"From Frames to Models”: Interpreting EkeGusii Semantics through Fillmore, Frame semantics and Lakoff’s Cognitive Theories"

Abstract

This study offers a critical application of Charles J. Fillmore’s Frame Semantics and George Lakoff’s Idealized Cognitive Models (ICMs) to EkeGusii, a Bantu language spoken in southwestern Kenya, with the aim of expanding the analytical reach of cognitive linguistics into African linguistic ecologies. Frame Semantics posits that word meanings are comprehensible only in relation to background conceptual structures, or frames, that represent culturally familiar experiences such as commerce, kinship, illness, and ritual. Lakoff’s ICM theory complements this by arguing that such frames are rooted in idealized, schematic representations of how speakers culturally and experientially model the world. While these theories have been extensively applied in the analysis of Indo-European languages particularly English their application to African languages remains underexplored. This study addresses that gap by investigating how EkeGusii lexical items, idiomatic expressions, and culturally salient constructions evoke distinct cognitive frames and ICMs that organize meaning through lived experience. Examples include kinship terminology (makomoke, paternal aunt), agrarian verbs (koburuga, to weed), and euphemistic health expressions (oborwaire obotari bw’abanto, ‘a disease not for people’), all of which reflect deeply entrenched moral, social, and cosmological models of the world. Using qualitative linguistic data, the analysis reveals that EkeGusii meaning-making is not merely referential but experiential and relational, embedding concepts like social hierarchy, moral judgment, and environmental interaction within culturally resonant frames. The ICMs activated in these contexts (for example, moral causality, spiritual agency, social contamination, and restorative balance) demonstrate how cognition is shaped by local cosmologies and normative expectations. The findings extend Fillmore’s and Lakoff’s insights beyond Western-centric linguistic paradigms and affirm the utility of frame-based semantics for African language analysis. In doing so, the paper contributes to the decolonization of linguistic theory by advocating for the inclusion of African epistemologies and indigenous knowledge systems in semantic modeling. The study concludes with a reflection on the methodological implications of integrating Frame Semantics and ICMs in African linguistics, particularly for the purposes of lexicography, language documentation, and culturally grounded language teaching.