A LEXICO-SEMANTIC CONTRAST OF HAUSA COLOUR TERMS, COOKING TERMS AND FRUIT TERMS

Abstract

This study is Lexico-semantic fields in Hausa and English. Lexical- semantics is the study of words’ meanings which include the study of the structure of how words form their meanings, how they act in grammar and compositionality, and the relationships between the distinct senses and uses of a word. The aim of this research is to analyse the semantic fields of all colours, cookery, and fruit terms in Hausa and English languages. The paper identified the similarities and differences as well as the limitations on such similarities and differences in the selected semantic fields. The theoretical framework of this research is Componential Analysis (C.A) by L. Hjelmsleve, R. Jacobson and F. G. Lounsbury in order to identify the presence and absence of lexical terms in the fields in both languages under study. The research also adopt Banathy’s Models of Contrastive Analysis. Primary source data was collected through the intuitive knowledge of the researcher to complement secondary sources: books, dictionaries and the internet. The findings reveal that Hausa speakers may likely experience difficulty in identifying some colour, cooking and fruit terms in English without apparently seeing them. This is because they have no single lexical identities; rather, they are identified or subsumed under some terms as in gashi whereby words like grill, bake and roast are subsumed under it, and also colours like grey, pink, brown, purple and orange are identified by things or objects that have the colours naturally. The research concludes that there is a significant relationship between people’s lexical and cultural realities because people have words only for things experienced in their world-view. Thus, lexical words and activities not experienced are likely not to be assigned names in any culture.