Emotions and body parts through the language filter of diverse cultures

Krzysztof Trochimiuk

Podtatrzańska 68/25

34-400 Nowy Targ

ktrochimiuk@poczta.onet.pl

Podhalańska Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Zawodowa w Nowym Targu

Emotions play a central role in all aspects of life, spurring humans to make certain

decisions, procreate or wage wars, to name but a few. A particular individual exposed to

emotional states experiences more or less salient physiological changes, such as quickened

breath, rapid heartbeat, profuse perspiration, increased body temperature, etc. It is indisputable

that from the point of view of physiology humans share identical capabilities to experience

emotional states, despite small distinctive features which define various races, for example skin

pigmentation or physical stature. However, such genetic pre-wiring does not limit the way

different cultures link various body parts with emotions. If one confronts speakers of any of the

SAE languages with the question concerning the seat of emotions, the majority of them will

invariably point to the heart. Nevertheless, in spite of a seemingly general consensus, there are

linguistically separate cultures that identify locus sentiendi somewhat differently. For example

users of Tsou, a language spoken in the mountainous region of Southwest Taiwan, would

unequivocally pinpoint the ear (koyu) as the centre of emotions. In Japanese it is the stomach

(hara) that is perceived as the predominant container of emotions. Still the greatest surprise

comes from speakers of Tok Pisin, creole spoken in Papua New Guinea, as the locus sentiendi is

moveable, reflecting the phraseology registered in indigenous languages. In consequence, some

Papua New Guineans locate their emotions in the liver (lewa), others in the neck (nek), while still

there are those, who prefer the stomach (bel [from English belly]). Interestingly enough, a

linguistic tradition regarding expressive language may yield to a dominant influence of a

different culture as was the case with the speakers of Hawaiian, who used to identify intestines

(ake) as the prime location for emotions but in the 19th century changed their preference in favour

of the “clichéd” heart (uma. uma). It is worth noting that a slightly modified approach, namely to

investigate emotions on a specific state basis, will lead an “expressive language anatomist” to

particular organs as well. Consequently, speakers of English will see the spleen as the container

of negative emotions, such as ‘malice’, ‘spite’ and, though archaic, also ‘melancholy’ and ‘low

spirits’. Similarly, any intensely negative experience will make speakers of Totonac, one of the

Indian languages in Mexico, use the expression to be spleen-broken.

My aspiration is to take a linguistic tour of the human body in search of emotions hiding

in specific organs and highlight the differences of such linguistic picture of the world in various

cultures. In my methodology I subscribe to the BODY PART FOR EMOTION metonymy

within a CONTAINER schema widely used in cognitive linguistics.