Chapter 14. Verbal lexicalization and cultural domains in Toposa

Abstract

Toposa, an Eastern Nilotic language of South Sudan, packages a great deal of semantic information in verb roots. This chapter investigates whether lexicalization processes in the verb can be linked to the emergence of cultural “schemas”, “frames” or “scenarios” (Goddard & Wierzbicka, 2014). The chapter shows that Toposa has refined verbal lexicalization in cultural activities and scenarios in the lexical domains of mobility, sacrifices, rituals, carrying, cutting, herding, transportation of goods, and daily activities that at large reflect typical characteristics of the pastoralist cultures of East Africa and thus suggests a link between culture and language in the semantic domains of activity verbs.