● Audio access ●

In other pages of this part of the website, we presented the dozen body parts that occur most frequently in emotional expressions in Australian Indigenous languages. Beyond these, nearly twenty others display more marginal associations with emotions, for instance, the waist, breast, neck, teeth, bones, brain, lungs, saliva, body, flesh, and more (see list below). For some, the expressions they form resemble those with another, more widespread body part. Brain expressions, for example, resemble those with the head, whilst lung expressions resemble those with the heart, chest and abdomen. Here we briefly present some of the most notable properties observed with these less prevalent body parts.

The hand

Expressions with the hand occur in a significant number of languages, but each language typically has just one expression, or sometimes two. Many hand expressions denote attitudes related to laziness or sharing, such as generosity or greed. These associations reflect the fact that hands are involved in working/doing things, as well as in giving.

The mouth

The mouth is less frequent than the hand in emotional expressions, but still notable, occurring in expressions that denote social attitudes (e.g. being compliant, assertive, bossy, feeling ashamed), as well as desire and want. This is presumably because the mouth is involved in speech, bridging with social attitudes, and in eating, bridging with desire.

The back

The back is only involved in a small number of expressions. They denote conflict, from turning one’s back on someone; fear, from anticipating danger located behind one’s back in the bush; and shame, culturally associated with kin avoidance rules that forbid some people to face each other.

The hair

Hair expressions map onto fear and awkwardness, based on the familiar physiological reaction of goosebumps. There are also a number of expressions with words meaning ‘buttocks’ which describe greed and fear. The origin of these associations is less clear.

Holistic body parts

Some emotional expressions feature holistic body parts such as skin, flesh or the body itself. Skin expressions often denote social emotions such as anger, sulking or shame, while a smaller number relate to desire and jealousy, sometimes depicting the skin as itchy. Words for ‘body’ and ‘flesh’ bridge to a broad range of emotions, perhaps owing to the words in question having a number of other meanings, from ‘appearance’ to ‘trunk’ or ‘back’.

Body parts found in emotional expressions in our sample

Frequent
abdomen
belly
chest
ear
eye
face
forehead
head
heart
liver
nose
throat

Others
back
blood
body
bones
bottom
brain
breast
cheek
flesh
foot
hair
hand
leg
lips
lungs
mouth
neck
saliva
skin
teeths
temple
tongue
waist