Semantic Concepts of Hausa Language: An Analytical and Descriptive Study at the Level of Words

: The paper dealt with the problem of semantic concepts in the Hausa language, describing and analyzing some of its terms, and how to conceive them in the multiplicity of meaning, metaphor and semantic taboos. It also aimed to know the semantic characteristics of Hausa language that are rarely found together in another language, seeking to increase the ability to interpret meaning, to determine the level of the exact correctness of translation from and to Hausa language, understanding the ways of thinking of its people in generating meanings, and the effect of that on social life. The paper reviewed the definition of the concept, the perception, the connotation and the meaning, then explained the means of obtaining the meaning in the Hausa language, and some words were used as examples, The paper reached into some conclusions, including that the study of semantic concepts helps in determining the second meaning, and developing new terms and the historical study of language, There are terms borrowed by Hausa language as a result of concept contrast and their connotations are included in other terms.


Introduction:
The human language is one of the most complex things that scientists have not been able to explore its reality and control it completely and convincingly. The semantic meaning and how it is generated and obtained is based on those things. The researchers will try to address some of its issues in this research, and inevitably they do not talk about the nature of the basic relationship between word and meaning; that relationship, which in its entirety does not depart from arbitrariness, customary or naturalness. But rather it attempts to talk about the relationship between the concept of the second meaning and its idea, and between its semantic field and verbal derivation; this is what is reflected in the metaphor and other aspects of the homograph and semantic taboo.

‫ج‬
From this point of view, the research problem appears to be of philosophical linguistics or the philosophy of language rather than other branches. By assembling its scattered parts, and putting them in one methodology, it will reveal clear foundations that help in creating a complete theory to study the meaning and its relations from the perspective of the conceptual field. This theory aims to understand, analyze and facilitate human language learning. Knowledge of the linguistic concept in general and semantic in particular increases the control of language in the following aspects: 1-Increasing the capacity for hermeneutic and suggestive interpretation of the singular and compound meaning. 2-Determining the exact correct level of the translation process. 3-Develop new words, terms and meanings. 4-Knowing the methods of linguistic thinking in generating meanings, and its impact on the social and intellectual life of speakers of the relevant language. 5-Enhancing or correcting some presumptive opinions regarding the origin of languages and their distribution to families and factions.
Since the research sheds light on the nature of the relationship between the second meanings and their expressions, and the social life in the Hausa language, by analyzing those meanings and tracing their hierarchy and fields, its objectives will be limited to single words or the equivalent of compound words, which have semantic specificity (homograph, metaphor) and compare them with Arabic or English words when necessary to clarify a point, and we prefer the use Kano dialect.

Objectives of the Study
The paper dealt with the problem of semantic concepts in the Hausa language, describing and analyzing some of its terms, and how to conceive them in the multiplicity of meaning, metaphor and semantic prohibitions.

Questions of the Study
This study tries to answer the following raised questions:

Material of the Study
The material of the research is collection of words in Hausa language gathered by the researchers. Furthermore, the data of the study foster the processes of generating new meanings Hausa languages, besides providing applicable examples to show such processes.

Data Analysis
The researchers will agitate some relevant methods of generating new meanings in Hausa language: The research consists of three axes, preceded by an introduction and followed by a conclusion. The axes are: Definition: the concept, semantics and meaning, the means of obtaining meaning in the Hausa language, and studying the concepts and meanings of some words and their analysis.
First, definition of: Concept, Semantics and Meaning.

1-Concept:
The concept ( ‫)مفهوم‬ is based on the triple root ‫م(‬ ‫ـ‬ ‫ه‬ ‫:)ف‬ "understood" and its meaning in the language does not depart from the subjective realization of the facts of things. As a terminology, it has several definitions: According to scientific disciplines, all of which serve the purpose of the research, including "A general and abstract mental conception of the things of reality. It is a mental process that (the recipient) performs to deduce the relationships that can exist between a group of words, meanings and things." It was said about it "A mental term for the common characteristics of a group of things or events that distinguish them from others and this perception is given a name" (Al-Khalili et al., 1995, p.10). Based on (Al -Jourani, 2009, p.14), it is "An abstract mental perception in the form of a symbol, word, or sentence used to denote a thing, object, or certain phenomenon". It was also defined as "the image that occurs in the mind in terms of being intended by the expression" [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki]. Some philosophers consider the basic relationship of the concept with existent things, whether they are visualizations in the mind or real objects , which makes it related to problems of meaning, connotation and reference. Linguistic concepts are subject to special environmental and cultural frameworks. The concept is usually constructed from perceptions. And occurs through the five senses, memories, and imaginations, and from the product of imaginative thought. The formation of the semantic concept is a special impression or perception, which differs according to the language and according to the different experiences of its people, and yet the meaning of the same concept may be similar for people of two or more languages, when the experiences are similar.

‫ج‬
Concepts do not arise suddenly and are completely clear, and do not end with the people of the language at a certain point, but grow and develop, according to the facts of life. According to (Yunus, 2007, p.50), "language contains many words whose concepts differ among people with different individuals, and although there is a common destiny between them in understanding those words, which is a defective participation, in any case. Nevertheless, it provides them with an opportunity for mutual understanding". There is a difference between the concept and the referent, as John Lyons says: Philosophers of language distinguished "between the concept and the referent. They said that in order to know the meaning of any expression referring to something natural, we must know its concept, that is, to know its distinctive qualities or the necessary sufficient conditions according to the philosophical concept that must be satisfied in any entity or a subject that falls within the meaning of the expression we are dealing with. (Lyons, 1987, p.77). Among the clear related terms is the term ‫اك"‬ ‫"إدر‬ (perception), which is an integral part of the concept, and it has been defined as an image in which we represent things with an idea, and it is a pure mental vision of things. There is nothing clearer than perception, because we cannot understand things without it. http://www.alawan.org/article10458.html. In the linguistic concept, the perceptions may be internal specific to the individual and may be external, and (Makhloof, 2010, p. 18), stated that: "the perceptions that come from outside are shared by many people, but our private perceptions come from the system in which we put them, according to the culture in which we live and receive them." The special coordination of knowledge leads to the formation of concepts about objects and mental images, linking them to each other, and forming a cognitive fabric that is different from other cognitive systems". The relationship between perception or concept and linguistic meaning may be a visible or hidden relationship that requires consideration and contemplation or metaphor based on a relationship.

2-Semantics:
Semantics is an ancient and renewed science, and it has been known that it is "for understanding a thing in a state, knowledge in something else is required, " (Al-Jurjani, 1991, p.116).The science related to it (semantics) searches for meaning from its various aspects and topics on the levels of vocabulary and structures. According to ( Al-Khouli, 1982, p.251), It is a "branch of linguistics that studies the relationship between the linguistic symbol and its meaning, and it studies the historical development of the meanings of words, the diversity of meanings, the linguistic metaphor, and the relationships between the words of the language. There are many linguistic theories that detail the saying about the types of meaning, the stages of its existence, its components, and its relationships. And that arbitrariness is the prevailing opinion and this principle applies to all human languages in the basic meaning, or the basic significance. Because of the unlimited need of mankind to express the contents of himself and his thoughts, he diversified these basic meanings and transformed them into second meanings or metaphorical connotations, which are connotations with clear relations in their greatest majority, and ambiguous in the rest of them. The nature of the relationship between the first meaning and the utterance and the second meaning reflects in one of its stages the growth and gradation of linguistic thought, and its connection to the social and environmental aspect existing in the region of the spread of the language, and this is at the level of single and compound words and compound idiomatic expressions. Many scientists and researchers went to the fact that languages switched from the use of tangible physical connotation to abstract moral connotation. This is considered to be one of the stages of the siphistication of the people of those languages and their advancement in the course of thought and civilization, which is a logical opinion and a realistic doctrine that is in harmony with the laws of life. But in explaining its cause and justifying its occurrence, it should be taken into account that he who does not convert the connotation of his words to abstraction is not considered backward or underdeveloped in any way. Connotation generally consists of three pillars: the reference, inference and the relationship between them. The linguistic connotation includes three components: The linguistic component deals with the sign, the lexical component, which is the lexical meaning, and the realistic component represented by the external environment. Objects and the generation of meanings from existing terms are carried out by special processes that take into account the following issues: Choosing an attribute of a thing or some of its parts, aspects, or actions, such as: Zana: ( grass mat ) Zani (female costume) Zane (line) Or an indication of the most prominent and most characteristic of the name or its main work. Mudubi: (madubi:) the mirror Abinci: food Then comes the stage of converting the previous meaning into a second meaning, and the figurative use, and here we find a clear relationship between the word and the referent based on a collective social vision in most cases. It is noted that the beginning of naming things in most cases is pure and clear, in which the matching of the main features between the word and the referent is achieved. Then the restrictions imposed by the culture on this principle in some areas come and develop into what is called totally or partially prohibited (taboo).

3-Meaning:
(Al-Jurjani, 1991, p.281), says about the meaning that : It is "the intent, the meaning and the content of the speech, when it is said the content of his speech, that is, its content and connotations, and the demonstration of what is contained in the word" and "the meanings are the mental image that the idea formed by consciousness about the appearance of things in the outside world around it" ibid. And (Al-Fawaz, 2013), opines "the meaning is the perception occurring in the mind or the idea formed by consciousness about the manifestations of things in the external world surrounding it". (Ullman, 1951, p.64), defined meaning as "a reciprocal relationship between the utterance and the referent, enabling each of them to invoke the other" All of these definitions refer to the conceptual dimension related to the mind in its definition of the meaning. (Merah, 2008, P.8), believed that: "The relationship of language and meaning to philosophy is the relationship of philosophy with the topic of its basic research, which is language for producing concepts and revolves around two points: language as an entity that includes term and meaning, it is terms and meanings, is part of it, and language as words and meanings, and the meaning here is part to all of them. The modern linguists say that the meaning of the word stems from three different elements: the symbol, the thing, and the conception, and that there is no direct or necessary relationship between the word, symbol, thing or subject, but this relationship is idiomatic, arbitrary or optional. Omar, (1988, P.54). The meaning has many types with many considerations and according to the different field of knowledge, and one of the most important types from the linguistic point of view. ibid p. (36-39).
The primary or central meaning, which is the conceptual or perceptual meaning. ... and the additional or secondary meaning, which is the meaning that the word receives by referring to it alongside its pure conceptual meaning and it is additional meaning, to the basic meaning and does not have the quality of consistency and comprehensiveness, but it changes with the change of culture, time or experience .. The stylistic meaning, which is the meaning that a piece of language carries in view of the social conditions of its users and the geographical area to which it belongs...and the psychological meaning, which refers to the connotations of the word in the individual, as it is an individual and subjective meaning...and the suggestive meaning is the meaning that relates to words with a special ability to suggest." (Abdullah, 2011, p.178), pointed out "The meaning for most modern linguists is related to our conception of a thing or our perception of it, not to the thing itself." What is meant here is the first or basic meaning, so it is difficult to link it with the thing or its parts. Some researchers believe that the meaning and the methods for obtaining it are among the most difficult aspects of the language, because it is related to various sciences. Based on (Lyons, 1987, p.16), notification "The field of meaning, its diversity, and its complexities, as expressed in language, cannot be compared with any communication behavior in humans or others", and the meaning received "the attention of a large number of The social sciences and it does not fall within one of them " ibid, Only for meanings sometimes seem separate from each other, and at other times multiple, interconnected and mixed with each other. It is difficult to comprehend and produce it, as Makhloof pointed out that: "when a person cannot make his own meaning, he controls it through his interpretation" and hence the difficulty of translation arises, between languages that do not belong to one environment and the keys to linguistic concepts and perceptions of meaning are multiple.
On the other hand, (Hall, 1968. P.158) says: "Language is the social institution by which people communicate to one another, and interact by way of habitually oral-‫ج‬ auditory symbols." Accordingly, (Louise, 1980, p.130), thinks that: "every language imposes a certain form on what is the world in which you operate". According to (Yunus, 2007, p.39) analysis " language and its expressions show us things-in-themselves or as they show us our viewpoint on those things". Nevertheless," the limits of meaning in the word are relative because of its expansion " (Shaa Al-Din, 2000, p.105).
Overall, every language pronounces and organizes the world in a different way. Each language reflects the world in its own way. Therefore, it is wrong to consider one language as the criterion against which the rest of the languages are measured in any part of the particles. II-Means of obtaining meaning in the Hausa Language.
With our talk about utterances, we must not think that the word "is the core point in connotation, as there are small phonemic branches within it, which are the sound beginning of meanings." One of the morphological methods similar to that is to create and find meanings, and among the most of these methods is the syntax method, although Hausa language is derivative language. However, it increased the combination of words and pasted them in different forms, so it combined the noun with the noun, the noun with the verb, the pronoun with the verb, the object with the noun and the sentence with another sentence. And the greatest majority of these combinations in the science of syntax in Hausa language are precisely in the separation of the phrase, and it may also be an additional phrase, an attribution statement, a descriptive phrase, or an infinitive, or a combination. And besides the composition there are some means which will be discussed in detail below: 4-Composition: is the pasting of a word or sentence with another word or sentence to give a new meaning. Examples include:

5-Derivation:
In the Hausa language, the gerund is the origin of the derivatives without dispute (Dawood, 2001, p.154). The derivation is standard today in Hausa language, but there are some rigid formulas from which it is difficult to derive from or to weigh, and about the origin of words. What the Hausa linguists suggest is the dual origin of verbs.: "The roots of verbs that are mostly single-syllable, is more common, but the two-syllable roots of the type are also very frequent. ibid, p: 154. Among the models of derivation are derivatives in the Hausa Language. So Soyayya-masoyyi:love, loving -lover Doka-Madoki dakkaki: strikestriker -stroked Some derivative forms in Hausa language have fixed connotation, so the sources indicating the meaning of the kinetic action and their weight are constant. Like barewa karyawa jefarw a peel, throwing and expulsion, shortening is the shortening of words and the preservation of one or more letters. It is rare for the absence of the features of most words. Shortening is known to be two-syllable in a number of its words. Among his examples are the following Dawood, (2010, p: 270): It is noticed that the shortening in the Hausa language abounds in proper names, especially borrowed ones, rather than the original expressions. 6-Coinage, which deducts someone from the following: tazarce-birk-sak-idid Functional change This behavior is known by the Hausa language, but most of the functional change is confined to adjectives that turn into proper nouns. (Al-Mubarak, 1964, P.292) says barrowing is: "One of the phenomena of the convergence of languages and the influence of some of them on each other". There is no living language that does not affect others and affected by others as well, and it is not necessary for the influence to be mutual, as it may be from one direction. (Abu Manga, 1994, p140) thinks that it is noted that the Hausa language, like other languages, influenced and was influenced by the languages that came into contact with it in the fields of life. Besides Arabic, there are English, French (in Niger in particular), Kanuri, Fulani, Berber, Yoruba, Igbo (specific words) and Singh, most of its words have been adapted. The borrower may borrow some of the words that have equivalents in it.

8-Repetition:
The method of repetition or is to repeat the whole word or part of it to generate a specific meaning. It is clear in the Hausa language. Repetition in Hausa is divided into two types, (Judah, 2009. P.199 According to (Abdel-Jalil, 2001, p.73) "the linguistic outcome is described as infinite based on the overlapping of expressive structures between semantic fields, and these structures, when used in brief, range between the original meaning and the figurative meaning" and the significance of the metaphor cannot be a new signification completely separated from the signification and the old meaning, but rather a thin thread links it and may fade, but it will remain.

Concepts, meanings and analysis of some words:
Most peoples and nations have been affected by western linguistic thought in its various languages and schools, and these peoples have tried to apply its theories to their languages with their curricula, foundations and rules, and they have missed one fact that languages differ according to human beings differences in their characteristics and concepts. There are advantages in African languages that do not exist in European languages and vice versa. Among the African languages that have some special characteristics, the Hausa language has a religious, social and economic status in West Africa. Hausa language ranks forty-first. http://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki, in terms of being a second or more communicative language, and ranks forty as a mother language. Encarta, (2005). We will present some of the obsessive semantic concepts in determining the meaning, choosing the second meaning, and its mental conception, and we will focus on some of the social life expressions from these conceptual characteristics as follows. 1-The word (ji), based on Ronayne & Russell, (1976) the only Hausa languageaccording to the opinion of the American authors of the book (Spoken Hausa), in which the verb (hear) is used to ask about its meaning: Ka na jin Hausa? In fact, the verb (ji) does not have a corresponding lexical unit in English, as the word (listen) that only means hear and the word (know), (understand), while the word (ji) using the theory of formative analysis of meaning. It means (hear + understand + perceive + know), such as: a man (human + male + adult). At the same time, it is one of the common words and it is according to (kamusun Hausa,sh, p.215) means: listening, understanding, seeing, hurting, contentment, proud, enjoying, following, admiring, feeling, and tasting. The concept of the verb according to the old Hausa man combines all these perceptions, so what he means: "You know and understand Hausa language." What this saying is likely to be true is that there is no equivalent to the concept of the word (understanding) in Hausa language, despite its presence in a number of languages around it, such as the Dandiyya spread in Benin (ama) and the Yoruba in southern and western Nigeria and some neighboring countries (woye). Hausa people do not need the term (understanding), because this concept is included within (ji), and when they need this concept, they barrow it from Arabic (fahimta), as if they wanted to put a solution to the confusion of those who did not understand the concept (ji) because it was affected by the linguistic conceptual habits, and after that the meaning of the word developed. In addition to this, listening is the first linguistic skill acquired by the consensus of scholars, and it means understanding. Understanding does not necessarily mean speaking, one can respond to you by sign or in another language, where there is more spaciousness. This concept has wide connotations that have generated many meanings in Hausa language, including blood: (jini) and equal to (feeling + I) and it means in the conceptual perception of the meaning (my feeling), where we find that (ni) is the subject pronoun of the object, and it can be transformed into: (feel me and reflect on me): (jinii), up to (feeling and feeling you) (ji ka) and so on. This speech reinforces the common relationship in some conceptions of meanings between Arabic and Hausa language The capillaries are (jijiya) and analyzed (hair + hair+ feminine morpheme (ya)). All researchers paid attention to the words, and neglect the concept or perception and the side of meaning. The same as hot pepper (chili), (yaji) that means: feeling and sense. The word (jiki) is used for the body that carries blood, hair, and capillaries, and the word consists of two parts (ji) + (ki), which means the name of the sound of the movement of the withdrawn body" ibid (p.243), and the connotation is clear and strong between them. 2-Jagora: This word falls in the part of adjectives, and it is an adjective for the person who leads the blind as an evidence in his beggary ibid (p.211), and it is a compound of two words, the first (Ja) meaning (pull or drag), and the second (gora) a kind of stick. This view is supported by two things, namely that it is common in Hausa language to generate words with the predicate structure such as: s Kama karya-fadi ka mutu-ka fi zabuwa. Another thing is that most basic verbs in Hausa language are the binary syllable: Ci ji sha zo: Come, drink, listen, eat, accordingly. The concept of the word indicates the view of the Hausa people on the phenomenon of beggary -the practice of all the peoples of the earth -and how to deal with it. Some human societies see it as a source of livelihood and a profession in which there is no burden or stress, and some believe that it is humiliating and corrupting the society, and some of them have no begging because they do not show mercy on those who practice it, and with a careful look at the Hausa society, we find that its view differs, and there is some moderation in it. Hausa society is a practical society in which there is no place for the unemployed or the idle, except for those who have a legitimate excuse such as the blind and the crippled, and who has no hands or paralyzed two legs. And since in most cases there is no support for a boy or girl for beggary, the needy resort to hiring any boy to lead him as a guide. The process of begging is called Bara, ibid (p: 37) which is the search for alms from people. They differentiate between it and rogo, which indicates the request for giving or a gift without return, as if the beggar is unable to give him charity, so they said (bara), and the able beggar has no right to charity. It stems from the sound religious monotheistic instinct of the Hausa society, which is that the response is a gift from Allah, so the verb (rogo) is a transitive verb from the word (jagora). Hausa language derives (jagorance), (jagoranci) and (jagoranta), all of which denote the leadership of the people.

3-Tattaba kunne:
It's one of the words with semantic concepts specific to the Hausa language and its speakers, and it may not have a corresponding lexical unit in a number of natural languages except by resorting to description. This word means, as it came in the Hausa dictionary, the son of the grandson of the living grandfather, and the grandson of the great-grandson as well, and in this concept there is some kindness. Tattaba is composed of two words (tattaba), which is a morphological form that indicates intensifying the verb and its origin is (taba) which has several meanings and its meaning according to the syntactic context: (touch and feel), and (kunne) is the ear. An old man who is out of power carries ‫ج‬ one of his grandchildren or great-grandchildren while the carried baby is constantly playing with his ear.

Semantic taboos
According to (Abdel Tawab, 1999, p345), taboo is defined as "everything that is sacred or cursed that is forbidden to be touched, or approached, whether it is from things and names" and its causes include fear or terror, a feeling of embarrassment, and a sense of modesty. The Hausa people hate uttering some phrases and expressions when they are not alone, so they use other words as substitutes for them and frequently use and repeat them, so they abandon them and generate other words, such as the words indicating the water closet (W.C). The study of prohibited speech or taboo words as a linguistic phenomenon closely related to society or the linguistic group is subject to different social rules and considerations from one society to another. These rules or social considerations are accepted or rejected when using certain words, such as words that relate to defects and physical impairments, names of diseases and mention of death and others. As in the case of the Hausa society: the jinn, for example, are nicknamed: mutanen boye, iska, inna, and others. They also speak of sexual intercourse in many words, including: kwanciyar aure, hada shimfida, kusantar mace, and for the pregnancy: Samun rabo and Cin wake.
For example, what we find in the Hausa society that they nickname the names of fathers, in-laws, and firstborn sons and daughters. The name kaashii "stool" is among the forbidden words that the metonymy has been revolving around in the Hausa society -so they gave it many words, some of which are names and others are adjectives and circumstances that they put in place of the name as circulated in Arab society -in the name of the event itself to its cause and what causes it from one side to the event itself. Among the concepts replaced by the word ba haya, they call the place where the need is dispensed in some way in Arabic, for example, so it is for the event in the place, as it is called in Hausa for bayan gida the place with the event "excrement" due to the spatial relationship between them, and the origin of this speech is behind the house, when it was not spent inside the house or in front of it, but rather It was spent outside it or behind it. They released to the place of the event what was for the event as a metaphor and pun. We also find for this particular place where the need arises, various metaphors between what is a noun such as: Masai, Shadda and Salga corresponding to the ‫كنيف‬ and ‫مرحاض‬ in Arabic, and what is an adverb that took the place of the noun towards: Bandaki (behind the room) equivalent to W.C. Hausa people feel very embarrassed to utter any of the explicit words in the name of this disgusting event, even the place where this disgusting event occurred.. So they began to grope for the words to replace them, so they found the word Bandaki (behind the room) where the need is satisfied, so he used it. And when the concept became widespread in the community and became hesitant, Hausa people felt the urgent need for another word to ease the pain of declaring it. So they searched for a word that is more indirect than and less in effect than the first, so they chose the word zagayawa (hiding) because the person who need to relieve himself, hides from eyes, so he used it as a substitute or synonym for the event. The Arabs also used the word ‫:)غائط(‬ toilet for the same thing, which is the low place that a person uses to cover himself when relieving himself and here there is a similarity in concepts. The Hausa people did not remain so until they finally stopped at what is symbolized in European languages by toilet or water closet (W.C). They borrowed it, and it is noticed that the multiplicity of names resulted from the attempt to hide the Hausa tongue behind declaring the prohibition of speech. Therefore, he spares no effort whenever the term spreads in social circles. He tries to replace it with another -according to the semantic prohibition law -so that his tongue does not become accustomed to declaring that is socially prohibited.

Results
In the wake of this presentation, the researcher will compile the reached results as follow: -The study of semantic concepts helps in determining the second meaning, developing new terms and the historical study of language. -There are terms borrowed by Hausa language as a result of concept contrast and their connotations are included in other terms. -Hausa Language is rich in terms of conceiving the multiplicity of meaning, metaphor and semantic taboos. -Semantic characteristics of Hausa language are rarely found together in another language. -The conservative nature of Hausa society helped to find lots of linguistic substitutes for taboo words and expressions from different sources.

Conclusion:
All around, the study confirms that the multiplicity of meaning, metaphor and semantic taboos are deep-rooted in Hausa language. Hausa Language borrowed some of its euphemistic expressions that are used to replace taboo words from other languages including Arabic Language. Other means are also used for sake of enriching semantic meanings of taboo expressions such as; composition, derivation, and borrowing. The semantic characteristics of Hausa language are rarely found together in another language. Moreover, this field requires extra deep and specialized studies that may guide to the results of remarking some of the conceded opinions in the language study.