AANTHROPOS

NTHROPOS
115.2020:
113.2018: 395107–113
– 422

The Diverse
Anthropolinguistic Faces
Analysis of Toda
of Igbo Religion Expressions
Metaphorical
Chimaobi Onwukwe
Anthony R. Walker

Abstract. – The study examines metaphorical expressions in

Abstract. – The once analyzes
more-or-less
itly Ayan
using(Ö·n)metaphorical expressions. The con‐
to protect them after death. The To-
Igbo. It specifically the exclusively
linguistic and pastoral Todas
cultural of
values, cretizing
the
andNilgiri
beliefsMountains in South India
in Igbo metaphors. Thestill retain
study vibrantthe
adopted beliefs
KeyinIn‐ das doofnot their realities
observe idol is achieved
worship. Todasbyworship
associat‐
gods and Interview
formant goddesses method
they sayinoncedatalived among as
collection them butasthere-
well intro‐ ing features or attributes of an entity
light, fire, mountains, trees, rivers, sky, sun, to another.
and
after became mountains; they tell also of ancestors
spection as a native speaker of Igbo. It was discovered that who werein‐ Also,moon,some concepts in Igbo are conceptualized
which are believed to be the major creations
once living Todas butmetaphorical
subsequentlyexpressions
became divinities.
involvesBeyond 2
terpretation
such indigenous
of Igbo the lin‐ usingofthetheirsame
Goddessassociation
Thekershi. pattern.
guistic features convictions,
of implicature,Todas have absorbed
inference a plethora well
and referencing of
Metaphor has been studied from different per‐
Hindu beliefs and ritual practices. Christian ideology
as understanding of the cultural nuances of the referents used has been
propagated among Todas,
in Igbo metaphors. with foreign-led
The study Christian
identified that missionar-
metaphorical ex‐ spectives: as a rhetoric and cognitive aspect of Ig‐
ies succeeded in establishing a breakaway
worldview.Toda ThisChristian com-
pressions
munity. But
concretize the Igbo
notwithstanding the many divergent
worldview, be‐ 1 boIntroduction
language (Zhang and Hu 2009; Guo 2013;
liefs and values are represented in the culturalsources of Todaof
connotations Okeogu 2015; Onumajuru 2017). From the angle
religious
referentsideology, the predominant
of Igbo metaphors. and most
The study public some
identified displayrefer‐
of
Toda ritual activity (apart from among Christian Todas)
ents with their cultural connotations such as animals, and natu‐ still cen- Inofhis
rhetoric,
recent which is where the
book “Religion. Anpresent study looks
Anthropological
tres on their unique sacred dairying cult, despite the rapid decline
ral/physical objects. The author concludes that understanding
at metaphor,(2015: ​
Perspective” it is seen that a gapHomayun
9), Professor exists in S ­terms
idky, of
in the importance of buffaloes in the community’s modern-day
of metaphor in Igbo entails knowledge of cultural and contex‐ myanalysis of metaphor
much esteemed formerinPhD Igbo taking
student at Theinto cog‐
Ohio
economic life. This, together with their exclusively Toda deities nizance linguistic and“no cultural
tual nuances of the referent of the metaphor in the Igbo lan‐
and culture heroes seems to suggest a unique ethnic religion, State University, claims: single implications
definition has of
guage and culture. [Nigeria, Igbo, anthropolinguistics,
frequently categorized as “non-Hindu.” But demonstrably Indic metaphor.
been able toHence,
capturethe thepresent study focuses
entire picture” of the on reli-an‐
metaphor, Igbo language, culture] thropolinguistic
(therefore, if only loosely, “Hindu”) principles permeate Toda gious phenomenon.analysis “For thisofreason”,
Igbo metaphorical
Sidky writes,ex‐
ritual activity. Most notable are the concepts of hierarchy and pressions
“some argueand thataspects
religion of isthebestIgbo cultureofimplied
thought as a
Chimaobi
purity Onwukwe,
and those PhD;ritual
of prescribed Department
avoidanceofcoupled
Linguistics
with re-and
Communication studies/Igbo (implicature) in Igbo metaphors.
multifaceted phenomenon with many interpenetrat-
quired ritual cooperation. In sum,Abia State University,Uturu,
Toda religion – like the Toda
Nigeria. Email:
community itselfchima.onwukwe2016@gmail.com
– is at once unique and, at the same time, thor- The word “Igbo”
ing dimensions as opposed is used to denote
to being viewed bothas the peo‐
a uni-
oughly Indic. [South India, Nilgiri Mountains, Toda] ple occurrence.”
tary and the language. This indeed Igbo is is my
spoken by tens of
interpretation
ofmillions
religionof as people
understood in theand South-Eastern
practised by the geo-politi‐
once
Anthony Walker, an Oxford-trained social anthropologist, re- cal zone of exclusively
more-or-less Nigeria. It pastoral
is spoken Toda as community
the only lan‐
Introduction
tired as Professor of Anthropology at the University of Brunei
Darussalam in 2011 and now lives in Kandy, Sri Lanka. His peri-
guage in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo
patetic career has States. These are monolingual states. It is also
Metaphor as included
a figureteaching positions
of speech at thenot
does Science
only Uni-
re‐ 1 The orthography of Toda in this essay follows that of Mur-
versity of Malaysia in Penang, the National University of Singa- spoken as a (1957: ​
major19;language inexcept
multilingual states
late one entity to another by associating their fea‐ ray Emeneau 1984: ​5–49), that I have add-
pore, The Ohio State University, and the University of the South ofedDelta and Rivers
hyphenation in the
where I feel this South-South geo-politi‐
might assist non-specialists
tures inbut
Pacific also
Suva, Fiji.are
– Hevital
beganexpressions of field
his, still-ongoing, traditional
studies cal zone.
with Igbo is ahence
pronunciation, major language
my To·r-θas andof communica‐
Töw-fił̣ y, where
thoughts,
with the Todasbelief
in 1962andand worldview of the
has also conducted Igbo.field
long-term The Emeneau has To·rθas and Töwfił̣ y. (Note, however, that I peo‐
do
research (since 1966) tion in Nigeria with approximately 25 million
Igbo value and on the metaphors
use Tibeto-Burmanin speaking Lahu peo-
conversations. not add hyphenation to Toda words when quoting directly –
ples of the Yunnan-Indochina borderlands. – For his major pub- ple
as Italking it as– their first language (AgboFurther2010).
Like in other climes or cultures, the Igbo use do frequently from Emeneau’s various works.
lications on the Todas see References Cited. Inassistance
presenting data
with the for this study,
pronunciation of TodathewordsGreen
renderedandinIg‐
metaphors by associating features of an entity-ani‐
we (1963)transcription
Emeneau’s tone marking can be hadconvention is adopted,
from Tarun Chhabra’s “A
mate or inanimate, to a person, or situations. Guide for the and
Transliteration of Toda”
where low step tones arein marked
his 2015 bookand“Thehigh
Metaphorical expressions in Igbo could be about a Toda Landscape,” pp. xxxvii–xliii.
The Todas believe in their Goddess Thekershi (Tö·- tone unmarked.
person, conduct or behaviour as well as on cultur‐ 2 From the pen of Pöḷ-xe·n, son of Mut-iŝky – his name angli-
kisy1). They worship Goddess Thekershi for pro- cized as Pellican (n. d.) – a member of Ka·s patriclan, first
ally significant issues
tection during such as
their eternal religion,
(perhaps thoughts,
“mortal” was president of the Nilgiri Toda Uplift Society, high school grad-
practices etc. The Igbo conceptualize and
intended) existence and they also worship God con‐ uate and literate both in Tamil and English.
cretize realities as well as their worldview implic‐

Anthropos 115.2020
https://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2020-1-107
Generiert durch Institution Melanie, am 10.06.2020, 11:19:29.
Das Erstellen und Weitergeben von Kopien dieses PDFs ist nicht zulässig.
108
Study Objectives and Methodology
The study has the following objectives:
(i) Examine metaphorical expressions in Igbo
(ii) Analyze the linguistic features and implied
cultural values and beliefs in Igbo metaphors.
In order to achieve these objectives, we adopted
the qualitative, descriptive and analytical ap‐
proaches. As a study with a qualitative paradigm
orientation, I also adopted the Key Informant In‐
terviews (KII) involving oral interview method of
some 20 informants in Igbo who are believed to be
relevant enough as to elicit appropriate responses
on Igbo metaphor. Also introspection featured in
data collection as the researcher is a native speak‐
er of the Igbo language, born and bred in the Igbo
culture area.
Theoretical background
Metaphor
Metaphor as a concept has been variously con‐
ceived. Our concern in this section however, is to
present an overview of the various definitions of
metaphor and subsequently discuss different per‐
suasions in the conception of the term metaphor.
Lodge (1981: 10) observes that “Metaphor is a
figure of substitution based on similarity.” He
further asserts that that two things being consid‐
ered must be similar as to be substituted, one for
the other. It is based on similarity between things
that are otherwise dissimilar and separate in space
and time. Metaphorical statements assert some‐
thing to be what it is known not to be. Emezue
(2015: 119) states that a construction is defined as
metaphorical when as implied comparison is made
between two unlike things. Metaphors are means
by which words carry cultural, linguistic and liter‐
al meanings. A simple way of defining metaphor
is to “say that it is a way of using language to
make a comparison so that people are caused to
understand something in relation to something
else.”
According to Zhang and Hu (2009: 1), “A study
of metaphor is an infant branch of linguistic study
and has held tremendous allure to scholars ever
since the ancient times. Naturally a great diversity
of views have come into being, mainly falling into
two schools, namely traditional metaphor and
modern metaphor, which interpret metaphor in the
line of rhetorics and cognition respectively.” We
therefore approach the review from these two per‐
https://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2020-1-107
Generiert durch Institution Melanie, am 10.06.2020, 11:19:29.
Das Erstellen und Weitergeben von Kopien dieses PDFs ist nicht zulässig.
Chimaobi Onwukwe
spectives. The Greek Philosophers led by Aristotle
championed the traditional conception of the term
metaphor. Traditional metaphor or a study of
metaphor in the line of rhetoric can be traced back
to scholars from Aristotle to Richards. In his fa‐
mous works Poetics, Aristotle gives his definition
of metaphor: “Metaphor consists in giving the
thing a name that belongs to something else; the
transference being either from genus to species, or
from species to genus, or from species to species,
or on grounds of analogy” (Lan 2005). Richards
(1936) asserts that the essence of metaphor lies in
an interaction between a metaphorical expression
and the context in which it is used. The Interaction
Theory arises from a correct observation in that as
for a conventional metaphor which links a source
domain and a target domain, speaking about the
source domain alone may bring to mind the target
domain.
On the modern conception of metaphor, Zhang
and Hu (2009: 1) state that “Studies of metaphor
have taken on an absolutely new look ever since
1980 s, evidenced by “Metaphors We Live By”
collaborated by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), which
has rocked to the core studies of metaphor in lin‐
guistic field, attributing to their interpretation of
metaphor system in the line of cognition named
modern metaphor and proposes that metaphor is a
matter of thought and action rather than a device
of poetic imagination and the rhetoric flourish.”
Similarly, Kövecses (2002) presents a demonstra‐
tion that emotions such as anger, pride and love
are conceptualized structure in everyday language.
All these studies illustrate the cognitive idea of
metaphor, i.e. metaphor mediates human under‐
standing and world view (Lan 2005).
Theory of “Implicature”
Grice‘s (1967) most influential contribution to
philosophy and linguistics is his theory of implica‐
ture, which he first began developing in his 1961
article, “The Causal Theory of Perception,” but
which is most fully explored in his 1967 William
James Lectures on “Logic and Conversation.” Ac‐
cording to Labov (1998) the theory of implicature
has been useful in analyzing language use and
meaning contextualization in literary works partic‐
ularly poetry of various genres where some cultur‐
al values, norms and beliefs are implicatures
derivable from analyzing the use of words and ex‐
pressions in poetry. This has influenced our choice
of this theory since this study is about the cultural
implications of Igbo metaphor. Grice (1967)
Anthropos 115.2020
Anthropolinguistic Analysis of Igbo Metaphorical Expressions
makes the following distinctions: the saying/impli‐
cating distinction.
According to Grice, what a speaker means by
an utterance can be divided into what the speaker
“says” and what the speaker thereby “implicates.”
Grice makes it clear that the notion of saying what
he has in mind, though related to a colloquial
sense of the word, is somewhat technical, referring
to it as “a favored notion of ‘saying’ that must be
further elucidated.” Nonetheless, Grice never set‐
tled on a full elucidation or definition of his fa‐
vored notion of saying, and the interpretation of
this notion has become a contentious issue in the
philosophy of language. In relation to this study,
we examine value, norms and culture of the Igbo
as “implicatures” embedded in the metaphors.
This is considered as aspects of conventional and
generalized implicatures of Grice’s (1967) theory
of pragmatics.
Data Presentation, Analysis and Discussion of
Findings
References of Metaphorical Expressions in Igbo
Referents are entities to which a person, action,
situation, conduct etc is associated with in
metaphors. Concretizing the Igbo worldview or re‐
alities using metaphors is essentially achieved by
the referents. For this reason, the Igbo are selec‐
tive of referents of their metaphorical expressions
as they have cultural significance. We identified
the following referents of the Igbo metaphors:
(i) Body-parts
(ii) Animals
(iii)Natural and physical objects.
Some body-parts
In Igbo, body-part centered expressions reveal sig‐
nificant aspects of emotions and thought patterns.
They often center on persons, conduct and behav‐
ior. According to Okoye (1992: 176) “Igbo body-
part metaphors mediate on analogy or a trait,
strengths, and frailties, beauty, ugliness, kindness,
wickedness with certain parts of the body.” In ad‐
dition, Okeogu (2015) holds thus: “The use of
body-part metaphors results from the fact that the
Igbo attach central importance to the body. Some
of the identified body-parts often used as referents
in Igbo metaphors include:
1) Face (ihu) – the face as a referent of Igbo
metaphorical expressions has many folk inter‐
Anthropos 115.2020
https://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2020-1-107
Generiert durch Institution Melanie, am 10.06.2020, 11:19:29.
Das Erstellen und Weitergeben von Kopien dieses PDFs ist nicht zulässig.
109
pretations. The face houses the eyes, nose, ears
and mouth; an area above the neck and is
frontal area of the head. In Igbo, it can be used
metaphorically to depict shame, bad or good
fortune, hypocrisy and cheerfulness as can be
seen in the following examples:
(a) ihu o͎ma – good/fine face (“one of good
fortune”)
(b) ihu o͎jo͎o͎ – bad/ugly face (“one of bad for‐
tune”)
(c) mmechù ihu – getting the face dirty
(“shame”)
(d) ihu o͎cha – clean face (“cheerfulness”)
(e) ihu abuo͎ – two faces (“hypocrisy”)
2) Heart/Belly (obi/afo) – the heart/belly serve as
referents of Igbo metaphorical expressions.
The Igbo use the two interchangeably to often
represent emotions such as kindness, content‐
ment, wickedness, and anger. We see such in
the following examples:
(a) Ò nye obi/afo͎ o͎ma – good heart/belly
(“kind person”)
(b) Onye afo/obi ojoo – bad heart/belly
(“wicked person”)
(c) Afo j̀urù – filled belly (“contentment”)
(d) Obi iwe – “anger”
(e) Obi ike – “strong heart”
(f) Obi uto͎ – sweet heart (“happiness”)
(g) Obi mmirì – “kind/sift hearted”
(h) Obi okwute – “heartless”
(i) Obi ilu – “bitterness”
3) Tongue (ire) – the use of the tongue as referent
of Igbo metaphors is borne out of the fact that
the tongue is significant in the Igbo culture. It
is often associated with negative/deceptive ten‐
dencies in conduct and bahaviour. Some exam‐
ples are:
(a) ire u͎to͎ – sweet tongue (“deceptive”)
(b) ire nko͎ – sharp tongue (“dangerous/snip‐
per”)
(c) ire u͎gba – “flippant/talkative”
4) Foot (ukwu) – the Igbo often use the feet as
metaphorical referents. The feet have cultural
interpretations when used metaphorically and
they include bad/good fortune, character or
conduct and disposition of a person. For con‐
ducts, we have depiction of promiscuity, avoid‐
ance of trouble, exposed/troubled, opposition
or fastness/speed. The disposition could be
“state of being restrained/handicapped” as can
be seen in the following examples:
110
(a) U͎kwu͎ ako͎/di n’ezi – the feet that are al‐
ways outside (“promiscuity or trouble‐
some”)
(b) Ichiba u͎kwu n’ulo͎ – take the feet into the
house (“avoiding trouble”)
(c) Ichipu͎ta u͎kwu n’ezi – take the feet outside
(“exposed/troubled person”)
(d) Igbaa u͎kwu – to kick (“opposition”)
(e) Ukwu nko͎ – sharp leg (“fast one or one
with speed”)
(f) u͎kwu ejiela – feet broken (“restrained/
handicapped”)
Animals
The Igbo often associate certain features or at‐
tributes of some animals in describing things espe‐
cially human beings hence such animals serve as
referents of such metaphors in Igbo. This is based
on the attributes or features of such animals
whether negative or positive. In fact, virtually all
animals can serve as referents depending on what
the speaker wants to describe. We have the follow‐
ing animals and some of their attributes which
could be associated with in metaphorical sense:
(a) ̀Enwe – monkey (“ugly, wayward, primitive”)
(b) O͎dum – lion (“fearless, brave, strong”)
(c) ̀Mbe – tortoise (“cunning, deceitful”)
(d) Enyi – elephant (“fatness, bigness”)
(e) Egbe – kite (“sharpness”)
(f) Mgbaàdà – antelope (“fastness, swiftness”)
(g) N
̀ kita – dog (“promiscuity”)
(h) Ud̀elè – vulture (“ugly, not-useful, has no ene‐
my, associate of deities”)
(i) At̀urù – lamb/sheep (“harmless, gentle, fool‐
ish”)
(j) Ewu – goat (“senseless, foolish”)
(k) agwo̟ – snake (“deceitful, long”)
Natural and Physical Objects
In Igbo metaphors, people or things could be de‐
scribed by associating them with natural and phys‐
ical objects of cultural significance. It is the at‐
tributes of the natural and physical objects that de‐
scribe the thing or individual hence they serve as
referents of Igbo metaphorical expressions. Con‐
sider some examples below:
(a) Aja (Ego bu aja) – sand/soil (“plenty”)
(b) Ahia (Uwa bu ahia) – market place (“seasonal,
temporal, periodic,” etc.)
(c) O͎ji (Emeka bu o͎ji) – iroko tree (“a figure, rare
personality, celebrity,” etc.)
https://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2020-1-107
Generiert durch Institution Melanie, am 10.06.2020, 11:19:29.
Das Erstellen und Weitergeben von Kopien dieses PDFs ist nicht zulässig.
Chimaobi Onwukwe
(d) Ugwu (Enyi m bu ugwu) – mountain (“hin‐
drance/obstacle”)
The connotations of the referents are associated
with the thing described. These connotations are
culturally defined.
Anthropolinguistic Analysis
Igbo metaphorical expression derive their mean‐
ings linguistically (contextually/pragmatically)
and culturally. Traditional thoughts, belief and val‐
ues represent the life of the Igbo which could be
reflected in metaphors. Metaphorical expressions
project and reinforce the Igbo core values. In addi‐
tion, some ills and social abnormalities are ex‐
pressed using metaphors and these forms of
metaphors represent what we call metaphors about
culturally significant issues and some examples
are given below:
(a) U͎wa bu͎ ahia – life/existence is a market place
(“Life/existence is seasonal, temporal, pur‐
pose-driven etc.”)
(b) U͎wa bu͎ o͎ku – life/existence is fire (“Life/exis‐
tence is filled with challenges and pains”)
(c) O͎nwu bu͎ agu̟ – death is a lion (“Death is
strong, fearless, formidable”)
(d) Amamihe bu͎ oke o͎hia – wisdom is a big forest
(“wisdom is inexhaustible”)
From the examples above, it is evident that these
forms of metaphorical expressions do not deal
with a person, conduct, behavior but are on Igbo
worldview. Their referents are essentially animals
and natural /physical objects.
Igbo metaphorical expressions derive their
meanings contextually. In pragmatic sense,
metaphors in Igbo can be analyzed in terms of
context of usage, presuppositions, inferences and
schemata knowledge. By context of usage, we
consider the situation/circumstances or even sub‐
ject of discussion. By presupposition, we mean in‐
formation that is taken for granted as common or
shared knowledge between a speaker and hearer.
By inference, we refer to the meaning or interpre‐
tation given to an utterance base on some knowl‐
edge of the world around language users. Schema‐
ta knowledge refers to knowledge shared on a sub‐
ject matter by language users or between speaker
and hearer.
We therefore proceed to analyze the meanings
of some metaphors in Igbo based on the above‐
mentioned linguistic indices in relation to the Igbo
cultural values and beliefs. Consider the following
examples:
Anthropos 115.2020
Anthropolinguistic Analysis of Igbo Metaphorical Expressions
(a) ihu abuo͎ – two faces (literally); “deceitful”
(metaphorically)
(b) ihu o͎cha – clean/white face (“cheerfulness”)
(c) Obi mmir̀i – heart of water/river/sea (“kind-
hearted”)
(d) Obi ilu – bitter heart (“wickedness”)
(e) Emeka bu͎ Udelè – Emeka is a vulture (“Eme‐
ka is ugly, associated with the deities”)
(f) Ada bu agwo̟ – Ada is a snake (“Ada is deceit‐
ful,” etc.)
(g) Uwa bu͎ ahia – life/existence is a market place
(“Life/existence is seasonal, temporal, etc.”)
(h) O̟nwu bu agu͎ – Death is a lion (“Death is
forceful, strong, brave” etc.)
The literal meaning of the metaphors is necessary
in identifying the context of usage, presupposi‐
tions, inference and schemata knowledge. Exam‐
ples 8 (a-h) have the following as context of us‐
age: example (a) and (b) reference to conduct,
while (c) and (f) are used in context referring to
behavior/conduct. However, (g) and (h) are used
in the context of explaining a belief, thought or
values. The meanings of the metaphors are tightly
embedded in the context of their usage. We take
them on after another.
Example (a) ihu abuo, “deceit” presupposes that
both the speaker and hearer are of or immersed in
Igbo language and culture to be able to by analogy
and structured correspondence, interpret the
metaphor. The inferences that could be drawn in
identifying the meaning are (i) the face (ihu) in Ig‐
bo culture represents a person, his conduct/behav‐
ior and is symbolic of fortune. According to
Nwoye (1992: 164), “Among the Igbo, the face is
symbolic of a personality and his life as orches‐
trated by his individual providence chi” (ii) two
(abuo) is duality which when paired with the face
represents an abnormal situation by creation. An
understanding of these leads to interpretation of
ihu abuo as metaphorical expression for “deceit.”
The same interpretation process goes for Ihu ocha,
“cheerfulness,” obi mmiri “soft-kind hearted,” and
obi-ilu “wickedness.” The face (ihu), to the Igbo
represents a personality and when paired with
ocha (clean/white), infers a personality that is
“cheerful.”
To the Igbo, the heart/belly (obi/afo) is contain‐
er or seat of one’s action or behavior and thus ex‐
plains their use in metaphorical expressions. They
are symbolic of one’s traits and when paired with
mmiri (water, sea, and river) which connotes an
‘undisturbed/untroubled’ situation, it infers a be‐
havior/ trait of “kindness” or “accommodating.” It
is believed that kindness comes partly from an un‐
Anthropos 115.2020
https://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2020-1-107
Generiert durch Institution Melanie, am 10.06.2020, 11:19:29.
Das Erstellen und Weitergeben von Kopien dieses PDFs ist nicht zulässig.
111
troubled/undisturbed and accommodating disposi‐
tion. Bitter (ilu), when paired with obi (heart-seat
of behavior), infers a wicked disposition or trait.
For the examples in (e) and (f), udele (vulture)
and agwo (snake), have varied presupposed con‐
notations in the Igbo culture. For udele “vulture,”
the connotation of “ugly” reflects its form as bird,
while the connotation of “not being useful,” re‐
flects the fact that unlike other birds, it is not edi‐
ble. Other connotations are “associate of deities/
spirits” which reflects a cultural belief among the
Igbo that vultures are messengers of the spirits/
deities and as such they go about unharmed and
seen to have no enemy. Onukawa (2016) observes
that “the Igbo revere the deities or spirits and they
transfer the reverence to objects, persons, animals
or things associated with them.” These connota‐
tions are inferred in the statement: Emeka bu
Udele which could metaphorically mean:
(i) Emeka is ugly;
(ii) Emeka is not useful;
(iii)Emeka is an associate of the deities/spirits;
(iv) Emeka has no enemy;
For the example (f), agwo (snake), has some con‐
notations such as “long” which reflects its form as
reptile as well as “deceitful” which reflects the
role played by the snake in some Igbo traditional
folk and myths. Associating these connotations to
the person of Ada, would led to the metaphorical
meanings of “tall/long, deceitful.” For the exam‐
ples of (g) and (h), u͎wa bu ahia and o͎nwu bu agu͎,
they are examples of conceptualization of the Igbo
worldview using metaphors. The concepts: U͎wa
(existence/life) and o͎nwu (death) and the percep‐
tion of the Igbo about them are implied in the
metaphorical expressions. “Implicature is what a
speaker can imply, suggest or mean as distinct
from what is literally said” (Emezue 2015: 107).
The Igbo beliefs on these concepts are implied
by associating them with ahia (market place) and
agu̟ (lion). By associating U͎wa (life/existence)
with ahia (market place, the belief of the Igbo im‐
plied is that life is a journey, seasonal, purpose-
driven. To the Igbo, the market place is seasonal,
periodic, gone for a purpose after which one re‐
turns to one’s abode. The association of ahia with
U͎wa suggests or implies the belief of the Igbo in
reincarnation because by leaving a market place
after achieving your purpose, one could as well
visit it again when it (market) holds. So, the ex‐
pression (U͎wa bu Ahia) could metaphorically
mean:
112
(i) Life/existence is temporal
(ii) Life/existence is seasonal
(iii)Life/existence is purpose-driven
(iv) Life/existence could be reincarnated.
The market place to the Igbo has the connotations
of transiency, and purpose-driven because it is be‐
lieved that no one except the mad or mentally de‐
ranged visits the market place without a purpose
or goal which he/she achieves and thereafter
leaves, suggesting the temporary nature of the
market place. It is pertinent to state that as ob‐
served by Onukawa (2016: 7) “Human existence
is a very important issue in the Igbo traditional
thought. Human life is synonymous with “exis‐
tence” and this is the core meaning of the nominal
uwa.
For the expression: O̟nwu bu agu, (“death is a
lion”), the belief of the Igbo about Onwu (“death”)
is implied by associating the attributes of the ani‐
mal (agu – “lion”) with the concept of Onwu. Lion
has the attributes or connotations of “strong,
brave, formidable, and powerful.” So the expres‐
sion could metaphorically mean:
(i) Onwu (death) is strong
(ii) Death is brave/fearless
(iii)Death is formidable
(iv) Death is powerful
(v) Death is dreadful
In support of these metaphorical meanings as be‐
liefs of the Igbo about the concept of death,
Onukawa (2016: 15) observes that: “The Igbo be‐
lieve that death (Onwu) is an inescapable fact of
life. They believe in the inevitability of death as a
necessity for reincarnation, yet they have an innate
fear for death.” He further alludes that for the Ig‐
bo, death is the society’s strongest foe. “They
therefore have names in which they express their
apprehension of death’s awful activity such as On‐
wudiegwu (death is dreadful), Onwuatuegwu
(death is fearless), etc.” (p.16). Dreadful and fear‐
less are some connotations of the Lion (agu)
which further justifies its use in metaphorical
sense to describe death (Onwu).
In support of our findings and on the place of
culture in decoding metaphors, Zhang and Hu
(2009) hold as follows: “Self-evidently, context is
of great importance to recognizing and decoding
metaphors. Moreover, there exists an interaction
between context and subject, for which reason
many scholars argue that metaphors should be ap‐
proached from the perspective of pragmatics, for
no linguistic element can stand isolated from the
context.” The inference from this observation is
https://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2020-1-107
Generiert durch Institution Melanie, am 10.06.2020, 11:19:29.
Das Erstellen und Weitergeben von Kopien dieses PDFs ist nicht zulässig.
Chimaobi Onwukwe
that by context, Zhang and Hu refer to cultural in‐
terpretation of the referents of a metaphorical ex‐
pression. Further lending credence to our findings,
Okodo (2012) posits that idioms are expressions
that have agreed meaning from culture to culture.
Using data from the Igbo language, the same au‐
thor claims that idiomatic meanings are analytical‐
ly realized from the meanings of the individual
words in the expressions.
Still on metaphorical interpretation as an aspect
of culture cognition, Okoye and Madike (2016)
are of the view that the cognitive approach to id‐
iom posits that metaphor and metonymy are rele‐
vant to the understanding of idiomatic expres‐
sions. The importance of the cognitive approach
has to do with the analysis of idioms as structures
that are understood in terms of cognitive mechan‐
isms. The study of language generally within this
view, involves the description and analysis of pat‐
terns of conceptualization. The approach also rec‐
ognizes background knowledge as being essential
in meaning interpretation in the minds of language
speakers. Those who hold this view include
Lakoff and Johnson (2003), Kövecses (2002) and
Langlotz (2006) among others.
The finding that Igbo project some culturally
significant issues through metaphors has been al‐
luded to by some scholars. For instance, in recog‐
nizing the place of personal names in society,
Onukawa (2016) observes that the Igbo metaphor‐
ically reveal their innate fear for such concepts as
death, deities/spirits, and other concepts. He holds
that such names as onwubiko (death please) sug‐
gests the awe associated with death and that leads
to the appeal to it. Also, on body-parts as referents
of Igbo metaphor, Nwoye (1992) submits that the
Igbo concretize their world and make culturally
interpreted meanings to body-parts. These body-
parts reveal the understanding of the Igbo about
human actions, inaction and general behaviour.
Summary and Conclusion
It has been revealed in this study that like other
cultures, the Igbo frame their world and realities
using metaphorical expressions. Metaphors are
custodians of Igbo views about life and issues that
substantially reflect the core values of the Igbo so‐
ciety. This is achieved by the use or choice of ref‐
erents. We identified some referents of Igbo
metaphorical expressions to include body-parts,
animals and natural and physical objects. Body-
based expressions are found to have varied cultur‐
al interpretations which explain their use in
metaphors in Igbo. It was found that some body
Anthropos 115.2020
Anthropolinguistic Analysis of Igbo Metaphorical Expressions
parts like the face, heart/belly, tongue; the feet as
well as the head among others serve as referents of
the Igbo metaphors. Also, animals are often used
in Igbo to describe things by associating the at‐
tributes of such animals to those things described.
Some of such animals include goat, snake, dog,
vulture, sheep, etc., as well as natural and physical
objects such as sand (aja), iroko tree (oji), etc are
also used as referents. They have cultural signifi‐
cance among the Igbo for which they are associat‐
ed with certain things being described.
The study equally found that interpretation of
metaphors in Igbo involves an understanding of
the linguistic issues such as context of usage, pre‐
suppositions, inferences and schemata knowledge
as well as the cultural dimension. We have been
able to show through analysis of some metaphors
in Igbo that inferences are basic in identifying cul‐
tural nuances of referents used in metaphor while
implicature (implication) reveal some belief and
values in metaphors. It is the conclusion of this
study that metaphor in Igbo is a figure of speech
that reveals cultural aspects of the Igbo, and its in‐
terpretation is carried on contextually. Metaphors
in Igbo concretize and conceptualize the realities
of the Igbo. Hence, an understanding of metaphor
in Igbo entails knowledge of cultural and contex‐
tual nuances of the referent of the metaphor in the
Igbo language and culture.
Works Cited
Agbo, Maduabuchi
2010 On the Igbo Verbs with Body-Part Complements. Jour‐
nal of Linguistics and Language Teaching 3/2: 173–
196.
Emezue, Godwin I.
2015 Introduction to English Semantics. Enugu: Springfield
Anthropos 115.2020
https://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2020-1-107
Generiert durch Institution Melanie, am 10.06.2020, 11:19:29.
Das Erstellen und Weitergeben von Kopien dieses PDFs ist nicht zulässig.
113
Grice, H. Paul
1975 Logic and Conversation. Syntax and Semantics. In: Pe‐
ter Cole and Jerry Morgan (eds.), Speech Acts, vol. 3;
pp. 71–97. New York: Academic Press.
Guo, Song
2013 Metaphor Studies from the Perspectives of Critical Dis‐
course Analysis. A Case Study of Business Acquisition.
Theory and Practice in Language Studies 3/3: 475–481.
Kövecses, Zoltan
2002 Metaphor. A Practical Introduction. Oxford: Oxford UP.
Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson
1980 Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press.
Lan, C.
2005 Cognitive Linguistics and Metaphoric Study. Beijing:
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
Lodge, B.
1981 Stylistics of Writing. London: London Press
Nwoye, Onuigbo G.
1992 Body-based Metaphors in Igbo. Journal of Asian and
African Studies 44: 167–177.
Okeogu, Chidinma I.
2015 Body-Parts Metaphor in Igbo. Nigerian Language Stud‐
ies 2/3: 92–97
Okodo, Ikechukwu
2012 The Art of Rhetoric among the Igbo People of Nigeria.
Mgbokoigba Journal of African Studies 1/1: 191–208.
Onukawa, M. C.
2016 Gini bu Aha gi? Topical Issues on Personal Naming in
Traditional Igbo Society. Uturu: Abia State University.
Onumajuru, Virginia C.
2017 The Semantics of Metaphorical Extension in Igbo.
African Research Review 11/1: 232–245
Richards, I. A.
1936 The Philosophy of Rhetoric. London: Oxford UP.
Zhang, Fachun and Jianpeng Hu
2009 A study of Metaphor and its Application to Language
Teaching and Learning. International Education Stud‐
ies 2/2: 77–81
 https://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2020-1-107
Generiert durch Institution Melanie, am 10.06.2020, 11:19:29.
Das Erstellen und Weitergeben von Kopien dieses PDFs ist nicht zulässig.