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Part of
Studies in Figurative Thought and Language
Edited by Angeliki Athanasiadou
[Human Cognitive Processing 56] 2017
► pp. 179–198

Chapter 7
The hand in figurative thought and language

| Radboud University Nijmegen

The hand is a rich source of figurative language. The paper claims that this richness has to do with the central role of the hand in human active involvement in the world. This claim fits recent developments in phenomenological philosophy, according to which cognition is based on enactive embodiment. The empirical part of the paper uses examples from Dutch and other languages, both on the lexical and the phraseological level. It turns out that most figurative uses of the words for ‘hand’ are of the metonymic type. Special attention is given to the target domain of numerals. Finally, it is shown that laterality plays a role: The right hand is used in figurative expressions with a positive connotation, whereas the left hand leads to expressions with a negative connotation.

Keywords: Dutch, enactive embodiment, hand, laterality, numerals
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The special status of the hand
  • 3.The hand as a target domain
  • 4. Hand as a source domain
    • 4.1On the word level
    • 4.2Target domains of hand in fixed expressions
      • Activity, inactivity, degree of difficulty to carry out the activity:
      • To exercise control, have a grip on something:
      • Possession, in particular money, often in relation to trade:
      • Positive human relations and emotions:
      • Negative human relations (competition, aggression, stealing)
      • Certainty
      • Evidentiality
      • Emotions
      • Time
  • 5.A special target domain: Numerals
    • Depicting numbers in writing
  • 6.Laterality
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 26 April 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.56.07foo
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