Autori
Allsopp, Jeannette
Furiassi, Cristiano

Titolo
Caribbean English Phraseology in the Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage: Reflections of an African Worldview
Periodico
Textus
Anno: 2020 - Fascicolo: 1 - Pagina iniziale: 107 - Pagina finale: 125

Among the most characteristic features of Caribbean English (CE) liesits phraseology, namely the lexicalisation of concepts through linguisticspecificities whose etymological roots are to be found in West Africanlanguages. Not only are such peculiarities widespread in spoken CE andEnglish-based Creoles, but they are also illustrated in the extensive bodyof Caribbean English literature. By adopting an overarching definitionof phraseology, this article aims at showing that phraseological unitstypically used in CE work as a cultural agent. Within the vast inventory ofAfrican substrate survivals, attention is paid to compound-like vocabularyitems which are word-for-word translations of West African idioms intoEnglish rather than ex novo combinations of English lexemes. A sampleof eight commonly-used compounds, all referring to parts of the body,was extracted from the Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage and thencompared with entries – if any – in the Oxford English Dictionary Onlineand the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online, the two reference worksthat are the pillars of English: although such phrasemes employ StandardEnglish (SE) words, they do not mirror conventional SE lexical practices.Therefore, by looking at the images conveyed through their culture-specificphraseology, the article depicts the distinctly non-European worldviewof West Africans transplanted to the Caribbean by European colonisersduring the transatlantic slave trade.



SICI: 1824-3967(2020)1<107:CEPITD>2.0.ZU;2-N
Testo completo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/download/article/10.7370/97354
Testo completo alternativo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.7370/97354

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