Metaphtonymies in Akan

Abstract

This paper canvasses two main cognitive projections, metaphor and metonymy, within the cognitive approach. It attempts to discover the cognitive basis which speakers of Akan employ to talk about abstract concepts including emotions and attributes. It discovers that these domains are best expressed in metaphtonymic language using body parts. Moreover, although there is a close interaction between metaphors and metonymies in Akan, the relationship is unidirectional. Thus, while metaphors are generally grounded in metonymies when they occur in the same utterance, the reverse is not true.