Meaning and meaning extension of separation verbs in Kiswahili

This study analyses the semantics of Kiswahili separation verbs, with the aim of exploring their categorisation, usage, and patterns of meaning extension. The research is grounded in Cognitive Semantics, drawing on Frame Semantics and Profiling and Base Theory. A qualitative approach was employed, using data from Kiswahili newspapers, storybooks, and other written sources. Thirty-four separation verbs were identified. The analysis demonstrates that these verbs map both concrete and abstract domains, featuring culturally grounded metaphorical extensions. They structure conceptual frames involving detachment, division, destruction, transformation, and exposure. Several verb classes emerged, including those expressing removal from surfaces, parting, cutting and breaking, opening, dispersing, and altering the body. Examples include bandua ‘peel off’, funua ‘reveal’, and pasua ‘split’, which extend systematically to figurative senses. Cultural factors also shape these verbs, as evidenced by chinja ‘ritual slaughter’ and keketa ‘circumcise’. Highly productive verbs such as mwaga ‘spill’ extend to reveal secrets or perform vigorously, while others exhibit more limited extension. The main argument of the study is that Kiswahili separation verbs systematically encode both concrete and metaphorical concepts of separation, reflecting embodied experiences and cultural practices through complex cognitive and semantic structures.