| dc.description.abstract | The simplest form of meaning occurs when the speaker utters a sentence and it means exactly what was intended by that speaker. The speaker intends to produce a certain perlocutionary effect in the hearer by getting the person recognize the intention by applying the rules governing the utterance. However, as a result of meaning modification in a certain lexeme, not all cases of meaning are simple and straightforward. This study investigated how meaning modification in lexemes takes place in Kîîtharaka. The purpose of the study is to expound on how meaning modification in Kîîtharaka lexemes affects meaning of the utterences. The study was guided by two theoties: Lexical Pragmatics theory proposed by Reinhard Blutner (1990); and Lexical Phonology theory proposed by P.K Mohanan (1982). The two theories helped the researcher to deeply understand various aspects of meaning modification in Kîîtharaka lexemes. The study was carried out in Gatunga and Chiakariga Ward. These wards were purposively selected because they are in the interior of Atharaka community, and the Kîîtharaka spoken in these areas has little cross-linguistic influence from Kimeru dialects as well as other languages such as Kikamba, Kiembu and Kimbeere. The research design has been qualitative in nature. A total of 109 adult respondents who are Kîîtharaka speakers were involved. These respondents were sampled in this manner: 45 from three market centres were involved in Focused Group Discussion ( FGD), 30 primary school teachers from six schools filled the questionare, 24 parents from the same primary schools were interviewed face to face, and 20 church elders from five churches took part in LGE . The researcher with the help of research assistant collected data from the respondents through video recording the discussions emanating from Focused Group Discussions (FGD), Language Generating Exercise (LGE), interviews and questionares. Data was analyzed qualitatively through sentence descriptions on the lexical pragmatics occurring in the discourse. The findings of this study showed that there is general aspect of modification of language units at the level of phonology, morphology, lexicon and orthography of Kîîtharaka. It has also emerged that eleven lexical pragmatics processes are invoved in meaning modification of Kîîtharaka lexemes. These processes are: Broadening, narrowing, amelioration, pejoration, category extension, aproximation, hyperbole, metaphorical extension, euphemism, metonymy and synecdoche. The study has also showed that linguistic and non-linguistic factors contribute to meaning modification. The findings also indicate that meaning modification in Kîîtharaka lexemes leads to various aspects of sense reletion, lexical ambinguity, metaphor lexicalization, and use of figurative lexemes. It is expected that the findings of this study will fill up the existing gap in the analysis of Kîîtharaka Dialect at semantic level. Besides that, the study gives insight on how meaning modification affects the conceptualization of lexical meaning among the Kîîtharaka speakers. Moreover, the findings of this research will benefit the field of information structure (I S). In addition, the study provides a rich data bank for the scholars of lexical pragmatics in African languages. Finally, the study recommends more research be done on: Grammatical categories of Kîîtharaka to determine which category is mostly affected by meaning modification, the linguistic and non-linguistic environment that facilitate the understanding of lexemes affected by meaning modification, and the contribution of gender differences in meaning modification of Kîîtharaka lexemes. | en_US |
