Envisioning the Semantics of Kinyarwanda causative and applicative morphemes in the Cognitive Grammar Theory

Abstract

This paper uses the Cognitive Grammar Theory to examine the semantics of Kinyarwanda causative and applicative. The study was motivated by the fact that Kinyarwanda verb extensions, particularly the causative and applicative, have multiple sociocultural interpretations of meanings, which is a typical characteristic of Cognitive semantics. The study was couched in the interpretivism paradigm, which looks for culturally derived interpretations historically situated in the surroundings of humans. A qualitative approach was used to analyse the meanings of Kinyarwanda words used by Nyarwanda native speakers.  Data was collected from focus group discussions involving six Kinyarwanda speakers. Four were monolinguals; the rest were multilingual, speaking Kiswahili, English and Kinyarwanda. The data were presented using Leipzig glossing rules, and illustrations were used to show more than one meaning in the derived verbal lexemes. Thus, data analysis was used using cognitive grammar theoretical apparatuses, which account for multiple meanings of the derived lexemes. The study found that the causative and applicative verb extensions attached to the verb root have multiple senses that line with Cognitive Grammar Theory, whose major assumption is that words have multiple conceptualisations. For instance, the derived verb vugisha had four meanings: speak to, make or cause to talk, disgusting and switching on something (such as in radio receiver or electricity). As the presence of different meanings in the same word causes ambiguity, further research can be carried out on Kinyarwanda ambiguity under the contemporary theory of Metaphor.