«Eating Regret and Seeing Contempt» – A Cognitive Linguistic Approach to the Language of Emotions in Igala (Nigeria)

This book deals with the expression of emotions in Igala – a Nigerian minority language with about two million speakers – from a Cognitive Linguistics perspective. The author investigates the network of the Igala language of emotions using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) framework as developed by Anna Wierzbicka and her collaborators. The claims of adequacy of NSM in its present form for the analysis of emotion concepts universally will be challenged. This is due to the way emotions are conceptualized in the Igala language and due to the absence of certain semantic primes which are considered necessary for the analysis of emotions. Therefore, this study presents a testing ground for further development of the framework as well as a peek into research in African languages.