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National Research University Higher School of Economics Journal of Language & Education Volume 3, Issue 4, 2017
ikotun, R. (2017). The Semantic Expansion of 'Wife' and 'Husband' among the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria. Journal Of Language And Education, 3(4), 36-43. doi:10.17323/2411-7390-2017-3-4-36-43
The Semantic Expansion of 'Wife' and 'Husband' among the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria
Reuben Oluwafemi Ikotun
Ekiti State University
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Reuben Oluwafemi Ikotun, Department of Linguistics and Nigerian Languages, Ekiti State University, Iworoko road, Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria,
360213. E-mail: roikotun53@gmail.com
Although one of the existing studies on Nigerian or African kinship terms has argued that semantic expansion of such words constitutes an absurdity to the English society, none has argued for the necessity of a specialized dictionary to address the problem of absurdity to the English society, the custodian of the English language. This is important especially now that the language has become an invaluable legacy which non-native speakers of the language use to express their culture as well as the fact that the English people now accept the Greek and Hebrew world-views through Christianity. This paper provides additional evidence in support of semantic expansion of kingship terms like 'wife' and 'husband' not only in a Nigerian or an African language but also in Greek and Hebrew languages. The paper argues that if English is to play its role as an international language, it will be desirable if our lexicographers can publish a specialized dictionary that will take care of kinship terms, as it is the case in some other specialized dictionaries on the different professions such as medicine, nursing, linguistics and agriculture, to mention but a few, so as to guide against ambiguity or absurdity that may arise in language use in social interactions.
Keywords: culture, language, interpretation, society, specialized dictionary
One conclusion that can be drawn from studies conducted on kinship terms is that although kinship terms are products of a family relationship or a close feeling between people that develops as a result of common origins or attitudes, the cultural norms or world-views that guide the use vary from one ethnic group to another (Evans-Pritchard, 1948; Oyetade, 1995; Abiodun, 2000; Igboanusi, 2004; Ikotun, 2009). For example, Igboanusi (2004, p. 223) claims that while the word 'mother' may be used to refer to any female friend or relation of one's own mother, one may have several 'mothers' in the Nigerian or African world-view but not in the English society because the use of such words may appear or sound ridiculous to the English-speaking society. As Igboanusi (Igboanusi, 2004, p. 223) rightly says, there are several Nigerian or African words that have semantic expansion or extended meanings when used in social interactions and the use of such words may sound unintelligible to the English society when English is used to express such Nigerian or African world-views or culture. In this paper also, our concern is on the semantic expansion or extended meanings of some kinship words in Yoruba, Greek and Hebrew and areas that will be covered will include: 1. focus on the Yoruba words 'oko' (henceforth husband) and 'iyawo' (henceforth wife) and
it will be shown that the extended meanings they have in Yoruba, Greek and Hebrew may appear or sound ridiculous to non-African, non-Greek and non-Hebrew.
2. it will also be shown that any of the kinship terms or words, when used, must co-occur with any of the possessive pronoun qualifiers such as 'mi' (my), 'wa' (our), 're' (your (sgl)), 'yin' (your (pl)), 're' (his/her (sgl)) and 'won' (their/his/her (pl)) before the kinship words or terms can be better understood.
3. finally, it will be the submission of this researcher that if English is to be fully accepted as an international language, it is important that the English lexicographers with the assistance of culture translators must be prepared to re-work the dictionary entries to also include African, Greek and Hebrew world-views or cultural aspects of word or language use that are devoid of current grammatical or conventional usage since English is now used to express cultural norms of several or almost all ethnic groups in the world today as well as the fact that the Christian culture is now shared or endorsed by the English-speaking Christians.
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
At least, four perspectives on semantics have been identified by linguists (Katz and Postal, 1964; Chomsky, 1965; Bierwisch, 1970; Halliday, 1985; Mey, 2001). But, the perspective of semantics we agree with and which is of interest to us in this paper is the one that recognizes the combination of the context of culture and the context of situation in language study (Malinowsky, 1923; Firth, 1962; Brown and Gilman, 1968; Fasold, 1990). Several studies that have been carried out in African and non-African languages attest to the fact that the knowledge of a language is a composite of the knowledge of structure and use in the socio-cultural context (Abiodun 1992; Oyetade, 1995; íkotun, 2010a, 2010b, 2013). Our position that the knowledge of a language is a function of the knowledge of structure and use in the socio-cultural context is further supported by Mey (2000), Igboanusi (2004) and Adegbite (2005). For example, Mey (2000, p. 7) says, among others, that not even the smallest utterance or a single word can be understood in isolation. She argues further that it is the user and his or her conditions of production and consumption of language that, in the final analysis, determine the way his or her words are understood. Studies carried out by Malinowsky (1923), Firth (1962) and Adegbite (2005, p. 54) too claim that two kinds of context are associated with contextual meaning namely, the context of culture and the context of situation. Similarly, Adégbité (2005, p. 54) argues that the conditions of meaning in a context of culture (or social context) must specify the conventional (socio-cultural) rules of behaviour which participants must share before they can effectively or successfully communicate with each other. Adégbité (2005, p. 54) further adds that the conditions of meaning in a situational context must also specify relevant features of immediate and wider experiences of the specific participants in addition to the conventional rules.
However, before Adegbite (2005, p. 54), Igboanusi (2004, p. 223) argues that in semantic expansion, English words are made to acquire extended meanings. According to him, African writers often reflect African contexts in the use of certain English items so that such items now acquire extended meanings in the novel. He says that semantic expansion is, therefore, a good source of difficulty for the non-African reader. One of the examples of language use that inform Igboanusi's (2004, p. 223) position is the use of the word 'mother' or 'mothers' among Africans. As already shown in the introductory section of this paper, while the word 'mother' may be used to refer to any female friend or relation of one's own mother, one may have other senses of the word 'mother' in the Nigerian or African world-view but not in the English society. Although Igboanusi's (2004) position is very valid, it can be further argued that the extended meanings from 'mother' or 'mothers' can be better or correctly
drawn when such words are used in conjunction with possessive pronoun qualifiers in social interactions. For example, it is not unlikely that there is a difference between the word 'mother' and the noun phrase 'my mother'. While the use of the word 'mother' may not necessarily refer to the speaker's biological mother, the use of the noun phrase 'my mother' by the speaker may. So, what may be a source of ambiguity to the non-African is the use of the noun phrase 'my mother' when the use does not refer to the speaker's biological mother but to any female person even when the addressee is still a baby girl. Therefore, to address the issue of cultural misunderstandings in culture-dependent language use, a specialized dictionary with the translators' commentary is suggested. However, in this paper, in further support of Igboanusi's (2004) claim, extended meanings of 'wife' and 'husband' in Yomba, Hebrew and Greek, especially when they are used with possessive pronoun qualifiers, are examined.
Method
Data collection
The Yomba data for this descriptive work were drawn from four sources. Some data were taken from some Yomba drama books. The drama books entitled lyawo Alarede and Orogun Odaju were written by Eso-Oluborode (1993) and Tela (2008) respectively. Some data were drawn from some Yomba plays that were shown or staged on DSTV Yomba Channel 157. Participant observation was also considered to complement the data drawn from Yomba drama books and DSTV Yomba Channel 157 programmes. The participant observation used in this paper involved the presence and participation of the researcher in linguistic interactions with native speakers of Yomba on the focus of this paper. The Yomba native speakers comprised some Yomba sub-ethnic group members namely, Egba, Ijesa, Ekiti, Akure, Ondo, Akoko, Ijebu, Oyo, and Eko. The research covered a period of three years namely 2013, 2014 and 2015 and the conversations were recorded without the knowledge of the co-participants. It will also be recalled that participant observation guarantees natural language use or unguided language use in social interactions. The data that will be considered for Hebrew and Greek were drawn from the New World Translation version of the Holy Bible. The data that will be analyzed were drawn from Psalms 45: 14-15, Revelation 14: 3-4, 2 Corinthians 11: 2 and Isaiah 54: 5. Our choice of examples from Hebrew and Greek languages is meant to confirm our position that the use of kinship terms is almost a global phenomenon especially with the spread of Christianity.
Results and Discussion
The findings and the analysis of this research are shown in sub-sections 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 below. The different senses the words 'wife' and 'husband' can have when used among the YorUba people are presented in sub-sections 4. 1 and 4. 2. The information used in these sub-sections was drawn from participant observation. However, as the discussion progresses, the excerpts that were drawn from some Yomba textbooks and recorded speeches in support of the information from participant observation by the researcher will be used. The discussion on the data drawn from the New World Translation version of the Holy Bible will form the focus of 4.3 sub-section.
4.1 The semantic expansion or meanings of 'wife' in Yoruba
In Figure 1 below, the various uses or meanings of the word 'wife' among the Yoruba people are presented. In English, however, the word 'wife' is semantically realized as [+female, +woman, +married].
Again, four excerpts that explicate evidence of language use in support of the information drawn from
presented. Two of the data were taken from a Yoruba textbook while the remaining two were drawn from recorded speeches. For example, the information in the introductory section to language use in the data shown below exemplifies a discussion between a real wife and a real husband.
(Ninu ile Odejobi, ore: Baba ode. Won sese jeun osan tan ni. Odejobi ati iyawo re, Adufe, wa lehinkule, won n naju. Odejobi lo bkre oro...)
Odejobi: Olodumare, ibo loju Re wa?
iwo, l'Oba adedaa, Oba asedaa. iwo, nikan soso l'Oba asekanmaku Awon ti ko mo O ko moyi Re. Gbogbo ohun ti O se lo gun rege... (Tela, 2008, p. 23)
Translation
(In Odejobi's house, a friend to Baba Ode. They have just had lunch. Odejobi and his wife Adufe: are at the back of his house. Odejobi starts to speak.)
participant observation shown in the figure above are
Figure 1.The Various Uses of the word 'Wife' among the Yoruba People.
Odejobi: Olodumare, where is your face?
You're the King, Creator; the King, Maker of all.
You are the only King who never leaves a thing unfinished. Those who do not know You do not know Your worth. Everything You do is perfect.
In the excerpt below also, a man that has more than a wife is shown in the introductory section of the excerpt as well as in line 1 of the excerpt.
(Ile Baba ode, awon lyawo re: ti toju gbogbo eran to pa bot lati oru. Won tigunyan /ele, foko, won je...)
Baba Ode:
Bride:
Father-in-law:
Hope all is well.
Hello ma. All is well.
She is S ola's wife, your son.,
It is also possible for a man to address his friend's wife as his wife as shown in line 4 of the data below.
(o n pe lyàwô rè: àgbà, Osunwenu.) Osunwenu, Osunwenu o. Se eti re di ni tabi o n gbo, agboya? Boya o si n kà mi lôhùn? (Tela, 2008, P. 17)
Friend A: Friend B: Friend A: Friend B:
Translation
Friend A:
Friend B: Friend A:
Friend A:
Translation
Kemi wù mi lomo, mo fee fe e. Kemi èwo?
Èyi to sèsè jade ilé-iwé giga.
Ah! Ma dé bee rârâ; iyàwô wa ni o. îyàwo omo egbe e wa ni.
^mi is so beautiful, I will like to marry her. Which ^mi?
The one who recently finished from the university. Do not even go there; she is our wife. She is the wife of one of our members.
(Baba (Ode's house, where his wives have been busy preparing all the game he brought home from his night hunting. They have also prepared a sumptuous pounded yam meal /or him. )
Baba Ode: (Calling his most senior wi/e, Osunwe nu...)
Osunwenu, Osunwenu-"
Are you deaf?
Or you deliberately refuse to respond? Or are you counting the number of times I call you?
Among the Yoruba people, a female relative can address a lady that is married to her relative as her wife as shown in lines 2 and 3 of the data below.
Female relative: (In company of the father-in-law,
taking notice of the presence of a young woman and greeting). Pete o, sisi mi. Father-in-law: lyawo e ma niyen Female relative: lyawo mi, p^l^ o.
Se alaafia ni? Bride: E p^l^ ma. Alaafia ni.
Father-in-law: lyawo Sola, omo re ni...
Translation
Female relative: Father-in-law: Female relative:
4.2 The semantic expansion or meanings of 'husband' in Yoruba
The different senses which the word 'husband' in Figure 2 connotes are also presented in this subsection. The word 'husband' in English is [+male, +man, +married].
Two excerpts and one data in support of the information in Figure 2 above are presented as follows. For example, as shown in lines 1 and 4 in the excerpt below, a female person can address another female person as 'o,ko mi' (my husband).
Hello, my dear.
That is your wife.
My wife, you are welcome.
Mojèrè:
Derébà: îya-àgbà:
Translation
Mojèrè:
Driver: îya-àgbà:
Oga derébà, e dakun, ti a ba dé Ofà, mo fe ra buredi dani fun ara ilé. N o ti mu owo si tosi.
Ti e ba ti mo pé ^ ko ni da wa duro. Sé e mo pé ale ti l^.
Oko^ mi, o ba si ti ra burédi r^ ni iloirin^ (EsO-Oliiborode, 1993, p. ' 7)'
Mr driver, please, when we get to Offa, I will like to buy bread for the people at home. I would have brought out the money (before we get to the bread seller's stand).
If you know you won't waste our time. It is already night. My husband, you ought to have bought the bread way back in Ilorin.
Figure 2. The Various Uses of the word 'Husband' among the Yoruba People.
However, in the excerpt below, language use by Adufe, a woman, shows a discussion between a real wife and her husband as shown in line 1 of the excerpt. The phrase 'baale mi' can also be realized as 'oko mi' (my husband).
Àdùfé:
Translation
Àdùfé:
Baâlé mi, o to ro, o ye ni siso. Sùgbon iru ipè wo la a se Feni ti lkooko pa iyâ re je? Se bee lo pa tire legàn ni? Èdùmàrè ko ko, wa mo on se. (Teià, 2008, p. 25)
My husband, it is worth ruminating over, it is enough a topic for discussion. What manner of consolation do you offer someone whose mother was killed by a lion?
Do you maintain your own mother
was killed in a similar way?
May the Almighty God direct our ways.
The information drawn from participant observation in Figure 2 that if the husband is not from the same area or town with the wife, all members from the
real husband's area/town are the wife's husband is supported by the data drawn from the recorded speeches shown below.
Speaker A: Hin pelé n'ibe é o.
Speaker B: E pelé o. îjès à ni yin?
Speaker A: îjesà ni mèrè.
Speaker B: Àh, eyin oko mi niye n!
Speaker A: îjesà loko yin?
Speaker B: Béèni...
Translation
Speaker A: (Greeting in Ijessà dialect)
Hello, here. Speaker B: Greetings.
Are you an îjès à person? Speaker A I am an îjèsà person. Speaker B: Ah, you (pl) are my husband! Speaker A: Is your husband Ijess à? Speaker B: Yes...
However, the various uses which a good Yorùbâ dictionary should have for the word 'wife' do not mean that the Yorùbâ culture encourages wife-swapping or that the 'wife' plays wifely duties to any of the 'men' whether male or female, young or old
apart from the real husband that the English society understands. The Yoruba culture simply encourages oneness, harmonious communal living, love and good neighbourliness. This means that the information in the two figures above should be divided into two categories. The information in the first category deals with the real 'wife' or 'wives' and the real 'husband' which usage can easily be understood or be intelligible to the English society. The information in the second category may be a source of confusion to the English society because the use is culture-dependent.
4.3. The uses of 'Wife' and 'Husband' among Greek and Hebrew
it is not only in Yoruba or African languages that reference is made to culture for word or language interpretation. As already shown in the introductory section of this paper, what is true of African languages is also true of some other world languages. Some of these world languages include Greek1 and Hebrew2. Our discussion below highlights how 'wife' and 'husband' are used in Greek and Hebrew . Earlier, it was mentioned that our data would be drawn from the New World Translation version of the Holy Bible. The data include information drawn from Psalms 45: 14-15, Revelation 14: 3-4, 2 Corinthians 11: 2 and Isaiah 54: 5. For example, the study draws our readers' attention to the word 'virgins' in Psalms 45: 14-15 and Revelation 14: 3-4. In Psalms, it is stated:
in woven apparel she will be brought to the king. The virgins in her train as her companions are being brought in to you. They will be brought with rejoicing and joyfulness. They will enter into the palace of the king.
The book of Revelation also says (see also 2 Corinthians 11: 2):
And they are singing as if a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one was able to master that song but the hundred and forty-four thousand, who have been brought from the earth. These are the ones that did not defile themselves with women; in fact, they are virgins. These are the ones that keep following the Lamb no matter where he goes. These were bought from among mankind as first fruits to God and to the Lamb.
1 information in the books of Matthew to Revelation was written in Greek.
2 information in the books of Genesis to Malachi was written in Hebrew.
The use of the word 'virgins' as shown in the verses above may be a source of inappropriateness to the owners of the English language because the word, as contained in the English dictionary, can be semantically realized as [+human -sex i.e a human being who has not had any sexual relationship with any person]. But, by our knowledge of the Bible, the list of those who will be followers of Christ will include people like Peter, John and several others who married and gave birth to children (Mark 1: 30; John 10: 16). Similarly, in English society, the word 'husband' connotes a man who is married to a wife or wives and the wife or wives must be female and not male. But, what is true of the English society is at variance with what is true of Greek and Hebrew societies as shown in 2 Corinthians 11: 2 and isaiah 54: 5 below.
For i am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I personally promised you in marriage to one husband that i might present you as a chaste virgin to the Christ (2 Corinthians 11: 2).
For your Grand Maker is your husbandly owner, Jehovah of armies being his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Repurchaser. The God of the whole earth he will be called (Isaiah 54: 5).
In Corinthians also, it is stated that Christ is the 'husband' of the Church and the Church comprises both male and female worshippers while the nation of israel is given unto God as a wife and the nation too consists of male and female. it can be argued that the way the English people see the world around them is different from the way the Yoruba, Greek and Hebrew people see the world around them. Therefore, since English is now used to express several cultural systems that are not native to it and since the English people now accept the Greek and Hebrew world-views through Christianity, it may be necessary for the language to incorporate the non-native cultural systems into its linguistic analysis. Our position is in tandem with an earlier study carried out by Akindele and Adegbite (2000, p. 46) in which they claim that:
There is no gainsaying the fact that English has become a Nigerian language. The language has become an invaluable legacy of the British which has provided Nigerians with yet another means of expressing their culture.
Our argument here is that it is not only Nigerians that use English to express their culture; citizens of other countries also use it. it is even reported in
some Nigerian dailies or Newspapers that the use of English is now a serious threat to the survival of many indigenous languages that are used in British colonies (The Nation of May 17, 2016, p. 4 and July 24, 2016, p. 50; The Sunday Tribune of April 10, 2013, p. 22; The Nigerian Tribune of October 9, 2014, p. 27 and March 6, 2016, p. 3&10). However, one question that has not been addressed in this paper is: are there other ways through which kin address each other or one another among the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria? The answer to this question can form the focus of another paper.
Conclusion
Attempts have been made in this paper to provide evidence in support of semantic expansion of the use of 'wife' and 'husband' not only in a Nigerian or an African language, but also in Greek and Hebrew languages. It has been argued that the use of 'wife' and 'husband' by Yoruba, Greek and Hebrew people indicates that the way the Yoruba, Greek and Hebrew see the world around them is different from the way the English society sees the world around it. It is also our position in this paper that the various uses which a good Yoruba, Greek or Hebrew dictionary should have do not mean that the Yoruba, Greek or Hebrew culture encourages wife-swapping or that the 'wife' plays wifely duties to any of the 'men' whether male or female, young or old apart from the real husband that the English society understands. Our conclusion, therefore, is that English lexicographers with the assistance of culture translators should publish a specialized dictionary that will take care of kinship terms as it is the case in other specialized dictionaries on the different professions like medicine, linguistics and agriculture, to mention but a few. This suggestion is necessary especially now that the English language has become an invaluable legacy which non-native speakers of the language use to express their culture as well as the fact that many English people now accept the Greek and Hebrew world-views through Christianity.
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