Cultural conceptualisations of nawsk ‘belly/stomach’ in Kurdish
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Vahede Nosrati
Abstract
Conceptualisations of body parts across languages have received a great deal of attention in recent years (Ameka, 2002; Frank et al., 2008; Maalej & Yu, 2011; Sharifian et al., 2008; Yu, 2009). Nevertheless, there have been no systematic studies examining the conceptualisations of body parts, and in particular nawsk ‘belly/stomach’, in Kurdish. To that end, the present study employs the analytical framework of Cultural Linguistics (Sharifian, 2011, 2017b) to explore Kurdish expressions of nawsk and their underlying cultural conceptualisations. The data consists of naturally occurring expressions collected through a variety of sources including a questionnaire, Kurdish online data, dictionaries, and narratives. Other sources included the author’s intuition as a native speaker and a number of Kurdish native speaker interviews. The results indicate that the body part nawsk functions as the main conceptual basis for a large number of conceptualisations in Kurdish. Nawsk is conceptualised as the locus of a wide range of emotions, attitudes, and moods. It is associated with both positive and negative emotions such as love, courage, sadness, curse, and anger. Overall, it is revealed that in Kurdish, nawsk is conceptually associated with expressing feeling, wanting, and thinking. Nawsk is metaphorically conceptualised as a container.
Abstract
Conceptualisations of body parts across languages have received a great deal of attention in recent years (Ameka, 2002; Frank et al., 2008; Maalej & Yu, 2011; Sharifian et al., 2008; Yu, 2009). Nevertheless, there have been no systematic studies examining the conceptualisations of body parts, and in particular nawsk ‘belly/stomach’, in Kurdish. To that end, the present study employs the analytical framework of Cultural Linguistics (Sharifian, 2011, 2017b) to explore Kurdish expressions of nawsk and their underlying cultural conceptualisations. The data consists of naturally occurring expressions collected through a variety of sources including a questionnaire, Kurdish online data, dictionaries, and narratives. Other sources included the author’s intuition as a native speaker and a number of Kurdish native speaker interviews. The results indicate that the body part nawsk functions as the main conceptual basis for a large number of conceptualisations in Kurdish. Nawsk is conceptualised as the locus of a wide range of emotions, attitudes, and moods. It is associated with both positive and negative emotions such as love, courage, sadness, curse, and anger. Overall, it is revealed that in Kurdish, nawsk is conceptually associated with expressing feeling, wanting, and thinking. Nawsk is metaphorically conceptualised as a container.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
-
Part 1. General and Contrastive Studies
- Linguistic embodiment in linguistic experience 11
- Polysemic chains, body parts and embodiment 31
- Body-part terms as a linguistic topic and the relevance of body-parts as tools 53
- Towards a semantic lexicon of body part terms 77
- Body part terms in musical discourse 99
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Part 2. Grammaticalization Studies
- ‘Body’ and the relationship between verb and participants 117
- On the grammatical uses of the ‘head’ in Wolof 133
- Multifaceted body parts in Murui 169
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Part 3. Lexical Case Studies
- The metonymic folk model of language in Turkish 195
- Keeping an eye on body parts 215
- The conceptualization of ido ‘eye’ in Hausa 247
- Conceptualisations of entrails in English and Polish 269
- Cultural conceptualisations of nawsk ‘belly/stomach’ in Kurdish 291
- Index 309
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
-
Part 1. General and Contrastive Studies
- Linguistic embodiment in linguistic experience 11
- Polysemic chains, body parts and embodiment 31
- Body-part terms as a linguistic topic and the relevance of body-parts as tools 53
- Towards a semantic lexicon of body part terms 77
- Body part terms in musical discourse 99
-
Part 2. Grammaticalization Studies
- ‘Body’ and the relationship between verb and participants 117
- On the grammatical uses of the ‘head’ in Wolof 133
- Multifaceted body parts in Murui 169
-
Part 3. Lexical Case Studies
- The metonymic folk model of language in Turkish 195
- Keeping an eye on body parts 215
- The conceptualization of ido ‘eye’ in Hausa 247
- Conceptualisations of entrails in English and Polish 269
- Cultural conceptualisations of nawsk ‘belly/stomach’ in Kurdish 291
- Index 309
