METAPHOR, METONYMY, AND CATEGORY STRUCTURE IN SEREER- SALOUM NOUN CLASSES

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this work I investigate cultural, historical and cognitive motivations for noun classification in Sereer-Saloum, an Atlantic language of the Senegambian language family. I use a prototype theory approach to categorisation (following Lakoff 1987; Rosch 1975, among others), emphasising semantic motivations for noun classes based on underlying conceptual category structures. In keeping with similar studies, the analysis assumes that linguistic categorisation is reflective of underlying conceptual patterns that are motivated rather than generated. In Sereer, these patterns are largely predictable from information about shape, function and force-dynamics; deviations from the prototype are explained via metonymic and metaphoric extensions, and specific cultural information. Sereer illustrates that even in the face of dialectal diffusion and diachronic attrition of overt morphological noun classes, cognitively salient best examples are maintained and members are reassigned to the remaining classes based on best-fit family resemblances due to the internal logic of the conceptual category system.