The Embodied Symbolism of the Stomach and Bone in Igbo: A Cognitive Linguistic Study

Abstract

Within the cognitive linguistics framework, the body and its different parts have been variously examined as source domains in metaphorical mappings. Different languages and cultures conceptualize body parts in ways which generally reflect human cognition. This paper investigates the conceptualization of two body parts; afọ ‘stomach’ and ọkpụkpụ ‘bone’ in Igbo culture. In Igbo, the stomach rendered as ‘afọ’ is largely viewed as an animate entity which can undergo bodily experiences for instance, the stomach can be good or bad, dried up or filled up. In addition, the bone rendered as ‘ọkpụkpụ’ is used to conceptualize emotions such as anger, attributes such as naughtiness as in ị buisiọkpụkpụ ‘to be stubborn’. By exploring Igbo stomach and bone expressions sourced from both primary and secondary sources, the study shows that afọ ‘stomach’ and ọkpụkpụ ‘bone’ are conceptualized as the centre of different kinds of emotions and feelings in Igbo. The stomach is also capable of being in various states; good and bad states. Furthermore, in the conceptualization of anger, both afọ ‘stomach’ and ọkpụkpụ ‘bone’ represent different degrees of anger for instance iwetòrò yà afọ ‘anger blowing up the stomach’, iwe iban’ọkpụkpụ ‘anger entering the bone’ and iwe erughin’ọkpụkpụ ‘anger not getting to the bone’ It is also shown that various forms of empathy are captured in the conceptualization of the Igbo stomach ‘af̣ọ’. It can be concluded that these conceptualizations pinpoint an underpinning in the expression of cultural meaning in the language.