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. 139–183

Feeling through your chest

Body-based tropes for emotion in Anindilyakwa

| Australian National University | Université de Paris

This article explores the expression and conceptualisation of emotions in Anindilyakwa (Gunwinyguan, north-east Arnhem Land). Fundamental to the emotional lexicon of this language is the widespread use of body parts, which frequently occur in figurative expressions. In this article I examine the primary body parts that occur in emotion descriptions in both literal (physical) and figurative expressions. Particular attention is given to yukudhukudha / -werrik- ‘chest’, the body part conceptualised as the primary site of emotion in Anindilyakwa and the most productive body-related morpheme used in emotion compounds. I consider the role of the chest and other productive body parts that occur in emotion compounds, and examine the metonymic and metaphorical devices that contribute to the expression of these emotional states. In doing so, I propose a number of overarching and widespread tropes that hold across different body-part compounds, and briefly contextualise these in relation to the emotion description systems of other closely-related (Gunwinyguan) languages.

Keywords: emotion, metaphor, body, Anindilyakwa, Australian Indigenous languages
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Typological overview
  • 3.Outline of the emotional lexicon of Anindilyakwa
  • 4.Formal properties of emotion terms
    • 4.1Noun incorporation and [bound] lexical compounds
    • 4.2Emotion terms: Free and bound body part compounds
  • 5.The figurative language of emotions in Anindilyakwa: Body part tropes (metaphors and metonymies)
    • 5.1The chest: The seat of emotions in Anindilyakwa
      • 5.1.1 physical state of the chest for emotional state metonymy
      • 5.1.2 chest as experiencer of emotion metonymies
      • 5.1.3Metaphors
        • 5.1.3.1Death/end metaphors
        • 5.1.3.2Aggravated chest for conflictual emotions metaphor
        • 5.1.3.3Curvature metaphors
        • 5.1.3.4Weight (sadness is heavy) metaphors
        • 5.1.3.5Accessibility metaphors
        • 5.1.3.6(Direction & manner of) movement metaphors
        • 5.1.3.7Temperature metaphors
      • 5.1.4‘Chest’ summary
    • 5.2Other productive body parts: The head, the brain and the heart
      • 5.2.1The heart
      • 5.2.2The head
      • 5.2.3The brain
    • 5.3A comparison of the most productive body parts: Chest, heart, head, brain
    • 5.4Widespread emotion tropes
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 22 September 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.00013.bed
References

References

Bednall, James
2020 Temporal, aspectual and modal expression in Anindilyakwa, the language of the Groote Eylandt archipelago, Australia. PhD thesis, Australian National University & Université de Paris. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bible Society in Australia
1992 Neningikarrawara-langwa Ayakwa [=Anindilyakwa Bible]. Canberra: Bible Society in Australia Inc.Google Scholar
Capell, Arthur
1942 Languages of Arnhem Land, North Australia. Oceania 12(4). 364–392. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Croft, William
1993 The role of domain in the interpretation of metaphors and metonymies. Cognitive Linguistics 41. 335–370. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Enfield, Nicholas
2002 Semantic analysis of body parts in emotion terminology: Avoiding the exoticisms of “obstinate monosemy” and “online extension”. Pragmatics & Cognition 10(1–2). 85–106. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Evans, Nicholas
2003 Bininj Gun-Wok: A pan-dialectal grammar of Mayali, Kunwinjku and Kune. Volumes 1 and 21. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar
Evans, Nicholas & David Wilkins
2000 In the mind’s ear: The semantic extensions of perception verbs in Australian languages. Language 76(3). 546–592. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gaby, Alice
2008 Guts feelings: Locating emotion, life force and intellect in the Thaayorre body. In Farzad Sharifian, Rene Dirven & Ning Yu (eds.), Body, culture and language: Conceptualizations of internal body organs across cultures and languages, 27–44. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Goddard, Cliff
1994 Lexical primitives in Yankunytjatjara. In Cliff Goddard & Anna Wierzbicka (eds.), Semantics and lexical universals: Theory and empirical findings, 229–262. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Groote Eylandt Linguistics
1993 Eningerribirra-langwa jurra = Book about all sorts of things. Angurugu, Australia.Google Scholar
Harvey, Mark
2008 Non-Pama-Nyungan Languages: Mapping Database and Maps [Online]. ASEDA. Available: http://​www1​.aiatsis​.gov​.au​/aseda​/802​_Harvey​/MH​_top​_end​.png
Heath, Jeffrey
1984 Functional grammar of Nunggubuyu. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.Google Scholar
n.d. Draft Grammatical Sketch of Anindhilyagwa (Groote Eylandt, Australia). Canberra: AIATSIS.
Kövecses, Zoltán
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, George & Johnson, Mark
1980 Metaphors we live by. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Leeding, Velma
1989 Anindilyakwa Phonology and Morphology. PhD thesis, University of Sydney.Google Scholar
1996 Body Parts and Possession in Anindilyakwa. In Hilary Chappell & William McGregor (eds.), The grammar of inalienability: A typological perspective on body part terms and the part-whole relation, 193–250. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marmion, Doug, Kazuko Obata & Jakelin Troy
2014 Community, identity, wellbeing: The report of the Second National Indigenous Languages Survey. Canberra, Australia: AIATSIS.Google Scholar
Moody, Mary L. A.
1954 A descriptive statement of the phonemics and morphology of Anindilyaugwa, the language of Groote Eylandt, Northern Territory. MA thesis, University of Sydney.Google Scholar
O’Keeffe, Isabel, Ruth Singer & Carolyn Coleman
this volume.
Ogarkova, Anna
2013 Folk emotion concepts: Lexicalization of emotional experiences across languages and cultures. In Johnny J. R. Fontaine, Klaus R. Scherer & Cristina Soriano (eds.), Components of emotional meanings: A sourcebook, 46–62. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ponsonnet, Maïa
2009 Aspects of the semantics of intellectual subjectivity in Dalabon (south-western Arnhem Land). Australian Aboriginal Studies 2009(1). 16–28.Google Scholar
2014a The language of emotions: The case of Dalabon (Australia). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
2014b Figurative and non-figurative use of body part words in descriptions of emotions in Dalabon (Northern Australia). International Journal of Language and Culture 1(1). 98–130. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2016 Emotion nouns in Australian languages: A case study and a preliminary survey. In Peter Austin, Harold Koch & Jane Simpson (eds.), Language, land and song: Studies in honour of Luise Hercus, 228–243. London: EL Publishing.Google Scholar
2017 Conceptual representations and figurative language in language shift: Metaphors and gestures for emotions in Kriol (Barunga, northern Australia). Cognitive Linguistics 28(4). 631–671. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ponsonnet, Maïa & Kitty-Jean Laginha
this volume.
Radden, Günter & Zoltán Kövecses
1998 Metonymy: Developing a cognitive linguistic view. Cognitive Linguistics 23(1). 37–77.Google Scholar
Stokes, Judith
1981 Anindilyakwa phonology from phoneme to syllable. In Bruce Waters (ed.), Work Papers of SIL-AAB Series A volume 5. Australian Phonologies: Collected Papers, 139–81. Darwin: SIL.Google Scholar
1982 A description of the mathematical concepts of Groote Eylandt Aborigines. In Susanne Hargrave (ed.), Work Papers of SIL-AAB Series B volume 8. Language and Culture, 33–152. Darwin: SIL.Google Scholar
Tindale, Norman
1925–1926 Natives of Groote Eylandt and of the west coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Parts 1–2. Records of the South Australian Museum 31. 61–143.Google Scholar
Turpin, Myfany
2002 Body part terms in Kaytetye feeling expressions. In Nick J. Enfield & Anna Wierzbicka (eds.), The body in description of emotion, Pragmatics and Cognition, Vol. 10, 271–303. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van Egmond, Marie-Elaine
2008 Incorporated adjunct classifiers in Anindilyakwa: An empirical challenge to LFG. In Miriam Butt & Tracy Holloway King (eds.), Proceedings of LFG 2008 Conference, 235–251. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
2012 Enindhilyakwa phonology, morphosyntax and genetic position. PhD thesis, University of Sydney.Google Scholar
Vittrant, Alice
2013 Psycho-collocational expressives in Burmese. In Jeffrey P. Williams (ed.), The aesthetics of grammar, 255–279. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Waddy, Julie
n.d. Expressing emotion in Anindilyakwa. Unpublished manuscript, Groote Eylandt Linguistics, Angurugu.
Wierzbicka, Anna
1999 Emotions across languages and cultures: Diversity and universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Worsley, Peter
1954 Noun-Classification in Australian and Bantu: Formal or semantic? Oceania 241. 275–288. DOI logoGoogle Scholar