The lexical and grammatical extensions of gaba ‘chest’ in Hausa

This paper studies the cognitive conceptualization of the body part term gaba ‘chest’ in Hausa language based on the embodiment hypothesis. The Conceptual Metaphor theory is used as the framework for analysis. The data in this paper was collected from various texts, from which expressions containing the term gaba were extracted. The expressions containing figurative usage of the term were selected and analyzed based on their domains of extension. The data shows that the term gaba has been extended into various domains of usage. It has also been grammaticalized into spatial and temporal domains. The results of the analysis further suggest that linguistic expressions of abstract concepts depend on syntactic influences within the phraseological units of the term.