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On Patterns of Conceptual Construal in Tok Pisin

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Cultural Conceptualizations in Language and Communication

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Abstract

As a creolized variety of Melanesian Pidgin English spoken in Papua New Guinea, Tok Pisin has a simplified grammar and a reduced lexicon. In spite of it, the conceptual processes that it employs are as varied and complex as in English—its lexifier and one of the major Western languages. Section 1 briefly introduces the symbolic nature of language. Section 2 describes the basic properties of pidgin and creole languages. Section 3 provides an overview of the insofar analyses of figurative patterns in contact languages. Section 4 presents in detail the methodological framework of the analysis, which is based on the theory of conceptual metaphor (Lakoff in Metaphor and thought. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 202–251, 1993; Lakoff & Johnson in Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1980), theory of conceptual metonymy (Radden & Kövecses in Metonymy in language and thought. John Benjamins, Amsterdam, pp. 17–59, 1999), and forms of metaphor-metonymy interaction jointly called ‘metaphtonymy’ (Goossens in Cognitive Linguistics 1(3), pp. 323–340, 1990). Sections 5, 6, and 7 discuss numerous examples of Tok Pisin expressions based on the above-mentioned patterns of conceptual construal. Section 8 summarizes the results of the analysis.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    One theory traces the origin of Tok Pisin to South Seas Pidgin English (Hall, 1961 as cited in Walczyński, 2012, p. 149); another one assumes that it originated from China Coast Pidgin English spoken in south-western Pacific (Hancock, 1977, p. 378; Mufwene, 2008, pp. 314–315).

  2. 2.

    For example, speakers of Buang code-switch and approximate to correct Tok Pisin to gain respect of Tok Pisin monolinguals (Gal, 2010, p. 155).

  3. 3.

    The expression meri ‘woman’ may also have been motivated by the name Mary popular among sailors, the Tolai forms mari ‘love, pretty, beautiful’, or even the English form married. Though Nevermann (1929, pp. 253–254 as cited in Romaine, 1988, p. 96) never discusses the conceptual motivation for the origin of the word, it is clear that its etymology is based on metonymy.

  4. 4.

    Some researchers, for example Steen (1999, p. 59), see image metaphors as conceptual.

  5. 5.

    The metaphor, though not formulated explicitly, is implicit in Goossens’ (1990, p. 332) analysis of the expression. The same concerns the metaphor underlying the expression bite one’s tongue off discussed below.

  6. 6.

    Such map**s also exist in Atlantic creoles, for example Gullah, which used in the Appalachians: swit maut = sweet mouth ‘flattery’. They may be derived from such African languages as Twi, Ga, and Yoruba (Corum, 2019).

  7. 7.

    The vehicle gumi represents the influence of German on Tok Pisin—it is derived from the German word Gummi ‘rubber’.

  8. 8.

    Expressions referring to prostitutes and illegitimate children reflect the conservative character of the local society—all exceptions from the norm (prostitutes, children born out of wedlock, etc.) are stigmatized (Walczyński, personal communication 2018).

  9. 9.

    Tok Pisin also has a similar nominal expression taia plat = tyre flat ‘an exhausted person’, which is based on the ontological metaphor people are machines.

  10. 10.

    The interpretation of the expression in terms of ontological personification metaphor is less convincing. Such metaphors map human actions or properties rather than images of shape and size. See Lakoff & Johnson (1980, pp. 25–34).

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    Krzysztof Kosecki

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    Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk

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Kosecki, K. (2020). On Patterns of Conceptual Construal in Tok Pisin. In: Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, B. (eds) Cultural Conceptualizations in Language and Communication. Second Language Learning and Teaching. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42734-4_3

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