Chapter published in:
“Self” in Language, Culture, and CognitionYanying Lu
[Cognitive Linguistic Studies in Cultural Contexts 10] 2019
► pp. 111–130
Chapter 6The self within
On the Chinese embodied self
This chapter discusses the Chinese embodied view of selfhood by
examining body parts that constitute an important source of self-related
conceptual schemes and cognitive categories in Chinese. Body parts are found
to be prominent as the seat of the self or one’s essential being in the
Chinese conceptual system. The ways in which they are used by contemporary
Chinese immigrants in the articulation of selfhood not only reflect the
indigenous conceptions of the embodied selfhood in the Chinese conceptual
system, but also reveal some age-old cultural premises which are
historically-transmitted and ideologically formed.
Keywords: the embodied self, body parts, mental processes, emotional being, cultural ethos
Article outline
- 6.1The embodied view of self
- 6.2The embodied self metaphor
- 6.2.1The metonymy of the inner heart
- 6.2.2 the heart stores thoughts
- 6.2.3 the heart accommodates feelings
- 6.2.4 the heart brain bone eyes
- 6.3Discussion and conclusion