THE INTERSECTIONALITY OF COLOUR AND CULTURE IN TIV CONTEXTS: A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS

Abstract

The intersectionality of colour and Tiv culture in Tiv contexts: A semiotic Analysis is important because language and culture are interwoven. The existing literature on colour terms seen and reviewed by the researchers does not show the link between colour terms and Tiv culture. The objectives of the study are as follows: to identify the colour terms in the Tiv language and to examine the link between colour terms and Tiv culture. The researcher collected data for the study by holding unstructured oral interviews with twenty native speakers of Tiv from Makurdi and Gboko Local Government Areas of Benue State due to the fact that colour terms are the same among the Tiv people irrespective of their local government of origin. The collected data were presented and analysed based on the objectives of the study. The study adopted an eclectic approach by using the Theory of Basic Colour Terms which was propounded by Berlin and Kay (1969) and Linguistic Relativity Theory which was propounded by Benjamin Lee Whorf (1956). The study discovered the following colour terms in Tiv: ii ‘black’, kwèr ‘blue’, sh?rsh?r/kyo?n-kyo?n ‘green’, agbédáàng ‘yellow’, púpúúr ‘white’, nyíàn b??ng ‘red’, nyíàn dìndèè ‘maroon’ nduran‘brown’ and dìmììn ‘dark’. The study established that, the colour terms in Tiv are signified by the Tiv people based on the worldview of the people, therefore the naming and interpretation of colour terms in Tiv is an aspect of the Tiv culture. The study contributed to the body of formal linguistic analysis on ethno-semantics by demonstrating that colour terms just as it is with languages of advanced societies, colour terms and Tiv culture are linked.