Title:   COGNITIVE SEMANTICS OF CLIMATE CHANGE TERMS IN SELECTED NIGERIAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES

The paper examines the cognitive semantics of lexical units in the Tiv and Igbo languages using survey design.. The findings show that indigenous languages lack adequate terms for abstracts and highly scientific related scenes or objects unlike the source language. The Igbo uses more of descriptive forms in representing lexical units unlike Tiv. However, the Tiv lexicon has an optional parameter in the formation of lexical units for most technical scenes. Finding also shows that both languages share some level of similarities in morpho-semantic and cognitive arguments on related scenarios. The Schematic analysis shows that to understand the semantics of climate change in indigenous languages; one requires further investigation into the cognitive nature of the climate science and frames to be able to integrate meaning in indigenous languages. The paper recommends for further researches in other indigenous languages so that they can play invaluable roles in climate change discourse.

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Publication Date: 2020-12-04