A prototype approach to the analysis of meanings of kinship terms in non-native English

Abstract

This paper is addressed to one aspect of the use of the English vocabulary in a non-native environment of the Yoruba speakers of English as a second language (L2) in Nigeria. It analyzes the meanings of five English kinship terms (“father”, “mother”, “brother”, “sister” and “uncle”) as used by educated Yoruba speakers and relates these to specific socio-cultural contexts of the Yoruba environment. The analysis is based on a corpus of empirical data treated by means of appropriate statistical and computer-based techniques (cluster analysis by multidimensional scaling). Within the prototype framework used, it has been found that the English kinship terms as used by educated Yoruba speakers have particular semantic properties which are absent in the British English usage of the terms. Although the terms in “Yoruba English” share the core properties (consanguinity, generation, sex) with prototypes in British English, there are salient culture-specific properties associated with the terms by Yoruba speakers. The reference of each of the terms is extended greatly, ranging from members within the consanguineal core (as found in British English) through secondary relationships in the “extended family” to other persons in the wider Yoruba ethnic community.