Naming the Pandemic: Semantic and Ethical Foundations of HIV/AIDS Shona Vocabulary

Abstract

The article investigates the names that Shona-speaking people in contermporary Zimbabwe create and use in casual communication on the Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome(HIV/AIDS), the messages transmitted through these names and the ethical motivation for preferring these names to the English term HIV/AIDS. We refer to the Shona names as indirection verbal strategies that take the form of euphemisms, metaphors, colloquial expressions and slang. However the motivation for preferring an indirect communication mode is best understood in the context of notion politeness that govern human interaction and speech on issue pertaining to sex,illness and and death in Shona society