Abstract
This
paper investigates the cognitive aspect of Hausa Personifications. The objective
of the study is to discover the Hausa personifications found in the language
expressions as a result of feature mappings from animate concepts to inanimate
ones. The other objective is to come up with a cognitive semantic analysis of the
Hausa personifications. The studied personifications are metaphorical and the Conceptual
Metaphor Theory of Lakoff and Johnson (1980) is used as a guide frame in
mapping the attributive features of the living entity to the inanimate ones. The
observation technique is used in collecting the data for the study. One of the
findings of the study reveals the kind of features merged between the animate
and the inanimate concepts to form the Hausa personifications. Another
important finding of the research indicates that the attributive features
attached to animate entities are mapped upon the inanimate concepts
conceptually to make the Hausa expressions personified. And finally, the study
considered the analyzed Hausa personifications as similar to dead metaphors.
DOI: www.doi.org/10.36349/tjllc.2024.v03i01.003
author/Muhammad Dayyib Auwal PhD
journal/Tasambo JLLC | 15 February 2024 | Article 03
