Grammaticalised and non-grammaticalised conceptualisations of liyil �head� in Likpakpaln (Konkomba)

Abstract

This paper qualitatively analyses the conceptualisations of the body part, head in Likpakpaln, an understudied Mabia (Gur), Niger-Congo language spoken on the North-Eastern corridors of Ghana. The analytical framework is a synthesis of grammaticalisation and conceptual metaphor theories. I establish that the head in Likpakpaln is unproductive for the grammaticalised, main pools of conceptual transfer. I examine the non-grammaticalised conceptualisation(s), too, under four salient semantic domains � luck, reasoning, emotion and personality traits. The head displays varying degrees of productivity for each of the four target domains. In all, I argue that the conceptualisations are filtered by lived-experiences, cultural construals and the language-specific lexical structure. The data provides further support for the embodied cultural prototype view of body part metaphor analysis. � 2022 Elsevier Ltd