Semantic Relativism in Terminological Expressions in French and Yoruba Languages: Idiomatic Expressions

Abstract

Idiomatic expression, which is the object of our focus in this study is a powerful educational tool in any foreign language learning. It serves as an additional instrument for learners in obtaining L2 competence, acquiring conversational fluency skills and understanding the culture of the target language. It is quite obvious that, idiomatic expressions could have similar meaning in different languages but the identification of the equivalence is the problem except one has come across it before. The objective of this paper is therefore, to find out whether the students were aware or not of their French equivalents with similar meanings. It is discovered that, semantically, this type of terminology can be used to describe similar realities in the two languages with different lexical or linguistic variations. The study is both qualitative and quantitative one, where fifty (50) students were asked to pick from the options provided, the French equivalents of their Yoruba counterparts. The idiomatic expressions concerned are fifteen in number, taken from authentic textbooks: Yoruba Idioms by M.A. Fabunmi and Asayan Akanlo Ede Yoruba by Ademola Olopade. The paper hinges on Conceptual Metaphor Theory be idiomatic expressions are metaphorically motivated. Findings revealed that there are potential problems encountered by students in their bid to get or guess the correct  French equivalent of  Yoruba idiomatic expressions. And these could be due to their background in the French language, their non-familiarity with the idiomatic expressions, poor knowledge of the French idiomatic expressions, the degree of the idiomacity, etc