Edited by Maïa Ponsonnet, Dorothea Hoffmann and Isabel O'Keeffe
[Pragmatics & Cognition 27:1] 2020
► pp. 20–82
The role of the body in descriptions of emotions
A typology of the Australian continent
This article presents the first systematic typological study of emotional expressions involving body parts at the scale of a continent, namely the Australian continent. The role of body parts in figurative descriptions of emotions, a well-established phenomenon across the world, is known to be widespread in Australian languages. This article presents a typology of body-based emotional expressions across a balanced sample of 67 languages, where we found that at least 30 distinct body parts occur in emotional expressions. The belly is by far the most frequent, and a dozen others also have significant representation. The study shows how the properties of these body parts – e.g., whether they are internal organs or visible facial parts – partly determine which historical scenarios led to their linguistic associations with emotions, and in turn, their semantic and figurative properties.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.The data
- 2.1Language sample and data
- 2.2The limits of documentation
- 2.3Interpreting the sources
- 3.Framework and overview of results
- 3.1Identifying and characterizing emotions
- 3.1.1Working definition of emotions
- 3.1.2Discrete labels
- 3.1.3Categories of emotions
- 3.2A typology of tropes
- 3.3Typified emergence scenarios
- 3.3.1Cultural association
- 3.3.2Pragmatic bridges
- 3.3.3Semantic shift
- 3.3.4Contact
- 3.3.5Sources of additional expressions
- 3.4Body part profiles
- 3.1Identifying and characterizing emotions
- 4.Internal body parts with prevalent somatic bridges
- 4.1The belly
- 4.1.1Semantics
- 4.1.2Figurative profile
- 4.1.2.1Non-somatic metonymies
- 4.1.2.2Somatic metonymies
- 4.1.2.3Property metaphors
- 4.1.2.4Other metaphors
- 4.2The heart
- 4.2.1Semantics
- 4.2.2Figurative profile
- 4.3The throat
- 4.3.1Semantics
- 4.3.2Figurative profile
- 4.1The belly
- 5.Abdominal body parts sensitive to semantic shift
- 5.1The liver
- 5.1.1Semantics
- 5.1.2Figurative profile
- 5.1.3Semantic-shift scenario
- 5.2The abdomen
- 5.2.1Semantics
- 5.2.2Figurative profile
- 5.3The chest
- 5.3.1Semantics
- 5.3.2Figurative profile
- 5.1The liver
- 6.Visible body parts with behavioral bridges
- 6.1The eyes
- 6.1.1Semantics
- 6.1.2Figurative profile
- 6.2The nose
- 6.2.1Semantics
- 6.2.2Figurative profile
- 6.3The face
- 6.1The eyes
- 7.Visible body parts with intellectual bridges
- 7.1The ear
- 7.1.1Semantics and intellectual bridges
- 7.1.2Figurative profile
- 7.2The head
- 7.2.1Semantics and intellectual bridges
- 7.2.2Figurative profile
- 7.3The forehead
- 7.3.1Semantics
- 7.3.2Figurative profile
- 7.1The ear
- 8.Others
- 9.Recapitulation and conclusions
- Notes
-
References
https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.00011.pon