Experience Is the Best Teacher： A Cognitive Approach to Some African Mental Representations and Implicit Assumptions on Aids and Other Diseases  

作　　者：Lilian Achieng' Magonya Pamela Anyango Oloo 

机构地区：[1]Maseno University, Maseno, Kenya

出　　处：《US-China Foreign Language》2012年第6期1219-1230,共12页美中外语（英文版）

摘　　要：This paper is an examination of an under-researched area in cognitive linguistics, with specific reference to categorization, mental representations and pragmatic inferences associated with the AIDS （Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome）, and other prevalent ailments in Kenya. To fill this linguistic lacuna, the two goals of this paper are： First and foremost is to examine a sample of African mental representations of AIDS using ethno-specific lexical terms provided by African students studying at University of Geneva, with the aim of providing their corresponding equivalents found in various Kenyan communities. Second, an analysis of pragmatic inferences associated with the following six ailments notably： headache, AIDS, syphilis, malaria, herpes, and Ebola, is undertaken using data drawn from 33 respondents from a high prevalence region of 28% in Maseno division premised within Kisumu County in Kenya. The objective of analyzing ailment-specific assumptions of Maseno division respondents is geared towards determining whether the respondents＇ inferences are consistent with the scientific models of the abovementioned ailments.

关 键 词：interpretive resemblance mental representations CATEGORIZATION implicit assumptions and pragmaticinferences 

分 类 号：S852.659.5[农业科学—基础兽医学] B842.1[农业科学—兽医学]