A number of emotional expressions invoke observable physical behaviors involving the body parts featuring in these expressions. This can be illustrated with Djinang (Yolngu, Arnhem Land), where mil nyangi ‘eyes see’ means ‘look hard at; stare at’ as well as ‘feel envious, jealous’; and indeed, staring is something a jealous person might do. This type of figurative relation happens mostly with parts of the face. Unsurprisingly, abdominal body parts – the belly, heart, liver and abdomen – rarely offer such metonymies: as internal organs or parts of the torso, they do not play a very prominent role in observable behaviors. Behavioral metonymies also seem to be absent among throat and ear expressions, presumably for the same reason. With the chest, we found dumu yima ‘chest puff’ meaning ‘to act proud’ in Guugu Yimithirr (Cape York), but, overall, behavioral representations remained rare.

 The bulk of behavioral expressions occur with the eyes, nose and forehead. A number of expressions describe the eyes as enlarged, mirroring responses to surprise or fear, as in Kukatja (Western Desert): paniya tjarlu-rri-, literally ‘eyes become big’, meaning ‘be surprised’. Amongst other behaviors, staring can also be invoked, as in the Djinang example above. The nose and forehead both feature in expressions that allude to movements or postures of the head or face. Djinang (Yolngu, Arnhem Land) also has bumir ṭinydjigi, where bumir means ‘forehead’ and the expression means ‘turn one’s head away’, ‘ignore’ or ‘be jealous’. As for postures of the nose, they typically map onto social coldness and sulking, as in Ngankikurungkurr (western Top End) ngal-syi, ‘have one’s nose in the air’, ‘frown’, ‘be aloof’. Perhaps surprisingly, head expressions do not appear to rely upon behavior very frequently. Instead, behaviors involving the head are exploited to represent emotions via nose and forehead expressions.

References

Haviland, John. “Guugu Yimidhirr.” In The Handbook of Australian Languages (vol 1), edited by Robert M. W. Dixon and Barry J. Blake, 27-180. Canberra: The Australian National University Press, 1979.

Hoddinott, William G. and Frances M. Kofod. The Ngankikurungkurr language (Daly river area, Northern Territory). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, 1998.

Peile, Anthony R. Body and soul: An Aboriginal view. Victoria Park, WA: Hesperian Press, 1997.

Waters, Bruce E. An interim Djinang dictionary. Darwin: Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1983.