In exploring the philosophical, linguistic, and cultural contexts of the nature and meaning of names, Yoruba Names: Language, Culture, and History departs from extant referential approaches to names and embraces a culturally nuanced and historically informed perspective. Ehineni elucidates how the connectivity of names, the capacity of names to weave together and simultaneously tease out different dimensions of history, culture, and the social experience demonstrate that names are at the intersection of the linguistic and the cultural. Drawing from different disciplinary traditions, this book shows how Yoruba names compose and/or condense life, history, language, culture, and human (collective, familial, class, religious, individual) experiences. Yoruba Names is a thoughtful examination of the centrality of names and naming in cultural contexts and their implications for the production, performance, and contestation of meanings and the negotiation of human interactions
Wale Adebanwi, Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania.
Professor Taiwo Ehinenis work on Yoruba anthroponyms is one of the most comprehensive scholarly works on African onomasiology. A linguist, linguistic anthropologist and ethnopragmaticist, Professor Ehineni painstakingly identifies, classifies, exemplifies and elucidates the semantic, semiotic, discursive mores and structural characteristics of Yoruba names and naming traditions. Among the Yoruba, one isnt just Ewàtómi Beauty is enough for me, one is beautiful! Thus, Yoruba anthroponyms construct the name-bearers. The names reflect, refract and blend into a web of knowledge that depicts an interlacing of language, ethnicity and identity. This book is highly recommended for linguists, anthropologists, sociologists and communication scholars. It is a treasure that will also benefit the general public/reader.
Samuel Obeng, D.Phil., FGA, Distinguished Professor of Linguistics, Indiana University, Bloomington.
Lisainfo e-raamatute kohta