Ning Yu
[Not in series 149] 2009
► pp. 213–240
This paper studies the Chinese cultural model for speech and language based on the metonymic chain from speech organ to language as proposed by Radden (2004): speech organ → speaking → speech → language. It attempts a systematic analysis of Chinese terms for such speech organs as tongue (she), teeth (chi), lips (chun) and mouth (zui and kou) as are used metonymically and metaphorically in conventionalized linguistic expressions referring to more abstract linguistic action and function. The study therefore focuses on three metonymies, speech organ for speaking, speech organ for speech, and speech organ for language. It is found that the first two metonymies, i.e. speech organ for speaking and speech organ for speech, are richly manifested in a large number of conventionalized expressions, but speech organ for language, which has been widely attested across languages (Radden, 2004), is not realized lexically in Chinese. What is particularly interesting, however, is the finding that in Chinese, while speech organ for language is not manifested in its lexicon, it is nevertheless realized in its ideographic writing system as components of the characters. That is, the Chinese characters representing “language” and “speech” all contain the “mouth” radical in them. This finding provides an interesting and telling example of how the general cognitive principle of embodiment can be realized in and embraced by a culture-specific environment.