8. A Cognitive Linguistics approach to menstruation as a taboo in Gĩkũyũ

Gathigia, Moses Gatambũki; Orwenjo, Daniel Ochieng; Ndung’u, Ruth Wangeci

doi:10.1515/9783110582758-009

Cited by 5 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…Many of these sources correspond to semantic classifications noted in previous studies on menstrual expressions (Agyekum, 2002; Allan & Burridge, 2006; Ernster, 1975; Gathigia et al, 2018; Hays, 1987; Joffe, 1948; Newton, 2016).…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 75%

“…The most commonly occurring categories in these classifications include “periodicity” (e.g., time of the month ), “the color red” (e.g., red week ), “visitation” (e.g., a visit from Auntie Flo ), “illness” (e.g., to come sick ), and “sanitary protection” (e.g., on the rags ). Gathigia et al (2018) take a more systematic approach to categorizing menstruation verbalizations and operate from the framework of conceptual metaphor theory (CMT). By identifying the metaphorical mappings underlying the menstrual expressions in their dataset, they aim to discover more about the way Gĩkũyũ speakers of Kenya conceptualize and mentally organize the taboo concept.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A Gĩkũyũ expression such as mweri “a month,” for instance, represents an underlying conceptual metaphorical mapping that can be phrased as menstruation is a period , in which menstruation is the target domain, and period is the source domain. According to Gathigia et al (2018), “metaphor is so pervasive in the conceptualization of menstruation that it appears to play an indispensable role in our understanding of it” (p. 176). Menstruation is not the only taboo concept which may be examined on the basis of metaphor theory.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, X-phemistic theory offers a classification on the basis of connotation, distinguishing positive, neutral, and negative perspectives on the taboo referent. Second, the CMT framework has been proven to provide similarly insightful categorizations of perspectives on taboo concepts through figurative language (Crespo-Fernández, 2008; Gathigia et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Women, blood, and dangerous things: socio-cultural variation in the conceptualization of menstruation

Vancauwenbergh,

Franco

2023

Lang. cogn.

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This study examines a collection of expressions for the taboo topic of menstruation in Dutch, German, and Mandarin Chinese. A model for the identification of conceptualization patterns in taboo verbalizations is set up, analyzing each expression according to the X-phemistic mechanisms and, if applicable, the metaphorical source domains or metonymic vehicles at its origin. The various conceptualizations of menstruation are approached from a socio-cultural perspective; variation in conceptualization is examined through a correspondence regression analysis with three speaker-related explanatory variables (L1 and associated cultural background, menstrual experience, and age group). The underlying interest is linguo-cultural as the study aims to verify whether dominant menstrual attitudes are reflected in the linguistic conceptualization of menstruation within each socio-cultural group. Such correlations are indeed found, although the youngest age-group shows some unexpected linguistic behavior.

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Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 75%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Women, blood, and dangerous things: socio-cultural variation in the conceptualization of menstruation

Vancauwenbergh,

Franco

2023

Lang. cogn.

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“…Sexuality in a broad sense, including sexual orientation (Detti, 2013), sexual encounters (Crespo‐Fernández, 2023; Sanz‐Valdivieso, 2023), sexual problems or diseases (Drescher, 2013; Ávila & Gras, 2014), menstruation (Gatambuki Gathigia et al., 2018), pregnancy and pregnancy loss (Littlemore & Turner 2019), and abortion (Purcell et al., 2014) is one of the major taboo topics in many cultures (Allan & Burridge, 2006) and may be linked to reticence among speakers. This leads to the use of specific linguistic strategies to avoid referring directly to these issues, with metaphors being one of those strategies (Crespo‐Fernández, 2015; Pizarro Pedraza, 2013).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of reticence in the comprehension of metaphorical taboo expressions in the foreign language

Suñer,

De Cock

2023

Int J App Linguistics

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The present study focuses on the influence of L2 learners’ attitudes toward and perception of sexual taboos on their comprehension of metaphorical taboo expressions. Other aspects such as the presence of contextual information and the L2 learners’ stay‐abroad experience were also included in the study design. A total of 53 students of Spanish as a foreign language were presented with metaphorical taboo expressions from the MadSex corpus. They also were asked to rate their reticence to talk about sex and to use sexual taboo expressions. The results show that a higher degree of reticence to talk about sex is associated with a worse performance on the metaphor comprehension test. Furthermore, learners with a stay‐abroad experience outperformed their counterparts on the comprehension test, but they did not guess the meaning from the context more successfully. Finally, participants with stay‐abroad experience found it more acceptable to use sexual taboo expressions.

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Cultural conceptualizations of magical practices related to menstrual blood in a transhistorical and transcontinental perspective

Wolf

2021

Cognitive Linguistic Studies in Cultural Contexts

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Most, if not all, of the studies in Cultural Linguistics have (a) taken a synchronic perspective or (b) focused on specific, intracultural conceptualizations. In my chapter, I will look at a cluster of conceptualizations that have been found to exist in different historical periods, in different languages and varieties, and on different continents. The case in point is conceptualizations of magical practices based on menstrual blood. The existence of these conceptualizations across time and space raises the challenging questions of their motivation, and, more generally, the “flow of conceptualizations.” While these questions will be pursued in my chapter, the main focus will be on an elaboration of the conceptual network of conceptualizations pertaining to menstrual blood magic.

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8. A Cognitive Linguistics approach to menstruation as a taboo in Gĩkũyũ

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Women, blood, and dangerous things: socio-cultural variation in the conceptualization of menstruation

Women, blood, and dangerous things: socio-cultural variation in the conceptualization of menstruation

The role of reticence in the comprehension of metaphorical taboo expressions in the foreign language

Cultural conceptualizations of magical practices related to menstrual blood in a transhistorical and transcontinental perspective

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