Some expressions, mostly with abdominal parts, describe the body part as doing something – as opposed to simply being assigned a property of shape, color or other aspect. For instance, the belly can metaphorically speak or think, as in Warlpiri (Central Australia), where miyalu kaninjarra wangka-mi, literally ‘stomach inside speak’, means ‘feel deeply about something, be serious about it’. Such metaphors are somewhat rare, and do not seem to occur much with body parts other than the belly. More commonly, expressions evoke more violent actions, with the body part throwing or hitting itself, for instance. This occurs in Kaurna (South Australia), where wingku parlta parltarrinthi ‘lungs throwing themselves’ means ‘to wish, long for’, and kuntu pungkurrinthi ‘chest hitting itself’ means ‘to be concerned, sorry’. Sometimes eating or biting is involved, as in Wik Mungkan (Cape York) ngangk-pathan ‘heart/abdomen bite, chew’.

In many cases it is a bit hard to tell, at least from the data we have, whether the body part is presented as the agent doing the action, or as a patient undergoing the action. Sometimes it can be both, as in the Kaurna expressions above, where the lungs and chest throw and hit themselves. When the body part is a patient undergoing the action, this results in metaphors of violence to the body part, as we find with the forehead in Gupapuyŋu (Yolngu, Arnhem Land) for instance (buku-ḏiy'yun ‘forehead hit’, ‘dislike, observe taboo’). These metaphors are discussed on the ‘access metaphor’ page.

References

 Amery, Rob. Emotion Metaphors in an Awakening Language: Kaurna the language of the Adelaide Plains. Paper presented at the 2017 Australian Linguistics Society Conference, Sydney, Australia, 2017.

Kilham, Christine, Mabel Pamulkan, Jennifer Pootchemunka, and Topsy Wolmby. Wik Mungkan-English interactive dictionary. AuSIL Interactive Dictionary Series A-6, Australian Society for Indigenous Languages, 2017. Retrieved from http://ausil.org/Dictionary/Wik-Mungkan/lexicon/mainintro.html.

Laughren, Mary and Warlpiri lexicography group. Warlpiri-English encyclopaedic dictionary. Electronic draft, October 2017, 2007.

Lowe, Beulah. Gupapuyŋu-English dictionary. Darwin: Aboriginal Resource & Development Services Inc., 1994. Retrieved from https://ards.com.au/resources/downloadable/gupapuy%C5%8Bu-dictionary/.