Metaphor and Extension in Ojibwa

RICHARD A. RHODES1

University of Michigan

The distance that exists between unrelated languages of un­related cultures often poses for linguists a problem of perspec­tive. W e suffer from an unavoidable myopia that makes it hard for us to tell what things the insider knows, consciously or not, about his own language. What we see in a distant language is, in many ways, as much a reflection of our own theories about language, formal or informal, explicit or implicit, as it is a view of the language itself. There is no methodological or theoret­ical shortcut to the knowledge of some of the most important aspects of a language. No quick way to know what is normal and what is special, what is trite and what is colourful, what is cliche and what is eloquent. Our structuralism fails us. And what is worse, we depend on it so much that we almost believe that what it does not tell us is not important. But it cannot even tell us such basic differences as what is idiomatic (i.e., particular) and what is metaphoric (i.e., systematized). Hence it is occasionally asserted that North American languages in general lack idioms (Fillmore 1982), or that Algonquians lack conscious metaphors (Markey 1984).2 The purpose of this pa­per is to take a first step toward bringing into some perspective

'I would like to thank Pete Becker, Gerhard Heyer, and Tom Markey for their various contributions in the form of discussions touching on topics in this paper. Fred Lupke and Ives Goddard made helpful suggestions on the paper itself. Hap McCue and Reta Sands contributed their usual line

sense of Ojibwa. All errors remain m y own. 2 Actually Markey's claim is only for Fox, but the closeness of the Algon­

quian languages strongly suggests that if Fox lacks conscious metaphors, so do the other languages. Since I'm about to show that some Algon­quian languages have conscious metaphors, the claim that one lacks them

162 RICHARD A. RHODES

a number of facts about the Ojibwa lexicon which bear on such

assertions.

Algonquian words are so transparently derived that we tend to miss the fact that they also have their own lexical properties and pragmatic weight. There is just no structural way to tell that, for example, (la) is an ordinary form and (lb) is not, or that (lc), literally and ordinarily glossed 'think' is used as well

to mean 'decide' and 'give an opinion, vote'.

1) (a) daashkganaandang 'pound on s.t. and have it split'

(b) daadganaandang 'pound on s.t. and have it separate'

(c) nendang 'think [that S]; decide to; give an opinion, vote'

And worse, the transparency of derivation of Algonquian forms also lulls us into thinking that all relevant distinctions are mor­phologically marked. This is certainly not the case for Ojibwa. For example, the distinction between inchoative and stative readings is not generally marked morphologically. Up to the limits of the nature of the world, forms which express states can also express the inchoation of that state. Thus forms like those in (2) are ambiguous.

(2) (a) -izi (AI)/-od (II) 'stative' aakzid 'be sick; get sick'

mskozid 'be red; turn red'

wiinak 'be dirty; get dirty'

(b) -shin (AI)/-sin (II) 'be a state; come to be in a state' baataashing 'be stuck; get stuck'

nsaaksing 'be open; open'

ziiwsing 'be sour; turn sour'

(c) transitive statives

yaang 'have s.t.; get s.t.'

seems very unlikely to be true. It would be like claiming that Italian lacks conscious metaphors in the face of evidence that French has them.

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biiskang 'wear s.t., put s.t., on'

So depending on whether the Ojibwa world view treats a par­ticular situation as normatively stative or normatively inchoa­tive, or as normatively neither, particular forms with stative morphology might be correctly glossed as stative, inchoative, or as either stative or inchoative, as in (3).

(3) (a) -izi (Al)/-ad (II) 'stative' (i) bmaadzid 'be alive' (stative)

mnopgozid

(ii) ndaadzid

ngonaagok

(iii) zaawzid

niinmizid

'taste good' (stative)

'be born' (inchoative)

'disappear, vanish' (inchoative)

'be yellow/brown; turn yellow/brown' (ambiguous)

'be frail; become frail' (ambigu­ous)

(b) -shin (Al)/-sin (II) 'lie, be a state; fall, come to be in a state'

(i) aazhgidshing 'lie face up' (stative)

naksing 'be in a line' (stative)

'fall' (inchoative)

'arrive' (inchoative)

'be open; open' (ambiguous)

(ii) bngishing

dgoshing

(iii) nsaaksing

gwaaksing 'be stuck to [s.t.]; stick to [s.t.]' (ambiguous)

This distinguishes true statives from true non-statives like those in (4), which do not have stative readings except occasionally

by logical extension.

bkiiwiid 'pull a muscle'

164 RICHARD A. RHODES

biiskon'yed 'get dressed' giiwed 'go home'

On occasion inchoation can be overtly marked by bi- 'com­ing, come and'. For some speakers this is almost obligatory in

certain semantic areas, e.g., weather.

(5) Bi-mzhakwad. 'It's clearing up.' Bi-noodin. 'It's getting windy.' Bi-gsinaa. 'It's getting cold.'

Another thing the morphology hides from us are those forms which are formed of some morphemes being used metaphori­cally and some being used literally. For example, there is a widespread metaphor in Ojibwa approximately like RELATING IS MANIPULATING. The morpheme which is generally used to express grasping motions of the hand, -in-, also appears in forms which metaphorically express actions in interpersonal relationships.

(6) daapnaad ' pick s.o. up' (literally) ' accept s.o.' (figuratively)

webnaad ' throw s.t. (an.) away' (literally) ' d u m p s.o.' (figuratively)

But this same morpheme also appears in combinations where it is metaphorical while the morpheme to which it is attached is literal.

(7) zhaagoodnaad 'beat s.o. in a contest' medsinaad 'miss s.o. [absent]'

This kind of "partial" metaphor also occurs with initials. For example the metaphor FATAL IS THOROUGH expressed by the morpheme aapd- 'thorough(ly)'.3

(8) (a) Literal Uses

o-apji 'very, a lot'

Aapji nbakde. 'I'm very hungry.'

3It is possible that this is backwards. It m a y have originally meant 'fa­tally)', then generalized, and shifted to mean 'thorough (ly)'. All that is important for the present argument is that there are two meanings, regard­less of the history.

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(^ 'I'm starving to death.')

aapdaapid 'laugh very long'

aapdagoojing 'fall full force'

aapdendid 'be absent for a very long time'

(b) Metaphorical Uses (often glossed 'for the last time')

aapjishing 'fall to one's death'

aapjibzod 'drive/fly to one's death'

Similarly there is the metaphor WELL IS OFTEN, usually ex­pressed by the morpheme, ntaa(w)- 'often; well, capably'.

(9) (a) Literal Uses ntaa- 'often'

ntaa-wnishing 'be often lost, get lost often'

(cf. (w)nishing 'be lost; get lost')

ntaa-bkwezhganked 'make bread often'

(cf. bkwezhganked 'make bread')

(b) Metaphorical Uses ntaar 'well, capably'

ntaa-zhooshkwaaded 'be able to ice-skate'

ntaa-bkwezhganked 'make good bread'

ntaawchiged 'do things well'

(cf. zhichged 'do something')

ntaawgitood 'raise s.t. (of plants)'

(lit. 'cause s.t. to grow well')

While the metaphors just discussed are largely limited to single morphemes and are only recognizable as true metaphors

166 RICHARD A. RHODES

rather than ambiguities by the reaction of speakers. There is also a class of metaphors which involve larger segments of the lexicon. For example the metaphor TO SPEAK IS TO BE HEARD involves at least three distinct expressions.

(10) (a) naanoodaagzid 'shout'

(lit. 'be repeatedly heard')

(b) -taagzi- 'be heard, sound; speak'

wiintaagzid 'talk dirty'

(lit. 'sound dirty')

nitaagzid 'say something a certain way'

(lit. 'sound a certain way')

(c) (w)mbiigzid 'make noise', in the expression Gdoom-biigiz 'Shut up!'

In this case speakers are hardly aware of the metaphorical nature of these expressions, rather like the M O R E IS HIGHER metaphor of English, many speakers of which don't notice that the vocabulary of verticality is used to talk about amounts — prices go up and down; stockpiles mount up; demand falls; etc. (Lakoff and Johnson 1980). Still this metaphor covers a reasonable number of lexical items because of the involvement of -taagzi-.

Even more extensive is the metaphor SEX IS HUNTING. Some examples are given in (11).

(11) (a) wiiyaas 'a sexual object' (an.) (EO)

(lit. 'meat' (inan.))

(b) baashkzigan '(slang) penis' (an.) (EO)

(lit. 'gun' (inan.))

(c) baashkzigewin 'semen' (EO)

(lit. 'shooting material')

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(d) mdezwaad 'have climax with s.o. (male sub-ject)' (EO)

(lit. 'shoot s.o. (in the distance/out of sight)'

Needless to say this metaphor is very conscious. Speakers have no trouble telling that these terms are metaphoric.

In contrast to these metaphorical extensions which involve a number of different stems and constructions, there are non-literal uses of forms in Ojibwa which, though probably metaphor­ical in origin, are represented only by single morphemic com­binations. These, I would claim, are true idioms.

(12) waab-gookookhoo 'wedding cake' (Ot); (lit. 'white owl')

gwajid 'be/feel cold' (EO); 'be freezing cold' (Oj)

(lit. 'fall over from the cold')

gwaakdozid 'be hungry' (EO); (lit. 'be skinny')

shkwaataad 'die'(Ot); (lit. 'finish doing some­

thing')

Similarly there are a sizeable number of isolated non-literal meanings among the verbs of speaking and verbs referring to emotions. Some examples of the former are given in (13) and some of the latter are given in (14).

(13) nwazmaad 'confront s.o. [with s.t.]' (EO); (lit. 'sieze s.o. with one's mouth')

mbimaad 'stir s.o. up' (Ot); (lit. 'raise s.o. with

one's mouth')

gaanzmaad 'urge s.o. [to do s.t.]'; (lit. 'push s.o. with one's mouth')

168 RICHARD A. RHODES

(14) bbaamendang 'worry [about s.t.]'; (lit. '[go] around in one's mind')

gwendang 'grieve [deeply]' (Ot); (lit. 'fall over in one's mind')

ngadendang 'acclimate; be accustomed [to s.t.]'; (lit. 'leave behind in one's mind')

zoongdehed 'be courageous'; (lit. 'have a firm heart')

The restricted geographical distribution of many such forms (as noted above) further supports the claim that they are id­

ioms, rather than functioning metaphors.

Finally there are also idioms that are or probably are ul­timately culturally based; a few prominent ones are given in

(15).

(15) bgidenmaad 'hold a funeral for s.o.'; (lit. 'let go of s.o. in one's thinking')

gojiing wiisnid 'menstruate'; (lit. 'eat outside')

nmidmooyem 'my wife'; (lit. 'my old woman')

About forms such as these there can be no question as to their idiomatic nature, by anyone's measure.

In conclusion I hope to have shown that our language study must be fleshed out with a line of inquiry that seeks to find out not only what words mean, and when they are used, but also probes what it is that speakers know about the words them­selves. Morphological analysis is a sine qua non, but its limi­tations are clear. Texts are important, but they alone cannot give the whole picture. Until we come to the point of giving the particularities and idiosyncracies of words as high a prior­ity in our theories as their participation in structurally based patterns, we have de facto settled for a two-dimensional view of language.

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REFERENCES

Fillmore, Charles

1982 The Nature of the Lexicon. Lecture presented to the Program in Cognitive Science, University of Michigan.

Markey, Thomas

1985 Totemic Typology. / Quaderni di Semantici (in press).

Rhodes, Richard

1985 Eastern Ojibwa-Chippewa-Ottawa Dictionary. Berlin: Mouton (in press).

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