[Lingtyp] Seats of emotions: experiencer pronouns, body-part collocations and similar

Everett, Daniel DEVERETT at bentley.edu
Sun Jun 28 16:45:41 UTC 2015


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<mailto: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<http://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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