Emotion and the Body in Twi
Research Mentor(s)
Virginia Dawson
Description
My poster examines how body nouns are used to express emotions in the Ghanaian language Asante Twi. Invoking terminology from a concrete domain like the body to explain a more abstract domain like emotional experience is a common occurrence across languages. In Twi, one finds metaphoric expressions that house emotion in a specific body part (anger in the chest, for instance) and also 'ho' phrases which place the entirety of one's body in the subject position as the one enacting or experiencing emotional states such as wellness, annoyance, and sickness. I make some comparisons between Twi and other languages’ techniques for emotional expression and comment on the semantic implications of these Twi constructions in which the body or body part, rather than the individual, occupies the subject position. The poster also examines a pair of nesting constructions which can be used to retake one’s syntactic agency, reclaiming the subject position for the individual. Many thanks to Dr. Dawson and the LING402 Field Methods class who helped gather the data used in this analysis and to Rosia Aning for providing all that Twi language data as well as invaluable insights into the language.
Document Type
Event
Start Date
May 2022
End Date
May 2022
Location
Carver Gym (Bellingham, Wash.)
Department
CHSS - Linguistics
Genre/Form
student projects; posters
Type
Image
Rights
Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
Emotion and the Body in Twi
Carver Gym (Bellingham, Wash.)
My poster examines how body nouns are used to express emotions in the Ghanaian language Asante Twi. Invoking terminology from a concrete domain like the body to explain a more abstract domain like emotional experience is a common occurrence across languages. In Twi, one finds metaphoric expressions that house emotion in a specific body part (anger in the chest, for instance) and also 'ho' phrases which place the entirety of one's body in the subject position as the one enacting or experiencing emotional states such as wellness, annoyance, and sickness. I make some comparisons between Twi and other languages’ techniques for emotional expression and comment on the semantic implications of these Twi constructions in which the body or body part, rather than the individual, occupies the subject position. The poster also examines a pair of nesting constructions which can be used to retake one’s syntactic agency, reclaiming the subject position for the individual. Many thanks to Dr. Dawson and the LING402 Field Methods class who helped gather the data used in this analysis and to Rosia Aning for providing all that Twi language data as well as invaluable insights into the language.