Browsing by Author "Weldegebreal Baymot, Tadesse"

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    The Semantics And Pragmatics of Amharic Bəgəna Lyrics
    (AAU, 2021-01) Weldegebreal Baymot, Tadesse; Yimam, Baye (Professor)
    The main objective of this dissertation was to analyze the semantics and pragmatics of Amharic bəgəna lyrics. The study was qualitative and empirical in nature and mainly relied on primary linguistic data. Data were obtained from written bəgəna lyrics and audio/video bəgəna song albums. The analysis was made in line with the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), Speech Act Theory (SAT) and Relevance Theory (RT). The analysis of the present study covered several topics including metaphorical conceptualizations of linguistic expressions, methods of unraveling the meaning of k’ɨne „pun‟, deictic expressions, functions of illocutionary acts and conversational implicatures. In so doing, bəgəna lyrics that contained metaphors, deictic words, puns, illocutionary forces and implicatures are identified and transcribed phonemically using IPA. The data were presented in interlinear morpheme-by-morpheme in three lines as suggested by the Leipzig Glossing Rules. The analysis of the conceptual metaphor revealed that metaphorical conceptualizations of the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ, hell, heaven/paradise, time, life, bravery, and bounded-space were found to be the most frequent conceptual metaphors in Amharic bəgəna lyrics. Besides, ontological and orientational metaphors were identified and analyzed accordingly. Regarding deictics, spatial deictics (demonstratives, locatives, and deictic motion verbs), temporal deictics, personal deictics and social deictics were identified and analyzed in detail. The result of the study also showed that metaphors, homonymous words, idioms, proverbs, words with double meanings and ambiguous expressions were frequently used to contrive Amharic k’ɨne. To unravel the meanings of the k’ɨne identified in the study, understanding metaphors, merging two distinct words into one, splitting one word into two distinct word forms, and deleting the initial or final sounds or syllables of words when they are said in connected-speech was used. This study also revealed that representatives/assertives, directives, commissives, expressives, declarations, assertive-declarations were the major types of illocutionary acts with different illocutionary forces such as informing, requesting, pleading, promising, pledging, thanking, apologizing, and declaring. Finally, implicatures focusing on scalar/quantity implicatures were also treated somehow. This study calls for in-depth studies on the semantics and pragmatics of Ethiopian languages. Moreover, the applied aspects of linguistics need to be further investigated in an interdisciplinary fashion.