Hyponymous relationship of verbs of cooking in Igbo

Chimaobi Onwukwe

Abstract

This study investigated verbs of cooking in Igbo Language using hyponymy as a tool of descriptive analysis of the subject matter. Its specific objectives were to examine the relationship of inclusion within a semantic field of the verbs of cooking in Igbo and selectional restrictions on their co-occurring elements. It was found that the verb isì (‘to cook’) is a generic super-ordinate term which embeddes the meaning of other verbs of cooking of variety of items in Igbo. This is possible from the dialects or varieties of Igbo Language. We identified nine hyponyms which are co-hyponyms and selectional restrictions of the verbs in terms of their co-occurring element or cooked items. It was concluded that Igbo verbs of cooking are rich in hyponymy and that they exhibit strict selectional restrictions of their co-occurring elements. Igbo language speakers’ knowledge of verbs of cooking involves the meaning of the verb in relation to its co-occurring cooked item or element.