I Mean What I Mean, Not What I Say: A Case of Double Entendres in EkeGusii

Abstract

Words or phrasal constructions are indicative of the way given communities experience and perceive their environment and exploit it to create meaning. Meanings arise from creative cognitive processing of which polysemisation, which involves in some way mapping of conceptual blends or integration, is one of the means employed. This study investigates cases of double entendre, a form of polysemisation, in EkeGusii with the aim of accounting for the cognitive processes entailed in the conceptualization of the natal process (or the maternity cycle) of human beings using conceptual integration theory. Corpora for this study were elicited from two EkeGusii FM stations and analysed based on the cognitive linguistic theory of Conceptual Blending. The information gathered in this study could enrich EkeGusii semantics and understanding of the conceptual component of the speakers of the language in order to make a contribution to the teaching of the language and its maintenance.