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Article published In:
Emotion, Body and Mind across a Continent: Figurative representations of emotions in Australian Aboriginal languages
Edited by Maïa Ponsonnet, Dorothea Hoffmann and Isabel O'Keeffe
[Pragmatics & Cognition 27:1] 2020
► pp. 83–138

The expression of emotions in Kunbarlang and its neighbours in the multilingual context of western and central Arnhem Land

| The University of Sydney
| University of Melbourne
| The University of Sydney

This paper explores how emotions are expressed in the endangered Gunwinyguan language Kunbarlang and compares these expressions to those in the neighbouring Gunwinyguan language Bininj Kunwok, and neighbouring languages from other language families, Mawng (Iwaidjan) and Ndjébbana (Maningridan). As well as considering body-based emotion expressions and the tropes (metaphors and metonymies) they instantiate, we consider the range of other (non-body-based) expressions and tropes available in each language. These provide an important point of comparison with the body-part expressions, which are limited to expressions based on noun incorporation in the Gunwinyguan languages and, correspondingly, a more limited range of tropes. By outlining and comparing the linguistic tropes used to express emotions in these four languages in the highly multilingual yet socioculturally unified context of western Arnhem Land, we aim to shed further light on the relationships between linguistic figurative features and conceptual representations of emotions.

Keywords: figurative language, metaphors, metonymies, body parts, emotions, linguistic typology, Gunwinyguan languages, Iwaidjan languages, Maningridan languages
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Kunbarlang and neighbouring languages
  • 3.Documenting and describing emotion expressions in multilingual western Arnhem Land
    • 3.1Data and documentation
    • 3.2The dataset
    • 3.3Defining tropes
  • 4.Emotion lexemes in Kunbarlang and neighbouring languages
    • 4.1Emotion nominals
    • 4.2Emotion verbs
    • 4.3Emotion coverb constructions
  • 5.Non-body-based emotion verb-argument idioms in Kunbarlang and neighbouring languages
    • 5.1Experiencer object noun-verb idioms: emotions as agents/forces
    • 5.2Experiencer subject noun-verb idioms: emotions as patients
    • 5.3Idiomatic noun-incorporation/lexicalised compounds in Kunbarlang and Bininj Kunwok
    • 5.4Lexicalised agreement verbs in Mawng cognate to idiomatic noun incorporations in Kunbarlang and Bininj Kunwok
    • 5.5Non-body-based emotion verb-argument idioms summary
  • 6.Body-based emotion verb-argument idioms in Kunbarlang and neighbouring languages
    • 6.1Belly/guts: All languages
    • 6.2Heart: All languages
    • 6.3Nose/face: All languages
    • 6.4Head and brain: Kunbarlang, Bininj Kunwok, Ndjébbana
    • 6.5Back: Kunbarlang, Ndjébbana, Mawng
    • 6.6Throat/neck: Ndjébbana, ?Kunbarlang
    • 6.7Body, eyes, mouth and hair: Kunbarlang, Bininj Kunwok
    • 6.8Ears: Kunbarlang only
  • 7.Summaries of body-related and non-body-related emotion terms
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 22 September 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.00012.kee
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