Extract

Camfranglais lexical items can be grouped into different semantic domains. As we all know, there are several types of meaning, such as denotative, connotative, associative, and stylistic meaning. What this entails is that a single lexical entry may have several shades of meaning, and thus belongs to different semantic domains. In such cases, it will be found under these different domains. Semantic domains tend to overlap, as one may entail or include the other. Some word types have a relatively low frequency of occurrence and they are grouped instead of creating separate semantic fields for them. The idea in grouping words into semantic domains is to indicate what the preoccupations of speakers of Camfranglais are, and which domains appear to be more represented than others. For example, words referring to sex, homosexuals and sensuality have been grouped under the umbrella semantic domain “Sex and Sexuality.” Terms used to denote homosexuals have also been listed under the domain “Humans and Social Relationships. All in all, there is great overlap between the different domains. Items that do not fall in any specific semantic domain were listed under the catch-all category, “miscellaneous.” Data manipulation reveals the following major semantic domains. They are first presented in the table and then discussed.

Table 2: Major semantic fields in Camfranglais

HUMANS AND SOCIAL RELATIONS (248 items)

Aboki, Acteur, Aise, Akondjoh, Alamimbu, Allô, Alhadji, Anglo, Anniv, Affichage, Afficher, Ass/Asso, Atalakou, Ambiances, Ambiancer, Ambianceur, Baby, Bahat, Bala, Bams, Bamenda, Bao, Boss, Beau,...