[Lingtyp] Seats of emotions: experiencer pronouns, body-part collocations and similar
Peter Austin
pa2 at soas.ac.uk
Sun Jun 28 18:44:03 UTC 2015
For Australian Aboriginal languages there are a number of published
sources, including Maia Ponsonnet's recent book on Dalabon (
https://benjamins.com/#catalog/books/clscc.4/main) and Father Anthony
Piele's book/dictionary on Kukatja (out of print but you can order from
Amazon http://www.gould.com.au/Body-Soul-Aboriginal-Viewpoint-p/hes009.htm).
In Dieri, there are constructions parallel to those you describe that
involve the word kalhu 'liver', eg. kadlhu marra- 'liver become.red' = to
yearn for, kalhu miltyarri- 'liver become.pieces' = to feel sorry for,
kalhu paki- 'liver burst' = to grieve, feel sorry for.
In Jiwarli the parallel constructions use puju 'stomach', eg. puju
pakalyarri- 'to feel happy' (lit. stomach become.good), puju walhi 'to be
sad' (lit. stomach bad).
Best,
Peter
On 28 June 2015 at 17:07, 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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>
>
--
Prof Peter K. Austin
Marit Rausing Chair in Field Linguistics
Director, Endangered Languages Academic Programme
Research Tutor and PhD Convenor
Department of Linguistics, SOAS
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG
United Kingdom
Homepage: http://www.hrelp.org/aboutus/staff/index.php?cd=pa
Academia: https://soas.academia.edu/PeterAustin
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Peter_Austin2
ResearcherID: http://www.researcherid.com/rid/P-5066-2014
ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3180-0524
Twitter: https://twitter.com/peterkaustin
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