[Lingtyp] Seats of emotions: experiencer pronouns, body-part collocations and similar
Mike Morgan
mwmbombay at gmail.com
Sun Jun 28 17:07:08 UTC 2015
A very brief comment regarding Sign Languages corss lingusitically
Typically, just as cetrain handshapes have (language speicfic) associative
meaning (for example, in American SIgn Language, bend finger claw hand is
almost aways associated with a NEGATIVE meaning), so too certain semantic
domains are associated with a location on the body.
AND, generally, across sign languages, the cognifive domain is associated
with the temple region (or forehead( and emotions with the heart region *or
chest(.
One noteable exception form the Sign Language I wourked with longest and
first, is that in Japanese Sign Language (and its related Tawiwanese and
South Korean SIgn Languages) KNOW and UNDERSTAND are articualted in the
heart/chest region.
On Sun, Jun 28, 2015 at 12:45 PM, Everett, Daniel <DEVERETT at bentley.edu>
wrote:
> This raises an interesting question of the cross-cultural definitions of
> “emotions” vs. “mental states” or if such a distinction can be meaningfully
> drawn. Neuroscientists, e.g. Panksepp (
> http://www.amazon.com/dp/0393705315/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=32555815471&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16027869163189832813&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_57654lsgsa_b)
> draw a narrow definition of mammalian emotions, but allow for a wide-range
> of interpretations of emotions cross-culturally.
>
> Dan
>
> On Jun 28, 2015, at 12:07 PM, Matthew Dryer <dryer at BUFFALO.EDU> wrote:
>
>
>
> Walman (Torricelli; Papua New Guinea) has a number of idioms of this sort,
> though some of these denote mental states that are not really emotions, but
> subjective physical states, like ‘be hungry’ or ‘feel sick’, or cognitive
> states like ‘remember’. Most involve as subject a noun * won*, whose
> only contemporary meaning is ‘chest’, but which is clearly cognate to the
> word for ‘heart’ in related languages. With the meaning ‘chest’, *won* is
> grammatically feminine, like most inanimate nouns in Walman. But in
> idioms relating to mental states, however, * won* is masculine, as
> subject agreement with the copula * -o *in (1) shows.
>
>
>
> (1)
>
> To
>
> kum
>
> won
>
> n-o
>
> kisiel.
>
>
>
> so
>
> 1sg
>
> heart
>
> 3sg.m.subj-be
>
> fast
>
> ‘Then I got angry.’
>
>
>
> When the predicate in these idioms is an adjective, as in (1), the noun
> phrase expressing the experiencer comes first, but grammatically is not
> subject, object, or possessor. In many of these idioms, the predicate is
> an adjective, but in some it is a verb with the experiencer as object, as
> in (2), where ‘they are happy’ is literally ‘heart follows them’.
>
>
>
> (2) Ri won n-rowlo-y
>
> 3pl heart 3sg.m.subj-follow-3pl.obj
>
> ‘They are happy.’
>
>
>
> Some idioms relating to mental states make use of words which appear to
> have different meanings outside of the idioms in which they occur. For
> instance in (3), the noun *nyukuel* only occurs in this idiom apart from
> the expression *oputo nyukuel* ‘food’ (where * oputo* means ‘yam’).
>
>
>
> (3)
>
> Kum
>
> m-aro-n
>
> nyukuel
>
> w-au.
>
>
>
> 1sg
>
> 1sg-and-3sg.m
>
> -
>
> 3sg-hit.1obj
>
> ‘We (I and him) are hungry.’
>
>
>
> The word *cheliel*, which occurs in the idiom in (4), occurs elsewhere
> only as an adjective meaning ‘hot’.
>
>
>
> (4)
>
> Runon
>
> cheliel
>
> w-oko-n.
>
>
>
> 3sg.m
>
> sick
>
> 3sg.f.subj-take-3sg.m.obj
>
> ‘He felt sick.’
>
>
>
> The word glossed as ‘angry’ in (5) is a transitive verb that does not
> occur outside this idiom; its subject is * won* ‘heart’ and its object
> denotes the experiencer.
>
>
>
> (5)
>
> Kum
>
> won
>
> n-p-akou.
>
>
>
> 1sg
>
> heart
>
> 3sg.m.subj-1obj-angry
>
> ‘I am angry.’
>
>
>
> In (6), the expression for ‘be ashamed’ has the word *chie* ‘mother’s
> older sister’ as subject and the verb *-arao* ‘carry on back, with strap
> around forehead’ (though one or both of these could be accidental
> homonymy), with the experiencer object of the verb.
>
>
>
> (6)
>
> To
>
> ri
>
> konungkol
>
> chie
>
> w-arao-y.
>
>
>
> then
>
> 3pl
>
> man.pl
>
> mother's.older.sister
>
> 3sg.f-carry.on.forehead-3pl.obj
>
> ‘Then the men were ashamed.’
>
>
>
> In (7), the verb is an intransitive verb, with *won* as subject and the
> experiencer as neither subject, object, nor possessor.
>
>
>
> (7)
>
> Ru
>
> won
>
> n-iri
>
>
>
> 3sg.fem
>
> heart
>
> 3sg.masc-stand.up
>
> ‘She fell in love with him.’
>
>
>
> In (8), the predicate is a word *nyopunon*, which occurs outside this
> idiom only as a noun meaning ‘leader’.
>
>
>
> (8)
>
> Akou
>
> n-aro-n
>
> won
>
> nyopunon.
>
>
>
> finish
>
> 3sg.m-and-3sg.m
>
> heart
>
> leader
>
> ‘The two [brothers] were happy.’
>
>
>
> In (9), the predicate is a noun *chrieu*, whose original meaning means
> ‘marks’ (as in a mark in a tree to signal some meaning, or sticks on the
> ground to show the route one has followed) but which is now used for any
> form of writing.
>
>
>
> (9)
>
> o
>
> runon
>
> mon
>
> won
>
> chrieu
>
> pelen
>
> cha
>
> runon
>
> n-awanie-y.
>
>
>
> and
>
> 3sg.m
>
> neg
>
> heart
>
> marks
>
> dog
>
> so.that
>
> 3sg.m
>
> 3sg.m-call-3pl
>
> ‘... he did not remember to call the dogs.’
>
>
>
> A different sort of idiom involving a body part is illustrated in (10),
> where the body part is saykil ‘liver’ functioning as postverbal nonobject
> with the reflexive form of the verb for ‘kill’ and the experiencer as
> subject.
>
>
>
> (10)
>
> Ru
>
> w-r-aypon
>
> saykil.
>
>
>
> 3sg.f
>
> 3sg.f-refl-kill
>
> liver
>
> ‘She is boastful.’
>
>
>
> The following is a table of these idioms:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *expression*
>
>
>
>
>
> *gloss*
>
>
>
> *meaning of first part*
>
>
>
> *meaning of second part*
>
> *grammatical relation of*
>
> *experiencer*
>
> won no kisiel
>
> be angry, get angry
>
> “heart”
>
> be fast
>
> -
>
> won no cheliel
>
> angry
>
> “heart”
>
> be hot
>
> -
>
> won nakou
>
> angry
>
> “heart”
>
> --
>
> obj
>
> won nyopu
>
> happy
>
> “heart”
>
> good
>
> -
>
> won nrowlo
>
> happy
>
> “heart”
>
> follow
>
> obj
>
> won nyupunon
>
> happy
>
> “heart”
>
> leader
>
> -
>
> won woyuen
>
> sad, to worry
>
> “heart”
>
> bad
>
> -
>
> won niri
>
> to fall in love
>
> “heart”
>
> stand up
>
> -
>
> won pel
>
> thirsty
>
> “heart”
>
> up out of water
>
> -
>
> won kel
>
> fall asleep
>
> ‘heart”
>
> --
>
> -
>
> won chrieu
>
> remember
>
> “heart”
>
> marks, writing
>
> -
>
> won osopul
>
> forget
>
> “heart”
>
> --
>
> -
>
> nyukuel wapu
>
> hungry
>
> --
>
> hit
>
> obj
>
> nyupul yarie
>
> sleepy
>
> sleep
>
> hit
>
> obj
>
> cheliel woko
>
> feel sick, be sick
>
> hot
>
> take
>
> obj
>
> chie warao
>
> ashamed
>
> (wife’s older
>
> sister)
>
> carry with strap around head
>
> obj
>
> -raypon saykil
>
> boastful / excited
>
> hit oneself
>
> liver
>
> subj
>
>
>
> Further examples:
>
>
>
> (11) Runon nyupul y-arie-n
>
> 3sg.m sleep 3pl-hit-3sg.m
>
> ‘He feels sleepy.’
>
>
>
> (12)
>
> O
>
> rul
>
> pa
>
> mon
>
> won
>
> kel,
>
> runon
>
> n-an
>
> wor.
>
>
>
> and
>
> 3.dimin
>
> that
>
> neg
>
> heart
>
> --
>
> 3sg.m
>
> 3sg.m-be.at
>
> high
>
> ‘But the little boy didn't go to sleep and stayed up.’
>
>
>
> (13)
>
> Kum
>
> mon
>
> won
>
> woyue-n.
>
>
>
>
>
> 1sg
>
> neg
>
> heart
>
> bad-m
>
>
>
> 'Nothing worries me.'
>
>
>
> (14) Isaac won nyopu-ø.
>
> Isaac heart good-f
>
> ‘Isaac is happy.’
>
>
>
> Matthew Dryer and Lea Brown
>
>
>
>
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--
mwm || *U*C> || mike || माईक || માઈક || মাঈক || மாஈக || مایک ||мика ||
戊流岸マイク
(aka Dr Michael W Morgan)
sign language instructor / sign language linguist / linguistic typologist
PCRV, PC Guyana
Deaf Association of Guyana
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