A significant proportion of the expressions we found describe body parts as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. For instance, in Dalabon (Arnhem Land) kangu-weh-mun ‘belly get bad’ means ‘feel bad’, in Yugambeh (South Queensland) yilgan bugal ‘liver good’ means ‘pleased’, in Wik Mungkan (Cape York) ngangk min ‘heart good’ means ‘happy’, and so on. These sorts of expressions occur with most body parts and are most frequent with the belly, heart and head, where they tend to represent just under one expression in five. They seem less common with parts of the face like the eyes, nose and forehead. Technically, they are better regarded as metonymies.

 As we can see above, such ‘generic’ expressions often describe ‘generic’ emotions, i.e. feel good or feel bad. But this is not always the case. In Warlpiri (Central Australia) for instance, jurru maju ‘head bad’ means ‘angry, aggressive, bad tempered’, and in Pitjantjatjara, liri kura ‘throat bad’ means ‘angry’.

References

Goddard, Cliff. Pitjantjatjarra/Yankunytjatjara to English dictionary (2nd edition). Alice Springs: IAD Press, 1992.

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.

Ponsonnet, Maïa. The language of emotions: The case of Dalabon (Australia). Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Co., 2014.

Sharpe, Margaret. Dictionary of Yugambeh (and neighbouring dialects). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, 1998.