Article published in:
International Journal of Language and Culture
Vol. 1:1 (2014) ► pp. 98–130

Figurative and non-figurative use of body-part words in descriptions of emotions in Dalabon (Northern Australia)

| Dynamique du Langage, CNRS / Université Lyon 2 Australian National University
This article examines the status and functions of body-part words with respect to linguistic descriptions of emotions in Dalabon (Northern Australia). As in many languages in the world, words denoting invisible (internal) body-parts occur in figurative expressions. These expressions instantiate metaphors and metonymies inspired by non-observable somatic responses to emotions. In addition to this figurative pattern of usage, many more words for visible body-parts occur in expressions where they serve to produce more detailed descriptions of emotional behaviors — specifying which body-part is involved in a given emotional manifestation. The relatively widespread use of body-part words in such descriptions of emotions fosters semantic extensions, where some body-part nouns gain emotional connotations. The article analyzes these descriptive functions of body-part nouns in Dalabon, and examines how they reinforce semantic associations between body-parts and emotions.
Keywords: Australian languages, behavior, metaphor, Dalabon, emotion, body
Published online: 22 August 2014
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijolc.1.1.06pon
References
Alpher, B.J
(1982) Dalabon dual-subject prefixes, kinship categories and generation skewing. In J. Heath, F. Merlan, & A. Rumsey (Eds.), Langages of kinship in Aboriginal Australia, Vol. 241 (pp. 19-30). Sydney: Oceania Linguistic Monographs.Google Scholar
Baker, M.C., Aranovich, R., & Golluscio, L.A
(2005) Two types of syntactic noun incorporation: Noun incorporation in Mapudungun and its typological implications. Language, 81(1), 138-176. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Baron-Cohen, S
(2004) Mind reading: The interactive guide to emotions. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.Google Scholar
Capell, A
(1962) Dalabon grammar. In Some linguistic types in Australia, Oceania Linguistic Monographs, Vol. 71 (pp. 90-126). Sydney.Google Scholar
Cutfield, S
(2011) Demonstratives in Dalabon. A language of south-western Arnhem Land. PhD Thesis, Monash University, Melbourne. http://​arrow​.monash​.edu​.au​/vital​/access​/manager​/Repository​/monash:89857Google Scholar
De Heer, R., & Djigirr, P
(2006) Ten Canoes. Australia: Vertigo Production.Google Scholar
Enfield, N.J
(2001) Linguistic evidence for a Lao perspective on facial expression of emotion. In A. Wierzbicka & J. Harkins (Eds.), Emotions in crosslinguistic perspectives (pp. 149-166). Berlin/Hawthorne/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Enfield, Nick J
(2002) Ethnosyntax: Explorations in grammar and culture. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Enfield, Nick J., & Wierzbicka, A
(2002a) The body in description of emotion. In Nick J. Enfield & A. Wierzbicka (Eds.), The body in description of emotion, Pragmatics and Cognition, Vol. 101 (pp. 1-25). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2002b) The body in description of emotion: Pragmatics and Cognition, Vol. 101. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Evans, N
(2003) Bininj Gun-Wok: A pan-dialectal grammar of Mayali, Kunwinjku and Kune. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
(2006) Who said polysynthetic languages avoid subordination? Multiple subordination strategies in Dalabon. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 26(1), 31-58. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2007) Standing up your mind. In M. Amberber (Ed.), The language of memory in a cross-linguistic perspective (pp. 67–95). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Evans, N., Brown, D., & Corbett, G
(2001) Dalabon pronominal prefixes and the typology of syncretism: A network morphology analysis. In B. Geert & J. Van Marle (Eds.), Yearbook of morphology 2000 (pp. 103-172). Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Evans, N., Fletcher, J., & Ross, B
(2008) Big words, small phrases: Mismatches between pause units and the polysynthetic word in Dalabon. Linguistics, 46(1), 89-129. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Evans, N., & Merlan, F
(2001) Possession, parts and properties in Dalabon. Annual Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society. Canberra.Google Scholar
(2003) Dalabon verb conjugation. In N. Evans (Ed.), The non-Pama-Nyungan Languages of Northern Australia: Comparative studies of the continent’s most linguistically complex region, Vol. 5521 (pp. 268-283). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Evans, N., Merlan, F., & Tukumba, M
(2004) A first dictionary of Dalabon. Maningrida: Maningrida Arts and Culture, Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation.Google Scholar
Evans, N., & Wilkins, D
(2000) In the mind’s ear: The semantic extensions of perception verbs in Australian languages. Language, 76(3), 546-592. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gaby, A.R
(2008) Guts feelings: Locating emotion, life force and intellect in the Thaayorre body. In F. Sharifian, R. Dirven, & Y. Ning (Eds.), Body, culture and language: Conceptualizations of internal body organs across cultures and languages (pp. 27-44). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Goddard, C
(1994) Lexical primitives in Yankunytjatjara. In C. Goddard & A. Wierzbicka (Eds.), Semantics and lexical universals: Theory and empirical findings (pp. 229-262). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Harkins, J
(1990) Shame and shyness in the Aboriginal classroom: A case for “practical semantics.” Australian Journal of Linguistics, 10(2), 293-306. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(1996) Cultural differences in concepts of shame. In D. Parker, R. Dalziell, & I. Wright (Eds.), Shame and the modern self (pp. 84-96). Melbourne: Melbourne Australian Scholarly Publishing.Google Scholar
Hasada, R
(2002) “Body-part” terms and emotions in Japanese. In Nick J. Enfield & A. Wierzbicka (Eds.), The body in description of emotion, pragmatics and cognition, Vol. 101 (pp. 271-303). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Hiatt, L.R
(1978) Classification of the emotions. In L.R. Hiatt (Ed.), Australian aboriginal concepts (pp. 182-187). Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.Google Scholar
Huang, S
(2002) Tsou is different: A cognitive perspective on language, emotion, and body. Cognitive Linguistics, 13(2), 167-186. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kövecses, Z
(2000) Metaphor and Emotion: Language, culture and body in human feeling. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
(2002) Metaphor: A practical introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M
(1980) Metaphors we live by. Chicago: The University Of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lee, J., & Obata, K
(2010) Languages of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People – A uniquely Australian heritage. In Year book Australia, Vol. 2009-101. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.Google Scholar
Levinson, S.C., & Gumperz, J.J
(1996) Rethinking linguistic relativity. Cambridge/New York/Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lindström, E
(2002) The body in expressions of emotion: Kuot. In Nick J. Enfield & A. Wierzbicka (Eds.), The body in description of emotion, Pragmatics and Cognition, Vol. 101 (pp. 159-184). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lucy, J.A
(1992) Language diversity and thought: A reformulation of the linguistic relativity hypothesis. Cambridge/New York/Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(1996) The scope of linguistic relativity: An analysis and review of empirical research. In S.C. Levinson & J.J. Gumperz (Eds.), Rethinking linguistic relativity (pp. 37–69). Cambridge/New York/Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Maalej, Z
(2008) The heart and cultural embodiment in Tunisian Arabic. In F. Sharifian, R. Dirven, N. Yu, & S. Niemeier (Eds.), Culture, body and language. Conceptualizations of internal body organs across cultures and languages (pp. 395-428). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
McPherson, L., & Prokhorov, K
(2011) Structural correlates of “liver” expressions in Dogon emotional vocabulary. In G.C. Batic (Ed.), Encoding emotions in African languages, (pp. 38-55). Munich: LINCOM Europa.Google Scholar
Myers, F.R
(1979) Emotions and the self: A theory of personhood and political order among Pintupi Aborigines. Ethos, 7(4), 343-370. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(1986) Pintupi country, Pintupi self: Sentiment, place and politics among western desert aborigines. Canberra/Washington, D. C.: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Noyce, P
(2002) Rabbit-proof fence. Australia: Jabal Films PtyLtd.Google Scholar
Ogarkova, A
(2013) Folk emotion concepts: Lexicalization of emotional experiences across languages and cultures. In J.R.J. Fontaine, K.R. Scherer, & C. Soriano (Eds.), Components of emotional meanings: A sourcebook (pp. 46-62). Oxford: Oxford University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Palmer, G.B
(1996) Towards a theory of cultural linguistics. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Pawley, A
(1985) Lexicalisation. In D. Tannen & J.E. Alatis (Eds.), Languages and linguistics: The interdependance of theory, data and application (pp. 98-120). Georgetown: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Peile, A.R
(1997) Body and soul: An Aboriginal view. Victoria Park: Hesperian Press.Google Scholar
Ponsonnet, M
submitted-a). Nominal subclasses in Dalabon (South Western Arnhem Land). Crossref
submitted-b). Documenting the language of emotions in Dalabon (Northern Australia). Caveats, solutions and benefits. In Proceedings of the Fourth Language Documentation and Linguistic Theory Conference . London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
accepted). Les rôles de kangu « ventre » dans les composés émotionnels du dalabon (Australie du Nord) : entre figuratif et littéral. Bulletin de la Société de linguistique de Paris.
(2009) Aspects of the semantics of intellectual subjectivity in Dalabon (south-western Arnhem Land). Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2009(1), 16-28.Google Scholar
(2011) Les figures du doute en langue dalabon (Australie du Nord). Journal de la société des Océanistes, 132(1), 151-164. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2012) Body-parts in Barunga Kriol and Dalabon: Matches and mismatches. In M. Ponsonnet, L. Dao, & M. Bowler (Eds.), Proceedings of the 42nd Australian Linguistic Society Conference – 2011 (pp. 351-387). Canberra: ANU Research Repository.Google Scholar
(2013a) The language of emotions in Dalabon (Northern Australia). PhD Thesis, Australian National University, Canberra. http://​www​.academia​.edu​/5491622​/The​_language​_of​_emotions​_in​_Dalabon​_Northern​_Australia_Google Scholar
(2013b) Dalabon emotion glossary (first draft, July 2013). http://​www​.academia​.edu​/4213532​/Dalabon​_Emotion​_Glossary​_July​_2013_
Reh, M
(1998) The language of emotions: An analysis of Dholuo on the basis of Grace Ogot’s novel Miaha. In A. Athanasiadou & E. Tabakowska (Eds.), Speaking of emotions: Conceptualisation and expression (pp. 375-408). Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ross, B.B
(2011) Prosody and grammar in Dalabon and Kayardild. PhD Thesis, University of Melbourne, Merlbourne.Google Scholar
Senft, G
(1998) Body and mind in the Trobriands. Ethos, 26(1), 73-104. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sharifian, F
submitted). Cultural linguistics. In M. Yamaguchi, D. Tay, & B. Blount (Eds.) Towards and integration of language, culture and cognition London Palgrave McMillan
(2008) Conceptualizations of del “heart-stomach” in Persian. In F. Sharifian, R. Dirven, N. Yu, & S. Niemeier (Eds.), Culture, body and language. Conceptualizations of internal body organs across cultures and languages (pp. 248-265). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sharifian, F., Dirven, R., Yu, N., & Niemeier, S
(2008a) Culture, body and language. Conceptualizations of internal body organs across cultures and languages. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2008b) Culture and language: Looking for the “mind” inside de body. In F. Sharifian, R. Dirven, N. Yu, & S. Niemeier (Eds.), Culture, body and language. Conceptualizations of internal body organs across cultures and languages (pp. 3-23). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sweetser, E
(1990) From etymology to pragmatics: The mind-as-body metaphor in semantic structure and semantic change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, J., & Mbense, T.G
(1998) Red dogs and rotten mealies: How Zulus talk about anger. In A. Athanasiadou & E. Tabakowska (Eds.), Speaking of emotions: Conceptualisation and expression (pp. 191-226). Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Turpin, M
(2002) Body-part terms in Kaytetye feeling expressions. In Nick J. Enfield & A. Wierzbicka (Eds.), The body in description of emotion, Pragmatics and Cognition, Vol. 101 (pp. 271–303). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Whorf, B.L
(1956) Language, thought, and reality: Selected writings. Cambridge: Massachussetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, A
(1999) Emotions across languages and cultures: Diversity and universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Wolk, D.P
(2008) The heart (libba) in Northeastern Neo-Aramaic. In F. Sharifian, R. Dirven, N. Yu, & S. Niemeier (Eds.), Culture, body and language. Conceptualizations of internal body organs across cultures and languages (pp. 267-317). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Yu, N
(2008) The Chinese heart as the central faculty of cognition. In F. Sharifian, R. Dirven, N. Yu, & S. Niemeier (Eds.), Culture, body and language. Conceptualizations of internal body organs across cultures and languages (pp. 131-168). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 9 other publications

No author info given
2014.  In The Language of Emotions [Cognitive Linguistic Studies in Cultural Contexts, 4], Crossref logo
Bednall, James
2020. Feeling through your chest. Pragmatics & Cognition 27:1 ► pp. 139 ff. Crossref logo
Foolen, Ad
2017. Introduction special issue ‘Emotions across languages and cultures’. International Journal of Language and Culture 4:1 ► pp. 1 ff. Crossref logo
Hoffmann, Dorothea
2020. Be happy when your stomach is. Pragmatics & Cognition 27:1 ► pp. 184 ff. Crossref logo
Kofod, Frances & Anna Crane
2020. The body and the verb. Pragmatics & Cognition 27:1 ► pp. 209 ff. Crossref logo
Ogarkova, Anna & Cristina Soriano
2018. Metaphorical and literal profiling in the study of emotions. Metaphor and Symbol 33:1 ► pp. 19 ff. Crossref logo
O’Keeffe, Isabel, Ruth Singer & Carolyn Coleman
2020. The expression of emotions in Kunbarlang and its neighbours in the multilingual context of western and central Arnhem Land. Pragmatics & Cognition 27:1 ► pp. 83 ff. Crossref logo
Ponsonnet, Maïa
2018. Lexical semantics in language shift. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 33:1 ► pp. 92 ff. Crossref logo
Ponsonnet, Maïa & Kitty-Jean Laginha
2020. The role of the body in descriptions of emotions. Pragmatics & Cognition 27:1 ► pp. 20 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 15 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.