• Body part extensions with ​mặt ‘face’ in Vietnamese

    Author(s):
    Annika Tjuka (see profile)
    Date:
    2020
    Subject(s):
    Linguistics, Semantics, Human body, Vietnamese language
    Item Type:
    Book chapter
    Tag(s):
    Figurative/human body, Vietnamese linguistics
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/23np-nt91
    Abstract:
    Body part terms such as ​face can have various meanings, but the nature of those meanings varies across languages. Apart from its basic meaning ‘face’ as a human body part, the Vietnamese term m​ặt incorporates the notion of ‘surface’ and ‘frontside’ as well as specific metaphors for ‘sun’ and ‘moon’. This diversity of meanings poses a challenge for models of the structure of the mental lexicon. The approach adopted in this chapter suggests that body part extensions are established by a connection of similarity features between body parts and objects. In the case of the concept ​face​, these features include the function of ‘being a representation of an entity’, shape, and spatial alignment. The two similarity dimensions shape and spatial alignment seem to motivate a variety of semantic extensions and could provide valuable insights along with existing studies that investigate the cultural and physiological motivation of body part extension.
    Notes:
    The final published version can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004521971_012
    Metadata:
    xml
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    2 weeks ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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