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Emotional expressions referring to the chest are moderately frequent in Indigenous Australian languages – roughly half as common as those with the heart, for instance. The range of body parts implied by the label ‘chest’ can vary slightly, but the terms usually refer to the whole upper half of the body or torso. While expressions associating emotions with the chest are attested in many parts of the continent, they seem more frequent in the north-east, including Cape York, as well as east Arnhem Land. They are notably rare, if not absent, in Central Australia. In this way, the spread of chest expressions mirrors that of the heart.

The chest follows the heart and belly

Like with the distribution, the range of emotions expressed with the chest presents similarities with the range covered by the heart, albeit at the same time blending features present in belly expressions. Key associations with the chest are anger, fear and love, which also dominate with the heart and the belly. Parallel to these two body parts again, the chest is used to describe generic feelings – ‘feel good’ or ‘feel bad’ – as well as a range of other, fairly dispersed emotions.

The metaphors observed in chest expressions also seem to combine aspects of heart and belly expressions together. For instance, softness, a property exploited by belly and heart expressions, is again associated with gentleness or emotional sensitivity in chest expressions. Djinang (Yolngu, Arnhem Land) illustrates this with bir biḷbaḷ, literally ‘soft-chested’, meaning ‘agreeable, gentle’. Like with the heart and the belly, there are metaphors of destruction, whereby the chest is, for instance, described as torn or breaking, as in Kaurna (South Australia) kuntu yartarrinthi ‘chest breaking itself’, meaning ‘be under great anxiety’. Yet there are some differences that make the chest stand apart somewhat in its emotional associations. In Yanyuwa (Gulf of Carpentaria), we find ngarramilimili, literally ‘warm chest’, which means ‘brave; courageous’, a trope we haven’t found with other body parts, where heat normally maps onto anger, not courage.

Behavioral and physiological responses of the chest

A handful of expressions link emotion to behaviors involving the chest. In Guugu Yimidhirr (Cape York), for instance, we find that dumu yima ‘chest puff’ means to ‘act proud’. This familiar association alludes to a posture seen as typical of people who feel proud. There are also physiological associations, like in Yidiny (Cape York again), where walngga duwa translates literally to ‘shake breath’ and means ‘have desire for someone’. This expression could be motivated by the physical association between deeper or irregular breathing and desire, also involving the chest.

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.

Bradley, John, Jean Kirton, and the Yanyuwa Community. Yanyuwa wuka: Language from Yanyuwa country - A Yanyuwa dictionary and cultural resource. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, MS 3159, 1992.

Dixon, Robert M. W. Words of our country: Stories, place names and vocabulary in Yidiny, the language of the Cairns/Yarrabah region. St Lucia, Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1991.

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.

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