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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. 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
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.00013.bed
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