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1. The West African language Ewe, vi is the ordinary word for ‘child’. However, this vi also functions as a word-forming element with several diverse functions. Below are some examples, grouped by function. For each group, give an account of the apparent function of vi. Then provide an integrated account of the likely course of development of these various functions from the original ‘child’. Note: the order of presentation is not guaranteed to be relevant or helpful.

a. In this example, vi appears to serve the function of indicating a reduction in size, so that the standard size of the object in question is reduced. It therefore appears to be used in the sense of ‘small member of this type’. For example a small member of the type ‘house’ is either a small house or a hut.

b. In this example, vi would seem to indicate youth. When applied, it would cause the item in question to mean ‘a young member of this type’. In this case when applied to ‘man’ it would act upon the term in order to produce the sense ‘young man’ or ‘boy’, and when applied to ‘woman’ it would serve the function of indicating a ‘young woman’ or ‘girl’.

c. Here, vi has been translated as ‘inexperienced’. It would seem to serve the function of indicating someone or something that is ‘inexperienced’. In this case, the application of the term vi to the possessor of a profession indicates that this person is not a fully-experienced practitioner of that trade or ability. For example, when vi is applied as a suffix to the term translatable as ‘writer’ it indicates that the person who is a writer is inexperienced in this particular.

d. In this instance, vi can be seen to serve the function ‘apprentice’. When applied as a suffix to the possessor of a profession or trade, it can be seen to indicate that this person is an apprentice and therefore not fully trained or experienced in the profession in question. It can therefore indicate ‘apprentice of this trade’ and in the instances shown it refers to being the apprentice directly of someone who has the trade in question. For example, when applied to ‘market trader’ it indicates that this person is the apprentice of a market trader.

e. In this case, viwould seem to serve the function of indicating someone who pretends to be someone or something that they are not. In this case, it would seem to show a person who is claiming to have abilities, traits, or qualities which they do not have. This can be seen in the case of ‘boss’, where the person in question claims to have the quality ‘boss’ but, in fact, does not have it, and is therefore ‘pretending’.

f. In this example, the suffix vi is indicating ‘youth’, but unlike example b. it is referring to the young form of animals as opposed to people. So, a young cow is a ‘calf’ and a young lion is a ‘lion cub’. As with b. it can be seen to be being used as the form ‘a young member of this type’.

g. Again, viis being used to indicate ‘youth’ but in this case with reference to plants as opposed to b. and f. which indicate humans and animal respectively. In this case, when viis applied to ‘banana plant’ it indicates a ‘young’ banana plant. As with b. and f. it can be seen to be being used as the form ‘a young member of this type’.

h. In this example, the function of viis harder to establish. It is being used when applied to sugar to establish that the sugar has been compressed into a smaller cube-shape, and when applied to the term ‘drinking’ to mean a mouthful>

i. Here, vi is being used to indicate a part of the object in question. When applied, vi indicates the ‘toe of the foot’ and the ‘pupil of the eye’ respectively. It might be considered to be indicating that the ‘toe’ is the ‘child of the foot’ and thereby indicating a part of the foot by using the term ‘child’, since the term ‘child’ would indicate something small. In English the term ‘pupil’ also relates to a young student as well as a part of the eye, so a similar development can be seen here. It could also be seen to relate to the sense of small, because of the reduced size of the reflections which can be seen in a person’s eye.

j. In this example vi is being used to indicate lack of strength. When applied it refers to ‘a weak member of this type’. So, when applied as a suffix to the term ‘wind’ it indicates a weak wind, which is translatable as a ‘light wind’, and when applied to the term ‘voice’ it indicates a weak voice.

k. Here, vi can be seen to be being used to indicate ‘minor’ or ‘trivial’. Again, this can been seen in terms of lack of strength, whereby a weak form of illness is only a ‘minor ailment’. It functions, in this case, as suggesting a ‘minor token of this type’ where minor is comparable with weak. This is supported by the translation of nya-vi as a ‘trivial matter’, where trivial is synonymous with minor or less important. It can also be noted that the literal translation of vi as ‘minor’ is interesting in and of itself, since the word ‘minor’ also relates to the term ‘child’ in English.

l. In this instance, both translations appear to indicate that vi is being used to refer to ‘birth’ where the terms are being used to indicate its position in time.

Megbe, which has the literal translation of ‘back’, is being used to indicate lateness in time, whereas ŋgɔ is being used to indicate being in front, by being early or first in time. So, vi would seem to serve the function of indicating ‘birth’. When applied to the term megbe, it would also appear to be translatable as ‘late-comer’. This can be argued in terms of extension from the sense of ‘last-born’ to ‘last person’ where this indicates lateness in terms of ‘last person to turn up’ or ‘late-comer’.

m. Here, vi has been literally translated as ‘native’ – where ‘native’ gives the sense of ‘person who resides within, or is a part of, a place of this type’. In this function it can be seen to be indicating a person who is a part of such and such a place. For example, when applied to the term meaning ‘village’ it results in the meaning of ‘native of a village’ which can be seen as ‘person who is part of a village’. It could also serve to indicate that the person in question was ‘born’ in the town, thereby a native of the town and a ‘child’ of the town.

The word vi in Ewe is the ordinary word for ‘child’, and serves a word-forming function. It can be seen to have undergone an extension in meaning from the simple function of indicating ‘child’ through to more complex or abstract meaning. Grammar in any language can be seen to have a tendency towards acquiring different functions showing orderly development from the original meaning to something more and more abstract. I shall argue that, in this instance, the word vi can be seen to have developed from the more concrete term ‘child’ to additional functions as indicated below.

The word ‘child’ also indicates youth, and can therefore serve the function of indicating youthfulness. This function, would probably have developed from indicating whether a child is a young male or female person i.e. a boy or a girl as can be seen in example b., to indicating youth in animals and plants as is shown in examples f. and g. respectively.

From this point, it can be argued that the sense of youth is extended to the function meaning inexperienced, as can be seen in example c. ‘Youth’ implies that you are not yet fully trained, or experienced. From this sense of being young and inexperienced we can develop the concept of someone who is still in training, and on their way to becoming experienced. This is developed into the sense of ‘apprentice’ shown in example d. It is conceivable that the development may have proceeded in the opposite direction, from ‘apprentice’ to ‘inexperienced’ however, since that would be supported by the notion of moving from the more concrete to the more abstract.

In addition, from the sense of ‘youth’ or ‘child’ we can extend the meaning to not yet fully-grown, and not full-sized. Therefore the term can be used to indicate size, e.g. ‘small’ as shown by example a. Lack of size can then extend to the notion of lack of strength or ‘weakness’, as exemplified by j. In this instance, it has moved to indicate weakness as a property applying to the less physical concepts ‘voice’ and ‘wind’.

This sense of weakness has been further developed. If something is not strong then it is thereby ‘weak’ which can be extended to cover the concepts ‘minor’ and ‘trivial’ as displayed by k. It could be considered in terms of ‘mild’ where a ‘mild’ or ‘weak’ disease is only ‘minor’ and thereby less-important. A less-important ‘matter’ is thereby only ‘trivial’ and unimportant.

The other examples given appear to be separate developments from this.

In l. the term vi, indicates the order of birth, depending on the time dimension added by the terms megbe and ŋgɔ. This can be seen to indicate the oldest child, as in ‘first-born’ and the youngest child, as in ‘last-born’. This notion of ‘last-born’ has also been extended to the more abstract notion of ‘late-comer’, as has been discussed. Child has been extended either from the sense of extreme youth or from the direct notion of a child as something that is ‘born’.

From the sense of something or someone that is born can be seen to develop the sense of ‘native’, where ‘native’ translates as ‘born-in-this-place’. This sense of ‘born’ is shown by example m. Example m. can be argued to then extend the sense of vi, since ‘native’ has the additional sense of being a part of the place in question. This sense of being ‘a-part-of’ is shown in the development to i. in which vi is used to refer to a specific part of the item in question for example ‘the toe of the foot’, and is in some sense then a possessive construct. The sense of ‘a-part-of’ is also developed to the more abstract senses shown in h. where ‘a-part-of’ sugar is a ‘sugar-cube’, and ‘a-part-of’ the action of drinking is the having of ‘ a mouthful

Example e. is an interesting case. Although the development of vi in Ewe has shown patterns of development, leading from one term to another in the examples, e. appears to be a distinct case. Although it could possibly be argued that the sense of ‘pretend’ shown in e. has led from the sense of ‘inexperienced’ or even of ‘apprentice’, I suspect that this example has also led directly from the original meaning of the term ‘child’. Children are typically known for ‘pretending’ to be things/people that they are not, pretend-play is fairly common. In this case, ‘child’ has been directly extended to the sense of ‘pretend’. A child may ‘pretend’ to be a boss, or to be rich, and so the function of vi in this case appears to have directly extended from this.

To conclude, the different functions of vi all seem to have developed in an orderly fashion, normally from more concretive meaning to more abstract meaning. All of the different functions can be argued to have developed from the original meaning of vi as ‘child’.

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3. The Canadian language Nisgha has a vast number of verbal prefixes. Each of these prefixes can be added to any suitable verb to modify that verb’s meaning. Below are given just a few examples, each with one or more simple verbs and with one or more prefixed verbs. The first examples are simple and obvious, while the remainder are perhaps a little more subtle. In each case, identify the meaning or function of the prefix as precisely as you can from the limited data. Then proceed to the further questions at the end.

a. Prefix kwils-:
In this instance the prefix kwils- appears to signify ‘return’ or ‘come back’. This can be seen because the term for ‘walk’ is modified to ‘walk back’ which signifies a returning motion It could be literally translated as meaning ‘back’ but the word back in English expresses extra meaning that cannot be presumed from the data.

b. Prefix pax-:
Here, the prefix pax- appears to indicate motion upwards. In this case it modifies the verb for ‘walk’ to mean ‘walking uphill’ or ‘walking upwards’, where the latter presumes a hill of some kind.

c. Prefix ƙinxl-:
In this case, the prefix ƙinxl- appears to suggest an inverted downwards motion. With only this example it is hard to give a precise meaning, since it could indicate a sense of being ‘upside down’, being ‘inverted’, or ‘hanging inverted’. ‘Extend’ gives the sense of movement, and ƙinxl- gives the sense of that movement being of a downward direction i.e. ‘extend downwards’.

d. Prefix qalksǝ-:
Here, the prefix qalksǝ- appears to serve the function of indicating movement ‘through’ an object. The translation ‘through’ in this case appears to have the same extension as it does in English, i.e. ‘through the middle’, although this may just be due to the limited data available.

e. Prefix ńa:-:
The prefix ńa:- appears to indicate the woods, specifically motion away from the woods. It therefore functions as meaning ‘outside of the woods’. When used in conjunction with one verb it indicates being at the edge of the woods, whereas when used with the other it indicates motion away from the woods.

f. Prefix qaltix-:
qaltix- appears to indicate the woods, specifically motion away from the woods. It therefore functions as meaning ‘outside of the woods’. When used in conjunction with one verb it indicates being at the edge of the woods, whereas when used with the other, the prefix qaltix- appears to signify the opposite meaning to that expressed in e. In this example, the prefix appears to indicate motion into the woods, and therefore functions as meaning ‘inside of the woods’. This is indicated by the sense of qaltix- when used in conjunction with one verb which appears to indicate the end of a path of motion into woodland.

g. Prefix ��-:
Here, the prefix ��- seems to indicate a meaning of the type ‘reveal’ or movement from hidden to visible and no longer obscured. It may literally translate as ‘out into the open’. This can be seen when the prefix is applied to the word meaning ‘take’ which results in the meaning ‘bring out into the open’ or ‘take out into the open’.

h. Prefix ƙicil-:
In this example, the prefix ƙicil- appears to serve the function of indicating, as opposed to g., the movement from visible to hidden or holed up. This is because it can be seen to combine with the word that translates as ‘all gone’ to create the meaning ‘be all holed up somewhere’ which may not indicate actually being in a hole, but instead meaning that everyone is hidden somewhere. Again, when used in conjunction with ksq�� which translates as ‘first’ it results in the meaning ‘be the first to go into a hole’ or ‘be the first to hide’. This suggests motion towards being in a hole or being hidden.

i. Prefix hal-:
Here, the prefix appears to serve the function of indicating the shoreline or the edge of the water. This can be seen by the way it acts on one verb to mean ‘walk along the shore’ or ‘go along the shore’ – it seems to indicate the shoreline in the same way as ńa:- seemed to indicate the edge of the woods. In this case, however, we do not have an indication of movement either towards or away from the shore, instead we get the sense of movement along the edge. In addition, the second example, shows that hal- can be used to indicate position i.e. ‘lying along the shore’.

j. Prefix ?ukws-:
In this data, the prefix ?ukws- seems to indicate positioning towards the shoreline, facing the water or towards the water. Here, when used in conjunction with ‘sit’ it results in the sense ‘sit facing the shoreline’ and when used with ‘extend’ it results in the meaning ‘extension outwards in the direction of the sea’, or, more simply ‘head out to sea’.

Now: what conclusions, if any, can you draw about the landscape in which Nisgha is probably spoken?

Given the data here, it is possible to create some theories about the landscape in which the language Nisgha developed.

Example b. indicates that there are hills in the area, otherwise a prefix for ‘uphill’ would not have been developed. Examples c., e., f., and g. suggest an area which has a fair amount of woodland and bushes, which can be argued to form a significant part of the landscape otherwise prefixes would not have been developed to indicate movement in and out of the woods. Example c. is included because in order to hang upside-down, whatever is doing the hanging must be able to hang from something, presumably a tree.

A similar comment can be made about there being a predominant shoreline or water’s edge since i., j., and k. all indicate the presence of water, and a shoreline by which spatial-orientation appears to be centred around, in a similar way to that of the woodland.

In addition to the woodland, water, and hills, there is an indication of clear space in g. In this instance, to be able to ‘bring out into the open’ there must be clear space in which to do so. Also, a theory could be put forward for the addition of ‘holes’ or caves, given example h. as something which can be hidden in. This is not clear however, as the ability to hide, or ‘hole up’ does not necessarily entail the existence of caves.

From this we can presume that the landscape in which Nisgha developed was one in which there was an abundance of woods and water and some hills. There may potentially, given the data, some good holes in which to hide, and from which to look out through.

Finally, observe that the last cited verb,caqam-?ᱬkw, means not only ‘manage to get ashore’, but also ‘marry’, ‘graduate’, ‘reach the end of a period in one’s life’ and ‘reach one’s goal’. Explain the cognitive basis for these further senses.

The last cited verb was caqam-?ᱬkw, which was translated as ‘manage to get ashore’. This verb can also be used to refer to marriage, graduation, and the senses of ‘reaching a goal’ and ‘reaching the end of a period in one’s life’. These examples would seem to indicate the presence of a conceptual transfer, or conceptual metaphor, which is being used to conceptualise the additional senses of caqam-?ᱬkw.

Conceptual metaphors are cited by several cognitive scientists, especially George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, as one of the reasons for development of terms from the more concrete to the more abstract. In this case, caqam-?ᱬkw originally stood for the end of a journey, i.e. making it ashore after being on the water. This sense has developed to mean ‘to reach one’s goal’ whereby goal is being viewed as the end of a journey.

This development can be explained in terms of the conceptual metaphor –LIFE IS A JOURNEY- where the more abstract concept ‘life’ is conceptualised in terms of the more concrete concept ‘journey’. This can be seen to be the case in English:

The human life cycle is conventionally conceptualised as starting with arriving in the world, going through life and leaving or departing at the time of one’s death. This means that we think of life in terms of three journeys: when we are born we arrive from our first journey, our entire life is our second journey in the world, and when we die we set out on our last journey. The first and last metaphorical journeys are reflected in language by expressions such as the baby is on the way, the baby has arrived, we bring babies into the world, and he is still with us, they brought him back, he is gone, he has departed, he has passed away.[i]

In the case of Nisgha, it can be argued that a similar kind of conceptual transfer is being utilized. From the more concrete expression meaning ‘manage to get ashore’ the idea of reaching the end of a journey has been extended to mean ‘reach one’s goal’, which can then be seen to be effectively reaching ‘the end of a period in one’s life’. This is because if a goal has been aimed for, for a period of time, then to reach it means the end of that period in your life, i.e. no longer having to try to reach that particular goal.

This extension in meaning can also be seen to extend to the terms ‘marry’ and ‘graduate’. Both occasions, that of marriage and graduation, indicate the ending of a period in your life and the beginning of a new one. For marriage that is the end of being single and the beginning of a partnership, for graduation it is normally the end of a period of learning, or the coming of age and the beginning of adult life.

In this case, therefore, the verb caqam-? has been extended from its more concrete sense to a more abstract sense, on the basis of conceptual transfer from a conceptual source to a more abstract target. This is comparable, as we have seen, to a similar transfer which occurs in the English language.

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[i] F. Ungerer & H. J. Schmid, An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics, Longman 1996, p120

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