The ethnopragmatic functions of Owe and Tiv personal names in Nigeria

Mensah, Eyo; Alexander, Josephine Olufunmilayo; Ayeni, Queen Olubukola

doi:10.1016/j.langsci.2022.101474

Cited by 5 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…The next category of gendered names includes the one associated with the notion of future wifehood. In African societies, it is widely believed that personal names cognitively affect their bearers' behaviour, attitudes and life trajectories [38,20]. Therefore, this class of names is used to prepare the girl-child for future productive and procreative extension of familial and patriarchal bloodline as a wife.…”

Section: Results and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Female members are bestowed animal-related names that reflect qualities which such animals symbolise like beauty/outspokenness (parrot), flexibility (nightjar) and tolerance (snail). Such names are not only to embody their ascribed gender roles but are expected to define their life trajectories and experiences as future wives and mothers [38]. This category of names illuminates how animals have been re-inserted into the framework of indigenous knowledge system of the African people.…”

Section: Naming and Gender Relations In Nigeriamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Husband is a Priority: Gender Roles, Patriarchy and the Naming of Female Children in Nigeria

Mensah

2022

Gend. Issues

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In onomastic practices of some traditional societies in Nigeria, stereotyped gender roles and patriarchy are deliberately perpetuated in the naming of female children, thus using naming traditions as weapons against girl-children. In these cultures, names are bestowed on female children to align with existing sexist norms and gender ideology in which the namer is dominant and the named is subservient. This article explores, from an ethnographic qualitative approach, the politics of this naming regime, and highlights the centrality of naming in the social construction of gender in two cultural traditions in Nigeria: Bette (South-east), and Owe (North-central), which entrench inequality and illuminate power and dominance against the girl-child. It considers the implications of this regime of names on the girl-child from the perspective of “doing gender” (West and Zimmermann in Gender Soc 1:125–151, 1987), which simultaneously recreates and reinforces the cultural meaning of gender and the systems of power and oppression on which it rests. I demonstrate how personal names are overtly used to enact conformism and/or resistance to patriarchy and the results, based on linguistic evidence, reveal that participants who conform to traditional gender norms or ideologies tended to reify inequality and oppressive gender regime through the choice of their names. Participants who resisted normative conception of gender opened up space for agency and autonomy, and thus expanded the frontiers of their gender expression.

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Section: Results and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Naming and Gender Relations In Nigeriamentioning

confidence: 99%

Husband is a Priority: Gender Roles, Patriarchy and the Naming of Female Children in Nigeria

Mensah

2022

Gend. Issues

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“…Many researchers have focused on the study of nicknames/personal names (e.g., Ntombela 2019;Abubakari 2020;Owu-Ewie et al 2021;Mensah and Ndimele 2022), place names (e.g., Matthews 2018; Yankey 2022), church names, the names of institutions (Awukuvi and Israel 2018;Akoto 2023), pet and animal names (see Alqarni 2022;Aziaku 2016;Yakub 2020), and the names of water bodies (Mphasha et al 2021; Sun and Jiang 2023), among others. Personal naming practices have become part of the core values of human existence (Sekyi-Baidoo 2019;Mensah 2023b). The purpose of this study is to provide an ethno-pragmatic account of death-prevention names among the Nzema, situating the analysis within cognitive onomastics (Reszegi 2023) and cultural conceptual metaphors (Sharifian 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They are used to individuate, reference and address their bearers as unique personalities within a particular society or community of practice. Personal names are also an important means of integrating newly born children into their societies (Mensah 2023b). This points out that names form an intricate part of culture.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Refuse Dump, Hurry Up!’: A Cognitive Onomastic and Cultural Metaphor Perspective of Nzema Death-Prevention Names

Yakub

2024

Languages

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African personal names have communicative contents that reflect the experiences and expectations of the name-giver as well as the bearer. Death-prevention names, for instance, provide some assurance and security that are vital for a child’s survival, given the implicit assumption that certain spiritual forces are at work. The bestowal of despicable and ‘ugly’ names on children whose preceding siblings died shortly after birth is also a common practice among the Nzema, aiming at preventing succeeding children from death. This study examines cultural conceptions and metaphorical correlations in Nzema death-prevention names. Using 42 death-prevention names obtained through interviews, the study discusses the implications of the names and their metaphoric connections with the objects used to identify this category of people. The study reveals that features of entities such as ɛkpɔtɛ ‘vulture’, nrɛzenra ‘housefly’, kɛndɛne ‘basket’, and fovolɛ ‘refuse dump’ are attributed to these children to make them seem ‘unpleasant’ to the ancestral spirits who are believed to have been snatching them after birth. Other ‘long-lasting’ entities like nyevile ‘sea’, bolɛ ‘rock’, and kpɔma ‘walking stick’ are used metaphorically to refer to a child with the belief that they would survive right from birth and live long on the earth.

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“…To suit their demands, speech functions are used as a means of exchanging experiences. Speech functions are communication tactics to transmit someone's idea and to assist listeners in understanding and comprehending the idea based on the situation (Dunn et al, 2022); (Mensah et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Power of Ukraine’s President: Personal Pronouns on Zelensky’s Speech

Luthfiyati,

Fitria Nur Hamidah

2022

Celtic

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This study analyzes how Zelensky used first-person personal pronounsin his political speeches. This study discussed about the occurrences offirst personal pronouns in political speeches by using qualitativemethodologies, that is document study to identify their forms anddiscourse function. The results showed that The first personal pronounsare identified in discovered of Zelensky’s speeches. The first personalpronouns used in Zelensky addresses were pronoun “I”, “You”, and “We”.Zelensky used the singular personal pronoun ‘‘I’’ to express his heartfeltgratitude and admiration, as well as his professional and personalexperiences, arguments, perspectives, aspirations, and commitment. Theusage of inclusive “You” and variants indicate Zelensky 's willingness toshare responsibility, foster unity, equality, and public declarations abouttheir current situation and any potential future challenges. Usingexclusive “We” which demonstrated by Zelensky also was to show hispolitical intentions, commitment, political experiences during theelection, and significant concern for reconciliation.

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The ethnopragmatic functions of Owe and Tiv personal names in Nigeria

Cited by 5 publications

References 30 publications

Husband is a Priority: Gender Roles, Patriarchy and the Naming of Female Children in Nigeria

Husband is a Priority: Gender Roles, Patriarchy and the Naming of Female Children in Nigeria

‘Refuse Dump, Hurry Up!’: A Cognitive Onomastic and Cultural Metaphor Perspective of Nzema Death-Prevention Names

The Power of Ukraine’s President: Personal Pronouns on Zelensky’s Speech

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