evocation of ancestors (Keyewa, 1997). Its culture is permeated by guarded
attitudes toward the use of personal names, which some authors have
characterized as attitudes of secrecy. Piot (1993) for instance describes several
Kabye cultural phenomena that illustrate this, including naming practices, gift
giving, ritual insulting, barter and wealth concealing. For more on secrecy of
Kabye personal names, see Batoma (2017).

3.2 The system

The Kabye onomastic system, like many other African onomastic systems, is
changing due to cultural contacts and globalization. Today, Togolese youth, like
many other youth in Africa, bear a mixture of names from different onomastic
traditions, including their own.5 The system I present here is based on anthropo-
logical and sociolinguistic research on Kabye culture and on my own investi-
gations and native knowledge. It draws in particular on the work of authors such
as Batoma (2009a), Blanzoua (2007), Pere-Keweziwa (2004) and Piot (1993).

a. Name of the progenitor ancestor: This name is given at birth based on the
child’s ancestral lineage. It is also known as a big name (Yidi susodi) in the
Kabye language and is supposed to convey onto the child some essential
personal qualities of the ancestor who returns through the birth of the child
and after whom the child is named (Keyewa, 1997). It is worth noting here
that the concept of the return of the ancestor has been misinterpreted in
anthropological literature on African personal names. The concept does not
mean the reincarnation of the ancestor, but rather their reputation and
spiritual continuity. Other big names might be given to the child based on
particular metaphysical circumstances related to the child’s birth.
b. Family name: This is the equivalent of what is known in Western
onomastic systems as the last name or surname. It is a name shared by
several individuals who belong to the same family. It can be derived from a
personal name, place name, event name, or even an ethnonym.
 ONOMASTIC STRATEGIES AMONG THE KABYE OF TOGO 199

c. Nickname: This is an early childhood name that might describe the

observed physical or behavioral characteristics of a child. Some of these
characteristics are viewed as negative, some others as positive and flattering.
Names with negative connotations include protective names such as
apotropaic names whose function is to take the attention away from the true
self of the name-bearer in order to protect him/her against curses and or
misfortune. Sobriquets are usually replaced by future names but some are
not replaced due to their descriptive relevance or their poetic resonance.
d. Youth names: This category of names is acquired around the ages of 15–18.
They can be self-bestowed or bestowed upon an individual by his peers. In
an earlier article (Batoma, 2009a), I termed them ‘pedagogical names’; they
are exhortative, praise or harangue names. They are generally related to
essential activities of the community such as labor, love, war, etc.
e. Morality names: This term is a misnomer, for the implication of the term is
just the opposite of what the name is intended to do, that is, describe all the
bad, morally wrong actions and attitudes of the name-bearer during their life
up to the coinage of the name during the 4th initiation rite (Blanzoua, 2007).
The name is usually bestowed by the elders but can also be self-bestowed as
an act of confession of past actions and is sanctioned by the community.
These names are normally ephemeral, not surviving the initiation event dur-
ing which they are bestowed, but some names can survive due to particular
features. They may be called morality names because they are the last names
taken by an initiate before they enter a life of total maturity and wisdom.
Pere-Keweziwa (2004) provides a comprehensive lexicosemantic analysis of a
large corpus of Kabye names. This important work includes a detailed
classification of the morphological structure of the names and a multitude of
lexical schemas that allow for a reconstruction of their semantic motivations
rooted in the Kabye culture. My interest here is a socio-pragmatic one that aims to
answer the question of what strategies are involved in an interaction in which
people try to influence one another by using personal names.

4 Three onomastic strategies

Onomastic strategies is meant here as a set of verbal means by which the
interpellator, that is the name-giver or name-user tries, to achieve his or her goal
of influencing the behavior of the name-bearer. The choice of any of these means
or a combination thereof is optional and depends on the context of interaction
between the interpellator and the interpellated. I define and illustrate below three
strategies: the choice of the name, its amplification and the intonation which
accompanies its utterance.
200 SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDIES

4.1 Choice of the name

The choice of a name as an onomastic strategy is based on both the plurality of
Kabye personal names borne by an individual person and the onomastic code
derived from the cultural values of a given linguistic community. It is worth
noting that, apart from being an onomastic strategy as I show below, the
elucidation of the polyonymic aspect of African naming systems provides a
pathway for understanding the multifaceted nature of a person’s identity, for each
name is a window on a person’s social-cultural identity. There are two types of
polyonymy: the synchronic polyonymy characteristic of Kabye naming practices,
whereby all the names that an individual has acquired during their lifetime can be
used at any given moment depending on the context of interpellation, the status of
the interpellator and his or her intentions; and the diachronic polyonymy
characteristic of other African onomastic systems such as that of the Baatombu of
Benin, whereby a new name that a person acquires replaces the previous one
(Shottman, 2000). These two types of polyonymy constitute two different ways of
relating the cultural meaning of a name to the personality of its bearer. The first
type seems to emphasize the multifaceted character of the individual personality,
whereas the second stresses the development of personality toward its maturation
into adulthood. It could be said that the first corresponds to a horizontal system of
valuation of a person and the second to a vertical system.
The choice of the name to be used is dictated by the socio-cultural status of the
interpellator and the interpellated, the intention of the interpellator and the context
of interpellation. As mentioned above, the hierarchical and secret nature of Kabye
culture has an impact on naming practices. This implies the concept of naming
authority with respect to both the choice and the bestowal of the name as well as
to how any particular name is used. The choice of the name to bestow upon a
child is the responsibility of the father, often in consultation with the mother. This
responsibility can be delegated to another member of the extended family or even
a close friend. The interpellator, whether name-giver or name-bearer, must be in a
sanctioned position in order to use one category of names over other categories.
Big names are rarely used in strategic communication as they are usually
surrounded by secrecy or they may convey respect toward the addressee.6 Among
the Kabye, for example, it is customary for young people to use youth names such
as erotic or warrior’s names to address and interact with one another, whereas
older people will use other names to address younger people. Inversely, a young
person will never, in principle, address an older person using their big names.
Such a violation of the onomastic code would trigger a request for justification or
a rebuke. But there are situational contexts in which the infraction of the code of
onomastic conduct may be a strategic or an indirect way of communication which
 ONOMASTIC STRATEGIES AMONG THE KABYE OF TOGO 201

can be interpreted by the interpellated according to Grice’s maxims of conver-

sation (Grice 1989). Such an interpretation can be made along the following lines:
they (the interpellator) have used a name they were not allowed to call a person;
therefore, they must either want to offend that person or honor them, or call their
attention to something important or peculiar, that is, they must want to convey an
important message in an indirect way. The interpellated then goes on to decode
the onomastic message based on the specific context of interpellation.

4.2 Amplification
The strategy of amplification hinges on the linguistic structure of African names.
Most African names are phrases or sentences. In his critique of Russell’s
reduction of the meaning of names to their sole referential function, Kaphagawani
(1987) showed that African names have meaning beyond their referential function
and that this meaning is entwined within their sentential form. In other words,
African names are sentences. Even single-word names such as the Kabye names
Masaa (Saturday), Kondougou (spatula), Kprouhou (palmyra) and N’tchana (You
are handsome) are truncated forms of longer sentences contracted into metaphoric
or metonymic forms. Baroan (1985) has shown, based on examples of personal
names from the Bete of Côte d’Ivoire, how the majority of these names are the
result of metaphoric and metonymic processes. The cryptic form of African
names can also be due to purely morphological phenomena such as contraction.
Because of this sentential structure, names can be expanded, and this syntactic
manipulation of the name can be used as a powerful strategy by an able
interpellator to amplify the meaning of the name in a communicative situation.
This structure can also be shortened rather than expanded in order to produce the
same amplification effect. I have called this strategy amplification based on the
development of this concept by Faik-Nzuji who writes: ‘By amplification I mean
a linguistic procedure through which one expands a name with a term or a
meaningful syntagma which brings out certain characteristics of the name bearer
that one wishes to underline’ (1977:85–97).
There are some important differences between amplification as defined by
Faik-Nzuji and my approach to that linguistic phenomenon. First, amplification as
I conceive of it is an amplification of the meaning of the name, not of the name as
a morpho-syntactic entity. The second difference lies in the fact that the object of
Faik-Nzuji’s study is the amplified names which have acquired a fixed status as
names in the onomastic community, whereas my analysis focuses on the
phenomenon of amplification as a strategy within the context of interpellation.
From the point of view of their content, many names are proverbs, sayings,
apothegms, etc., with a meaning deeply rooted in a community’s accumulated
202 SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDIES

experience. Other names are a summary of careful observations of the named

individual over a long period of time. Still others are the expression of the name-
giver’s outlook on life or the encoding of a reaction on the spur of the moment
(see for example Madubuike, 1976; Musere and Odhiambo, 1999; and Musere
and Byakutaga, 2000). The manipulation of the sentential structure of the name in
an interactive context aims to explicate the meaning of the name, challenge the
content of the onomastic message, remind the interlocutors or addressees of the
intention of the name-giver, harangue or blame the name-bearer, or implore the
addressee, whether it is a human or a noumenal entity (Batoma, 2009a).
Amplification allows for the use of the name in an extended commentary, which
often happens in praise names (Koopman, 2000). In other words, the strategy of
amplification can lead to the realization of a whole gamut of speech acts. A few
examples will suffice here:

 Kprouhou (palmyra) is one of the tallest and sturdiest trees that dominates
the vegetation in the region. It produces large, round fleshy fruits that fall to
the ground when ripe. When this happens during the night, it can disturb the
sleep of the village dwellers.
 The anthroponym Kprouhou is a metaphoric transfer of the attributes of the
tree onto the name-bearer. In the interpellative act, a name-user might
choose to stress any of these attributes depending on the context. He/she
may comment on the strength of the interpellated or deplore his or her
disruptive behaviour.
 N’tchana (You are handsome) is an erotic name which is a contraction of
the complete name Pan’tchana (even if you were the most handsome one).
This female name is usually chosen by the name-bearer or her peers and is a
message addressed to the opposite sex as an expression of her attitudes
toward gender relations, and as a warning. The subtext of the name is ‘even
if you were the most handsome one, I would not go out with you for that
reason alone; you need to have additional qualities’.7 Choosing to use the
shortened form of the name or the complete form can be a strategic choice
based on the intentions of the interpellator.
 Kondougou (spatula) is a morality name as defined above. It is a symbol of
immediacy, for the semantic motivation of this metaphoric name is clear: a
person who behaves like a spatula cannot stand delay or mediation (from the
cooling pot to the dinner table). The name connotes impatience, but it can
be expanded to connote eagerness depending on the context of interpellation
and the intention of the name-user.
 ONOMASTIC STRATEGIES AMONG THE KABYE OF TOGO 203

 Masaa (Saturday) is a contraction of the female name Masabelo (girl born

on Saturday) or Masahalo (woman born on Saturday). It could also be the
contraction of the male name Masaabalo (man born on Saturday). Beyond
its reference to the day of birth, this day-name alludes to the titular spirits
and implies certain moral and behavioural attitudes on the part of the name-
bearer.

4.3 Intonation
Intonation has been studied at three levels: the physical, the perceptual and the
functional (Couper-Kuhlen and Selting, 1996b). This paper is concerned with the
functional level. More specifically, this study is interested in the communicative
function of intonation; that is, what impact it has on the onomastic communi-
cation. As I stated in a previous work (Batoma, 2009a), the intonation with which
a personal name is uttered indexes the psychological state of the interpellator,
such as anger, fear, threat, desire, love, etc., and is not without effect on the
response-reaction of the interpellated. Several researchers in discourse and
conversation analysis have delineated several functions of intonation that answer
the above question.
For O’Connor and Arnold the function of intonation is to communicate
attitudinal or affective meaning. By ‘attitudinal meaning’ the authors mean ‘the
speaker’s attitude to the situation in which he is placed’ or, more concretely ‘the
feeling or sentiment which, with respect to the situation in which he finds himself,
the speaker expresses by intonation rather than by words’ (O’Connor and Arnold,
1961:271). Adopting an interactional perspective, Couper-Kuhlen and Selting
(1996a:21) define the main function of intonation as the function of signaling,
which is a pragmatic function. They write, ‘Arguably, the discourse function of
intonation is more likely to relate to this kind of pragmatic “meaning” (situated,
inference-based interpretation) rather than to the semantic meaning of
decontextualized linguistic forms’. Bolinger (1986) has argued that intonation
alone is not enough to signal or index the attitudes of the speaker or, in our
example, of the interpellator; it can do so only in conjunction with non-prosodic
features such as facial expression and gestures: ‘Intonation is part of a gestural
complex whose primitive and still surviving function is the signaling of emotion’
(Bolinger, 1986:195). He further claims that this indexing function is universal.
Recent research guards against hasty conclusions about the accuracy of the
correlations between intonation and a speaker’s state of mind. As Wharton (2012)
states, ‘It is now recognized that prosody encodes something much less precise
and perhaps hard to pinpoint in conceptual terms’. Despite the welcoming
cautions against the over-generalization of the relevance of research results, there
204 SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDIES

is no denying that intonation indexes the emotional state of mind of an

interpellator and therefore can orient the response of the interpellated based on the
context of the interaction. Using the elements of intonation such as volume and
length or duration, the interpellator can foreground or background the enunciation
of a name in order to signal his state of mind (Halford, 1994).
Let me give just one example to illustrate the combined use of tone and
intonation in an interpellative communication. The personal name átomá is a
question (who said it?) whose presupposition is another name paatomá (it was
said or predicted). The name átomá can be understood as a question or a
challenge depending on the context of interpellation.

 átomá (Who said it?). Enunciated briefly in a monotonic voice and with a
high tone on the first syllable and a high tone on the final syllable, the name
can be understood as a simple question; its erotetic content is more or less
neutral.
 atomá (Supernatural forces said it). Here there is a high tone on the last
syllable enunciated biefly. Effect: change of the subject of the verb, that is,
the entity responsible for the statement. In the Kabye socio-linguistic
context the first phonetic segment of the name is a relative pronoun referring
to supernatural forces, mostly the negative ones called haama. This can be
used to play on the meaning of the name.
 áátomà (Who said it!). Backgrounded intonation (high tone + long duration
on the first syllable of the name + falling tone on the last syllable).
Expresses the emotional attitude of the interpellator more concerned about
finding out the identity of the author of the statement implied by the name
paatoma than its content.
 átomáá (Who said it!). Foregrounded intonation (high tone on the first
syllable+ high tone and duration on the last syllable of the name). Expresses
the interpellator’s emotional attitude toward the content of the statement
implied by the name paatomá; he or she may be surprised that such a
statement could be made, challenge its relevance, etc.

5 Conclusion
Onomastic research has shed light on the many uses and functions of African
personal names, including the communication function, be it social, cultural or
interpersonal communication. The purpose of this article is to contribute to Kabye
onomastics by stressing three verbal means that are used to reinforce the efficacy
of that communication. The first, the choice and use one of a person’s multiple
names in a particular context, can determine the meaning of that name and affect
 ONOMASTIC STRATEGIES AMONG THE KABYE OF TOGO 205

the response or reaction of the addressee. The second, amplification, consists of

manipulating the morphosyntactic structure of personal names in order to amplify
their onomastic meaning. Amplification is a powerful interpellative strategy that
is used to accomplish a variety of speech acts such as haranguing, blaming, or
imploring the addressee of the onomastic message. The third verbal means
analyzed in this article is intonation. The intonation with which a person’s name
is uttered can indicate the state of mind of the addresser or name-user and, as a
consequence, impact the attitude or reaction of the addressee. Although the most
universal of the three onomastic strategies, intonation takes on an increased
pragmatic efficacy when combined with the semantic dimension of Kabye names
and their tonal characteristics.

Notes
1. ‘Il est nécessaire que les noms soient identifiés rigoureusement, au préalable,
comme signes de la langue. Ils ne sont pas distincts des autres signes au plan de
la forme, des signifiants et de la morphologie. Il est aisé d’expliquer le sens
littéral. Mais ceci n’est qu’un préalable, nécessaire mais non suffisant; sinon, on
manque totalement ce qui fait la spécificité des anthroponymes’ (English
translation by this author).
2. I differentiate here the concept of personality, which refers to the socio-cultural
attribute of an individual, from the concept of person, which refers to their
ontological and metaphysical dimension.
3. Margareta Manu Magda (2012:24–25) writes: ‘In the strict sense, appellatives
refer only to the linguistic terms used in direct communication, namely in the
process of address. In this case, appellatives also include personal proper names
in the vocative case.’
4. Kabye language has two main dialects. I adopt here the spelling of the name in
the official dialect, but for the other words in the text I use the spelling in the
local, non-official dialect.
5. The Kabye traditional naming process is an open one. Apart from anthroponyms
which are based on birth circumstances such as day, place, sequence of birth in
the family, there are no pre-established lists of names from which to choose.
This implies the uniqueness of African names, that is, the fact that a personal
name is unique to the individual named and might never be shared by anyone
else. Any semiotic string that is meaningful in the language can be accepted as a
personal name. The practice of bearing family names is a relatively recent
phenomenon due in part to colonization and population movement.
6. The addressee can be the name-bearer or a third entity (human or deity) to
whom the message is being addressed indirectly. See Batoma (2009a, 2009b) for
the explanation of the concept of indirectness.
7. Beauty is an aesthetic quality valued by Kabye society, but when it comes to
choosing a young man as a future partner for life and potential father, being a
caring and hardworking person is paramount within the society’s value system.
206 SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDIES

About the author

Atoma Batoma is an Associate Professor of Library Administration and an
Adjunct Professor of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign, United States. His main research interests include African
onomastics and communication ethics. The following are three of his publications
on African onomastics: (2009) Onomastics and indirect communication among
the Kabre of Northern Togo. Nordic Journal of African Studies (18)3: 215–234,
http://www.njas.helsinki.fi/; (2010) Talking through one’s dog: Zoonymy and
polemical communication in traditional Africa. Onoma (44): 15–34, http://poj.
peetersleuven.be/content.php?url=issue&journal_code=ONO&issue=0&vol=44;
(2019) Secret names, true identities: Onomastics and metaphysics among the
Kabye. Onomastica Uralia (11): 247–258, http://mnytud.arts.unideb.hu/
onomural/.

References
Amin, N. O. (1993) Names as a factor in cultural identity among the Akan, Ga and Ewe of
Ghana. Pretoria, South Africa: Center for Development Analysis.
Baroan, K. E. (1985) Mutation des noms Africains: l’exemple des Bété de Côte d’Ivoire.
Abidjan: Les Nouvelles Éditions Africaines.
Batoma, A. (2009a) Onomastics and indirect communication among the Kabre of Northern
Togo. Nordic Journal of African Studies 18(3): 215–234.
Batoma, A. (2009b) Talking through one’s dog: Zoonymy and polemical communication
in traditional Africa. Onoma (44): 15–34.
Batoma, A. (2017) Secret names and true identity: Onomastics and metaphysics among the
Kabye of Northern Togo. Paper presented at the 2017 ICOS Conference in Debrecen,
Hungary.
Blanzoua, W. M. K. (2007) Anthropologie de la parenté Kabyè: La valeur archéologique
de l’intronisation du Kondo. Lomé: Comité de Langue Nationale Kabyè (ClNk).
Bolinger, D. (1986) Intonation and its parts: Melody in spoken English. Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press.
Brinkman, I. (2004) Language, names, and war: The case of Angola. African Studies
Review 47(3): 143–163. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0002020600030481.
Couper-Kuhlen, E. and Margaret, S. (1996a) Towards an interactional perspective on
prosody and a prosodic perspective on interaction. In E. Couper-Kuhlen and M.
Selting (eds) Prosody in conversation: Interactional studies 11–56. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511597862.003.
Couper-Kuhlen, E. and Selting, M. (eds) (1996b) Prosody in conversation: Interactional
studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/
CBO9780511597862.
 ONOMASTIC STRATEGIES AMONG THE KABYE OF TOGO 207

Faik-Nzuji, C. M. (1977) L’Amplification dans la littérature orale: l’exemple des

anthroponymes. African Perspectives (1): 85–97.
Felecan, O. (ed.) (2012) Name and naming: Synchronic and diachronic perspectives.
Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Geach, P. (1962) Reference and generality. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Granger, G. G. (1982) A quoi servent les noms propres? Languages 66: 21–36. Doi:
https://doi.org/10.3406/lgge.1982.1124.
Grice, P. (1989) Studies in the way of words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Guma, M. (2001) The cultural meaning among Basotho of Southern Africa: A historical
and linguistic analysis. Nordic Journal of African Studies 10(3): 265–279.
Halford, B. K. (1994) The discourse function of intonation. In B. K. Halford and H. Pilch
(eds) Intonation 69–88. Tubingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.
Houis, M. (1983) Préface. In P. Ntahombaye (ed.) Des noms et des hommes: Aspects
psychologiques et sociologiques du nom individuel au Burundi 44. Paris: Karthala.
Huah, C. (ed.) (2016) The Oxford handbook of names and naming. Online resource.
Retrieved 9 October 2018 from: http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/
oxfordhb/9780199656431.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199656431.
Kaphagawani, D. N. (1987) The philosophical significance of Bantu nomenclature: A shot
at contemporary African philosophy. In F. Guttorm (ed.) Contemporary philosophy:
A new survey. Volume 5: African philosophy 121–152. The Hague; Boston: Nijhof.
Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3517-4_6.
Keyewa, G. O. (1997) Vie, énergie et moralité en Pays Kabiyè (Togo). Paris: L’Harmattan.
Koopman, A. (2000) The power of names in Zulu oral poetry. Nomina Africana 14(2): 1–
20.
Koopman, A. (2009) Uniqueness in the Zulu Anthroponymic System. Onoma 44: 69–91.
Kripke, S. A. (1980) Naming and necessity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Lévi-Strauss, C. (1966) The savage mind. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Madubuike, I. (1976) A handbook of African names. Washington, DC: Three Continents
Press.
Manu Magda, M. (2012) Pragmatics and anthroponymy: Theoretical considerations
regarding the system of designating terms in contemporary Romanian. In O. Felecan
(ed.) Name and naming: Synchronic and diachronic perspectives 18–31. Newcastle:
Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Mensah, E. O. (2015) Frog, where are you?: The ethnopragmatics of Ibibio death
prevention names. Journal of African Cultural Studies 27(2): 115–132. Doi:
https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2014.976545.
Musere, J. and Byakutaga, C. C. (2000) African names and naming. Los Angeles, CA:
Arico Publications.
Musere, J. and Odhiambo, J. (1999) African ethnics and personal names. Los Angeles,
CA: Ariko Publications.
O’Connor, J. D. and Arnold, G. F. (1961) Intonation of colloquial English: A practical
handbook. London: Longman.
208 SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDIES

Pere-Keweziwa, E. K. (2004) Approche lexico-sémantique du système onomastique du

Kabiye (langue Gur du Togo). PhD dissertation, Université de Lomé, Togo.
Piot, C. (1993) Secrecy, ambiguity, and everyday in Kahre culture. American
Anthropologist 95(2): 353–310. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1993.95.2.02a00050.
Piot, C. (1999) Remotely global: Village modernity in West Africa. Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press. Doi: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/
9780226189833.001.0001.
Shottman, W. (2000) Baatɔnu personal names from birth to death. Africa 70(1): 79–106.
Doi: https://doi.org/10.3366/afr.2000.70.1.79.
vom Bruck, G. and Bodenhorn, B. (eds) (2006) The anthropology of names and naming.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wharton, T. (2012) Prosody and meaning: Theory and practice. In J. Romero-Trillo (ed.)
Pragmatics and prosody in language teaching 97–116. Online resource. Retrieved
from: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-94-007-3883-6. Doi: https://
doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3883-6_7.

(Received 14th February 2017; accepted 7th December 2018;

revision received 18th December 2018; final revision received 17th May 2019)