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RADIO INTERVIEW
Media@SAFM, Sunday May 11th 2003
Tessa was interviewed by Jeremy Maggs, for the SAFM program Media@SAFM, on Sunday May 11th, 2003. The interview was about how product brand names have become incorporated as parts of speech into our local African Languages. Tessa has recorded some of the data, found through research into this phenomenon, as well as other metaphorical usage in African Languages, in a paper entitled:
WHY JOHN 14 IS A CABBAGE
By Tessa Dowling
The locus of metaphor is not in language at all, but in the way we conceptualize
one mental domain in terms of another. The general theory of metaphor is given by
characterizing such cross-domain mappings. And in the process, everyday abstract
concepts like time, states, change, causation, and purpose also turn out to be
metaphorical. The result is that metaphor (that is, cross-domain mapping) is absolutely
central to ordinary natural language semantics (Lakoff: 1992)
For African language speakers it is normal and commonplace to use metaphors, not just
for abstract concepts but for everyday commonplace things - like cabbages! The
predominance and use of any one set of metaphors will change according to new information
and trends - like gossip, they circulate and become part of everyday discourse (which is
why we so quickly had TY [Tony Yengeni] becoming synonymous with a Mercedes 4 x 4). The
fact that new metaphors are adopted so rapidly could also be because of the concentration
of speakers in any one location - it also could be that words circulate faster among
speakers who socialize more in informal settings.
The Metaphors
Boring is - John 14
If you go around the townships on a Sunday you will no doubt hear a number of preachers
quoting from chapter 14 of the Gospel according to St John, which contains a number of
well-known biblical passages. ("In my father's house are many mansions" "I am the way,
the truth, and the life" and so on.) The theory is that you don't even have to be a
literate pastor to know the whole of this chapter and so you can fool your congregation
into thinking you are clever. This is considered the height of boredom. So John 14 can
now stand for anything particularly commonplace and boring, like cabbages. So someone
might go home and say, "Oh no, there is John 14 for supper again."
Personality types are - Brand Names
Examples:
The next one isn't really a brand name but I didn't know where else to put it.
Women's bodies are - cars, motorbikes, stoves, fruit, maths
Examples:
A man might say of a woman that she is:
Adverbs are People (including the famous)
Examples:
Metaphors: saying you are fine
Some items of clothing get their names from what they do
Oomalamlela are yellow raincoats worn by municipal workers.
Oomakatapeyi (Sotho) are slippers.
Ooveza mpundu - G-strings (show the buttocks)
Ooveza umbhono - ¾ t-shirts (show the belly-button)
Money gets its name from the way it looks and what it does
A Ferrari is a Zimbabwean dollar because it moves so fast
Metaphors and HIV/Aids
People also speak about:
The seriousness of the disease is reflected in the use of the adjective -khulu (big).
Very common metaphors for HIV/Aids are:
People living with HIV/Aids
"Heyi yena, ugibele uMlazi Train!"
Uleq'uyongqengqa.
Udlala ilotto. (Xhosa, Zulu) O tshwere lotto. (Sotho)
Unelotto.
Ubhaqule.
Uxwayile.
Uxwaye isikhafu esibomvu.
Unechaphaza.
Unesifo sabantu abahle.
References
Lakoff, George - The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor in Ortony,
Andrew (ed.) Metaphor and Thought (2nd edition, 1992), Cambridge University Press
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