| Abstract: |
This study examines the lexical-semantic categorisation of vegetable in English and Igbo, with particular attention to hyponymy, co-hyponymy and culturally conditioned category boundaries. Although the referents discussed are generally familiar across the two speech communities, the
lexical organisation of these referents does not correspond neatly across the two languages. The study adopts a qualitative contrastive design within structural lexical semantics, supplemented by insights from culturally situated theories of categorisation. Primary data were obtained through interviews with 26 Igbo speakers comprising 10 foodstuff and vegetable sellers in Abakaliki and Enugu, 12 older speakers from Ishiagu, Ebonyi State, and four Igbo scholars. Secondary materials were used to establish English category labels and to cross-check selected ethnobotanical identifications. The analysis shows that English conventionalises several intermediate categories within the culinary domain of vegetable, including leafy vegetables, root vegetables, cruciferous vegetables and alliums. Mushrooms also participate in the broader English culinary classification of vegetables, although they are biologically fungi and therefore represent a functional rather than
strictly botanical inclusion. In the Igbo data, by contrast, the category most closely corresponding to everyday vegetable is strongly centred on ákwụ́kwọ́ nri ‘edible leaf/leaves used as food’. Items categorised as root vegetables, alliums or mushrooms in English are frequently assigned to
different culturally salient classes in Igbo, including tubers, spices/seasonings and éró ‘mushrooms/fungi’. The findings demonstrate that cross-linguistic differences in food vocabulary arise not merely from lexical gaps but from differences in categorisation, culinary practice and
lexicalisation. Contact-induced borrowing further expands the Igbo food lexicon without necessarily reproducing the English category structure. |
