[Lingtyp] 'Head' as a lexical universal

[Maria Koptjevskaja Tamm]

Dear all,

I wonder if anyone knows of a language that does not have a dedicated word for ‘head’ (either as a part of a human body or also covering animals)? It has been suggested in earlier work on body-related universals that all languages will have a word for ‘head’. While some of the other earlier suggested universals (like a separate word for ‘body’) have been contested, I have not seen any discussion of ‘head’ and would be very grateful for any advice

Many thanks and kind regards,
Maria / Masha


Prof. Maria Koptjevskaja Tamm
Dept. of linguistics, Stockholm university, 106 91, Stockholm, Sweden
Editor-in-chief of “Linguistic Typology”
President-Elect of Societas Linguistic Europaea
www.su.se/english/profiles/tamm-1.182300<http://www.su.se/english/profiles/tamm-1.182300>
tamm at ling.su.se<mailto:tamm at ling.su.se>


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