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 The linguistic association of emotions with the eyes is one of the most common in Australian Indigenous languages. Attested across the entire continent, the association is almost as frequent as the other highly typical seat of emotion – the heart – though is far less frequent than the belly. Expressions with the eyes tend to express desire, jealousy or love, as well as fear and surprise. Other emotions represented with the eyes include anger, shame, respect and compassion. Contrary to most other body parts, the eyes rarely feature in expressions referring to generic feelings, i.e., ‘feel good’ or ‘feel bad’.

Behaviors and facial expressions

A significant proportion of expressions with the eyes evoke either plausible behaviors involving the eyes or plausible states of the eyes. Expressions can depict a behavior frequently associated with an emotion, for example, watching or staring maps onto desire and jealousy, as well as fear and concern. The former occurs in Wik Mungkan (Cape York), where mee'ang wakan, literally ‘follow from the eyes’, means ‘covet’. It is not uncommon for people to watch or stare at someone they desire or something they are afraid of, and such associations may help explain the linguistic association between the eyes and emotions. Another set of expressions allude to widening eyes, which maps onto surprise, as in Kukatja paniya tjarlu-rri- ‘eyes become big’, meaning ‘be surprised’. This captures the way people look when they feel surprised.

Green eyes, white eyes

While evocations of behaviors account for a significant proportion of expressions with the eyes, physiological states of the eyes also play a role. As is common with practically all body parts, expressions that represent the eyes as burning map onto anger. Other expressions depict familiar somatic states of the eyes, such as dryness or irritation. For instance, having itchy eyes is associated with jealousy in Yolngu Matha (Arnhem Land): mel-d̪e' ‘eye(s) itchy, dry’, meaning ‘jealous, envious’. In Arrernte, we find evocations of shine and color, with green associated with fear and white with surprise. Metaphors depicting colors of body parts are not very widespread in Australia (but see the discussion about the liver). Green and white would not have been widespread eye colors in Australia prior to colonization, yet many older people suffer from cataracts, which makes one’s eyes look very pale.

Soft eyes, fat eyes

Few languages use implausible properties of the eyes to express emotions. The only metaphor attested in this style associates softness with compassion, as is common with many body parts (especially the belly and heart). As an example, Djinang (Yolngu, Arnhem Land) has mil biḷbaḷingi ‘eye(s) soft’, which means ‘kind, compassionate, hospitable’. Yolngu also features a less common association of ‘fat eyes’ with greed, possibly by analogy with expressions involving fat buttocks, which are common across the continent. But these are isolated examples. Most of the time, expressions with the eyes rely on descriptions of the behaviors or physical states of eyes as described above.

References

Bowern, Claire and David Zorc. Yolngu Matha dictionary. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, AILEC 0778, n. d.

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.

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.