‘Body part’ terms and emotion in Japanese

2002 ◽  
Vol 10 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 107-128 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Cognitive Appraisal ◽  
Comic Books ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Mental Activity ◽  
The Body ◽  
Popular Songs ◽  
Specific Emotion ◽  
Film Scripts ◽  
Magazine Articles

This paper examines the use and meaning of the body-part terms or quasi-body part terms associated with Japanese emotions. The terms analyzed are kokoro, mune, hara, ki, and mushi. In Japanese kokoro is regarded as the seat of emotions. Mune (roughly, ‘chest’) is the place where Japanese believe kokoro is located. Hara (roughly, ‘belly’) can be used to refer to the seat of ‘thinking’, for example in expression of anger-like feelings which entail a prior cognitive appraisal. The term ki (roughly, ‘breath’) is also used for expressions dealing with emotions, temperament, and behaviour; among these, ki is mostly frequently used for referring to mental activity. Mushi — literally, a ‘worm’ which exists in the hara ‘belly’ — is also used for referring to specific emotion expressions.The tool for semantic analysis employed in this paper is the “Natural Semantic Metalanguage” method developed by Anna Wierzbicka and colleagues. This metalanguage enables us to explicate concepts by means of simple words and grammar (easily translated across languages), and clarifies the similarities and dissimilarities between the components involved in semantically similar terms. The data used for analysis are from various sources; published literature both in Japanese and English, newspaper/magazine articles, film scripts, comic books, advertisements, dictionaries, and popular songs.

‘Body part’ terms and emotion in Japanese

2002 ◽  
Vol 10 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 107-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rie Hasada
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Cognitive Appraisal ◽  
Comic Books ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Mental Activity ◽  
The Body ◽  
Popular Songs ◽  
Specific Emotion ◽  
Film Scripts ◽  
Magazine Articles

This paper examines the use and meaning of the body-part terms or quasi-body part terms associated with Japanese emotions. The terms analyzed are kokoro, mune, hara, ki, and mushi. In Japanese kokoro is regarded as the seat of emotions. Mune (roughly, ‘chest’) is the place where Japanese believe kokoro is located. Hara (roughly, ‘belly’) can be used to refer to the seat of ‘thinking’, for example in expression of anger-like feelings which entail a prior cognitive appraisal. The term ki (roughly, ‘breath’) is also used for expressions dealing with emotions, temperament, and behaviour; among these, ki is mostly frequently used for referring to mental activity. Mushi — literally, a ‘worm’ which exists in the hara ‘belly’ — is also used for referring to specific emotion expressions. The tool for semantic analysis employed in this paper is the “Natural Semantic Metalanguage” method developed by Anna Wierzbicka and colleagues. This metalanguage enables us to explicate concepts by means of simple words and grammar (easily translated across languages), and clarifies the similarities and dissimilarities between the components involved in semantically similar terms. The data used for analysis are from various sources; published literature both in Japanese and English, newspaper/magazine articles, film scripts, comic books, advertisements, dictionaries, and popular songs.

Body and emotion

2002 ◽  
Vol 10 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 341-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ning Yu
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Cultural Models ◽  
Body Part ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Emotional Experiences ◽  
Emotional Symptoms ◽  
Internal Organs ◽  
Internal Body ◽  
External Body

This study presents a semantic analysis of how emotions and emotional experiences are described in Chinese. It focuses on conventionalized expressions in Chinese, namely compounds and idioms, which contain body-part terms. The body-part terms are divided into two classes: those denoting external body parts and those denoting internal body parts or organs. It is found that, with a few exceptions, the expressions involving external body parts are originally metonymic, describing emotions in terms of their externally observable bodily events and processes. However, once conventionalized, these expressions are also used metaphorically regardless of emotional symptoms or gestures. The expressions involving internal organs evoke imaginary bodily images that are primarily metaphorical. It is found that the metaphors, though imaginary in nature, are not really all arbitrary. They seem to have a bodily or psychological basis, although they are inevitably influenced by cultural models.

Body and emotion: Body parts in Chinese expression of emotion

2002 ◽  
Vol 10 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 341-367 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Cultural Models ◽  
Body Part ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Emotional Symptoms ◽  
Internal Organs ◽  
Expression Of Emotion ◽  
Internal Body ◽  
External Body

This study presents a semantic analysis of how emotions and emotional experiences are described in Chinese. It focuses on conventionalized expressions in Chinese, namely compounds and idioms, which contain body-part terms. The body-part terms are divided into two classes: those denoting external body parts and those denoting internal body parts or organs. It is found that, with a few exceptions, the expressions involving external body parts are originally metonymic, describing emotions in terms of their externally observable bodily events and processes. However, once conventionalized, these expressions are also used metaphorically regardless of emotional symptoms or gestures. The expressions involving internal organs evoke imaginary bodily images that are primarily metaphorical. It is found that the metaphors, though imaginary in nature, are not really all arbitrary. They seem to have a bodily or psychological basis, although they are inevitably influenced by cultural models.

scholarly journals A Semantic Analysis of Normal Derivatives of Body Part Terms in Jordanian Arabic

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. p28
Author(s):  
Mahmud Hussein Wardat
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Physical Characteristics ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Semantic Association ◽  
Jordanian Arabic ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
And Function ◽  
Derivatives Of

This study deals with nouns derived from body part terminology in Jordanian Arabic. It aims at identifying those nouns and examining their semantic association with body part terms. It indicates that a large number of the nouns are semantically related to their corresponding body parts; thus, their meaning could be predicted from the meaning of body part terms. Further, the physical characteristics of position, shape and function of body parts are the basis of the semantic association. However, very few of the derived nouns are not semantically related to body part terms. In addition, all the derived nouns designate objects in a variety of lexical semantic domains external to the body part domain. Finally, it is concluded that Jordanian Arabic has the capability of expanding its lexicon on the basis of body part terminology.

scholarly journals Introduction: The body in description of emotion

2002 ◽  
Vol 10 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Methodological Issue ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Body Part ◽  
The Body ◽  
Linguistic Data ◽  
Expression Of Emotions ◽  
Semantic Typology

Anthropologists and linguists have long been aware that the body is explicitly referred to in conventional description of emotion in languages around the world. There is abundant linguistic data showing expression of emotions in terms of their imagined ‘locus’ in the physical body. The most important methodological issue in the study of emotions is language, for the ways people talk give us access to ‘folk descriptions’ of the emotions. ‘Technical terminology’, whether based on English or otherwise, is not excluded from this ‘folk’ status. It may appear to be safely ‘scientific’ and thus culturally neutral, but in fact it is not: technical English is a variety of English and reflects, to some extent, culture-specific ways of thinking (and categorising) associated with the English language. People — as researchers studying other people, or as people in real-life social association — cannot directly access the emotional experience of others, and language is the usual mode of ‘packaging’ one’s experience so it may be accessible to others. Careful description of linguistic data from as broad as possible a cross-linguistic base is thus an important part of emotion research. All people experience biological events and processes associated with certain thoughts (or, as psychologists say, ‘appraisals’), but there is more to ‘emotion’ than just these physiological phenomena. Speakers of some languages talk about their emotional experiences as if they are located in some internal organ such as ‘the liver’, yet they cannot localise feeling in this physical organ. This phenomenon needs to be understood better, and one of the problems is finding a method of comparison that allows us to compare descriptions from different languages which show apparently great formal and semantic variation. Some simple concepts including feel and body are universal or near-universal, and as such are good candidates for terms of description which may help to eradicate confusion and exoticism from cross-linguistic comparison and semantic typology. Semantic analysis reveals great variation in concepts of emotion across languages and cultures — but such analysis requires a sound and well-founded methodology. While leaving room for different approaches to the task, we suggest that such a methodology can be based on empirically established linguistic universal (or near-universal) concepts, and on ‘cognitive scenarios’ articulated in terms of these concepts. Also, we warn against the danger of exoticism involved in taking all body part references ‘literally’. Above all, we argue that what is needed is a combination of empirical cross-linguistic investigations and a theoretical and methodological awareness, recognising the impossibility of exploring other people’s emotions without keeping language in focus: both as an object and as a tool of study.

Introduction

2002 ◽  
Vol 10 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
N.J. Enfield ◽  
Anna Wierzbicka
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Methodological Issue ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Body Part ◽  
The Body ◽  
Linguistic Data ◽  
Expression Of Emotions ◽  
Semantic Typology

Anthropologists and linguists have long been aware that the body is explicitly referred to in conventional description of emotion in languages around the world. There is abundant linguistic data showing expression of emotions in terms of their imagined ‘locus’ in the physical body. The most important methodological issue in the study of emotions is language, for the ways people talk give us access to ‘folk descriptions’ of the emotions. ‘Technical terminology’, whether based on English or otherwise, is not excluded from this ‘folk’ status. It may appear to be safely ‘scientific’ and thus culturally neutral, but in fact it is not: technical English is a variety of English and reflects, to some extent, culture-specific ways of thinking (and categorising) associated with the English language. People — as researchers studying other people, or as people in real-life social association — cannot directly access the emotional experience of others, and language is the usual mode of ‘packaging’ one’s experience so it may be accessible to others. Careful description of linguistic data from as broad as possible a cross-linguistic base is thus an important part of emotion research. All people experience biological events and processes associated with certain thoughts (or, as psychologists say, ‘appraisals’), but there is more to ‘emotion’ than just these physiological phenomena. Speakers of some languages talk about their emotional experiences as if they are located in some internal organ such as ‘the liver’, yet they cannot localise feeling in this physical organ. This phenomenon needs to be understood better, and one of the problems is finding a method of comparison that allows us to compare descriptions from different languages which show apparently great formal and semantic variation. Some simple concepts including feel and body are universal or near-universal, and as such are good candidates for terms of description which may help to eradicate confusion and exoticism from cross-linguistic comparison and semantic typology. Semantic analysis reveals great variation in concepts of emotion across languages and cultures — but such analysis requires a sound and well-founded methodology. While leaving room for different approaches to the task, we suggest that such a methodology can be based on empirically established linguistic universal (or near-universal) concepts, and on ‘cognitive scenarios’ articulated in terms of these concepts. Also, we warn against the danger of exoticism involved in taking all body part references ‘literally’. Above all, we argue that what is needed is a combination of empirical cross-linguistic investigations and a theoretical and methodological awareness, recognising the impossibility of exploring other people’s emotions without keeping language in focus: both as an object and as a tool of study.

scholarly journals Comparison of Metaphorical Expressions of the Heart Between Chinese and English

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Gong Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Body Language ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Bodily Experiences ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Chinese And English

This study intends to provide a semantic analysis of metaphorical expressions containing the body-part term “heart” in Chinese and English. The discussion of these expressions revolves around four perceived roles of the heart. It is suggested that the metaphorical consequences have a bodily or psychological basis on our hearts. The comparison between Chinese and English shows that there exist some similarities and differences, which can be accounted for both by the commonality of bodily experiences unique to human beings and by the discrepancy of cultural modes from different countries. Finally, a revised model depicting the relationship between body, language, culture, and cognitive ability has been proposed.

scholarly journals Experiential ownership and body ownership are different phenomena

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caleb Liang ◽  
Wen-Hsiang Lin ◽  
Tai-Yuan Chang ◽  
Chi-Hong Chen ◽  
Chen-Wei Wu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Conscious Experience ◽  
Distinct Type ◽  
Body Part ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Ownership ◽  
Rubber Hand ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
The One ◽  
First Time ◽  
Full Body

AbstractBody ownership concerns what it is like to feel a body part or a full body as mine, and has become a prominent area of study. We propose that there is a closely related type of bodily self-consciousness largely neglected by researchers—experiential ownership. It refers to the sense that I am the one who is having a conscious experience. Are body ownership and experiential ownership actually the same phenomenon or are they genuinely different? In our experiments, the participant watched a rubber hand or someone else’s body from the first-person perspective and was touched either synchronously or asynchronously. The main findings: (1) The sense of body ownership was hindered in the asynchronous conditions of both the body-part and the full-body experiments. However, a strong sense of experiential ownership was observed in those conditions. (2) We found the opposite when the participants’ responses were measured after tactile stimulations had ceased for 5 s. In the synchronous conditions of another set of body-part and full-body experiments, only experiential ownership was blocked but not body ownership. These results demonstrate for the first time the double dissociation between body ownership and experiential ownership. Experiential ownership is indeed a distinct type of bodily self-consciousness.

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