Verbal Extensions Research Articles

Analyzing the Impact of Verb Extensions on Semantic Role Variability in Kiha

The research analyzes the impact of verb extensions on semantic role variability in Kiha. In doing so, the study explores how verb extensions affect the semantic roles of arguments in a sentence, spotting trends and patterns in the usage of verb extensions, and the differences in their corresponding semantic roles. Verb extensions on semantic role variability are linguistic aspects that scholars did not find particularly fascinating to research. This study is interested in examining how verb extensions affect semantic role variability. Due to their proficiency in both writing and speaking Kiha, two informants who are native speakers, aged 83 and 73, were selected for the data collection process using the qualitative approach and elicitation technique. Data is presented using the fragmentation method, and coding is applied to ensure that the study is consistent with other studies that were cited in the literature. Lexical Mapping Theory is the framework for examining the data. The study concludes that the applicative verb extension has four semantic roles: beneficiary, recipient, reason/cause, and locative. Likewise, causative verb extension has two semantic roles: causee and instrument. Reciprocal and passive verb extensions have shared participant semantic roles.

Verbal extensions in Sheng: an examination of variation in form and function

Abstract This paper investigates verbal extensions in Sheng, a youth language originating in Nairobi, Kenya. Sheng has received scholarly attention since the 1980s, primarily with a focus on its sociolinguistic traits. Our study aims to advance the linguistic description of Sheng and its morphosyntax by investigating verbal extensions in Sheng. Specifically, we look at the causative, applicative, reciprocal, and passive suffixes, as they are applied to coined and metathesized verbs and verbs which have their origins in Swahili, English, or Gikuyu. We present examples from speakers in Kibera and Umoja neighbourhoods of Nairobi. We find that, while many of the extensions can be applied to elicited verbs, such examples were often considered odd by speakers. In some cases, our consultants suggested alternative strategies, typically employing the use of periphrastic constructions or different verb forms. The use of verbal extensions sometimes resulted in changes in interpretation, requiring us to re-consider the function of these extensions in Sheng more broadly.

Phonological Processes Triggered by Means of Verbs Conjugation in Bantu Languages

This study explores the complex relationship between phonological processes and verb extensions, focusing on the concept of word elasticity, which describes the transformations words undergo based on linguistic contexts. Anchored in the Generative Phonology Theory, which postulates a transition from underlying representation to surface structure, the research aims to understand the phonological outcomes stemming from verb extension morphology, particularly in Bantu languages. Employing a qualitative approach through a documentary systematic review of peer-reviewed literature and academic articles across diverse languages, findings reveal multiple phonological processes, such as elision, assimilation, and palatalization, demonstrating the dynamic shifts induced by verb conjugations. The study concludes that understanding the interplay between morphology and phonology is fundamental, emphasizing the transformative nature of verb extensions in shaping phonological processes across languages.

Phonological processes triggered by means of verbs conjugation

This study explores the complex relationship between phonological processes and verb extensions, focusing on the concept of word elasticity which describes the transformations words undergo based on linguistic contexts. Anchored in the Generative Phonology Theory, which postulates a transition from underlying representation to surface structure, the research aims to understand the phonological outcomes stemming from verb extension morphology, particularly in Bantu languages. Employing a qualitative approach through a documentary systematic review of peer-reviewed literature and academic articles across diverse languages, findings reveal multiple phonological processes, such as elision, assimilation, and palatalization, demonstrating the dynamic shifts induced by verb conjugations. The study concludes that understanding the interplay between morphology and phonology is fundamental, emphasizing the transformative nature of verb extensions in shaping phonological processes across languages.

Envisioning the Semantics of Kinyarwanda causative and applicative morphemes in the Cognitive Grammar Theory

This paper uses the Cognitive Grammar Theory to examine the semantics of Kinyarwanda causative and applicative. The study was motivated by the fact that Kinyarwanda verb extensions, particularly the causative and applicative, have multiple sociocultural interpretations of meanings, which is a typical characteristic of Cognitive semantics. The study was couched in the interpretivism paradigm, which looks for culturally derived interpretations historically situated in the surroundings of humans. A qualitative approach was used to analyse the meanings of Kinyarwanda words used by Nyarwanda native speakers. Data was collected from focus group discussions involving six Kinyarwanda speakers. Four were monolinguals; the rest were multilingual, speaking Kiswahili, English and Kinyarwanda. The data were presented using Leipzig glossing rules, and illustrations were used to show more than one meaning in the derived verbal lexemes. Thus, data analysis was used using cognitive grammar theoretical apparatuses, which account for multiple meanings of the derived lexemes. The study found that the causative and applicative verb extensions attached to the verb root have multiple senses that line with Cognitive Grammar Theory, whose major assumption is that words have multiple conceptualisations. For instance, the derived verb vugisha had four meanings: speak to, make or cause to talk, disgusting and switching on something (such as in radio receiver or electricity). As the presence of different meanings in the same word causes ambiguity, further research can be carried out on Kinyarwanda ambiguity under the contemporary theory of Metaphor.

“...seems to be built not of stone”: Without Foundation by V. Petrov (Domontovych) as an Architectural and Pictorial Novel-Ekphrasis

Intermedial analysis remains one of the leading interpretive strategies of contemporary literary studies, which determines the relevance of the study. The aim is to read the novel Without Foundation (1948) by V. Petrov (Domontovych) through the prism of intermediality. The research methods are determined by the objective. The method of intermedial analysis, contextual analysis, hermeneutic, comparative and semiotic methods are used. It is indicated that the writer transports a number of codes of plastic arts into the word: composition, colour and linear ratios, volumes, light and shadows, texture, etc. Verbal descriptions of works of art as visual objects in a novel often become a self-contained main narrative with extensive reflections on artistic phenomena. Certain episodes of the novel are a kind of verbal extension of the characters depicted in the paintings. Masterpieces of world and national art, as well as precedent-setting names of artists, provide the writer with the opportunity to find motives, moods, and images that are in tune with his or her own, and enrich the arsenal of visual and expressive means. The main basis of the artistic narrative is the architectural structure, which, determining the unity of the thematic and poetic design of reality, determines the subject, type of hero, system of characters, problematics, plot and compositional structure, chronotope, and type of narrative. Built not of stone, but in the writer's imagination, the Varangian Church becomes an architectural prototype that models a literary work, partially structuring it. Thus, the multifaceted verbal visualization of the Cathedral, in its artistic concept, tends to be similar to the artistic solution of C. Monet with regard to the Cathedral of Rouen. The author also devoted a "series of paintings" to the Varangian Church, which depict the urban space associated with the architectural object. Conclusions. The complex system of visual codes and their multiplicity testify to the originality and novelty of the Ukrainian writer, whose novel, in its language directly related to plastic arts, became a "prologue" to contemporary novels-ekphrasises.

Examining the forms and meaning of the Arusa dialect of the Maa verb expansions

The paper examines the form and meaning of the Arusa dialect of the Maa verb extensions. Verb expansion aspects in the Maa language are not interesting for scholars to study at all. It is this study that was interested in examining the Maa verb expansion. Case study design and qualitative approach were used in studying the Maa language. The unstructured interview was applied in data collection; thus, six informants of Arusa native speakers were used for data collection due to their competence in writing and speaking the Maa. The data were presented by using Leipzig Glossing Rules which constitute three levels namely: word order or parsing level, the literal translation, and the free translation level. The Cognitive Grammar and Morpheme-based morphology theories were tools used for data analysis. The study found that -in-, -i-, -e- are causative; -ta-, -to- reciprocal, -ki- applicative; -i- stative and -ki- passive allomorphs in Arusa. In view of these allomorphs -ki- and -i- are semantically cyclic in the sense that -ki- has dual meaning as in passive and applicative and -i- can be semantically stative or causative. Syntactically, both -ki- and -i- function as valency decreasing or increasing. For this fact Cognitive Grammar Theory exhausts these forms of complexity and those without cyclic as in -to-, -ta- and -e-, -in- are handled by morpheme-based theory as it accounts for the semantics of different verb exponents. In general, peculiarities in shapes, types, meanings, and categories of Arusa verbal morphs need a comparative study of Maa and other language families for theoretical harmonization.

Verbal affix ordering in Hangaza language

This paper aims to analyze the factors triggering suffix ordering in the Hangaza language spoken in Tanzania. Suffix ordering pertinent to verb extensions has been controversial since the twentieth century. This is because languages display general and specific morphological, phonological, semantic, or/and syntactic linguistics features of affix ordering of verb extension. Some scholars argue that the order of suffixes is triggered by semantic scope, others claim that suffix combinations are triggered by syntax and morphology, and another group agrees that is triggered by the default templatic formative approach. Some of the morphemes in Hangaza regarding suffix ordering cannot be sufficiently explained in the present schematized approaches, this needs analysis. The research used the Mirror Principle and Morph Ordering Theories for data analysis. The former captures the scopes of morpheme ordering with each of their meaning. The suffix with narrow scopes appears closer to the root than the one with a wide scope. The latter was selected for explaining silent semantic scopes of the combined morphemes when the former seemed inadequate such as in Bantu languages. Documentary review and unstructured interviews were the instruments of data collection. The paper found that the tense – aspect, tone, semantic scope, morphotactic, personal pronouns, and phonology are factors for suffix ordering in Hangaza language. This paper recommends that there is a need for careful study of non-linguistic factors that may trigger affix ordering in our natural languages to see how they behave in making morphs to be ordered or attached from the verb root or stem.

Metaphors and culturally unique idioms of eating and drinking in Mongolian

AbstractThis paper investigates the cognitive mechanisms underlying eating and drinking metaphors in Mongolian and discusses complex linguistic features of some culturally unique idioms relating to id- ‘eat’ and uu- ‘drink’, which are interpreted from a sociocultural perspective, along with the help of world knowledge. Metaphorical extensions of id- and uu- fall into three subcategories: (1) agent-oriented extensions, highlighting the consumer’s role in the source domain of eating and drinking; (2) patient-oriented extensions, focusing on destructive effects on the patient in the source domain; (3) extensions involving both agent and patient orientations, describing the agent’s sensation and “destruction” of the patient at the same time. Based on the Mongolian Web Corpus (mnWac16) and an extensive online dictionary (mongoltoli.mn), it is found that patient-oriented extensions tend to be more connected with EAT verbs in Mongolian, denoting a range of extensions like overcoming of the patient, spending material wealth, psychological torment or destruction, corrosion caused by external factors, etc., while agent-oriented extensions are more likely to involve DRINK verbs, denoting ‘smoking’, receiving material wealth (e.g., earning money) and absorption of such liquids as ink or oil. Overall, id- has a broader extension than uu-, and there are some overlaps involving both agent and patient orientations in terms of living on material wealth and physical exploitation. Some common usages pertaining to metaphorical extensions of consumption verbs are found cross-linguistically.

Verbal Extension and Valence in Gumer Variety of Gurage

This article aimed to uncover the interaction between verbal extension and valence in the Gumer, an Ethiosemitic language. We used basic linguistic theory (BLT) as a methodology. We collected data from language assistants living in the Gumer district of Gurage. We grouped verbs in Gumer based on root patterns and morphosyntactic properties. We found four categories of verbal extensions that either increase, decrease or maintain valence. The valence increasing operations are causative and applicative. There are two causative forms, direct and indirect that are expressed with {a-} and {at-}, respectively. Benefactive applicative and malefacive applicative are shown with {-lv}/ {-nv} and {-bv}/ {-wv}, respectively. Valence reducing verbal extensions are passive, reflexive and reciprocal, all shown with a homophonous prefix {tə-}. Valence maintaining verbal extensions in the language are frequentative, intensive and iterative. There are a few stems forming extensions that encode but do not change valence.

ANALYSIS OF SEMANTIC-STYLISTIC COMPOSITION OF SPEECH VERBS IN ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN (based on novel by E. Bronte “Wuthering heighs” and translations by N. Vol’pin and U. Saptsina)

The article is devoted to the analysis of semantic variability of speech verbs as well as their functioning in the novel by Emily Bronte “Wuthering Heights”. The article presents lexical- semantic classifications of speech verbs and ways of explicating the additional connotations in their meaning by adding dependent words and descriptive structures. In the course of study the key relevance is given to the valency theory due to differences in combinability of Russian and English. The study reveals major problems that occur during translation of verb lexis into Russian сonsidering the differences in linguistic worldviews. During the first stage of research the frequency of verbs occurrence was analyzed. Verb frequency count showed that the majority of the representatives can be identified as characterizing acoustic and physiological speech aspects of the utterer. The initial meaning of this group is not related to speech and gains the speech seme in context due to the process of metaphorization. The mentioned lexical layer appears to be stylistically marked and carries expressive connotations. Some speech verb occurrences were not fixed in the dictionaries and identified as author’s individual usage. Stylisticly neutral verbs are surrounded by verbal extensions actualizing the evaluative function of characters’ speech. These compounds are also included into the semantic field of speech verbs. During the second stage the comparative analysis of two translation versions given by N. Vol’pin and U. Saptsina was performed. It revealed the occurrence of dissonance in stylistics and semantic volume of a word in some cases. As a result of the study, speech verb occurrences were classified according to differential semes found in their meaning. The findings demonstrated the significant role of the given lexical-semantic group for depicting figurative and conceptual creativity of the novel.

The Influence of Exemplar Variability on Young Children’s Construal of Verb Meaning

ABSTRACT Verbs serve as the architectural centerpiece of sentences, making verb learning pivotal for language acquisition. Verb learning requires both the formation of a verb-action mapping and the abstraction of relations between an object and its action. Two competing positions have been proposed to explain the process of verb learning: (a) seeing a highly variable range of exemplars allows children to detect and abstract the commonalities across actions—the action invariants; and (b) seeing a less variable range of exemplars enables children to focus on and extract the action invariants. Using manner—a major component of verb meaning in English—as a test case, this study addressed this debate by examining the influence of manner variability on the ability to fast-map new verbs and extend them to novel exemplars in 2-, 3-, and 4-year-old English-speaking children. Results contribute to this debate by showing that high manner variability hindered fast-mapping but facilitated extension to manner variations in the 2- and 3-year-olds. Thus, high exemplar variability may affect verb fast-mapping and extension differently. Furthermore, manner variability did not affect 4-year-olds’ (or adults’) fast-mapping or extension, suggesting that the influence of exemplar variability on verb learning attenuates with age. Finally, manner variability did not affect agent or object extension, revealing a component-specific effect of exemplar variability on verb extension.

The Translation of Clausal Extension Collocation: A Contrastive Study of English-IndonesianTranslation

Abstract. Collocation is the co-occurrence of words comprising a node and one or more collocates. Insufficient studies have documented on the equivalence of source language (SL) collocation into more than one version of target language (TL) collocation. Hence, this study aims to explore the equivalence of English clausal extension collocations in the three versions of Indonesian translated novels, to identify the typology of the translations, to deal with the cohesive ties of the translations, to investigate the translation techniques used, and to observe the impact of translation techniques on the quality of the translation in terms of accuracy, acceptability, and readability. The methods applied in this research were quantitative and descriptive qualitative. The data were taken from a novel Pride and Prejudice and the three versions of Indonesian translated novels. Documentary analysis was implemented in collecting the data. They were pinpointed, coded, evaluated, classified and analysed. Further, the findings indicate that English clausal extension collocations are translated into Indonesian in the form of clausal extension, verbal extension, clausal enhancement, verbal enhancement collocation, and non-verbal node collocation. Meanwhile, the cohesive ties of the collocations include strong and weak cohesive ties. The translation techniques applied are generalization, established equivalence, modulation, amplification, and discursive creation. The use of generalization, established equivalence, modulation and amplification results in accurate, acceptable, and readable translations. On the other hand, discursive creation and deletion result in less accurate, less acceptable and less readable. It was concluded that it is the arbitrariness of language that results the different typology and cohesive tie of collocation among languages. Altogether, accuracy, acceptability and readability should be the goal of translation. Keywords: Arbitrariness; Clausal Extension Collocation, Translation Quality Assessment, Translation Techniques

Difficulty and pleasure in the comprehension of verb-based metaphor sentences: A behavioral study.

What is difficult is not usually pleasurable. Yet, for certain unfamiliar figurative language, like that which is common in poetry, while comprehension is often more difficult than for more conventional language, it is in many cases more pleasurable. Concentrating our investigation on verb-based metaphors, we examined whether and to what degree the novel variations (in the form of verb changes and extensions) of conventional verb metaphors were both more difficult to comprehend and yet induced more pleasure. To test this relationship, we developed a set of 62 familiar metaphor stimuli, each with corresponding optimal and excessive verb variation and metaphor extension conditions, and normed these stimuli using both objective measures and participant subjective ratings. We then tested the pleasure-difficulty relationship with an online behavioral study. Based on Rachel Giora and her colleagues' 'optimal innovation hypothesis', we anticipated an inverse U-shaped relationship between ease and pleasure, with an optimal degree of difficulty, introduced by metaphor variations, producing the highest degree of pleasure when compared to familiar or excessive conditions. Results, however, revealed a more complex picture, with only metaphor extension conditions (not verb variation conditions) producing the anticipated pleasure effects. Individual differences in semantic cognition and verbal reasoning assessed using the Semantic Similarities Test, while clearly influential, further complicated the pleasure-difficulty relationship, suggesting an important avenue for further investigation.

Kunda Verbal Extensions

The study focuses on the verbal extensions of Kunda, It investigates the expressions and ordering of Kunda extensions. It looks at the main extensions which are the single extensions and the combined extensions. It employs mirror principle theory (MP) proposed by Alsina (1999) and Baker (1985) and morphological template known as CARP template (TM) proposed by Hyman (2003) to account for the order of verbal extensions. The study employs qualitative research design and descriptive in nature. The data used for this analysis is from the Kunda native speakers. A purposive sample of four (4) informants was done. The informants were interviewed and a list of 200 verb roots was used in the study for informants to identify the productive roots to which the verbal extensions were attached. The study analyses how verbal extensions are presented or expressed in Kunda as the morphological process. The results show that Kunda verbal extensions interact with each other although with some restrictions. It is the meaning of a sentence that determines the order (and co-occurrence) of verbal extension morphemes. Kunda combines the Mirror principle and CARP template to determine the order of verbal extensionsand that some orders are fixed although, they violate the CARP template ordering.

The Subcategorization of Derived Verbs in Kifipa

This paper aims at investigating Subcategorizations of derived verbs in Kifipa. Kifipa is a Bantu language spoken in south-west Tanzania by the people denoted to as Wafipa. Wafipa live in a bigger area between Lake Rukwa and Lake Tanganyika. Currently, the area is located in Rukwa region. Verbs are subcategorized differently in different languages. In isolating languages, verb subcategorization is a syntactic study while in Bantu languages verb subcategorization is a morphosyntactic study. In some languages derivation does not affect the subcategorization of verbs except passive while in other languages especially Bantu, derivation (verb extension) alters the subcategorization of basic verbs. The paper focuses on three morpho-syntactic aspects of derived verbs in Kifipa. The paper is guided by the theory known as Government and Binding theory and Burzio’s Generalization Principle in particular. Burzio’s generalization is the work of a linguist known as Luigi Burzio in 1986. Burzio's generalization deals with the organization of verb harmony, and how these verbs behave towards their arguments. In his theory, Burzio came up with a general classification of verbs. Qualitative approach and explanatory research design were employed in the analysis and presentation of data. A sample of six respondents from Matai and Singiwe villages were selected using snowball sampling technique on the basis of age and language ability. Data were collected through sentence questionnaires, grammaticality judgements and extraction from written materials. The findings reveal that Kifipa has three subcategories of derived verbs including the verbs which allow only a single argument, the verbs which allow the occurrence of two or three arguments and lastly the super transitive verbs which allow the occurrence of more than three arguments which is a result of the co-occurrence of two or more extension suffixes. Extension affixes in Kifipa affects the subcategory as they increase the number of arguments these extensions are applicative and causative verb extensions. On the other hand, extensions such as passive, reciprocal, stative and reflexive decrease the number of arguments while extension such as intensive does not affect the arguments of the verb.

Literal and metaphorical usages of Babanki EAT and DRINK verbs

In Babanki, a Grassfields Bantu language of North-West Cameroon, two of the numerous consumption verbs, namely the generic verbs ʒɨ́ ‘eat’ and ɲʉ́ ‘drink’, constitute a major source of metaphorical extensions outside the domain of ingestion. Setting out from a characterisation of the basic meanings of these two lexical items as they emerge from their paradigmatic relations within the semantic field of alimentation processes, this paper explores the figurative usages of the two verbs and their underlying semantic motivations. Semantic extensions that radiate from eat can be subsumed under two closely related structural metaphors, i.e. APPROPRIATION OF RESOURCES IS EATING and WINNING IS EATING. The first metaphor construes the acquisition and exploitation of non-food items such as material possession as eating, while the second metaphor casts the acquisition of immaterial advantage in the mould of eating. Both metaphors have further entailments, i.e. the derivation of pleasure from consumption of resources, the depletion of resources via consumption and the deprivation of a third party from access to these resources. Semantic extensions that radiate from drink can be accounted for in two structural metaphors, i.e. INHALATION IS DRINKING and ABSORPTION IS DRINKING. Remarkably, some metaphorical extensions of consumption verbs attested in other African languages, such as extensions of EAT for sexual intercourse and for killing, and the extensions of DRINK for undergoing trouble and enduring painful experiences are absent in Babanki.

Verbal Extensions and Valency in Limbum

The objective of this paper is to examine the extent to which verbal extensions in Limbum affect valency. Limbum is a Grassfield Bantu language of the Northern group, spoken by the population who occupy a greater part of the Nkambe plateau in Donga-Mantung Division of the North West Region of Cameroon Binan Bikoi (ed) (2012). To attain my set objective, I carry out an analysis of those affixes (in the case of Limbum, they are suffixes), which are usually attached to verbs and the effect the addition of these suffixes has on the number of arguments in the sentence. Some of these suffixes have a valency decreasing effect, while some have a valency increasing effect on the verbs. The orientation of the discussions here centres on the description of the morpho-syntactic structure of the Limbum verb. In this regard, the analysis herein draws inspiration from the theory of Valency as proposed by Tesnière in 1959 and his followers and the Structuralist Framework as propounded by De Saussure and his disciples who hold that linguistic unit: words, phrases and sentences are perceived as a concatenation of smaller units which hold a close relationship between them. The structure of the Limbum sentence containing verbal extensions that express aspectual meanings have three consequences on the number of arguments that the verb takes: the discussions here show that, while the morphemes -ri, -Si, and -se marking the attenuative, the pluractional, and the distributive aspects respectively have no effect on the number of arguments taken by the verb to which they are suffixed, the causative morpheme -si, has a valency increasing effect on the verb to which it is affixed. In the same light, the reciprocative -ni, the separative -ti and the iterative -Nger, when suffixed to a verb, have the tendency of increasing the number of arguments that the verb takes. In a bid to clarify the structural cartography of verbal extensions in Limbum, the last part of this paper is dedicated to a presentation of some suffixes like -ri and -si, which has, with the evolution of the language, fossilized with the verb root to the extent that they have become an integral part of the verb in a way that they cannot be detached from each other. Conclusively, the paper shows that verbal extensions in Limbum are, for the most part, suffixal morphemes. While some of these suffixes have no effect on the number of arguments the verb subcategorizes for, some have a valency decreasing effect on the verb while others, on the other hand, have a valency increasing effect. Others have outrightly merged with the verb root.

Metaphoric and Metonymic Operations for the Iron Expressions

This study uses the word iron as an example to analyze the phenomena of meaning extensions and function shifts from a cognitive semantic perspective. The analysis shows that the meaning extensions of iron, which are systematic and motivated, are present at three word class levels: nouns, adjectives and verbs. The nominal extensions are systematically connected to the parent noun by the metonymy of THE MATERIAL CONSTITUTING AN OBJECT FOR THE OBJECT. The adjectival extensions are motivated by the metonymy of CATEGORY FOR PROPERTY. The verbal extensions are mainly stemmed from the noun extensions and motivated by the metonymy chains of THE MATERIAL CONSTITUTING AN OBJECT FOR THE OBJECT and INSTRUMENT FOR ACTION. The extensions for the phrasal verb iron out are motivated by both the metonymy chains mentioned above and the metaphors of DIFFERENCES ARE WRINKLES, DIFFICULITIES ARE WRINKLES, and PLANS ARE WRINKLES.

Semantic extensions of tu ‘to uproot’/‘to pull out’ in Nzema discourse

Nzema refers to both the language and the people who speak it. The language is spoken predominantly among the people who occupy the South-west part of the Western Region of Ghana as well as some parts of Côte d’Ivoire (Annan, 1980, 1994). Nzema forms part of the Niger-Congo Kwa language family. Many studies across languages have had their focus on the basic and extended usages of ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ (ingestion) verbs. Among such studies are Prins (1993), Newman (1997), Atintono and Adjei (2008), Aikhenvald (2009), Adjei (2013), Agyepong, Amfo and Osam (2017), and Otoo (2017). Several works, including Agyekum (2002, 2013, 2015a, 2015b, 2016) and Otoo (2018) have also examined the metaphorical extensions of human body parts and verbs of perception. In Nzema, however, studies on cultural schemas and conceptualisations are scanty. This paper, therefore, explores the basic and metaphorical interpretations of the disconnection verb, tu ‘to uproot’/‘to pull out’ in Nzema communication. The paper relies on Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980) with insights from ‘Cultural Conceptual Metaphors’ (Sharifian, 2011). Data were obtained from spontaneous natural speech contexts among the Nzema. Additional data were gathered by consulting other written sources like Nzema novels and drama books to extract some expressions involving the verb tu. Interviews with knowledgeable Indigenous speakers and my introspection as a native speaker were significantly brought to bear on this study. The paper finds that the basic sense of the verb is possibly projected to describe other abstract notions such as tu ahonle ‘heart uproot’ (to be afraid); tu ay?ne ‘uproot witchcraft’ (to drive a demon out of a person), tu belemgbunli ‘uproot a chief’ (to distool a chief), tu edw?k? sie (to postpone/adjourn a case), among others. The paper shows that the verb tu is ‘polysemous’, and can participate in causative/inchoative alternation.