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

[Ruth Singer]

Hi Kilu,

Responding to your second question:
>2) how are the corresponding nominal notions expressed in these languages
(anger, happiness, >sadness, love)?

You might be interested to look at Maia Ponsonnet's work on Emotion terms
in the Australian language Dalabon (http://maiaponsonnet.com/)

She finds that that few emotion nouns are used in the Australian language
Dalabon. Instead predicates are mainly used. These may be verbal or nominal
predicates and may involve body part nouns.

My impression is that Australian languages seem not to rely as much on
nouns referring to emotions such as the English nouns *anger, happiness,
sadness, love*. And the syntax and semantics of emotions is in many ways
similar to that of cognition and bodily experiences.

I discuss some idioms and complex verbs that include body part nouns in the
Australian language Mawng in my thesis:  http://hdl.handle.net/11343/39232.
They appear in a range of constructions that can be distinguished
syntactically.

Cheers,

Ruth

On 29 June 2015 at 11:35, Tasaku Tsunoda <tsunoda at ninjal.ac.jp> wrote:

> Dear Kilu,
>
>     I have found the following examples.
>
> 1. Japanese (my mother tongue)
>
> (1) Hara=ga                      tat-ta.
>      belly/stomach=NOM    rise-PST
>      LT: 'Belly/stomach rose'.
>      FT: '[I, etc.] got angry.
>
> (2) Watasi=wa    hara=ga                     tat-ta.
>      I=TOP          belly/stomach=NOM   rise-PST
>      LT: 'As for me, belly/stomach rose'.
>      FT: 'I got angry.'
>
> In the Japanese culture, hara 'belly/stomach' is considered the seat of
> emotion.
>
> 2. Djaru of Western Australia. Pama-Nyungan Family.
>     Tsunoda (1981: 197)
>
> (3) Ngaju-Ø     nga=rna          munda-Ø     gida-Ø         nyinanga-n.
>      1SG-ABS   C=1SG.NOM   belly-NOM   good-NOM   stay-PRES
>      LT: I, belly, stay good.
>      FT: I am happy.
>
> In the Djaru culture, too, munda 'belly' is considered the seat of
> emotion.
>
> C: carrier of enclitic pronouns
>
> Tsunoda, Tasaku. 1981. The Djaru language of Kimberley, Western Australia.
>     Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Tasaku Tsunoda
>
>
> From: Kilu von Prince <watasenia at gmail.com>
> Date: 2015年6月27日土曜日 17:39
> To: <LINGTYP at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> Subject: [Lingtyp] Seats of emotions: experiencer pronouns, body-part
> collocations and similar
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> I'm working on an article on expressions of emotions that require an
> idiosyncratic combination of a subject (typically a body-part) and
> predicate (typically with a more general meaning such as `be good', `be
> sweet', `hurt' or similar), as exemplified by the following structure from
> Oceanic Daakaka:
>
> (1) yu-on mwe yaa
> inside.of-3S.POSS REAL hurt
> `he/she is angry'
>
> I am aware of a few other, typologically diverse languages that show such
> structures: Acholi (Bavin 1996), Hmong (Clark 1996) and Anywa (Reh 1996),
> which is described to have `experiencer pronouns'.
>
> I would like to know:
> 1) if you know of other languages with such structures; and
> 2) how are the corresponding nominal notions expressed in these languages
> (anger, happiness, sadness, love)?
>
> Of course, I'll be happy to cite your published work or cite your personal
> communication as a source, unless you specify otherwise.
>
> Regards,
> Kilu
>
> References:
> Bavin, Edith L. 1996. Body parts in Acholi: alienable and inalienable
> distinctions and extended uses. In: Chappell, Hilary, & McGregor, William
> (eds), e grammar of inalienability: A typological perspective on body part
> terms and the part-whole relation. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter Mouton.
>
> Clark, Marybeth. 1996. Where do you feel? – stative verbs and body-part
> terms in Mainland Southeast Asia. In: Chappell, Hilary, & McGregor, William
> (eds), e grammar of inalienability: A typological perspective on body part
> terms and the part-whole relation. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter Mouton.
>
> Reh, Mechthild. 1996. Anywa language. Description and internal
> reconstructions. (Nilo-Saharan, 11.). Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
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-- 
Dr Ruth Singer
DECRA Postdoctoral Fellow
Linguistics Program and Research Unit for Indigenous Language
School of Languages and Linguistics
Faculty of Arts
University of Melbourne 3010
Tel. +61 3 90353774
http://languages-linguistics.unimelb.edu.au/academic-staff/ruth-singer
http://indiglang.arts.unimelb.edu.au/
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