THE SEMANTICS OF METALANGUAGE: IMPLICATION FOR IGBO LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING

Abstract

The exchange in contact that exists between developed countries and underdeveloped or developing countries has introduced importation of words across the globe. However, translating and getting the equivalence of some of these imported words have become a huge task for linguists and translators, as some have delved into the creation of metalanguage in order to naturalize some of these foreign concepts, using approaches like coinage, conversion, borrowing, adaptation etc. Previous researches have relied on the orthographic acculturation of some of these technical foreign concepts into the target language, and as such have not solved the issue of nativization especially in language teaching and learning. Data from two existing literatures on metalanguage are used in this study and a total of 52 translated words from the data are categorized according to their relevance in providing the semantic features needed, using frame semantics as the basis for the analysis. Findings reveal that while some translated words have connections to the perceptions in the target language; others have mere orthographic representation of the target language but lack the ability to trigger any concept in the minds of the unexposed target language user. This paper suggests that for proper development in learning, translations, equivalent to the experiential frame of the learner should be formed /created. The use of teaching aid should also be employed to facilitate the teaching and learning of foreign terminologies that are way outside the experiential view of the target language.