The conceptual framing of time in Mfantse

Abstract

The notion of time is common and duly recognized by all people and all languages in the world. However, our perception and conceptualization of time, as evidenced in recent disputing arguments, is not the same across all human languages and cultures. This is probably because time is neither a tangible nor a visible phenomenon. The main objective of this study is to examine the qualities or properties of source domains highlighted by the linguistic expressions used to talk about time in Mfantse, a dialect of the Akan language. (Akan is a Kwa language spoken by a large group of people called Akans and generally mutually intelligible among its widely varied dialects.) I investigate the conceptualizations underlying the concept of time in the Mfantse dialect of Akan by drawing linguistic expressions from texts (the Mfantse Bible), songs, a radio programme broadcast in Mfantse. The study confirms the recognition and acknowledgement of the notion of time in Mfantse and reveals some interesting kinds of metaphors underlying the conceptualization of time within the language, some of which include TIME IS FOOD and TIME IS AN ENEMY.