Some key body parts and polysemy

Author(s):  
Carol Priestley

This chapter discusses body part nouns, a part of language that is central to human life, and the polysemy that arises in connection with them. Examples from everyday speech and narrative in various contexts are examined in a Papuan language called Koromu and semantic characteristics of body part nouns in other studies are also considered. Semantic templates are developed for nouns that represent highly visible body parts: for example, wapi ‘hands/arms’, ehi ‘feet/legs’, and their related parts. Culture-specific explications are expressed in a natural metalanguage that can be translated into Koromu to avoid the cultural bias inherent in using other languages and to reveal both distinctive semantic components and similarities to cross-linguistic examples.

1977 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 703-708 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger A. Brumback

The Inside-of-the-Body test was administered to an unselected group of 150 elementary school children in Grades 1 to 6. The most frequently identified body part was the heart. Musculoskeletal and visible body parts were identified by younger children. Children in the higher grade levels drew more cavity organs and their drawings more frequently showed the organs in the correct anatomic arrangement. The Inside-of-the-Body test may be a useful adjunctive tool in the psychological assessment of children by identifying the development of internal body perception in normal children as well as those with physical and psychological disorders.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maïa Ponsonnet

This article examines the status and functions of body-part words with respect to linguistic descriptions of emotions in Dalabon (Northern Australia). As in many languages in the world, words denoting invisible (internal) body-parts occur in figurative expressions. These expressions instantiate metaphors and metonymies inspired by non-observable somatic responses to emotions. In addition to this figurative pattern of usage, many more words for visible body-parts occur in expressions where they serve to produce more detailed descriptions of emotional behaviors — specifying which body-part is involved in a given emotional manifestation. The relatively widespread use of body-part words in such descriptions of emotions fosters semantic extensions, where some body-part nouns gain emotional connotations. The article analyzes these descriptive functions of body-part nouns in Dalabon, and examines how they reinforce semantic associations between body-parts and emotions.


Author(s):  
Laura Mora ◽  
Anna Sedda ◽  
Teresa Esteban ◽  
Gianna Cocchini

AbstractThe representation of the metrics of the hands is distorted, but is susceptible to malleability due to expert dexterity (magicians) and long-term tool use (baseball players). However, it remains unclear whether modulation leads to a stable representation of the hand that is adopted in every circumstance, or whether the modulation is closely linked to the spatial context where the expertise occurs. To this aim, a group of 10 experienced Sign Language (SL) interpreters were recruited to study the selective influence of expertise and space localisation in the metric representation of hands. Experiment 1 explored differences in hands’ size representation between the SL interpreters and 10 age-matched controls in near-reaching (Condition 1) and far-reaching space (Condition 2), using the localisation task. SL interpreters presented reduced hand size in near-reaching condition, with characteristic underestimation of finger lengths, and reduced overestimation of hands and wrists widths in comparison with controls. This difference was lost in far-reaching space, confirming the effect of expertise on hand representations is closely linked to the spatial context where an action is performed. As SL interpreters are also experts in the use of their face with communication purposes, the effects of expertise in the metrics of the face were also studied (Experiment 2). SL interpreters were more accurate than controls, with overall reduction of width overestimation. Overall, expertise modifies the representation of relevant body parts in a specific and context-dependent manner. Hence, different representations of the same body part can coexist simultaneously.


2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 112-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brennen W. Mills ◽  
Owen B. J. Carter ◽  
Robert J. Donovan

The objective of this case study was to experimentally manipulate the impact on arousal and recall of two characteristics frequently occurring in gruesome depictions of body parts in smoking cessation advertisements: the presence or absence of an external physical insult to the body part depicted; whether or not the image contains a clear figure/ground demarcation. Three hundred participants (46% male, 54% female; mean age 27.3 years, SD = 11.4) participated in a two-stage online study wherein they viewed and responded to a series of gruesome 4-s video images. Seventy-two video clips were created to provide a sample of images across the two conditions: physical insult versus no insult and clear figure/ground demarcation versus merged or no clear figure/ground demarcation. In stage one, participants viewed a randomly ordered series of 36 video clips and rated how “confronting” they considered each to be. Seven days later (stage two), to test recall of each video image, participants viewed all 72 clips and were asked to identify those they had seen previously. Images containing a physical insult were consistently rated more confronting and were remembered more accurately than images with no physical insult. Images with a clear figure/ground demarcation were rated as no more confronting but were consistently recalled with greater accuracy than those with unclear figure/ground demarcation. Makers of gruesome health warning television advertisements should incorporate some form of physical insult and use a clear figure/ground demarcation to maximize image recall and subsequent potential advertising effectiveness.


Author(s):  
Toshiki Kusano ◽  
Hiroki Kurashige ◽  
Isao Nambu ◽  
Yoshiya Moriguchi ◽  
Takashi Hanakawa ◽  
...  

AbstractSeveral functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have demonstrated that resting-state brain activity consists of multiple components, each corresponding to the spatial pattern of brain activity induced by performing a task. Especially in a movement task, such components have been shown to correspond to the brain activity pattern of the relevant anatomical region, meaning that the voxels of pattern that are cooperatively activated while using a body part (e.g., foot, hand, and tongue) also behave cooperatively in the resting state. However, it is unclear whether the components involved in resting-state brain activity correspond to those induced by the movement of discrete body parts. To address this issue, in the present study, we focused on wrist and finger movements in the hand, and a cross-decoding technique trained to discriminate between the multi-voxel patterns induced by wrist and finger movement was applied to the resting-state fMRI. We found that the multi-voxel pattern in resting-state brain activity corresponds to either wrist or finger movements in the motor-related areas of each hemisphere of the cerebrum and cerebellum. These results suggest that resting-state brain activity in the motor-related areas consists of the components corresponding to the elementary movements of individual body parts. Therefore, the resting-state brain activity possibly has a finer structure than considered previously.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 184-208
Author(s):  
Dorothea Hoffmann

Abstract In this paper I provide a description of the role of body-part terms in expressions of emotion and other semantic extensions in MalakMalak, a non-Pama-Nyungan language of the Daly River area. Body-based expressions denote events, emotions, personality traits, significant places and people and are used to refer to times and number. Particularly central in the language are men ‘stomach’, pundu ‘head’ and tjewurr ‘ear’ associated respectively with basic emotions, states of mind and reason. The figurative extensions of these body parts are discussed systematically, and compared with what is known for other languages of the Daly River region. The article also explores the grammatical make up of body-based emotional collocations, and in particular the role of noun incorporation. In MalakMalak, noun incorporation is a central part of forming predicates with body parts, but uncommon in any other semantic domain of the language and only lexemes denoting basic emotions may also incorporate closed-class adjectives.


1967 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. S. Taylor ◽  
Jean Craig

Phenotypic variances within pairs of monozygotic and dizygotic twin heifers and also genetic variances and heritabilities were calculated for 12 linear body measurements at a sequence of eight ages up to two years old. The 60 pairs of fraternal and 60 pairs of identical twins used were reared as part of a larger uniformity trial in which feeding was effectively ad libitum throughout.Size differences between members of DZ twin pairs were found to be approximately normally distributed with about the same variance for all breeds and crosses. The variance within DZ pairs increased strongly with age, with a marked increase between 9 and 12 months of age and with most body measurements showing a broadly similar trend. On a logarithmic scale DZ variances increased roughly linearly with degree of maturity and at about the same rate in each body measurement. Coefficients of variation within DZ pairs corrected for measuring error had an average value of 2%. They did not change greatly with age, and were roughly the same for most body measurements although width measurements tended to be more variable than average.Coefficients of variation within MZ pairs had a corresponding overall average of 1·4%; they declined rapidly with age from 2·0% to 1·1%, were roughly the same for all body measurements, but at early ages tended to be greater in late than in early maturing body parts. However, they showed no association with the earliness of maturing of a body part provided variation was measured at the same degree of maturity for each body part.Genetic variation increased rapidly with age in all body measurements. The rate of increase with age was greater for late than for early maturing parts. The rate of increase with degree of maturity, however, was about the same for all body measurements. Coefficients of genetic variation increased slowly with age; they had an average value of 1·6%.Estimates of heritability are given at a sequence of eight ages for each of 12 body measurements. They increased strongly with age from 0·14 on average at three months of age to 0·67 on average at two years of age. At any fixed age, early maturing body parts tended to have higher heritabilities than later maturing body parts. However, if heritability was measured at the same degree of maturity in each body part, early and late maturing parts had about equal heritabilities.The present results are compared with those obtained from twin cattle studies in New Zealand, Sweden and Wisconsin, U.S.A.Inferences from twins about genetic variances and heritabilities for unrelated animals are discussed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Rusudan Asatiani ◽  
Natia Dundua ◽  
Marine Ivanishvili

Comparative-historical study of languages makes it possible to represent the diachronic process of structuring the world and forming the corresponding concepts. The abovementioned process is inherently integral and reflected in such socio-cultural areas of human life as language, art, religion, farming, ethno-traditional customs, culture (in its broadest sense), etc. The proto-language reconstructed as a result of the comparative-historical study and the picture of its diachronic development provide some information about the genetic relations between the people speaking the corresponding related languages, about their original homeland and the directions of their historical migrations, about their knowledge, ideas and representations. This time we have analyzed the semantic field of the lexemes denoting the human body parts, which are reconstructed at the Proto-Kartvelian language and exist in the contemporary Kartvelian languages (Georgian, Megrelian, Laz, and Svan) and some dialects (notably, Gurian, Rachian, Xevsurian, and Kiziqian). Our goal is to reveal the semantic structure of the mentioned field, to analyze the respective concepts as well as to outline processes of the development and the establishment of corresponding tokens (resp. lexemes). Vocabulary denoting a human body (resp. Somatic lexemes), its parts and inner organs is a constituent part of the basic core vocabulary of a language and presumably ought to be fixed in the ancient times’ reflecting data. Analysis of the lexical units, which have been reconstructed either at the Common-Kartvelian or Georgian-Zan level on the basis of regular sound correspondences between the Kartvelian languages, allows us to highlight the main course of forming and developing the linguistic units we are concerned with; namely, the accumulation of “knowledge” had been carried out due to the process of differentiation and detailed elaboration of the human body anatomy and respectively, the corresponding semantic field, somatic vocabulary, had been underway to be enriched based on the relation of cognitively interpreted markedness. Language changes and development, formation of new categories and concepts, and consequently, creation of new linguistic units is mainly carried out as the result of detailed elaboration, further specification and partition of unmarked categories: an unmarked category undergoes the division-differentiation on the basis of formally marked oppositions that leads to the formation of new linguistic units and structures and reflects the dynamic picture of enhancement of linguistic cognition of the universe. Dialectic material enriches the semantic space even more and specifies and fills the meanings of lexemes to be studied.


Author(s):  
Kaixuan Chen ◽  
Lina Yao ◽  
Dalin Zhang ◽  
Bin Guo ◽  
Zhiwen Yu

Multi-modality is an important feature of sensor based activity recognition. In this work, we consider two inherent characteristics of human activities, the spatially-temporally varying salience of features and the relations between activities and corresponding body part motions. Based on these, we propose a multi-agent spatial-temporal attention model. The spatial-temporal attention mechanism helps intelligently select informative modalities and their active periods. And the multiple agents in the proposed model represent activities with collective motions across body parts by independently selecting modalities associated with single motions. With a joint recognition goal, the agents share gained information and coordinate their selection policies to learn the optimal recognition model. The experimental results on four real-world datasets demonstrate that the proposed model outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 171
Author(s):  
Zulkifli H. Achmad ◽  
Antariksa Sudikno ◽  
Agung Murti Nugroho

Title: Vertical and Horizontal Room Cosmology in Traditional House (Sa’o) Adat Saga Village, Ende Regency, Flores Cosmology is the science related to kemestaan (cosmos) in a concept of the relationship between the human world (micro-cosmos) and of the universe. Space in traditional house Saga has values and khasan interesting architecturally is examined. The influence of Ngga'e on the Du'a belief and traditional home space Saga interesting architecturally is identified. This study uses qualitative methods with an ethnographic approach that is description. The findings of this study is about the cosmology of the space on a traditional home. Cosmological view of space in traditional house Saga is distinguished into three parts namely is lewu, gara as one and mention the position of the human body parts. Cosmological view of space in traditional Indigenous Villages (Sa'o) Saga depicted horizontally with the mother lay. Nature of traditional house Saga is the core of fertility and birth. Being a mother is clearly visible on a carved door (pene ria) enter Sa'o believe carving the breasts of a woman who symbolizes the human life and a transverse under IE peneria koba leke symbolizing the human development. The position of the head of the mother at the lulu (the dugout), second legs on his back is to the fore in the tent (dugout or accepting guests), second hand mereba is at the right and left dhembi space, the womb or humanitarian space are at puse ndawa. Keywords: traditional house (sa'o), the indigenous village of saga, the cosmology of the vertical and horizontal spaces


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