embodiment and body parts metaphors, idioms and figurative … · 2017-03-22 · embodiment and...
TRANSCRIPT
Embodiment and body parts metaphors, idioms and figurative
expressions
INDEX
1. Background
1.1. Cognition
1.2. The mind- body dualism
1.2.1 Two generations of cognitive researchers
1.3. Embodiment
1.4. Embodied cognition
1.5. Embodiment and language analysis
1.6. Metaphor and metonymy
1.6.1 Objectivism, subjectivism and experientialist
synthesis
1.7. Idioms
1.7.1 Features and classification of idioms
1.7.2 Investigation on idioms
1.7.3 Idioms and embodiment
2. Collection of data
2.1. Process of data collection
2.2. Data: English body part examples and their Italian
equivalents
2.2.1 Face
2.2.2 Eye
2.2.3 Nose
2.2.4 Mouth
2.2.5 Tooth
2.2.6 Tongue
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13
24
40
42
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51
51
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86
98
115
125
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3. Automatic retrieval
3.1. Introduction
3.2. Occurrences of the figurative and metaphoric
expressions
3.2.1 Paisà (Italian Language Corpus)
3.2.2 British National Corpus (English Language
Corpus)
3.3. Identification of: figurative or metonymic category
and abstract concepts
3.3.1 Faccia, viso, volto – Face
3.3.2 Occhio – Eye
3.3.3 Naso – Nose
3.3.4 Bocca – Mouth
3.3.5 Dente – Tooth
3.3.6 Lingua – Tongue
4. Discussion and conclusions
4.1. Discussion
4.1.1. Significant facts
4.2. Conclusion
REFERENCES
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1. Background
1.1. Cognition
The term “cognition” refers to the mental processes by which knowledge is
acquired and managed, including attention, intuition, perception, memory and
working memory, judgement and evaluation, reasoning and computation,
problem solving and decision making, comprehension and production of
language. These processes have been analysed in various fields, from
philosophy to psychology, from cognitive science to neuroscience, and
computer science as well and in each of these domains different aspects of it
have been taken into account.
Although the term “cognitive" concerns all the aspects of thought, conscious
and unconscious, it should be highlighted that reason and thought are mostly
unconscious, largely metaphorical, imaginative, and emotionally engaged.
Actually, the cognitive unconscious, the place where all our beliefs and
knowledge in terms of conceptual systems reside, which shapes how we
conceptualise and comprehend our experience as well, constitutes the 95% of
all thought1. The analysis of mind remained the province of philosophy until
the nineteenth century when experimental psychology, the study of sensation
and perception, memory, cognition, learning, emotion, developmental
processes, social psychology and their neural substrates, developed.
1 Lakoff, G., M. Johnson, 1999, Philosophy in the flesh: the embodied mind and its challengeto western thought , Basic Books, New York.
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1.2. The mind-body dualism
In a very quick overview of the mind-body dualism, Gibbs (2006) points out
that the Western intellectual tradition began with the Ancient Greeks who have
always denied the body in the study of thought2.
In 400 BCE Plato argued that the body came from the material world, while
the soul from the world of ideas (or forms), thus it is immortal. As body and
soul are temporally united, they will be separated with death. Besides since
soul does not exist in time and space, it is a disembodied state, and it can
access universal truths which are recalled by the souls eventually considering
the body as a distracting element for intellectual life.
Later on, in 300 BCE, Aristotle, Plato’s pupil, claimed that the mind is a
faculty of the soul and that the relation between body and soul was not that
complicated: he considered the soul as a property of the body, and as the body
perishes so the soul does.
Afterwards, in the 17th century, Descartes, a French philosopher and
mathematician, focused his attention on the pineal gland, where he positioned
the soul and the development of all the thoughts. His hypothesis, the so-called
Cartesian dualism, supports the distinction between mind and matter (body),
but simultaneously the influence of the former upon the latter, eventually
forming an empirical unit. Descartes’ argument for this separation is part of a
long legacy of dualistic thinking, in which Plato’s discussion about the
immateriality of the soul played a central role. However, for the Cartesian
philosophy, the body is both necessary and unacceptable because he claimed
that the body is just an idea in the mind that materializes only if we pay
2 Gibbs, R. W., 2006, Embodiment and cognitive science, Cambrige University Press,Cambrige
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attention to it: he doubted its existence, but not the one of the thought and
thinking.
During the 18th century Kant claimed the fact that beyond mind and matter
there exists a world of a priori forms, such as time and space, which are pre-
programmed in the brain. Therefore, as it is believed by this philosopher, the
interaction mind-body occurs through forces that may be of different kinds for
mind and body.
At the beginning of the 20th century Piaget, in his writings on developmental
psychology, explored how embodied action may underlie children’s acquisition
of perceptual and conceptual knowledge. Indeed children learn to reason about
the physical world through visual inspection of real-world events, their
interactions with objects and other people.
However, over the last fifty years in philosophy, the nature of cognition has
been re-thought: instead of emphasizing formal operations on abstract symbols,
this new approach focuses on the fact that cognition is rather a situated and an
embodied activity suggesting that thinking beings ought to be considered first
and foremost as active beings. Thus, this new view claims that most real-world
thinking occurs in very particular environments, is employed for very practical
purposes, and exploits the possibility of interaction with and manipulation of
external objects.
Besides, over the last decades a division in cognitive sciences seems to have
emerged between advocates of embodied approaches and those who support
symbolic procedures to language understanding. While the former group thinks
that language comprehension requires the activation of our experiences with
the world, the latter one argues that it should rely on interdependence of words.
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1.2.1. Two generations of cognitive researchers
In order to examine in depth these two conceptions of cognitive science, two
generations of researchers have to be distinguished3.
The first generation of cognitive science developed between the 1950s and
the 1960s claiming the idea that reason was disembodied and that thought
could be represented using formal symbol systems. With respect to meaning, it
was considered simply as an abstract relation among symbols or between
symbols and a state of affairs in the world. This view was based on
functionalism that supported the idea that mental representations are symbolic
and that mind could be studied in terms of its cognitive functions, ignoring
which functions arise from the body and brain. Thus, according to this
“functionalist” perspective, body and brain do not contribute to the nature of
human concepts and reason.
Whereas the second generation of cognitive science developed in the mid-
late 1970s sustaining the idea of a strong dependence of concepts and reason
upon the body and the centrality in conceptualisation and reason of imaginative
processes, namely metaphor, imagery, metonymy, prototypes, frames and
mental spaces. Moreover its three major findings are the fact that the mind is
inherently embodied, thought is mostly unconscious, and abstract concepts are
largely metaphorical. Thus, its key points are the following:
• conceptual structure arises from our sensorimotor experience and the
neural structures that give rise to it: the neural and cognitive
mechanisms that allow us to perceive and move around also create our
conceptual systems and modes of reason;
• mental structures are intrinsically meaningful by virtue of their
3 Lakoff, G., M. Johnson, 1999, Philosophy in the flesh: the embodied mind and its challengeto western thought , Basic Books, New York.
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connection to our body and embodied experience;
• our brains are structured so as to project activation patterns from
sensorimotor areas to higher cortical areas through the building of
primary metaphors;
• reason is embodied and arises from the nature of our brains, bodies and
bodily based experiences; consequently, inferences arise from
sensorimotor and body-based forms of inference.
1.3. Embodiment
Actually, since the mid-1980s the concept of embodiment has been used
extensively in the cognitive science and AI literature, in such terms as
embodied mind4, embodied intelligence5, embodied action6, embodied
cognition7, embodied AI (Chrisley, in press), and embodied cognitive science8.
Nowadays, embodiment is considered a condition sine qua non for any form
of natural or artificial intelligence: Pfeifer and Scheuer9 argued that
“intelligence cannot merely exist in the form of an abstract algorithm, but
4 Lakoff, G., M. Johnson, 1999, Philosophy in the flesh: the embodied mind and its challenge to western thought , Basic Books, New York.
5 Brooks, R. A., 1991, Intelligence Without Reason Proceedings of the Twelfth InternationalJoint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (pp. 569-595) San Mateo, CA: MorganKaufmann.
6 Varela, F. J.; Thompson, E. & Rosch, E., 1991, The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science andHuman Experience Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
7 Clark, A., 1997, Being There - Putting Brain, Body and World Together Again Cambridge,MA: MIT Press.
8 Clark, A., 1999, An embodied cognitive science?, Trends in cognitive science, 3
9 Pfeifer, R. & Scheier, C., 1999, Understanding Intelligence. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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requires a physical instantiation, a body”. Nevertheless, it is far from clear
what kind of body (if any) is required for embodied cognition; hence, while it
might be agreed upon that humans are embodied cognizers, there’s little
agreement upon what kind of body artificial intelligence would have to be
equipped with. Indeed Ziemke, in its paper “What’s that thing called
embodiment?”10, claims that it is then necessary to distinguish between several
notions of embodiment:
• embodiment as a structural coupling between agent and environment
• historical embodiment as the result of a history of structural coupling
• physical embodiment
• organismoid embodiment
• organismic embodiment
• social embodiment
The broadest notion of embodiment is that systems are embodied if they are
structurally coupled to their environment: Quick et al.11 stated that a system X
is embodied in an environment E if perturbatory channels exist between the
two. This means that X is embodied in E if every time at which both E and X
exist, some subset of E’s possible states with respect to X have the capacity to
perturb X’s state, and some subset of X’s possible states with respect to E have
the capacity to perturb E’s state.
Some researchers emphasized that the embodiment of cognitive systems is a
result or reflection of a history of agent-environment interaction and in many
10 Ziemke, T., 2003, What's that thing called embodiment? In R. Alterman, D, Kirsh (eds.) Proceedings of the 25th annual meeting of Cognitive Science Society, Lawrence Erlbaum, NJ, pp 1305-1310.
11 Quick, T. & Dautenhahn, K., 1999, Making embodiment measurable, Proceedings of ‘4.Fachtagung der Gesellschaft für Kognitionswissenschaft’, Bielefeld, Germany.
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cases co-adaptation. Riegler12 argues that a system is embodied if it has gained
competence within the environment in which it has developed.
Historical and physical embodiment, after all, are special cases of structural
coupling and, in a more restricted view, the embodied systems should be
connected to their environment, not just through physical forces, but through
sensors and motors: sensorimotor embodiment, then, should be taken into
account.
A more restrictive notion of physical embodiment, the organismoid one,
argues that certain types of organism-like cognition might be limited to
organism-like bodies covering both living organisms and their artificial
counterparts.
The notion of organismic embodiment claims the fact that only living bodies
should be taken into account because living organisms are autonomous and
autopoietic, while man-made machines are heteronomous and allopoietic.
Living organism are acting plans, whereas machines are governed by human
rules. However this notion does not rule out the possibility of future artificial
autopoietic systems that can grow in interaction with their environment through
the use of artificial evolutionary and learning techniques.
Barsalou et al. (in press)13, instead, have addressed the notion of social
embodiment by which they mean that states of the body, such as postures, arm
movements and facial expressions, arise during social interaction and play
central roles in social information processing.
12 Riegler, A., 2002, When is a cognitive system embodied? Cognitive Systems research,special issue on “Situated and embodied cognition” 3, 339-348.
13 Barsalou, L. W., Niedenthal, P. M., Barbey, A. K., & Ruppert, J. A., 2003, Social embodiment in B. H. Ross (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation, Vol. 43 (pp.43–92). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
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Therefore, the recent interest linked to the pair body-mind has increased and
the hypothesis that bodily experiences play an essential role in the development
of mind, in the cognitive development has been widely approved.
In the term “embodied cognition” the term “body” highlights that the
cognitive development is related to the development of motor functions and
their management to reach special purposes. In the light of this view, cognition
is rooted in the body and develops from the perception of our physical being.
Thus, there is a very close link among perception-action-cognition and the
notion of mind, of thought that arises and develops from the interaction of the
body with the environment, in contrast with the cognitivist view that dominated
the period after the war. This connection between motor aspects and cognitive
functions is also established by Lieberman14 who observed that basal ganglia
that control complex motor actions, play a role in cognitive activities such as
language. Action, perception and cognition are three aspects of the same
function: interacting with the world.
Consequently, the knowledge-awareness of ourselves in the sense of
regulation and control of our inner states and the capacity to coordinate
movement and intentionality is the premise to develop an embodied cognition.
1.4. Embodied cognition
The concept of embodied cognition recalls the argumentation that states that
we are creatures whose cognitive activity is primarily related to sensorimotor
processing connected to on-line interaction with the external world. Indeed, the
evolution of the brain and the senses has been driven by immediate needs of
embodied creatures, hungry for information and inseparable from their
14 Lieberman P., 2000, Human Language and Reptilian Brain: The Subcortical Bases ofSpeech, Syntax, Thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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immediate environments. Biology demonstrates that mental life has physical
basis in the synapses of the brain. Actually on-line aspects of embodied
cognition include cognitive activities embedded in a task-relevant external
situation, involving time pressure too. However, off-line aspects are significant
to assist in the mental representation and manipulation of things that are not
present making the body serve the mind. Nonetheless, even if this hypothesis
has been widely supported, it is important to take into account the different
views that interpret the notion of embodied cognition. Wilson examined them
in her article15:
1. Cognition is situated: cognitive activity involves perception and action
because it takes place in real-world environment. Situated cognition is
based on the fact that one person’s action is not rooted in one’s
knowledge, but it comes from the web of social relationships that
defines the context of our action, thus it is the cognition that takes place
in the context of task-relevant inputs and outputs. Our ancestors relied
mostly on situated skills because before civilization the most important
problem to deal with was an immediate reaction to avoid predators and
find food. As early humans became more sophisticated the use of off-
line measures increased (shaping tools, language and depictive art), but
situated cognition has not disappeared. Actually, spatial cognition tends
to be situated, because for instance, trying to fit a piece into a puzzle
may need continuous revaluation of spatial relationships that are being
continuously manipulated.
2. Cognition is time pressured: cognitive activity needs to be considered
in relation to the pressures of real-time, that matter because they create
what has been called the “representational bottleneck”. When situations
need fast responses, there may not be time to build a mental model of
the environment from which to derive a plan of action. Humans usually
15 Wilson, M., 2002, Six views of embodied cognition, Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 9,pp. 625-636.
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crumble under time pressure and they do not successfully cope with the
representational bottleneck. Actually, given the opportunity, they
choose to behave in an off-line way. Anyhow, forms of real-time
situated cognition can be seen in any activity that involves a continuous
updating of plans in response to the continuous changing of the
situation.
3. We off-load cognitive work onto the environment: in this way, our
cognitive work is reduced. Indeed when we are dealing with on-line
tasks, two kinds of strategies can be used: the first is to rely on
information acquired in previous situations, while the second is using
the environment itself in a strategic way in order to reduce our
cognitive workload making use of epistemic actions to alter the
environment and help cognitive processes.
4. The environment is part of the cognitive system: in order to study the
cognitive activity, mind and environment have to be both of them taken
into consideration. Cognition is distributed across the entire interacting
situation: from the mind, to the body and the environment. Thus, to
understand cognition we need to study the situation and the situated
cognizers together as a unified system.
5. Cognition is for action: cognitive processes contribute to situation-
appropriate behaviour. Works on memory and perception are
meaningful for this claim because the aim of the visual system is to
build an internal representation of what is perceived externally:
consistent with this view, the ventral and dorsal visual pathways are
considered to be the “what” and “where” ones which generate
representations of object structure and spatial relationships respectively.
Nevertheless, the dorsal stream is thought to be the “how” pathway as
well. Our mental representations are often sketchy and incomplete, but
they contain more information than the one needed for the original
purpose, thus they’re useful for future activities.
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6. Off-line cognition is body based: cognitive mechanisms are grounded in
the mechanisms developed from the sensorimotor interaction with the
environment. Mental structures that were built for perception or action
can be useful to off-line tasks, different from their original purpose, to
assist in thinking and knowing. Therefore sensorimotor simulations are
implicated in human cognition. Mental imagery, not only the visual
one, but the auditory and the kinesthetic imagery as well, take place in
the absence of relevant external simulation. Working memory appears
to be an example of symbolic off-loading, it off-loads information onto
perceptual and motor control systems in the brain. Episodic memory
(long-term memory) stores spatiotemporally localized events with all
the attendant visual, kinaesthetic and spatial impressions. There also is
implicit memory that can be considered as an embodied form of
knowledge because through it, we learn skills, automatizing what was
formerly effortful. The internal representations of the situation
automatized contain certain regularities that allow us to circumvent the
representational bottleneck. Finally reasoning and problem-solving
should be taken into account because they make a heavy use of
sensorimotor simulation. It appears then that off-line embodied
cognition is a widespread phenomenon in the human mind.
1.5. Embodiment and language analysis
In linguistics, the notion of embodiment was introduced in connection with the
following problems:
• How can we understand each other?
• How do we get to the same shared meaning?
• How can we be sure that we are thinking the same thought as a result of
our communication?
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In order to find a response to these questions about language and semantics
Rohrer16 distinguished two approaches. On the one hand philosophy and
linguistics that posit meaning as something abstract, propositional and
symbolic and consider complex language as the result of a logical combination
of atomic propositions. This is a method adopted by most of the analytic
philosophers of language and Chomskian linguists who consider semantics
purely referential and syntactic structures able to resolve to logic relations, and
pragmatics is seen as the first source of ambiguity, subjectivity and error. To
name two philosophers, Plato and Frege can be positioned within the extreme
forms of this tradition: the objectivist one. On the other hand, there are
researchers that in observing language as learned and used within the child-
parent pair where a single word has a pragmatic meaning and used to establish
a relation between them, found that the first purpose of language is
communicate and share experiences and not merely objectively describing the
world.
Actually, we know from Cognitive Neuroscience that the physical brain
does not process visual information in a disembodied, nonimagistic way, but
instead maintains the perceptual topology of images presented to it, and then
re-represents abstract spatial and imagistic details of that topology. Thus a
focus on what people find meaningful necessitates investigating the cognitive
and social embodiment that shapes and constrains meaningful expression. A
question that can be asked is how does bodily apparatus itself shape our
linguistic categorization and conceptualisation? The spirit of this transition
from the Objectivist traditions to a more Cognitive Semantics can be revealed
in an experiment proposed by Langacker17 to characterize the process of
linguistic change known as subjectification. He makes an example about the
16 Rohrer, T., 2007, Embodiment and experientialism, In Geeraerts, D., Cuyckens, H. (eds.)The Oxford handbook of Cognitive Linguistics Oxford, Oxford University Press.
17 Langacker, Ronald W., 1990, Subjectification, Cognitive Linguistics 1: 5-38.
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glasses he wears pointing out that if he takes them off and examines them they
function solely as the object of perception; by contrast when he’s wearing
them, they become part of the perceiving apparatus, thus they function
exclusively as part of the subject of perception.
The embodiment hypothesis is the claim that human physical, cognitive and
social embodiment ground our conceptual and linguistic systems.
In the late 1970s Lakoff and Johnson18 discovered that much of the ordinary
language we use to characterize a wide variety of experiences is systematically
shaped by a relatively small number of metaphors. Thus this work called into
question the distinction between “dead” metaphors (deeply conventionalised
and thus hard to notice as we listen to everyday speech) and “live” metaphors
(the inferential and creative extensions of an underlying metaphor). They
dubbed the notion of conceptual metaphor to distinguish it from linguistic
metaphor emphasizing the fact that metaphors are a matter of cognition and
conceptual structure rather than a matter of mere language. Actually, metaphors
tend to refer to the abstract in terms of the concrete. They identify the more
concrete concepts as the “natural kinds of experience” and they are composed
of basic “experiential gestalts” which are the natural products of our bodies,
our interactions with the physical environment and our interactions with other
people in our culture. These three domains constitute the basic source domains
upon which metaphors draw.
Over the ensuing twenty years the notion of experientialism, embodiment
and directionality of conceptual metaphor received much elaboration and
surveys showed that bodily source domains were prevalent not only for the
semantics of English but, also for other languages, distant from it such as
18 Lakoff, G., Johnson, M., 1980, Metaphors we live by, University of Chicago Press,Chicago.
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Japanese and Mixtec19. Sweetser20 has argued that an historical semantic
change motivated by the embodiment hypothesis has occurred within Indo-
European languages for metaphors such as KNOWING IS SEEING. Therefore
the direction of the semantic change is for languages to use terms for
perception as terms for knowing, rather than the contrary. We do understand
knowing as seeing thus this semantic change is motivated by the embodiment
hypothesis.
Furthermore, in the preface to The body in the mind, Johnson (1987)21
presents six bodies of evidence for the embodiment hypothesis including not
only cross-cultural research on metaphor and historical semantic change, but
work on prototypes in categorization, the framing of concepts, polysemy and
inferential patterns in metaphor as well.
In the same year, 1987, Lakoff characterized experientialism (or experiential
realism22) as the core of embodiment including the internally genetic acquired
make-up of the organism and the nature of its interactions in both its physical
and social environments in the make up of actual or potential experiences of
either individual organisms or communities organisms.
As the scope of embodiment enlarged, criticisms on its central tenets arose
highlighting their underspecification. Johnson tried to develop a theory of
19 The Mixtec languages are a group of languages spoken in the Mexican states of Oaxaca,Puebla and Guerrero, and in California in the USA.
20 Sweetser E., 1990, From etymology to pragmatics: Metaphorical and cultural aspects ofsemantic structure, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
21 Johnson, M., 1990, The body in the mind: the bodily basis of meaning, imagination and reason, Chicago University Press, Chicago.
22 Lakoff, G., 1987, Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things, University of Chicago Press.
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image schemata23, that is to say recurrent pattern, shape or regularity in, or of,
our actions, perceptions, and conceptions. They are patterns that emerge
primarily as meaningful structures for us at the level of our bodily movements
throughout space, our manipulation of objects, our perceptual interactions. He
argued that these patterns can be metaphorically extended to structure non-
physical, non-tactile, and non-visual experiences. An example is the image
schema of CONTAINMENT that we can find for instance in our typical
morning routine: we wake up out of a deep sleep, drag ourselves up out of the
bed and into the bathroom. Such schemata are preconceptual embodied
structures of meaning in two important ways:
• image schemata are developmentally prior to conceptual thinking
because conceptual structure is accessible to us by means of language.
As infants we experience patterns of feelings before we develop a
linguistic self, but these structures are shared;
• Image schemata are preconceptual because they underlay multiple
different conceptual metaphors.
Advocates of the disembodied mind say that conceptual structures must
have a neural realization in the brain which just happens to reside in the body,
but they deny that anything in the body is essential for characterizing what
concepts are. On the contrary, Lakoff and Johnson argue that conceptual and
perceptual processes share many of the same physiological and
neurophysiological subprocesses. They claim that in an embodied mind the
same neural system engaged in perception (lower-level activities) plays a
central role in conception (higher-level cognitive abilities)24.
23 Johnson, M., 1990, The body in the mind: the bodily basis of meaning, imagination andreason, Chicago University Press, Chicago.
24 Lakoff, G., M. Johnson, 1999, Philosophy in the flesh: the embodied mind and its challengeto western thought , Basic Books, New York.
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The term embodiment had a gradual evolution and expansion from simply a
hypothesis about the grounding of conceptual metaphors to one which has
grown increasingly large in scope throughout its dialogue with other branches
of cognitive science.
The body is conceived as a material and biologic entity, while embodiment
as an undetermined methodological field, defined by the perceptive
experiences and by the interaction with the world. Perception is an essential
embodied experience where the body is not an object but a subject and
embodiment is the condition necessary to build the objective structure of
reality. Moreover the embodiment hypothesis makes us understand our being-
in-the-world. Heidegger25 shows in his analysis, that this condition of being-in-
the-world that allows us to form disengaged representations of reality arises
from the fact that we are already engaged in coping with the world, dealing
with the things in it, highlighting the fact that even in our theoretical stance we
are agents. The body should be considered as the raw material of mental
representations and not the place of subjectivity. Metaphors, for instance, are
phenomena related to intelligent bodies and represent our experience in the
world. The formation of embodied representations involves different sensory
faculties giving birth to multisensory images.
Likewise Merleau-Ponty26, argues that perception and mental representation
always occur in the context of and are structured by the embodied agent while
he is interacting with the world. Therefore representations are the result of
bodily experiences, possessed of content already, and not given by an
autonomous mind. According to him consciousness, the world and the human
body as a perceiving thing are intricately intertwined because the body is not
25 Heidegger, M., Macquarrie, J., & Robinson, E., 1962, Being and time, MA: Blackwell, Malden.
26 Merleau-Ponty, M., 2002, The Phenomenology of Perception, Routledge, New York.
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only a thing, but is also a permanent condition of experience, a constituent of
the perceptual openness to the world demonstrating the primacy of perception,
then of experience. This one is unified into a single object of consciousness,
which has corporeity like the internationality of the body in contrast with the
dualist ontology of mind and body claimed by Descartes.
There have been neural modelling studies that have analysed which
configuration of neurons are involved in rational thought or rational inferences
and whether they can be computed by the same neural structures used in
perception and bodily movement. Upon this topic it is possible to notice a
differentiation between Western philosophical tradition and Cognitive science.
According to the former, our capacity to reason is what differentiates us from
animals, and it is considered separated from our bodies and independent of
perception and bodily movement; reason is then seen as transcendent,
independent of human bodies, therefore disembodied, making human concepts
objective categories of body-free reality. The latter, on the contrary, claims that
reason uses and grows out of such bodily capacity supporting the evolutionary
view and the fact that reason is embodied because our bodies, brains, and
interactions with the environment provide the unconscious basis for our sense
of what is real, indeed shaped by both evolution and experience. In fact, reason
is evolutionary, that is to say that human beings should be placed in a
continuum with animals, and not separated from them. It is necessary to state
that reason is not universal in the transcendent sense, but in the sense that it is
shared universally by all human beings thanks to the commonalities that exist
in the way our minds are embodied.
According to cognitive science, then, every living being categorizes as a
consequence of our biological make-up: our categories are mostly formed
automatically and unconsciously, they are conceptualised in terms of
prototypes which correspond to neural structures in our brains making use of
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the sensorimotor system. Therefore the locus of reason is the locus of
perception.
The body is eventually involved in conceptualisation, shaping its nature as
we can assume it in analysing colour concepts or spatial relation concepts.
Colours do not exist in the external world, their internal structures and the
relationship between them are tied to our embodiment, they are a consequence
of four interacting facts: lighting conditions, wavelengths of electromagnetic
radiation, colour cones retinas and neural processing. Light is not coloured,
only when electromagnetic radiations impinges our retinas and the surrounding
lighting conditions are right, our colour cones absorb the radiation producing
an electrical signal processed by neurons circuits of our brains making us
seeing colours. This is what is called neural embodiment27.
As for spatial-relation concepts, researchers talk about phenomenological
embodiment. Spatial-relation concepts characterize what spatial form is and
define spatial inferences, varying from language to language. They are used
unconsciously and via our perceptual and conceptual systems, mostly made up
of elementary spatial relations which have further internal structures consisting
of an image schema, a profile and a trajector-landmark structure. Among these
structures there are:
• the container schema: given two containers, A and B, and an object X,
if A is in B and X is in A, then X is in B; this schema is can be
physically instantiated as a concrete object (room) or as a bounded
region of space (football field);
• the source-path-goal schema: it is topological in the sense that the path
can be modified, but it still remains a path, and trajectories are not
entities in the world but they are conceptualised as a trail left by an
27 Lakoff, G., M. Johnson, 1999, Philosophy in the flesh: the embodied mind and its challengeto western thought , Basic Books, New York.
20
object that moves following a direction;
• bodily projections: refer to our body that define a set of fundamental
spatial orientations we can use to orient ourselves and to perceive the
relationships of one object to another (backs and fronts).
There exist three models which show that conceptual system makes use of
important parts of sensorimotor system that impose crucial conceptual
structure:
• Regier’s model (1996)28 for learning spatial relation which is both
perceptual and conceptual shows how neural structures in the brain that
do perceptual work can be recruited to do conceptual work as well;
• Bailey’s model (1997)29 for learning verbs of hand motion where motor
mechanisms do a conceptual work of categorizing actions for the
purpose of naming them;
• Narayanan’s model (1997)30 of motor schemata, linguistic aspects and
metaphor discovering that the same neural structure that can perform
motor actions characterizes the conceptual structure and mechanisms
that allow us to perform logical inferences about the structure of actions
in general.
Brain tends to optimise on the basis of what it already has in order to add
only what is necessary. Concepts have then evolved from our sensorimotor
systems which have in turn evolved to allow us to function well in our physical
environment. The embodiment of mind leads to a philosophy of embodied
28 Lakoff, G., M. Johnson, 1999, Philosophy in the flesh: the embodied mind and its challengeto western thought , Basic Books, New York.
29 Lakoff, G., M. Johnson, 1999, Philosophy in the flesh: the embodied mind and its challengeto western thought , Basic Books, New York.
30 Lakoff, G., M. Johnson, 1999, Philosophy in the flesh: the embodied mind and its challengeto western thought , Basic Books, New York.
21
realism that claims a level of physical interaction in the world at which we
have evolved to function successfully, that is to say that our embodied system
of basic-level concepts has evolved to fit the ways in which our bodies have
been coupled to our environment.
Gibbs31 argued that embodiment may refer to three levels of personhood:
neural events, the cognitive unconscious and phenomenological experience.
This view of embodied mind has the following features:
• the concept of self is highly linked to tactile/kinaesthetic activity;
• embodiment is constituted by recurring patterns of kinaesthetic
proprioceptive action that provide much of people’s experience;
• perception is linked to thought processes where objects are perceived
by how they may be physically manipulated;
• language reflects important aspects of human conceptualisation;
• memory, mental imagery, problem solving are linked to sensorimotor
simulations;
• embodied experiences are shaped by cultural processes.
Our bodies, then, take centre stage in the empirical study of perception,
cognition and language in cognitive science’s theoretical accounts on human
behaviour.
In actuality, in order to survive, human beings develop patterns of
interaction with the environment based on their bodily capacities (senses),
culture and language. During this interaction, not all the information provided
are recorded, but just the needed ones, which actually can be different cross-
culturally because there can be differences in the perception of reality among
cultures. De facto, our perception of reality is inseparable from our
31 Gibbs, R. W., 2006, Embodiment and cognitive science, Cambrige University Press,Cambrige.
22
embodiment because the knowledge we have about the world is provided by
our sensory means (eyes, skin, fingers, tongue, mouth, nose).
This is what embodied cognition claims aiming at achieving three related,
but distinct goals always highlighting the importance of the body in the
explanation of cognitive abilities: its first purpose is to demonstrate that the
body structure creates constraints for neural control, that is that symbol
manipulation emerges from the physical attributes of the body; its second goal
is to account for the content of cognition by appeal to the nature of the body
containing the brain, namely there are some basic concepts that stem directly
from the body human beings have and the manner it interacts with the
environment; thirdly it wants to demonstrate that cognitive processes could be
extended into the environment where the organism lives, becoming cognitive
friendly in the sense that it eliminates steps that cognitive tasks would
otherwise require.
Oppositely, the Traditional Cognitive Science considers thought and
knowledge as a syntactically determined manipulation of symbols, in other
words cognition receives inputs from the organism’s sense organs that translate
them into a syntactic code from the environment and send them to the nervous
system where they are manipulated according to various rules which are either
innate or learned, therefore cognition begins and ends with inputs to and
outputs from the nervous system without interacting with the external world.
Anyhow, afterwards we vehicle all that information processed by our brains
through language, which is part of our genetic endowment, using both literal
terms and figurative speech, namely metaphors.
23
1.6. Metaphor and metonymy
Now that we have reached this point, metaphor and metonymy should be taken
into account and analysed because our conceptual system is metaphorical in
nature and because metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language,
but in action and thought as well, as Lakoff and Johnson claim in their work
“Metaphors we live by”32, and even if people are not aware of their conceptual
system, they think and act automatically.
According to them metaphor is ultimately grounded in bodily experience
pointing out that human concepts are not just reflections of reality, they are
ultimately shaped by our bodies and brains, especially our sensorimotor data.
Human beings give central importance to their bodies since the beginning of
their existence using body part terms to define a huge part of our daily
experience. For instance a lot of proverbs and idioms that contain body terms
may be considered as primary metaphors hidden in our long-term memory.
In fact, cognitive science considers metaphor and metonymy as two
important conceptual processes: the former involves two different domains,
meaning that a concept is understood in terms of another which belongs to
another semantic field, while the latter involves a single domain in which one
entity is described in terms of another within the same domain; further while
metaphor is characterized by resemblance or correlation, metonymy is a
relationship of contiguity or proximity.
Metonymy is a figure of speech and it is, loosely speaking, a stand-for
relation (X is used to stand for Y): the element that stand for another is the
32 Lakoff, G., Johnson, M., 1980, Metaphors we live by, University of Chicago Press,Chicago.
24
vehicle while the latter one is the target, thus the vehicle provides mental
access to another conceptual entity, the target which is within the same domain,
then it can be considered a within-domain mapping. Actually, some
representative examples in our culture are:
- THE PART FOR THE WHOLE
- PRODUCER FOR PRODUCT
- OBJECT USED FOR USER
- INSTITUTION FOR PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE
- THE PLACE FOR THE INSTITUTION
Metonymy is a linguistic device that relies on frames, domains and Idealized
Cognitive Models (ICM) which are cognitive constructs which can refer to a
kind of knowledge structure which can serve as a background for interpreting
the meaning of linguistic forms. Anyhow there is sometimes an overlap in how
they are used by different researchers: frames paved the way for particular
theories of grammar; ICMs are a way for capturing the role of background
knowledge for certain kinds of semantic analysis particularly as they are
related to questions of categorization; domains play a central role in conceptual
metaphor theory and cognitive grammar33.
As regards metaphor, it is a basic phenomenon that occurs throughout the
whole range of language activity: it is a very common figure of speech, not just
a mere embellishment to create more singular poems, but it can be
contemplated as a systematic pattern that permeates our everyday thoughts, our
everyday language, our everyday interaction with the environment, with the
objects, with the other people. Though we are not aware of our conceptual
system, we think and act along certain lines everyday more or less
automatically and we can find in language a lot of evidence for what this
33 Kovekses, Z., 2006, Language, mind and culture, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
25
system is like because communication is based on the same conceptual system
used in thinking and acting. As a consequence the language we use to talk
about some aspects of a concept is systematic. Therefore, studying
metaphorical expressions we gain an understanding of the metaphorical nature
of our activities.
For instance, considering the concept ARGUMENT and the conceptual
metaphor ARGUMENT IS WAR, they are reflected in our everyday language
by a wide variety of expressions. We do talk about arguments that way because
we conceive of them that way, consequently we act according to the way we
conceive of things. Therefore the way of talking about, conceiving and
experiencing a situation is then metaphorically structured. For instance we talk
in terms of IDEAS ARE FOOD or THEORIES ARE BUILDINGS. The “used”
parts of the concept of BUILDING used to structure the concept of THEORY
are the foundation and the outer shell, while the rooms, staircases are the
“unused” parts.
Three subspecies of imaginative (non literal) metaphors can be
distinguished34:
• extensions of the used part of a metaphor (e.g. bricks and mortar of a
theory);
• instances of the unused part of the literal metaphor (e.g. a theory with
thousands of little rooms and long, winding corridors);
• instances of novel metaphors which are new ways of thinking of
something (e.g. classical theories are patriarchs who father many
children).
Metaphor is then a basic process of word meanings formation: practically, it
34 Lakoff, G., Johnson, M., 1980, Metaphors we live by, University of Chicago Press,Chicago.
26
consists in the use of language to refer to something other than what it was
originally applied to or what it literally means in order to support some
resemblance or make a connection between the two things. People use it
because sometimes there is no other way to refer to a particular thing, to
communicate what they feel or think about something, to explain what a
particular thing is like, to convey a meaning in a more interesting or creative
way or to do all of these. A lot of understanding is mediated through metaphor
since people might not well understand something without the help of
metaphorical models as they often allow them to use concrete images to
convey something abstract, then its functions are explaining, clarifying,
describing, expressing, evaluating and entertaining. Consequently, people draw
inferences, set goals, make commitments and execute plans, all on the basis of
how they in part structure their experience, consciously and unconsciously, by
means of metaphor which is among their principal vehicles of understanding.
Furthermore metaphors refer to and have a meaning that is fundamentally
grounded in people’s ordinary body experiences even if most of the time
speakers are not conscious of it.
Indeed there exist, on the one hand, dead metaphors for instance, the ones
which express metaphorical distinctions opaque to contemporary speakers such
as kick the bucket which meaning, “to die”, may be known but not the reason
of its figurative sense. On the other hand there are conventional expressions
which reflect metaphorical concepts that are very much a part of our everyday
cognition such as LOVE IS A JOURNEY, where an abstract domain of
experience (love) is understood in terms of another domain of experience
(journeys) which is more concrete: in reality the entities in the domain of love
(lovers, common goals…) correspond to the ones in the domain of a journey
(the travellers, destinations…).
27
Therefore the way we talk about certain domains of our experience reflects
significant patterns of bodily experience, thus metaphor in both thought and
language partly arises from these recurring patterns of embodiment.
As a matter of fact the whole body is structured to perform activities in
order to reach information from our natural and cultural environment. Our
body has its axes of reference, closely connected to gravity (head-foot, right-
left, front-back) making our language mirror reality and follow its changes.
Well known areas of experience are used to explain less known areas in fact
many words associated with the human body are used to define non-human
technical world; the Roman numerals as well were first based on human
fingers.
Man unconsciously projects into the external world describing it in terms of
its own measures (the eye of the typhoon) and the body parts are used to
conceptualise the non-human world (outside) and our inner world, mental
structures are then meaningful by virtue of their connection to our body parts
(heart, head, face, etc.). It is then clear that human body and its structure
directly influence the way things can be meaningful for us. According to Skara
we can say, “we don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are”35.
In order to deepen our analysis of the involvement of the body in our
conception of the world some basic everyday schemata should be considered
since human beings, orienting themselves to the features of the environment,
give rise to metaphorical projections of the body posture and consequently to
spatial conception of the body which generates many metaphors. Metaphorical
systems of understanding are then connected up with image schemata because
part of the structure of the source domain is projected onto the target domain
35 Škara, D., 2004, Body metaphors: Reading the body in contemporary culture, CollegiumAntropologicum, 28.
28
which is the used portion of metaphor. They consist in a cluster of knowledge
which provides a skeleton structure for a concept that can be filled out with the
detailed properties of the particular instance being represented. According to
Schank and Abelson36, people understand many situations by fitting them into
structured frameworks (scripts) which include items by means of which we
organize our knowledge of the world. These structures, nevertheless, are not
fixed, but altered in their application to a particular situation, meaning they are
not just templates of past experience, rather plans for interacting with people
and objects.
The most important image-schemata are the following:
• the IN-OUT orientation in which the body is viewed as a physical
object that presupposes a three-dimensional form of a container: it has
its structure that is an inside, a boundary, and an outside. People
conceptualise the interior of the body as the container of the mind, soul,
words, emotions and thoughts, which are described as within air and
water activities (“deep in his mind”); the human body is then bounded
by its skin (“to jump out one’s skin”). An example of these schema is
given by Lakoff and Johnson in their work “Metaphors we live by”
when they claim that we do speak in linear order, consequently we
conceptualise language metaphorically in terms of space. Spatial
concepts naturally apply to linguistic expressions: we know which word
occupies the first position in the sentence and whether it is short or
long, we spatialize linguistic forms. Thus the conduit metaphor defines
a spatial relationship between form and content: LINGUISTIC
EXPRESSIONS ARE CONTAINERS, meanings are the content of
those containers.
• the FRONT-BACK schema refers to the posture of our body where the
36 Schank, R.C., Abelson, R., 1977, Scripts, Plans, Goals, and Understanding, EarlbaumAssociation, Hillsdale , NJ.
29
front part is the conscious, clear, rational (we move forward, we see in
front) and the back part is the stored and forgotten linked with negative
feelings
• the UP/RIGHT - DOWN/UNDER schema is a schema of verticality to
categorize meaningful structures of experience: actually the backbone
which allows us to have a standing position is associated with strength
and bravery (for instance, someone who is spineless means that he lacks
of determination), then activities which are referred to as UP are viewed
positively, while the DOWN ones are negative
• the BALANCE/SYMMETRY schema refers to the left/right axis that is
related to our body balance and symmetry (“a balanced personality”) in
which left is related to the clumsy, awkward, insincere and the right to
law, morals, strong.
Besides there are emotions: bodies function as containers where emotions are
contained.
Nevertheless the information gathered by our senses needs to be processed
by our brains, as it has been hinted above, and senses are perceived as the basis
for knowledge and the channels of our selective perception.
First of all among the senses’ organs there are the eyes and the sight, which
is connected with them. Sight is our prominent sense; it plays a crucial role in
our acquisition of knowledge and this coordination between vision and
knowledge is evident from the fact that we can see in spite of closed eyes
because information is stored in our minds.
There are the hands and the sense related to them, which is touch that
enables to detect objects by the skin providing us with sensations of spatial
depth and the three dimensional shape of material bodies. Vocabulary of touch
is used for metaphorical projections of emotional sensations (an appeal that
30
touched deeply), while the “hands” refer to power, control and fingers to
abilities (v. Bertuccelli Papi 2013).
Then, there are mouth and tongue and the sense of taste, which refers to the
mental ability to judge what is aesthetically appropriate or emotions (bitter
smile, how sweet it is).
Further there is the nose and the smell that has fewer metaphorical
projections than the other senses and usually it has negative associations (We
smell trouble).
Finally there are the ears and the sense of hearing which is associated to
capability, emotions, mental activities.
Actually, man unconsciously projects himself into the external world
describing it in terms of his own measures. Thus body parts are used to
conceptualise:
• the non human world (the eye of the typhoon)
• mental activities in terms of the outside (I smell a rat)
• metaphorical projections between senses are frequent in the form of
synaesthesia: touch transfers to taste (sharp taste) and sound (soft
sound); taste to smell (sour smell) and sound (sweet music); sight to
sound (bright sound), and touch (eye contact)
• eye and sight generate more metaphorical projections than the other
senses.
As for conceptualising the external world, an interactionist view has been
proposed by Bipin Indurkhya37: it presents however a problem that derives
37 Indurkhya B., 1992, Metaphor and cognition. An interactionist approach, SpringerNetherlands.
31
from maintaining on the one hand that the attributes and structures do not
reflect pre-existing ones, and on the other hand that this creation is not
arbitrary, but constrained by the environment at some level. As a matter of fact,
our concepts create the structure by a process called perception that occurs
through our sense organs, thus concepts can be considered as aggregates of
sense data. However even if one can conceptualise the same sense data, the
same world, in alternate ways, this process is not arbitrary because all
conceptual organizations share some invariant structures referred to as
“universals” which are rooted in the physiological structure of the cognitive
agent’s body and brain; for instance, our perception of colours through our
retinas where there are three kinds of cones that are most sensitive to the
wavelengths corresponding to the colours red, green ad blue respectively.
In order to analyse this interactionist view it is necessary to take into
account concept networks which are the internal representations of the
cognitive agents who link together concepts with parts of sensorimotor data
through cognitive relations. Its components then are two: a set of symbols
(concepts) and a set of operators (link between concepts that can combine
symbols to generate another symbol, or decompose a symbol into others).
However a cognitive model should have a coherence which is acquired
thanks to two mechanisms:
1. accommodation, that works by changing the structure of a concept
network while keeping the cognitive relation fixed;
2. projection, that works by keeping the structure of the concept network
invariant, but modifying the cognitive relation, thereby changing the
structure of the experiential ontology of the environment so that its
structure become coherent with the one of the concept network.
The initial problem of interactionism is than resolved by pointing out that
32
while it is the cognitive agent who gives the ontology to the external world by
instantiating concept networks, the structure of the external world, as seen from
this ontology is determined by reality.
The reason why I made reference to this view depends on the fact that the
projection process underlies metaphors which are unconventional ways of
describing (or representing) some object, event or situation (real or imagined):
the object of description is the target, and the object used to unconventionally
describe the target is the source. The novelty in this account is the distinction
between an object or experience and its representation, which is crucial to
resolve the paradox of creation of similarity. Then similarity-based metaphors
should be considered: there are syntactic metaphors where the process of
interpretation is mediated by the target concept network drawing attention to
certain parts of the target realm highlighting them; suggestive (open-ended)
metaphors provide an initial ontology for the target realm where additional
structures can be imported from the source concept network to enhance the
structure of the target realm; finally there are projective (similarity-creating)
metaphors where the concept network is discarded and the source concept is
interpreted in the target realm as if the target realm is being encountered for the
first time. Therefore if the primary role of cognition is to link together the
impressions we get from our senses into a meaningful pattern, projective
metaphors are the ones that make it possible.
In order to further explore the conceptual processing, it should be
highlighted that theories of cognition have often assumed that a single type of
representation underlies knowledge just like Traditional theories, which claim
that amodal symbols provide a uniform knowledge representation although
they differ from linguistic forms. However predicates that represent objects,
properties, and event concepts often hold a rough one-to-one correspondence
with words which refer to them. For instance, bird refers to X, red refers to X,
33
buy refers to X,Y.
Among recent theories there are the ones that argue that knowledge is
grounded in linguistic context-vectors, meaning that the representation of a
word is a distribution of words that co-occur with that word in natural
language; and the ones, which claim that knowledge is grounded in modal
simulations, embodiment, situations where images of experience play a central
role in knowledge representation, which are situated, that is that knowledge
about something is simulated in the context of likely background situations (a
context of relevant settings, actions, events and introspections). This happens
because the brain captures modal states during perception, action and
introspection and then simulates these states to represent knowledge.
The LASS (Language and Situated Simulation)38 theory of conceptual
processing focuses on the fact that representation and processing of concepts
relies on both language and situated simulation assuming that linguistic forms
and situated simulations interact continuously. Conceptual systems evolved to
process non linguistic stimuli (perceptual, motor, and introspection aspects of
experience), in fact the processing of experience is more central than the
processing of words. Nevertheless, many of these systems probably contribute
to other processes besides language and simulation; for example the vision and
motor systems contribute to perception and action, respectively, not just to
language. The LASS theory can be studied according to four frameworks:
• linguistic processing: when a word is perceived, the linguistic system
activates to categorize it (the linguistic form can be visual, auditory,
tactile). Along with it the simulation system activates, but the former
peaks: a cue word elicits other words associated with it. Thus
38 Barsalou, L. W., Santos, A., Simmons, W.K., Wilson, C. D., 2008, Language and simulationin conceptual processing, In de Vega, M., Glenberg, A., Graesser, A. (eds.) Symbols and Embodiment debates on meaning and cognition, Oxford University Press: Oxford, pp. 245-284.
34
activation of words meaning is shallow when read in the context of
non-words that lack acceptable phonology and orthography, conversely
when non-words satisfy rules of phonology and orthography, words
access meaning more deeply
• situated simulation: as the linguistic system recognizes the word
presented, the word after several seconds activates associated
simulations where conceptual content about properties and relations
resides. Further symbolic operations on linguistic forms operate most
effectively when both linguistic forms and simulations contribute
• mixtures and interactions of language situated simulation: when
shallow linguistic processing is sufficient to support adequate task
performance, processing relies mostly on the linguistic system and little
on simulation, conversely when linguistic processing is not adequate,
the simulation system must be consulted for the required conceptual
information, thus they interact: linguistic forms associated with the
simulator (words and syntactic structures) activate and integrate into the
evolving motor program for an utterance. In reasoning people
simultaneously engage in simulating the relevant situation and
verbalizing about it because linguistic forms provide powerful means of
indexing simulations (via simulators) and for manipulating simulations
in language and thought. The two systems interact, one may dominate
momentarily, followed by the other, perhaps cycling many times, but at
many points they can be active simultaneously.
• Statistical underpinnings of language and situated simulation:
simulators capture the statistical frequencies of properties and the
relation between them in experience: frequencies and correlations in
perceived situations are mirrored in frequencies and correlations of
words used to describe them, and these statistical information are stored
naturally in the neural architecture.
35
Empirical evidences for the LASS theory can be found in two related views:
• Paivio’s dual code theory39 has much in common with the LASS one:
both assume two basic systems, one linguistic and the other grounded in
modalities that operate interactively and underlie cognitive activities;
whereas, as for the differences, conversely of what the LASS theory
assumes, the dual code theory claims that deep conceptual processing
occurs in both systems and that for abstract concepts the linguistic
system is central;
• Glaser’s lexical hypothesis40 argues that the linguistic system has less
computational power than the simulation system. Starting from Paivio’s
theory, he modifies it in two ways: first Glaser suggests that Paivio’s
imagery system might be populated not only with amodal
representations, but with modal ones as well; second he assumes that
the linguistic system can perform relatively superficial processing
independently of the conceptual system, what he calls the lexical
hypothesis. Further he addresses the ability of pictures versus words to
access the conceptual system during verification tasks and to produce
conceptual effects on priming and interference tasks. Actually it is
highly similar to the LASS theory.
The evidence for the LASS theory from the laboratory have been analysed
according to three lines of research.
Experiments41 consisted in giving to the participants a specific word for a
concept and they had to generate related information verbally. In the first
39 Paivio, A., 1971, Imagery and verbal processes, Holt, Rinehart, Winston, New York.
Paivio, A., 1986, Mental Representations: a dual coding approach, Oxford University,Oxford, England.
40 Glaser, W. R., 1992, Picture naming, Cognition, 42, 61-105.
36
experiment participants generated word associates, while in the second
properties of a concept’s instances. In both experiments, LASS predicts that the
linguistic system and the simulation system both contribute to the responses
that participants produce verbally: the initially responses should come from the
linguistic system and the from the simulation one, even if in the word
association task the linguistic system would give a larger contribute.
In the word association task participants produced 1-3 responses in less than
5 seconds for each cue word and a response could have been linguistically
related to the cue as a compound continuation (bee > hive), backward
compound continuation (bee > honey), synonym (car > automobile), antonym
(good > bad), root similarity (self > selfish), sound similarity (bumpy >
lumpy); or it could be a taxonomic response which includes superordinate
categories (dog > animal), coordinate categories (dog > cat) and subordinate
categories (dog > terrier); or it could fall into an object-situation response
which is a property of the cue concept or a thematic associate of the cue
concept that could co-occur with it in a situation. The results of this experiment
supported the LASS theory: linguistically-related responses were produced
earlier than object-situation responses and responses that were more likely to
originate in the linguistic system occurred earlier than the ones in the
simulation system. Taxonomic responses fell halfway in between. This
suggests that taxonomic responses were retrieved as memorized lexical
phrases.
The property generation experiment offered similar evidence: participants
typically produced 6-7 responses to each cue in the 15-second period allowed
for responding. One prediction was that participants would produce fewer
linguistic responses and more object-situation one than in the first experiment.
41 Santos, A., Barsalou, L. W., Chaigneau, S. E., 2008, Word association and situatedsimulation in conceptual processing: Behavioural confirmation of neuroimaging findings.
37
This is because the task is more conceptual in nature and because participants
produced responses for longer periods, more responses should then originate
from the simulation system. A second prediction was again that linguistic
responses should precede object-situation ones. The results confirmed the
predictions developed.
To sum up the experiments confirmed the predictions of LASS theory,
which were that linguistic responses tended to occur earlier from a a faster
linguistic system, than object-situation responses from a slower simulation
system.
The second experiment was performed even analysing fMRI findings: the
two systems appear responsible for producing conceptual information and the
linguistic system appear to produce responses earlier than the simulation
system supporting again the LASS theory.
As for the representation of abstract concepts, it can recruit differentially the
language and simulation systems: when task conditions allow, participants rely
only on the language system; whereas, when they require deeper conceptual
processing, participants rely on the simulation system. Then the interplay
between the language and simulation systems may be pervasive throughout
diverse psychological phenomena. Multiple systems support conceptual
processing according to different concepts and task concepts: the frequency of
representations, along with correlations between them enter into conceptual
processing. However an interesting question is whether statistical structures
can serve representational purposes in the absence of linguistic and modal
representations: regardless of where the empirical findings come down on this
particular issue, there is no doubt that statistical representations play central
roles throughout conceptual processing.
38
Understanding takes place in terms of entire domains of experience and not
in terms of isolated concepts. These experiences are then conceptualized and
defined in terms of other basic domains of experience which are structured
within our experience that is conceptualized as an experiential gestalt. Such
gestalts are experientially basic because they represent coherent organizations
of our experiences in terms of natural dimensions. These domains of
experience are called natural kinds of experience, and they are natural because
they are a product of our bodies, our interactions with our physical
environment and or interaction with other people within our culture. In other
words they are products of human nature, some may be universal, while others
will vary from culture to culture.
Our conceptual system is grounded in our experiences in the world and both
concepts and metaphors are grounded in our constant interaction with our
physical and cultural environments. The standard view assumed that
experiences and objects have inherent properties and that human beings
understand them solely in terms of these properties. This objective account
consider a BLACK GUN a GUN, while it is not the case for a FAKE GUN
because according to it BLACK is an additional property of GUN, whereas
FAKE is seen as a property added to the concept of GUN in order to yield
another concept that is not a subcategory of GUN.
According to the objectivist view a category is a set theory, that is a set of
inherent properties of the entities in the category, and everything in the
universe is either inside or outside the category. On the contrary, Rosch42, for
instance, argues that we categorize things in terms of prototypes. Further
categories are open-ended, that is that an object may be seen as being in a
category or not, depending on our purpose in classifying it.
42 Rosch, E., 1977, Human categorization, In Warren, N., ed., Advances in cross-cultural psychology, vol. 1., Academic Press, New York.
39
Concepts are defined by prototypes and by types of relations to prototypes.
Moreover concepts rather than being rigidly defined, concepts arising from our
experience are open-ended and metaphors and hedges are systematic devices
for further defining a concept and for changing its rage of applicability.
1.6.1. Objectivism, subjectivism and the experientialist synthesis
Objectivism’s essential assumptions43 are the following:
• the world is made up of objects which have properties independent of
any people’s experience of them
• people get their knowledge of the world by experiencing the objects in
it and getting to know what properties they have and how they are
related to one another
• people understand the objects of the world in terms of categories and
concepts
• there exists an objective reality of which we can say things which are
unconditionally true or false
• words have fixed meanings
• metaphor and other kinds of figurative language should be avoided
since their meanings are not clear
• being objective means being rational
• subjectivity is dangerous because makes people loose touch with
reality.
Subjectivism44 on the contrary argues that:
• people develop intuitions that they can trust
43 Lakoff, G., Johnson, M., 1980, Metaphors we live by, University of Chicago Press,Chicago.
44 Lakoff, G., Johnson, M., 1980, Metaphors we live by, University of Chicago Press,Chicago.
40
• the most important things in life are people’s feelings, aesthetical
sensibilities, moral practices and spiritual awareness
• the language of imagination, namely metaphor, expresses significant
aspects of our experience
• objectivity is dangerous because it misses what is most important and
meaningful to individual people.
However, Lakoff and Johnson45 propose a third alternative to objectivism
and subjectivism which is an experientialist synthesis. Indeed this theory of
definition accounts for individual concepts as defined in terms of their roles in
natural kinds of experiences, their interactional properties focusing so much on
metaphor since it unites reason and imagination. Reason involves
categorization, entailment and inference, while imagination involves seeing
one kind of thing in terms of another kind of thing, namely a metaphorical
thought. It can be said that metaphor is imaginative rationality for the reason
that since categories of our everyday thought are largely metaphorical and our
everyday reasoning involves metaphorical entailments and inferences, ordinary
rationality is therefore imaginative by its very nature.
Metaphor is an important tool to comprehend partially, what cannot be
comprehended totally. Therefore what the myths of both objectivism and
subjectivism miss is the way we understand the world through our interactions
with it. This account of metaphor goes against this tradition, and place
metaphor in an essential position in the human understanding. Most of the
conceptual structure of natural language is metaphorical in nature, grounded in
physical and cultural experience, meaning then is never disembodied or
objective, truth is not absolute, but based on understanding.
45 Lakoff, G., Johnson, M., 1980, Metaphors we live by, University of Chicago Press,Chicago.
41
The experientialist alternative thus assumes that truth is always relative to
understanding which is based on a non-universal conceptual system. In fact
what is significant to a person depends on his/her past experiences, values,
feelings and intuitive insight showing how meaning always is meaning to a
person.
1.7. Idioms
The lexicon of a language is the most related to the extralinguistic reality and it
modifies in relation to the development of culture, society, human relationships
and science. It is often enriched by speakers who make a creative use of words,
introduce loan words form other languages, and adapt old forms to new
meanings to form new words, often triggering processes of semantic change.
Idiomatic expressions should be taken in account as an integral part of every
language, as they occur frequently and constitute an essential portion of a
speaker's lexicon. Being typical of a specific language, idioms usually remain
inseparable from the language of their origin, consequently they also are
difficult to translate word by word from one language to another, as they could
result having a different meaning or even meaningless in the target language.
Idiomatic expressions arise in the domain of ideas46, originating from the
common behaviour of the members of a linguistic community and they turn
into habits which may differ over the centuries.
Idiomatic expressions are phraseological sequences, approved by their usage
in a certain society and endowed with a lexical and syntactic autonomy, their
meaning cannot be totally inferred from the individual meanings of its
constituents. In most cases, the meaning of the whole phrase is different from
the meaning which might be derived componentially from the individual words
46 Roberts, M. H., 1944, The science of idiom: a method of inquiry into the cognitive design oflanguage, in Publications of the Modern Language Association, 59, pp. 291-306.
42
in the phrase. Overall, they are fixed expressions with a figurative meaning
which presumably wasn't such in their original use, which behave as single
units semantically, but can be flexible grammatically, though in various
degrees.
An idiom can appear as a word, a combination of words, a phrase, an entire
clause and an entire sentence.
1.7.1. Features and classification of idioms
In general, idiomatic expressions are characterized in the literature by the
following features:
• stability of sequence, as their components recur often together in
discourse and written texts;
• resistance to syntactic and semantic transformation;
• flexibility which is accepted until it does not change their meaning: for
example the changing of the verb tense can be allowed, while
relativization and passivization are not.
Langlotz47 has further specified the following features:
• institutionalisation which refers to the degree of familiarity and
conventionality;
• compositeness, which has to do with the complexity of an expression:
idioms are commonly accepted as multi-word expressions, though there
are some scholars who accept them even when they appear as single
words;
• frozenness, that concerns restrictions in the lexico-grammatical
behaviour ;
47 Langlotz, A., 2006, Idiomatic creativity: a cognitive linguistic model of idiom-representations and idiom-variation in English, John Benjamins, Amsterdam, Philadelphia.
43
• non-compositionality, or semantic opacity, which is related to the
figurative meaning of an expression, contradicting the principle of
compositionality that states that the meaning of the whole is given by
the one of the single parts that form it.
However these features can be modulated and articulated differently from
different perspectives:
• from a syntactic point of view, Federica Casadei48 distinguished
between the following types of fixedness: in the order of constituents,
in the context of a transformational fixedness, in the grammatical
categories (change in tense, person and number) and in the inventory of
constituents (insertions, deletion, substitution);
• Simonetta Vietri49 analysed transformations in idioms affirming that
passivization and relativization are not always possible, while
dislocation and extraction can be applied sometimes;
• Fraser50 had defined a classification of idioms based on their possibility
to be syntactically modified elaborating a frozenness hierarchy made of
six levels in which an expression present on one level has all the
features of the ones present on the lower ones: completely frozen (L0),
adjuction (L1), insertion (L2), permutation (L3), extraction (L4),
reconstruction (L5), unrestricted (L6).
Other scholars have suggested other properties of idioms claiming that a
48 Casadei, F., 1996, Metafore ed espressioni idiomatiche. Uno studio semantico sull'italiano,Bulzoni, Roma.
49 Vietri, S., 1985, On the study of idiomatic expressions in Italian, in Franchi De Bellis, A.,Savoia, L. M., (eds.) Sintassi e morfologia della lingua italiana d'uso. Teorie e applicazionidescrittive, (Atti del XVII Congresso della Società di Linguistica Italiana, Urbino 11-13/9/1983), Bulzoni, Roma.
50 Fraser, B., 1970, Idioms within a transformational grammar, In Foundations of Language, n.6.
44
prototypical idiom has some orthogonal properties:
• conventionality: its use or significance is not predictable, or better it is
not entirely predictable from the meaning of its constituents;
• Lack of syntactic flexibility: they appear only in a limited and selected
number of syntactic constructions;
• Figurative sense: they imply the use of metaphor, metonymies,
hyperboles, and not always listeners are able to comprehend the real
reason of the image involved (shoot the breeze: to chat; kick the bucket:
to die);
• Proverbial sense: they are used especially to describe or implicitly
explain situations of particular social interest, due to their resemblance
to or relation with circumstances that imply a familiar environment
(chewing fat: to chat; climbing the walls: hit the head on walls);
• Informality: idioms are associated to the colloquial and informal
register, to the popular and oral talk of a culture;
• Affectivity: idioms express a certain evaluation, an affective attitude
towards things they referred to. They are not used to express neutral
actions (read a book, buy a ticket).
1.7.2. Investigation on idioms
The investigation on idiomatic expressions can be divided into three main
parts: the very beginning of the 20th century, the 1950s, and the period between
the late 1980s and the 1990s where the greatest results have been achieved.
Among the scholars, there have been Smith51 who defined idioms as “little
sparks of life and energy in our speech” focusing on the idiosyncrasies of
English, many of which are lexically and grammatically irregular.
51 Smith, L. P., 1925, Words and idioms: study in the English Language, Houghton Mifflin,Boston
45
Another researcher who investigated on this topic was Roberts52, according
to whom idioms are manifestations of a specific inner design or structure of
thought communicated via a given language code recalling the de Sausserean's
langue/parole dichotomy stating that individual creativity (parole) becomes
part of the common system of elements (langue) that comprise a language.
One more researcher has been Strassler53 who aimed at identifying the idiom
functions starting from the fact that every idiom has a non-idiomatic synonym
on the semantic level.
1.7.3. Idioms and embodiment
A new perspective has been introduced by Cognitive Linguistics. Language is
the major source of communication and according to Cognitive Linguistics
cannot be investigated in isolation from human embodiment54. Considering the
meaning of language as embodied, it means that it is the speaker's bodily
experience which triggers the linguistic expression that carries the meaning to
the hearer because all the experiences are filtered by perception55. Actually
everyone perceives the world differently and each one has a different
perception even of the same event or situation; consequently, language used to
define the world must undergo changes through speaker's perception, being
language a description of human perception of reality. Therefore, people's
52 Roberts, M. H., 1944, The science of idiom: a method of inquiry into the cognitive design oflanguage, in Publications of the Modern Language Association, 59, pp. 291-306.
53 Strässler, J., 1982, Idioms in English: a pragmatic analysis, Gunter Narr Verlag, Tübingen
54 Evans, V., Green, M., 2006, Cognitive linguistics: an introduction, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.
55 Janda, L., 2006, Cognitive linguistics, University of Carolina
46
everyday interaction with the world produces recurring patterns of embodied
activity that develop unique ways of interpreting the world. These patterns then
result pervasive in language giving rise to metaphorical structuring of abstract
concepts: actually, idioms retain a good deal of metaphoricity because they
often arise from conceptual metaphorical mapping between embodied source
domains and more abstract target domains.
Overall, embodied experience plays a major role in why certain idioms
emerge in language, in why people have intuitions about the meaning of
idioms, and in online processes of learning, speaking and understanding
idioms.
47
2. Collection of data
2.1. Process of data collection
In order to investigate the influence of the embodied experience onto the
language it has been necessary to do some parallel research in English and
Italian analysing the use of some selected body parts in phrases and idiomatic
expressions.
The body parts taken into account in this thesis belong to the upper part of
the body and they are the following:
– the face,
– the eyes,
– the nose,
– the mouth,
– the teeth,
– the tongue.
It has been decided to create some tables, differentiating the examples
retrieved in the English language from the one retrieved in Italian.
For each of the single body part chosen has been dedicated a research of
examples with the aim of comparing its different kind of use: a denotative use,
a metonymic use, a metaphoric use, if present, and finally its presence in
phrases and idiomatic expressions. However, the survey has included instances
containing all the English terms, and their plural forms, denoting the body parts
listed above (face/faces; eye/eyes; nose/noses; mouth/mouths; tooth/teeth;
tongue/tongues) and their Italian counterparts (faccia, viso, volto/facce, visi,
volti; occhio/occhi; naso/nasi; bocca/bocche; dente/denti; lingua/lingue).
48
All of the examples have been taken from various sources:
– www.wordreference.com: it is an online bilingual dictionary which is
growing gradually and which started in 1999 thanks to Michael Kellog.
It is specialized most of all for translations English-Spanish, English-
French, English-Italian, Spanish-French and Spanish-Portuguese;
– www.oxforddictionaries.com: it is an online dictionary created by the
Oxford University Press dictionaries, which is a department of Oxford
University, which has more than 150 years of dictionary-making
experience. It includes definitions as well as information on grammar
usage and regional variation;
– www.sketchengine.co.uk: it is a website which contains corpora of
languages with an appropriate level of linguistic mark-up, including the
British National Corpus (BNC), which is the one used in this research;
– Oxford Advanced Learner's dictionary of current English (Albert
Sydney Hornby): it is a monolingual English dictionary for learners of
English;
– Lo Zingarelli 2014 (Nicola Zingarelli): it is a monolingual Italian
dictionary;
– www.corpuspaisa.it: it is a web corpus which allows the exploration the
Italian language, thanks to the collection of about 250 millions of
words;
– Il Ragazzini 2015 (Giuseppe Ragazzini): it is bilingual English-Italian
and Italian-English dictionary
The first online dictionary has been used to acquire most of the examples
and their possible translations in Italian and English. The second one, the third
one and the forth one have been used to collect more English examples to
analyse; the fifth one and the sixth one, to find more Italian examples; while
the seventh one to collect more information about the possible translation of
some phrases.
49
The contribution of the first one has been the major one, because it helped a
lot in finding the meaning of most of the figurative English and Italian phrases.
While the examples obtained from the monolingual dictionaries has been
translated by myself, always with the help of the bilingual dictionary, Il
Ragazzini 2015, and the online dictionary www.wordreference.com.
In the following tables of data, add to the collection of example sentences in
which the denotations of the selected terms are specified, there are tables for
the English body part terms which can be used as verbs (to face, to eye, to
nose, to mouth) when they exist. Besides, in the parts where examples of
idioms and phrases are listed, there is a column where the abstract concepts
which they cover is indicated.
50
2.2. Data: English body parts examples and their Italian outputs
2.2.1. Face
“Face” used as noun:
a) Denotation
English (OD):
1. (front of head): front part of the head between the forehead
and the chin
2. (expression): an expression that is shown on somebody's
face
3. (-faced): (in adjectives) having the type of face or
expression mentioned
4. (person): (in compounds) used to refer to a person of type
mentioned
5. (side/surface): a side or surface of something
6. (front of the clock): the front part of a clock or watch
7. (character/aspect): the particular character or aspect of
something
Italian (LoZ):
● Faccia:
1. parte anteriore della testa, nella quale si trovano gli
occhi, il naso e la bocca
2. espressione, aspetto
3. parte e superficie esterna o anteriore di qualcosa
4. ciascuna delle superfici che individuano un poliedro
5. superficie piana che delimita un cristallo in una sua
parte, assumendo una posizione ben precisa rispetto agli
assi cristallografici a distanze qualsiasi
● Viso:
51
1. parte anteriore della testa umana, in cui hanno sede gli
organi della vista, dell'olfatto e della parola
2. espressione del volto
3. fisionomia particolare, aspetto inconfondibile di una
persona (quel viso non mi è nuovo)
4. occhio, sguardo, vista (accezione arcaica)
5. attenzione (accezione arcaica)56
● Volto:
1. viso, faccia
2. aspetto esteriore, modo di apparire, mostrarsi,
manifestarsi
3. carattere, essenza, natura
4. sguardo, vista (accezione arcaica)57
Table 1 – The denotative use of the word “face” in English and its equivalent
translation in Italian
DENOTATION ENGLISH ITALIAN
Face: 1 Faccia: 1 Viso: 1 Volto: 1
The ball hit him in the face. (WR)
La palla lo ha colpito sul viso.
La palla lo ha colpito in faccia.
La palla lo ha colpito sul volto.
56 Examples not retrieved
57 Examples not retrieved
52
Face: 3 He turned, pale-faced, and made off the corridor. (SkE)
Si girò, con la faccia pallida, e scappò lungo il corridoio.
Si girò, con il viso pallido, e scappò lungo il corridoio.
Si girò, con il volto pallido, e scappò lungo il corridoio.
Face: 5 Faccia: 3
I was the luckiest man on the face of earth. (WR)
Ero l'uomo più felice sulla faccia della terra.
Face: 6 Do you know just what your clock face is like? (SkE)
Sai come è fatto il quadrante del tuo orologio?
Face: 7 Faccia: 2 Volto: 2
France began gradually to assume the face of a civil government. (OD)
La Francia iniziò lentamente ad assumere la faccia di un governo civile
La Francia iniziò lentamente ad assumere il volto di un governo civile.
53
Table 2 – The denotative use of the word “faccia” in Italian and its equivalent
translation in English
DENOTATION ITALIAN ENGLISH
Face: 5 Faccia: 4
Nasce per essere personalizzato, sipossono sceglierei disegni o le fotoda mettere su ogni faccia del cubo. (CP)
It has been created to be personalised, youcan choose drawings or pictures in order to decorate each face of the cube.
Face: 5 Faccia: 5
La quantità di facce rende i cristalli di almandino molto apprezzati. (CP)
The number of faces makes almandine crystals very appreciated.
b) Metonymy
Table 3 – The metonymic use of the word “face” in English and its equivalent
translation in Italian
DENOTATION ENGLISH ITALIAN
Face: 4 Volto: 3
The face of the party must be someone who appeals to all voters. (WR)
Il volto del partito deve essere qualcuno che attragga gli elettori.
54
Face: 2 Faccia: 2 Viso: 2
She did not have a happy face that day. (WR)
Non aveva una bella faccia quel giorno.
Non aveva un belviso quel giorno.
Non aveva un bell'aspetto quel giorno.
Non aveva una bella espressione quel giorno.
Face: 4 Viso: 3
She looked around for a familiar face. (OD)
Si guardò intornoin cerca di un volto familiare.
Table 4 – The metonymic use of the word “volto” and “viso” in Italian and its
equivalent translation in English
DENOTATION ENGLISH ITALIAN
Viso: 4 Tu hai l'udir mortal sì come il viso. (Dante Par. XXI, 61) (LoZ)
You have a mortal hearing just as your sight.
Volto: 3 Vorrei conoscere il suo vero volto. (WR)
I'd like to know his true essence.
55
“Face” used as verb:
Table 5 – The use of the verb “to face” in English and its equivalent
translation in Italian
ENGLISH ITALIANABSTRACTCONCEPT
Her mind faces towards the future. (WR)
La sua mente guarda al futuro.
La sua mente si volge al futuro.
FORSIGHT
Our bedroom faces east. (WR)
La nostra camera da letto guarda a est.
DIRECTION
Face the teacher when you are talking to her. (WR)
Guarda l'insegnante quando le parli.
OBSERVATION
Turn and face theaudience. (WR)
Girati e mettiti difronte al pubblico.
POSITION
You have got to face your problems. (WR)
Devi affrontare ituoi problemi.
CONFRONTATION
56
He was to old to face up to the responsibilities ofhis position. (OD)
Era troppo vecchio per affrontare le responsabilità delsuo ruolo.
CONFRONTATION
The front of the house was faced with limestone. (WR)
Il parte anteriore della casa era ricoperta di calcare.
COVER
Lay your cards down without facing any of them. (WR)
Metti giù le carte senza scoprirne nessuna.
POSITION
Face the soldier to your right! (WR)
Fianco destro! DIRECTION
Both teams are ready to face off. (OD)
Entrambe le squadre sono pronte a cominciare la partita.
BEGINNING
57
Others criticise the police for wanting to “contain” sectarian fans rather than face them down and arrest them wholesale. (OD)
Gli altri criticano la polizia che vuole contenere i tifosi faziosi invece di contrastarli e arrestarli in blocco.
CONFRONTATION
“Face” used in idioms and phrases:
Table 6 – The use of the word “face” in idioms and phrases in English and its
equivalent translation in Italian
ENGLISH ITALIAN ABSTRACTCONCEPT
We exchanged e-mails for a year before finally meeting face to face. We'd seen each other's photos, but the first time we met face to face was a shock. (WR)
Ci siamo scambiati e-mail per un anno prima di incontrarci finalmente facciaa faccia. Ci eravamo scambiati le nostre foto, ma laprima volta che ci siamo visti faccia a faccia è stato uno shock.
CONFRONTATION
58
She was at an early age broughtface to face with the horrors of war. (OD)
Già in giovane età fu messa faccia a faccia con gli orrori della guerra.
Già in giovane età fu messa di fronte agli orrori della guerra
CONFRONTATION
Keep looking, they can't just have vanished off the face of earth. (OD)
Continua a cercare, non possono essere scomparsi dalla faccia della terra.
DISAPPEARENCE
It doesn't matter how well qualified you are,if your face doesn't fit, you don't stand a chance. (OD)
Non importa quanto tu sia qualificato, se non sei adatto al lavoro, non avrai alcuna possibilità.
PROFICIENCY
59
Harry walked on,his face like thunder, his fists still clenched. (SkE)
Harry continuò a camminare, scuro in volto, i pugni ancora stretti.
Harry continuò a camminare, con una faccia scura,i pugni ancora stretti.
Harry continuò a camminare, con un espressione furibonda, i pugni ancora stretti.
ANGER
He had the face to ask me for more money. (WR)
Ha avuto la faccia di chiedermi ancora soldi.
Ha avuto la faccia tosta di chiedermi ancora soldi.
Ha avuto la faccia di bronzo di chiedermi ancora soldi.
INSOLENCE,AUDACITY
In the face of all her problems, Mary persisted inher studies. (WR)
Nonostante tutti isuoi problemi, Mary continuò i suoi studi.
REGARDLESSNESS
60
They lost face as a result of the scandal. (WR)
Hanno perso la faccia a causa dello scandalo.
Ci hanno rimesso la facciaa causa dello scandalo.
Hanno perso la reputazione a causa dello scandalo.
FAILURE
Stop pulling faces! (WR)
Smettila di fare le boccacce.
Smettila di fare le smorfie.
INSULT,HUMILIATION,
OFFENCE
I've got to go upstairs and put my face on, very quickly. (SkE)
Devo andare su e truccarmi, molto velocemente.
PUT MAKE UP
His only option was to go home and face the music. (WR)
Poteva solo andare a casa e affrontare le conseguenze.
CONFRONTATION
You can't take what she says at face value: she always has an agenda. (WR)
Non puoi mai prendere ciò che dice alla lettera: ha sempre dei secondi fini.
NAIVETY
61
This government continues to fly in the face of notjust internationalopinion, but commonsense and decency. (OD)
Questo governo continua ad andare contro non solo l'opinione internazionale, ma anche contro il buonsenso e la moralità.
OPPOSITION
In your face! (WR)
Beccati questo! Alla faccia tua! Va al diavolo! Tiè!
CONTEMPT
On the face of it, he's a great candidate, but have you checkedout his referencesyet? (WR)
All'apparenza è un ottimo candidato, ma haigià controllato le sue referenze?
APPEARENCE
His refusal to accept my apology was a slap in the face. (WR)
Il suo rifiuto nell'accettare le mie scuse è stato un affronto.
Il suo rifiuto nell'accettare le mie scuse è stato uno schiaffo nei denti.
Il suo rifiuto nell'accettare le mie scuse è stato uno smacco.
INSULT,HUMILIATION,
OFFENCE
62
I wish you wouldn't throw that incident back in my face every time we have a row. (WR)
Vorrei che non mi rinfacciassi quell'episodio ogni volta che litighiamo.
REPROACH
When he gave them 300 roubles, the soldiers threw thenotes back in hisface and said: “You have dollars and only want to give us roubles?”.(OD)
Quando gli dette 300 rubli, i soldati non li accettarono e e dissero: “hai I dollari e ci vuoi dare i rubli?”
REFUSAL
Are you still working for what's her face? (OD)
Stai ancora lavorando per come si chiama?
RECOGNITION
It has set its faceagainst cutting prices. (SkE)
Si è opposto al taglio dei prezzi.
OPPOSITION
Alexandra, listen to me. Look up. Iwish to speak to your face. (SkE)
Alexandra, ascoltami. Guardami. Vorreidirti le cose in faccia.
FRANKNESS,
SINCERITY,
STRAIGHT_
FORWARDNESS,
FAIRNESS
63
Following a strong public outcry, the politician did an about-face regarding his position on global warming. (WR)
Company halt! About-face! Forward march! (WR)
Dopo forti proteste pubbliche, il politico ha fatto marcia indietro sulle sue affermazioni sul riscaldamento globale.
Compagnia alt! Dietrofront! Marcia avanti!
BETRAYAL
Table 7 – The use of the words “faccia”, “viso”, “volto” in idioms and
phrases in Italian and its equivalent translation in English
ITALIAN EXAMPLE ENGLISHCORRESPONDENT
ABSTRACTCONCEPT
Il senso di colpa gli si legge in faccia. (CP)
Subito dopo si può leggere sul suo volto un senso di grande liberazione. (CP)
The sense of guiltis written all over his face.
Immediately, a great sense of freedom is written all over his face.
CLEARNESS OFEMOTIONS
Che faccia che hai fatto! (WR)
You should have seen the look on your face!
Your expression was priceless!
EXPRESSION
64
E soprattutto c'è da fidarsi di un'azienda che prende a pesci infaccia i propri clienti? (CP)
And above all can we trust a company that treats its customers like dirt?
And above all can we trust a company that mistreats its customers?
And above all can we trust a company that insults its customers?
INSULT, OFFENCE,HUMILIATION
Sam questa volta non guarderà in faccia a nessunoe non esiterà a premere il grilletto. (CP)
This time Sam will go ahead regardless of everyone and won't hesitate to pull the trigger.
This time Sam won't answer to anyone and won'thesitate to pull the trigger.
This time Same will answer to no one and won'thesitate to pull the trigger.
IMPASSIVITY,
IMPARTIALITY
Non fare quella faccia!(WR)
Don't look at melike that!
Don't look at mewith that face!
EXPRESSION
65
Grazie a chi ci ha messo la faccia. (CP)
Thanks to those who stood up for it.
RISK, COMPROMISE
YOURSELF
Il test finale sarà un faccia a faccia con l'assassino del figlio. (CP)
The last test will be a face-to-facewith his son's murderer.
The last test will be a one-to-one with his son's murderer.
CONFRONTATION
Le pare possibile che abbiano una tale faccia tosta?(CP)
Do you think it ispossible they have that nerve?
Do you think it ispossible they have that face?
INSOLENCE,
AUDACITY
La sorte sembrò voltare la faccia ad Andrisco. (CP)
Fate seemed to turn its back on Andrisco.
BETRAYAL
Dobbiamo riderein faccia alla tragedia, alla sfortuna e alla nostra impotenza contro le forze della natura se non vogliamo impazzire. (CP)
We should laughin the tragedy's face, in the misfortune's face,in our powerlessness face against the forces of nature otherwise we willgo crazy.
INSULT, OFFENCE,
HUMILIATION
66
Alla faccia di chimi vuole male! (LoZ)
In the teeth of whom bears me ill will!
CONTEMPT
Rutelli ha soprattutto l'intenzione di fare la faccia feroce con il crimine. (CP)
Rutelli above all intends to put a brave face on crime.
INTRANSIGENCE,
SEVERITY
Un bel tipino, con la faccia da schiaffi! (CP)
What a character he is, a cheeky face!
What a character he is, a brazen face!
INSOLENCE,
AUDACITY
Sullo sfondo mamma Carmela ha una faccia da funerale. (CP)
In the background mumCarmela has a face as long a a fiddle.
SADNESS
Fare buon viso acattivo gioco. (WR)
To make the bestof it.
To grin and bearit.
To keep a stiff upper lip.
RESIGNATION,
ACCEPTANCE
67
Henry non teme di affrontare la vita a viso aperto. (CP)
Henry is not afraid of facing life openly and fairly.
Henry is not afraid of facing life head on.
FRANKNESS,
SINCERITY,
STRAIGHT_
FORWARDNESS,
FAIRNESS
68
2.2.2. Eye
“Eye” used as noun:
a) Denotation
English (OED)
1. (part of the body): either the two organs on the face that you see
with
2. (-eyed): (in adjectives) having the type or number of eyes
mentioned
3. (ability to see): the ability to see
4. (way of seeing): a particular way of seeing something
5. (of needle): the hole in the end of a needle that you pit the
thread through
6. (on clothes): a small thin piece of metal curved round, that a
small hook fits into, used for fastening clothes
7. (of storm): a calm area at the centre of a storm
8. (on potato): a dark mark on a potato from which another plant
will grow
Italian (LoZ): Occhio
1. (in relazione alla sua natura e alle sue funzioni anatomiche e
fisiologiche): a) organo della vista, diversamente complesso e
strutturato negli invertebrati e nei vertebrati, costituito
nell'uomo da una formazione sferoidale contenuta in ognuna
delle cavità orbitarie del cranio; b) sguardo, vista
2. (in relazione alle attività intellettuali o spirituali dell'uomo): a)
senso estetico, gusto del bello; b) espressione, stato d'animo
espresso dallo sguardo58; c) capacità di comprendere, capire,
intuire, giudicare e simili; d) attenzione
58 Examples not retrieved
69
3. (con valore analogico): a) ciò che per le sue caratteristiche
ricorda un globo oculare; b) foro o apertura tondeggiante59; c) in
tipografia, lettera o segno inciso a rovescio e in rilievo nella
superficie superiore del fusto del carattere; d) (in botanica)
gemma60; e) (in zoologia) occhio di pavone: farfalla le cui ali
presentano quattro macchie simili a ocelli; f) occhio di bue: in
architettura, finestrino circolare od ovale sopra una porta, nel
centro di una cupola e simili61; g) occhio di pernice:
nell'industria tessile, disegno di un tessuto a puntini chiari su
sfondo piuttosto scuro; h) (in fotografia) o occhio di pesce, tipo
di obiettivo grandangolare dotato di un angolo di campo molto
grande; i) (in mineralogia) occhio di gatto, occhio di tigre:
varietà di quarzo di colore variabile dal grigio-verdastro al
giallo, usate come gemme, caratterizzate dal fenomeno del
gatteggiamento
Table 8 – The denotative use of the word “eye” in English and its equivalent
translation in Italian
DENOTATION ENGLISH ITALIAN
Eye: 1 Occhio: 1a
She had beautifulgreen eyes. (WR)
Aveva magnifici occhi verdi.
59 Examples not retrieved
60 Examples not retrieved
61 Examples not retrieved
70
Eye: 2 She could see he was fair-haired and blue-eyed. (SkE)
Poteva vedere che lui aveva I capelli chiari e gli occhi azzurri.
Eye: 5 I used to put threads through the eye of the needles for my mother. (WR)
Mettevo sempre ifili nella cruna dell'ago a mia madre.
Eye: 7 Occhio: 3a
The eye of the hurricane was clearly defined. (WR)
Il centro dell'uragano era ben definito.
L'occhio del ciclone era ben definito.
Eye: 8 Occhio: 3a
You need to peel potatoes and remove all the eyes as well. (WR)
Devi pelare le patate e rimuovere anche gli occhi.
Eye: 6 It fastens with a hook and eye. (OD)
Si chiude con unachiusura a gancio e occhiello.
71
Table 9 – The denotative use of the word “occhio” in Italian and its equivalent
translation in English
DENOTATION ITALIAN ENGLISH
Occhio: 3i Altra pietra dal nome particolarmente pittoresco nella quale è possibile osservare questo fenomeno è l'occhio di tigre, che appartiene però ai quarzi. (CP)
Another stone with a really typical name and in which it is possible to observe this phenomenon is the tiger’s eye, which belongs to the family of quartzes.
Occhio: 3e L'occhio di pavone sverna in letargo prima di deporre gruppi dioltre 500 uova alla volta ad inizio primavera. (CP)
The peacock butterfly winters in hibernation before laying groups of 500 eggs at a time at the beginning of Spring.
Occhio: 3h Mentre l'immagine viene proiettata, essa deve passare per una lente a occhio di pesce e le proporzioni originali sono così riprodotte. (CP)
While the pictureis projected, it should pass through a fish-eye lens and the original sizes are then reproduced.
72
Occhio: 3g La batteria è interamente costruita in faggio, finitura occhio di pernice, satinata. (CP)
The drums are completely made of beech, with a bird's eye patternand a satin finish.
b) Metonymy
Table 10 – The metonymic use of the word “eye” in English and its equivalent
translation in Italian
DENOTATION ENGLISH ITALIAN
Eye: 3 Occhio: 1b
He has an exceptional eye, he can read the smallest print. (WR)
Ha un occhio eccezionale, riesce a leggere i caratteri piccolissimi.
Ha una vista eccezionale, riesce a leggere i caratteri piccolissimi.
Eye: 3 Occhio: 1b
To my eye, the windows seem out of proportion.(OD)
Ai miei occhi, le finestre sembranosproporzionate.
73
Eye: 4 I got a bird's-eye view of the Atlantic as my plane flew over it. (WR)
Ho goduto del panorama dall'alto dell'Atlantico mentre ci volavamo sopra con l'aereo.
Eye: 4 Occhio: 1b
I know all about your behaviour atyou last school soI'll be keeping an eagle eye on you.(WR)
So tutto circa il tuo comportamento nella tua vecchia scuola, quindi sappi che ti terrò d'occhio.
So tutto circa il tuo comportamento nella tua vecchia scuola, quindi sappi che avrò unocchio vigile su di te.
Occhio: 2c In the eyes of younger colleagues, Mr Arness was an eccentric. (OD)
Agli occhi dei suoi colleghi più giovani, il signor Arness era un eccentrico.
74
Table 11 – The metonymic use of the word “occhio” in Italian and its
equivalent translation in English
DENOTATION ITALIAN ENGLISH
Occhio: 2a Un quadro che appaga gli occhi,ma anche lo spirito. (CP)
A painting which is a feast for the eyes, and for the soul as well.
Occhio: 2d Occhio! (LoZ) Mind your eye! Watch out! Be careful!
c) Metaphor
Table 12 – The metaphoric use of the word “eye” in English and its equivalent
translation in Italian
ENGLISH EXAMPLE ITALIAN CORRESPONDENT
She always likes to be right in the eye of things. (WR)
Le piace stare sempre al centro delle situazioni.
You need to hook these on the metal eyes hanging from the ceiling. (WR)
Devi agganciare questi agli occhielli di metallo appesi al soffitto.
The eye of this bolt is blocked up with grease. (WR)
Il foro di questo bullone è bloccato dal grasso.
75
The eye of the daisy is yellow. (WR)
Il pistillo della margherita è giallo.
The company suffered a blackeye when the police charged its chairman with fraud. (WR)
L'azienda si guadagnò una brutta reputazione quando la polizia accusò il presidente delconsiglio di amministrazione di frode.
John threw a dart, which hit the bull's eye (WR)
At certain places there were thick bull's eye windows, by means of which the under-water travellers could look out into the ocean through which they were moving. (OD)
John tirò una freccia e fece centro nel bersaglio.
In certi punti c'erano degli oblò dai vetri spessi, attraversoi quali i viaggiatori sottomarinipotevano ammirare l'oceano nel quale si stavano muovendo.
The children of politicians grow up in the public eye. (WR)
I bambini dei politici crescono sotto i riflettori.
Thompson hired a private eye to find out if his wife was having an affair. (WR)
Thompson assunse un investigatore privato per scoprire se sua moglie aveva un'altra relazione.
I'm exhausted: I took the red-eye from London to New York.(WR)
Ho preso il volo notturno da Londra a New York e ora sonoesausto.
76
“Eye” used as verb:
Table 13 – The use of the verb “to eye” in English and its equivalent
translation in Italian
ENGLISH ITALIANABSTRACTCONCEPT
He eyed her across the room, making her nervous. (WR)
La osservava attraverso la stanza rendendola nervosa.
LOOK
Margot saw the woman eyeing up her boyfriend.(OD)
Margot vide la donna guardare con desiderio il suo ragazzo.
DESIRE
“Eye” used in idioms and phrases:
Table 14 – The use of the word “eye” in idioms and phrases in English and its
equivalent translation in Italian
ENGLISH ITALIANABSTRACTCONCEPT
Jenny loved her children, but her eldest child was the apple of her eye. (WR)
Jenny amava i suoi figli, ma il suo pupillo era il primogenito.
PROPENSITY,PREFERENCE
77
For murder I believe an eye for an eye is a fair punishment. (WR)
His laws were very cruel and were based on the principle of an eye for an eyeand a tooth for atooth. (OED)
Per l'omicidio credo che la legge del taglione sia una punizione giusta.
Per l'omicidio credo che l'occhio per occhio, dente perdente sia una giusta punizione.
Le sue leggi erano molto crudeli e si basavano sul principio dell'occhio per occhio, dente perdente.
THREAT
Well, we don't always see eye toeye about things. (SkE)
Certo, non siamo sempre pienamente d'accordo sulle cose.
Certo, non siamo sempre dello stesso avviso sulle cose.
DISAGREEMENT
A woman stole my parking spot, so when I saw her in the store, I gave her the eye. (WR)
Una donna mi rubò il parcheggio, così quando la vidi nel negozio, le tirai un’ occhiataccia.
THREAT
78
Anyway, we were sitting thereand I could see this young girl giving me the eye. (OD)
Ad ogni modo, eravamo seduti lì e potevo vedere questa ragazzina farmi gli occhi dolci.
DESIRE, INTEREST
When cooking soufflés, you need to keep an eye on them so they don’t fall. (WR)
Quando cuoci un soufflé, devi tenerlo d’occhio affinché non sgonfi.
CONTROL
Maybe there's more to this situation than meets the eye. (OD)
Forse questa situazione è molto più complessa di quello che sembra.
HIDDEN ASPECT
She couldn't describe him accurately because she'd only seen him out of the cornerof her eye. (WR)
Non poté descriverlo accuratamente perché lo aveva visto con la codadell'occhio.
FURTIVE LOOK
Wow, that’s an outfit that’ll grabthe eye. (WR)
Wow, quello sì che è un completo che attirerà l’attenzione.
DESIRE, INTEREST
79
I’ve got my eye on a little yellow handbag I saw in a shop window. (WR)
Ho messo gli occhi su una borsetta gialla che ho visto in una vetrina.
DESIRE, INTEREST
The company has an eye on expanding into overseas markets in the future. (WR)
La compagnia haintenzione di espandersi nei mercati oltremarein futuro.
DESIRE, INTEREST
I can't see them with the naked eye. (SkE)
Non riesco a vederli a occhio nudo.
CLEAR DISPLAY
I knew exactly what she was up to but decided to turn a blind eye. (WR)
Sapevo esattamente cosa stava combinando, ma ho deciso di chiudere un occhio.
INDULGENCE
And in the twinkling of an eye she was gone.(WR)
E in un batter d’occhio, sparì.
E in un batter di ciglia, sparì.
RAPIDITY
80
She dressed in her best clothes with an eye to making him notice her. (WR)
Indosso i suoi abiti migliori tenendo conto difarsi notare da lui.
Indossò i suoi abiti migliori nella speranza difarsi notare da lui.
DESIRE, INTERST
The ideal candidate will have an eye for detail, be able to work independently and as part of a team and most importantly – have a passion for games! (OED)
Il candidato ideale deve avereocchio per i dettagli, essere capace di lavorare sia indipendentemente che in squadra efondamentale è avere passione per i giochi!
PROFICIENCY
We're up to our eyes at work. (OD)
Siamo occupatissimi con il lavoro.
Siamo indaffaratissimi con il lavoro.
Siamo sommersi di lavoro.
BUSINESS,OVERWORK
81
She was obviously jealousand gave me the evil eye when no one was looking. (WR)
Ovviamente era gelosa e mi ha gettato il malocchio addosso quando nessuno stava guardando.
THRET
A visit to the docks can be a fascinating eye opener. (OD)
Una visita al molo può essere un'affascinante rivelazione.
REVELATION
Table 15 – The use of the word “occhio” in idioms and phrases in Italian and
its equivalent translation in English
ITALIAN ENGLISHABSTRACTCONCEPT
Anche se non è veterinario mio nonno aveva un occhio clinico per tutte le malattie delle vacche. (WR)
Even though he’snot a veterinarianmy grandfather had a good eye for all of the cows’ diseases.
PROFICIENCY
82
Si occupa, infatti,anche dell'atleticaleggera , con il consueto occhio di riguardo per i giovani. (CP)
Actually, he dealswith track and field as well, with a special consideration for teenagers.
Actually, he dealswith track and field as well, holding teenagers with the highest regards.
PROPENCITY,PREFERECE
Carl però non vede di buon occhio la neonataamicizia fra Molly e Dupree. (CP)
However Carl doesn't look kindly upon the newborn friendship between Molly and Dupree.
However Carl doesn't view highly the newborn friendship between Molly and Dupree.
PROPENCITY,PREFERENCE
Ragazzi, compratelo a occhi chiusi. (CP)
Guys, buy it blindly.
TRUST
83
Era che non se l' aspettava , dopo tutto , di trovare un tempio così bello , così interessante , proprio qui , tra boschi e campi , a perdita d'occhio. (CP)
After all, the fact was that he didn'texpect it, to find such a beautiful temple, so interesting, just there, in the middle of woods and fields, as far as the eye can see.
SIGHT
Ha gli occhi fuori dalle orbiteed è paonazzo in volto. (CP)
Pop-eyed and red-faced.
With his eyes popping out of his head and red-faced.
ANGER
Anche l'occhio vuole la sua parte! (CP)
Look also count! DELIGHT, PLEASURE
Un occasione perrifarsi gli occhi davanti ad una delle auto sportive giapponesi più mitiche dell'era moderna. (CP)
A chance to feastour eyes on one of the most legendary Japanese sport cars of modern times.
DELIGHT, PLEASURE
Con Young Modern la band strizza l'occhio alpop rock. (CP)
The band winks at pop rock with their song Young Modern.
PROPENSITY,PREFERENCE
84
Questo evento però apre gli occhi a Rosa che si rende finalmente autonoma. (CP)
However this event opens Rosa's eyes that finally becomes independent.
However this event undeceives Rosa that finally becomes independent.
ATTENTION
85
2.2.3. Nose
“Nose” used as noun:
a) Denotation
English (OD):
1. the part of the face that sticks out above the mouth, used for
breathing and smelling things
2. (-nosed): (in adjectives) having the type of nose mentioned
3. the front part of the plane
4. a special ability for finding or recognizing something
5. a sense of smell
6. a characteristic smell
Italian (LoZ): Naso
1. parte prominente del volto dell'uomo e del muso di alcuni
animali, posta tra la fronte e la bocca, sede dell'inizio delle
vie respiratorie e protezione dell'organo dell'olfatto
2. faccia, volto
3. senso dell'olfatto, fiuto
4. intuito, perspicacia
5. parte sporgente di alcuni oggetti
6. (in meccanica) parte anteriore del mandrino, sulle macchine
utensili, di forma internamente tronco-conica ed
esternamente cilindrica e filettata su cui si avvita la
piattaforma o disco menabrida per il montaggio del perno62
62 Examples not retrieved
86
Table 16 – The denotative use of the word “nose” in English and its equivalent
translation in Italian
DENOTATION ENGLISH ITALIAN
Nose: 1 Naso: 1
A fly landed on my nose. (WR)
Una mosca è volata sul mio naso
Nose: 2 A red-nosed ostler took their horses. (SkE)
Uno stalliere dal naso rosso prese i loro cavalli.
Nose: 3 Naso: 5
The nose of the plane pitched down. (WR)
Il naso dell'aereo si è scagliato verso il basso.
La prua dell’aereo si è scagliata verso il basso.
Il muso dell'aereo si è scagliato verso il basso.
87
b) Metonymy
Table 17 – The metonimic use of the word “nose” in English and its equivalent
translation in Italian
DENOTATION ENGLISH EXAMPLEITALIAN
CORRESPONDENT
Nose: 4, 5 Naso: 3, 4
He has a great nose for good books. (WR)
My hound dog has a great nose and can track anysmell. (WR)
Ha un sesto senso per scoprire buoni libri.
Il mio cane da caccia ha un grande fiuto e segue ogni odore.
Nose: 6 This Chardonnay has a wonderful nose. (WR)
Questo Chardonnay ha un profumo fantastico.
Table 18 – The metonymic use of the word “naso” in Italian and its equivalent
translation in English
DENOTATION ITALIAN EXAMPLEENGLISH
CORRESPONDENT
Naso: 4 A naso, ti direi disì! (WR)
Off the top of myhead, yes!
At a guess, yes!
88
Naso: 2 Yuri Gagarin, primo uomo a mettere il naso fuori dall'atmosfera terrestre. (CP)
Yuri Gagarin, first man to put his nose out of the atmosphere.
Yuri Gagarin, first man to set foot outside the atmosphere.
c) Metaphor
Table 19 – The metaphoric use of the word “nose” in English and its
equivalent translation in Italian
ENGLISH ITALIAN
The captain guided the nose ofthe yacht towards the dock. (WR)
Il capitano ha guidato la prua dello yacht verso la banchina.
He used the nose of the pliers to reach into the crack. (WR)
Ha usato il becco delle pinze per raggiungere l’interno della fessura.
Positioning the nose of the saddle downwards may relieveyour initial discomfort but it may cause long term pain. (OED)
Posizionando l'arcione della sella verso il basso si può alleviare il fastidio iniziale, mapuò causare dolore a lungo andare.
89
“Nose” used as verb:
Table 20 – The use of the verb “to nose” in English and its equivalent
translation in Italian
ENGLISH ITALIANABSTRACTCONCEPT
He nosed close enough to see theentertainer. (WR)
Si avvicinò abbastanza da poter vedere l’intrattenitore.
APPROACH
The dog nosed the door so he could pass through. (WR)
Il cane ha spinto la porta con il naso per poterci passare.
PUSH
Horse number seven seemed all set to win, but then number eleven nosed him out. (WR)
Il cavallo numerosette sembrava destinato a vincere, ma poi ilnumero undici l’ha battuto per un soffio.
HARD-FOUGHTDEFEAT
The detective decided to nose around the slumsto see what mischief was afoot. (WR)
L’investigatore decise di ficcanasare nei quartieri bassi perverificare quale guaio fosse in corso.
INTRUSION
90
The stock nose dived. (WR)
Il mercato finanziario precipitò.
DOWNFALL
After the avalanche, bloodhounds nosed out the buried skiers. (WR)
Dopo la valanga, i cani hanno fiutato alla ricerca degli sciatori sepolti.
SENSE OF SMELL
She's always nosing into my business. (OD)
Ficca sempre il naso nei miei affari.
INTRUSION
He nosed out the signs of trespass. (OD)
Scoprì i segni di un'intrusione.
DISCOVER
“Nose” used in idioms and phrases:
Table 21 – The use of the word “nose” in idioms and phrases in English and
its equivalent translation in Italian
ENGLISH ITALIANABSTRACTCONCEPT
What a good guess! You hit my birthday righton the nose! (WR)
Bravo! Hai indovinato esattamente il mio compleanno!
PRECISION
91
He paid through the nose for that car, and it’s nothing but a piece of junk. (WR)
Quella macchina l’ha pagata un occhio della testa, e non è nient’altro che unrottame!
EXPENSIVENESS
It was a very close race. Our horse won by a nose. (WR)
È stata una gara molto equilibrata.Il nostro cavallo ha vinto per un pelo.
PROXIMITY
He turned his nose up at the job. (OD)
Storse il naso a quel lavoro.
Arricciò il naso nei confronti di quel lavoro.
AVERSION
When I was at college I used to bury my nose in a book rather than join one of the societies. (SkE)
Quando ero all'università di solito mi immergevo in un libro piuttosto che unirmi alle varie associazioni.
FOCUS
We count noses at Church conventions. (OD)
Contiamo le teste ai convegni clericali.
SUM
92
Opposition Members are cutting off their noses to spite their own faces by encouraging Mr. Millan. (SkE)
I membri dell'opposizione si stavano dandola zappa sui piedi incoraggiando Mr. Millan.
SELF DAMAGEMENT
Angela got up my nose as usual on this point overlunch. (SkE)
A questo punto del pranzo, Angela iniziava ad irritarmi comeal solito.
ANGER
They're either in the greenhouse orin the shed. Oh right. I think. Yeah, I'll have a nose round. (SkE)
Sono entrambi nella serra o nel capanno. Perfetto. Credo. Si, darò un'occhiata in giro.
EXPLORATION
Since leaving prison, he's managed to keep his nose clean. (OD)
Da quando è uscito di prigioneha cercato di stare fuori dai guai.
RESTRAINT
“Why don't you keep your nose out of my business?” he demanded. (OD)
“Perchè non tienifuori il naso dai miei affari?” domandò.
RESPECT
93
He keeps his nose to the grindstone and thinks everyone else should. (SkE)
Ci sta dando dentro e crede che tutti dovrebbero farlo.
FOCUS
You're looking down your nose at us. (SkE)
Ci stai guardando dall'alto al basso.
ARROGANCE
The Montego was nose to tail with the car in front of it. (SkE)
La Montego era appiccicato alla macchina di fronte a essa.
PROXIMITY
I searched everywhere for the letter and it was under my nose all the time!(OD)
Ho cercato la lettera dappertutto ed è stata sotto il mio naso tutto il tempo.
Ho cercato la lettera dappertutto ed è stata sotto i miei occhi tutto il tempo.
CLEAR DISPLAY
94
The boxer went nose to nose with his opponent. (WR)
Sam was nose to nose with his girlfriend, Mary. (WR)
Il pugile giunse al faccia a facciacon il suo avversario.
Sam era a un palmo di naso dalla sua ragazza,Mary.
CONFRONTATION
Sure enough, he could smell the magic in the air, and he followed his nose across the great hall and down a long series of hallways. (OD)
Quasi sicuramente poteva sentire la magia nell'aria, e seguì il suo nasoattraverso il grande salone e giù per una serie di lunghi corridoi.
Quasi sicuramente poteva sentire la magia nell'aria, e seguì il suo istinto attraverso il grande salone egiù per una serie di lunghi corridoi.
Quasi sicuramente poteva sentire la magia nell'aria, e seguì il suo cuore attraverso il grande salone egiù per una serie di lunghi corridoi.
INSTINCT
95
Table 22 – The use of the word “naso” in idioms and phrases in Italian and its
equivalent translation in English
ITALIAN ENGLISHABSTRACTCONCEPT
Appena glielo ho detto, gli è saltata la mosca al naso. (WR)
As soon as I told him, he lost his patience.
As soon as I told him, he got his back up.
As soon as I told him, it got up hisnose.
ANGER
Passò davanti allemacchine con la puzza sotto al naso. (OD)
She walked past the cars with his nose in the air.
She walked past the cars being snooty.
She walked past the cars being toffee-nosed.
ARROGANCE
Si ostina a non vedere più in là del proprio naso.(CP)
He persists in seeing no fartherthan the end of his nose.
IGNORANCE
96
Ma lui ha lasciato tutti con un palmo di naso e così continuerà a fare in futuro. (CP)
However he has deceived everyone and he will do like this even in the future.
However he has left everyone badly disappointed and he will do like this even in the future.
However he has outwitted everyone and he will do like this even in the future.
DISAPPOINTMENT
Uno come Bush, Al Turabi lo mena per il nasodove e quando vuole. (CP)
Bush is someone who can take Al Turabi for a ride whenever he wants to.
DECEIT
Gli italiani non sono stupidi e soprattutto sono stanchi di turarsiil naso. (CP)
Italians are not stupid and above all they are tired of holding their noses.
RELUCTANCE
97
2.2.4. Mouth
“Mouth” used as noun:
a) Denotation
English (OD):
1. (part of face): the opening in the face used for speaking,
eating, etc; the area inside the head behind this opening
2. (person needed food): a person considered only as
somebody who needs to be provided with food
3. (entrance/opening): the entrance or opening of something
4. (of river): the place where the river joins the sea
5. (way of speaking): a particular way of speaking
6. (-mouthed): (in adjectives) having the type or shape of
mouth mentioned
Italian (LoZ): Bocca
1. cavità nella parte inferiore del capo, limitata dalle labbra,
che costituisce la prima porzione dell'apparato digerente ed è
sede del senso del gusto e, nell'uomo, della parola
2. in varie locuzioni con riferimento alla cavità anatomica
3. in varie locuzioni con riferimento alle funzioni nutritive,
gustative
4. in varie locuzioni con riferimento alla funzione vocale63
5. labbra
6. apertura di recipienti e oggetti svariati
7. (in tecnologia) l'apertura compresa fra le ganasce di una
pinza o una tenaglia, destinata a racchiudere il pezzo da
afferrare o lavorare64
8. parte anteriore dell'anima di ogni arma da fuoco
63 Examples not retrieved
98
9. foce di fiume
10. (in botanica) bocca di leone: antirrino; bocca di lupo:
piccola pianta erbacea
11. bocca di dama: pasta dolce a base di uova, mandorle e
zucchero65
12. (in scienza e tecnica militare) bocca di lupo: difesa
accessoria della fortificazione66
13. (in edilizia) bocca di lupo: apertura di aerazione nella parete
di un locale interrato
14. (in marina) bocca di lupo: nodo scorsoio; bocca di rancio:
piastra metallica sagomata in forma di tenaglia aperta,
dentro la quale passano le cime d'ormeggio67
15. (in elettronica) bocca irradiante: terminazione aperta di
guida d'onda generalmente a forma di tromba, avente
funzione di antenna68
16. (in idraulica) bocca d'acqua: ogni apertura per far fluire un
liquido dall'esterno69
17. (in tecnica tessile) bocca d'ordito: apertura che si forma per
lasciar passare la navetta, durante il movimento dei licci
18. foratico nella tonnara70
19. bocca del martello: la parte piana leggermente convessa con
64 Examples not retrieved
65 Examples not retrieved
66 Examples not retrieved
67 Examples not retrieved
68 Examples not retrieved
69 Examples not retrieved
99
cui si batte71
20. (in architettura) bocca di lupo: collegamento ortogonale tra
due travi rettangolari72
21. (in anatomia) bocca dello stomaco: nel linguaggio comune,
la regione superiore dell'addome che corrisponde
all'epigastrio.
Table 23 – The denotative use of the word “mouth” in English and its
equivalent translation in Italian
DENOTATION ENGLISH ITALIAN
Mouth: 1 Bocca: 1
He opened his mouth for the dentist. (WR)
Ha aperto la bocca per il dentista.
Mouth: 4 Bocca: 9
The mouth of theriver is at the Atlantic Ocean. (WR)
La bocca del fiume si immette nell'Oceano Atlantico.
La foce del fiumesi immette nell'Oceano Atlantico.
70 Examples not retrieved
71 Examples not retrieved
72 Examples not retrieved
100
Mouth: 3 Bocca: 6
The mouth of thecave was small, but the inside was huge. (WR)
La bocca della grotta era piccola, ma l'interno era enorme.
L'apertura della grotta era piccola, ma l'interno era enorme.
L'entrata della grotta era piccola, ma l'interno era enorme.
L'imboccatura della grotta era piccola, ma l'interno era enorme.
Table 24 – The denotative use of the word “bocca” in Italian and its equivalent
translation in English
DENOTATION ITALIAN ENGLISH
Bocca: 8 La palla di cannone doveva avere un diametro leggermente inferiore a quello della bocca da fuoco. (CP)
The cannonball should have had a slightly smaller diameter than thepiece of ordnance.
101
Bocca: 10 I ricercatori hanno trasferito due geni dei fiori di "bocca di leone" , che producono antocianina , nella pianta del pomodoro. (CP)
Researchers transferred two genes of the flowers of the “snapdragon”, that produce anthocianin, in the tomato plant.
Bocca: 13 Le celle avevano inoltre la caratteristica di avere le finestre a "bocca di lupo", che permettevano di vedere soltanto il cielo. (CP)
Besides, the cells had the characteristic to have air vents that allow to see just the sky.
Bocca: 17 La sua caratteristica , a differenza dell'altro tipo di telaio usato per gli arazzi è di avere l' apertura della "bocca d' ordito" azionata da pedali. (CP)
Its peculiarity, unlike the other kind of loom used to produce tapestries is that the opening of the “shed” is activated by treadles.
102
Bocca: 21 Mentre Allison è in lacrime tra le sue braccia , non si accorge che l' uomo le sta pigiando una pistola alla boccadello stomaco. (CP)
While Allison is crying in his arms, she doesn't realize that he's pulling a gun on her pit of the stomach.
b) Metonymy
Table 25 – The metonimic use of the word “mouth” in English and its
equivalent translation in Italian
DENOTATION ITALIAN ENGLISH
Mouth: 2 Bocca: 3
I have five mouths to feed. (WR)
Ho cinque bocche da sfamare.
Mouth: 5 He has a foul mouth on him! (OD)
Gli parla in modo sboccato.
Mouth: 6 Bocca: 6
Take a wide-mouthed Thermos of boiling water to warm bottles. (SkE)
Prendi un Thermos dalla bocca ampia di acqua bollente per scaldare le bottiglie.
103
Table 26 – The metonimic use of the word “bocca” in Italian and its
corresponding translation in English
DENOTATION ITALIAN ENGLISH
Bocca: 5, 2 Hai una bellissima bocca.(WR)
You have a beautiful mouth.
“Mouth” used as verb:
Table 27 – The use of the verb “to mouth” in English and its equivalent
translation in Italian
ENGLISH ITALIANABSTRACTCONCEPT
The student got kicked out of the class for mouthing off toomuch. (WR)
Lo studente è stato sbattuto fuori dalla classe per aver fatto troppi commenti ad alta voce.
INSULT, OFFENCE
His teacher was mouthing each letter sound and having him to repeat sequences.(OD)
La sua insegnantepronunciava il suono di ogni lettera facendogliripetere le sequenze.
LANGUAGEARTICULATION
104
The dog mouthed the ball.(WR)
Il cane prese la palla con la bocca.
GRAB
So the kids wouldn't hear, she just mouthed the word “candy”. (WR)
Ha mimato con la bocca la parola“caramella” in modo che i bambini non la sentissero.
MIME
“Mouth” used in idioms and phrases:
Table 28 – The use of the word “mouth” in idioms and phrases in English and
its equivalent translation in Italian
ENGLISH ITALIANABSTRACTCONCEPT
Though they appeared wealthy, they actually lived from hand to mouth. (WR)
Sembrano benestanti, ma in realtà vivono allagiornata.
MANAGE
105
He’s always getting into trouble because of his big mouth.(WR)
Finisce sempre nei guai a causa della sua lingua lunga.
Finisce sempre nei guai perchè è un chiacchierone.
Finisce sempre nei guai perchè non sa tenere la lingua a posto.
MISCHIEVOUSNESS
When I asked myuncle for extra money on my birthday, my mother said, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”. (WR)
Quando ho chiesto a mio zio altri soldi per l mio compleanno,mia madre mi disse “A caval donato non si guarda in bocca”.
ACCEPTANCE
Of course it’s true – I got it straight from the horse’s mouth. (WR)
Certo che è vero, l’ho saputo direttamente dalla fonte.
TRUTH
The governor was frothing at the mouth after she was accused of misconduct. (WR)
La governatrice stava schiumando di rabbia dopo che era stata accusatadi cattiva condotta.
ANGER
106
The smell of that steak on the grill is making my mouth water. (WR)
Il profumo di quella bistecca sulla griglia mi ha fatto venire l’acquolina in bocca.
DESIRE
What did you think? That I wasborn with a silver spoon in my mouth? (SkE)
Che cosa pensavi? Che fossi nato con la camicia?
WEALTH
They all have answered with one mouth. (SkE)
Risposero tutti inmodo unanime.
UNANIMITY
Zip your mouth, I don’t want anyone knowing our business. (WR)
Chiudi la bocca, non voglio che tutti sappiano i fatti nostri.
KEEP QUIET
When the scent isstruck, the dogs give mouth. (OD)
Quando sentono l’odore, i cani iniziano ad abbaiare.
BARK
Sorry, I’ll never open my mouth about you again. (OD)
Scusa, non dirò più niente di te.
LOQUACITY
107
She's all mouth! (SkE)
È tutto fumo e niente arrosto!
È una sbruffona!
INSOLENCE,AUDACITY
Fish Sparks has been a bit down in the mouth since we rumbledhis story. (SkE)
Fish Sparks si è un pò abbattuto da quando abbiamo scopertola sua storia.
SADNESS
I've warned them to keep their mouth shut aboutthis! (OD)
Li ho avvertiti di tenere la bocca chiusa su questo argomento.
KEEP QUIET
Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings! (OD)
I bambini sono la bocca della verità.
FRANKNESS,
SINCERITY,
STRAIGHT_
FORWARDNESS,
FAIRNESS
That never used to be a fault of his, running off at the mouth. It must be your noxious influence. (SkE)
Non è mai stata colpa sua, parlare troppo. Deve essere la tua influenza nociva.
LOQUACITY
108
Watch your mouth! (OD)
Attento a ciò chedici!
Attento a come parli!
Tieni a freno la lingua!
WARNING
Table 29 – The use of the word “bocca” in idioms and phrases in Italian and
its equivalent translation in English
ITALIAN ENGLISHABSTRACTCONCEPT
Devo riconoscereche Luca è la bocca della verità! (CP)
I have to admit that Luca is the soul of truth!
FRANKNESS,
SINCERITY,
STRAIGHT_
FORWARDNESS,
FAIRNESS
Acqua in bocca! (WR)
Lips sealed! Keep it quiet! Keep quiet about
it! Keep it under
your hat! Mum's the
word!
KEEP QUIET
109
"Ma che ti hanno detto lì?" Massimo, a mezza bocca: "Mi hanno detto, ora esci, godi- ti questa situazione..." (CP)
“What did you tell there?” Massimo answersreluctantly: “They told me to enjoy this situation...”
“What did you tell there?” Massimo answershalf-heartedly: “They told me to enjoy this situation...”
“What did you tell there?” Massimo answersunder his breath:“They told me to enjoy this situation...”
“What did you tell there?” Massimo answersout of the cornerof his mouth: “They told me to enjoy this situation...”
RELUCTANCE
In bocca al lupo! (WR)
Good luck! Break a leg!
WISH
Non travisare le mie parole mettendomi in bocca frasi che non ho detto. (CP)
Do not misinterpret my words putting words I've never said into my mouth.
INSTRUCT, SUGGEST
110
È divertente come mi senta la bocca impastata proprio adesso. (SkE)
Funny how I feel all my mouth full of rubber right now.
Funny how tongue-tied I feelright now.
EMBARRASSMENT
Non abbiamo maipensato di cucirela bocca ad alcuno. (CP)
We have never thought to seal lips to anyone.
We have never thought to keep people quiet.
We have never thought to stop anyone's mouth.
We have never though to shut anyone up.
KEEP QUIET
Chi si attendeva accese contestazioni è rimasto a bocca asciutta. (CP)
Those who expected fierce objections, they have been left empty-handed.
Those who expected fierce objections, they have been disappointed.
Those who expected fierce objections, they have been left high and dry.
DISAPPOINTMENT
111
Puoi mettere bocca su tutto senza sapere nulla? (CP)
How can you get your word in without knowing anything?
How can you putin your two centswithout knowing anything?
How can you comment on everything without knowing anything?
INTRUSION
Il nome del narratore è sulla bocca di tutti ad Harlem. (CP)
The name of the storyteller is on everyone's lips inHarlem.
RUMOURS
Lana gli fa la respirazione bocca a bocca per farlo sopravvivere. (CP)
Lana gives him amouth-to-mouth resuscitation in order to let him survive.
Lana gives him the kiss of life in order to let him survive.
REANIMATION
Mi hai tolto la parola di bocca! (OD)
I was just about to say that!
PRE-EMPT
112
Il mondo rimase a bocca aperta per quel capolavoro di chirurgia. (CP)
The world was open-mouthed infront of that masterpiece of surgery.
The world was gobsmacked, in front of that masterpiece of surgery.
The world was with its mouth wide open, in front of that masterpiece of surgery.
The world was dumbfounded, infront of that masterpiece of surgery.
The world was left gaping, in front of that masterpiece of surgery.
ASTONISHMENT
Per quanto riguarda i miei gusti cinematografici sono di bocca buona. (CP)
As for my cinematographic tastes I'm easy to please.
EASY TO PLEASE
113
È proprio questo particolare che fastorcere la bocca. (CP)
It's exactly this detail that makes twist one's mouth.
It's exactly this detail that makes one make a wry face.
It's exactly this detail that makes one sneer.
It's exactly this detail that makes curl up one's lips.
AVERSION
Sono giorni che mi faccio la bocca a tutti questi vestiti entrati nella storia della moda.(CP)
It's been days thatI acquire a taste for all of these clothes which arepart of the fashion history.
It's been days thatI get to like all of these clothes which are part of the fashion history.
HABIT, ROUTINE
Loro ci ricambiano facendoci morire di fame, mangiando i nostri stipendi, portando via il pane di bocca ai nostri figli. (CP)
In return they make us starve todeath, they cut our salaries, taking the bread out of our sons mouth.
DEPRIVATION
114
2.2.5. Tooth
“Tooth” used as noun:
a) Denotation
English (OED):
1. any of the hard white structures in the mouth used for biting
and chewing food
2. a narrowed pointed part that sticks out of an object
Italian (LoZ): Dente
1. ognuno degli organi ossei sporgenti nel cavo orale che,
nell'uomo e nei Vertebrati degli Gnatostomi, sono destinati
alla masticazione
2. assalto, morso
3. sporgenza o risalto di varia forma e dimensione su
ingranaggi, utensili e simili
4. intaccatura più o meno profonda in un tessuto o in un
risvolto73
5. cima aguzza di un monte74
6. nelle antiche fortificazioni, opera formata da due facce
congiunte a saliente verso il nemico75
7. (in botanica) dente di canino: gramigna dei medici; dente di
cane: piccola pianta erbacea bulbosa; dente di leone:
tarassaco
73 Examples not retrieved
74 Examples not retrieved
75 Examples not retrieved
115
Table 30 – The denotative use of the word “tooth” in English and its
equivalent translation in Italian
DENOTATION ENGLISH ITALIAN
Tooth: 1 Dente: 1
The dentist askedthe patient to open his mouth so he could look at his teeth. (WR)
Il dentista chiese al paziente di aprire la bocca per vedere i denti.
Tooth: 2 Dente: 3
The teeth on this saw are blunt, it will hardly cut anything anymore. (WR)
The teeth of the gears interlock. (WR)
It was an old comb with several broken teeth. (WR)
I denti di questa sega sono spuntati, non taglia quasi più niente.
I denti delle ruotedentate si incastrano tra loro.
Era un vecchio pettine con diversi denti rotti.
116
Table 31 – The denotative use of the word “dente” in Italian and its equivalent
translation in English
DENOTATION ITALIAN ENGLISH
Dente: 1 I denti del cobra iniettano veleni quando morde. (WR)
The fangs of a cobra inject venom when it bites.
Dente: 7 Nelle praterie aperte abbondanoi pascoli erbosi colorati dalle margherite e dal dente di leone, dai caratteristici fiori gialli. (CP)
In the meadows itis plentiful of grassy pastures coloured by daisies and dandelions, characterized by its yellow flowers.
“Tooth” used in idioms and phrases:
Table 33 – The use of the word “tooth” in idioms and phrases in English and
its equivalent translation in Italian
ENGLISH ITALIANABSTRACTCONCEPT
The law must have teeth, and itmust be enforced.(SkE)
La legge deve avere autorità, e deve essere rafforzata.
AUTHORITY
117
The brothers cut their professionalteeth at Lusardi's before starting their own restaurant. (OD)
I due fratelli si sono fatti le ossa a livello professionale da Lusardi prima di avviare il loro proprio ristorante.
EXPERIENCE
The argument hascentred on men being fed up to the teeth with being blamed for all that is wrong in the world. (OD)
La discussione si concentrò sugli uomini che sono stufi marci di essere incolpati per tutto ciò che c'è di sbagliato nel mondo.
ANNOYANCE
She acknowledged the existence of differences between men andwomen, but argued that the reason “women are as scarce (rare) as hen's teeth” in academia is due to discrimination.(OD)
Constatò l'esistenza tra uomini e donne, ma affermò che la ragione per cui“le donne sono molto rare” in accademia fosse dovuta alla discriminazione.
RARITY
118
You have escaped from going to prison by the skin of your teeth. (OD)
Sei scampato allaprigione per il rotto della cuffia.
Sei scampato allaprigione per un pelo.
PROXIMITY
Parliament must grit its teeth and take action. (OD)
Il parlamento deve stringere i denti e procedereall'azione.
PATIENCE
Yesterday was a very long day in the teeth of a cold wind and theoccasional shower. (OD)
Ieri è stata una lunga giornata direttamente contro un vento freddo e una pioggia occasionale.
CONFRONTATION
I'll fight tooth and nail to make a name for myself as an actor. (WR)
Combatterò con le unghie e con identi pur di diventare un attore famoso.
TOUGH DEFENCE
Just the sound of her voice sets myteeth on the edge. (OD)
Basta il suono della sua voce a farmi rabbrividire.
ANNOYANCE
119
It's meaty material and I think any actor loves to do stuff you can sink your teeth into. (OD)
È un materiale denso di contenuto e penso che gli attori amino fare cose in cui possano buttarsi a capofitto.
È un materiale denso di contenuto e penso che gli attori amino fare cose che possanoaffrontare con entusiasmo.
PASSIONATECONFRONTATION
The chairman described the council's decisionto reject the scheme as a kick in the teeth. (OD)
Il presidente del consiglio di amministrazione descrisse la decisione del consiglio di rifiutare il programma comeun calcio nei denti.
Il presidente del consiglio di amministrazione descrisse la decisione del consiglio di rifiutare il programma comeun calcio in faccia.
INSULT, OFFENCE,HUMILIATION
120
The last two nights have been worse, because he's cutting a tooth or two and has developed a cold. (OD)
Le ultime due notti sono state peggiori perché sta mettendo unoo due denti e ha preso il raffreddore.
TEETHING
Table 34 – The use of the word “dente” in idioms and phrases in Italian and its
equivalent translation in English
ITALIAN ENGLISHABSTRACTCONCEPT
Una giovane ragazza milanese che a costo di passare per antipatica e impopolare, difende a denti stretti i componenti della sua squadra e le sue decisioni. (CP)
A young girl from Milan stoodup for the members of the team and her decisions through clenched teeth, even though she could appear unpleasant and unpopular.
A young girl from Milan stoodup for the members of the team and her decisions reluctantly, even though she could appear unpleasant and unpopular.
RELUCTANCE
121
Il direttore della rete " giovane " di Mediaset parlafuori dai denti. (CP)
The manager of the young network Mediaset speaks without mincing words.
The manager of the young network Mediaset speaks frankly.
The manager of the young network Mediaset speaks his mind.
FRANKNESS,
SINCERITY,
STRAIGHT_
FORWARDNESS,
FAIRNESS
Già, perché mangiare una pizza non significa solo mettere qualcosasotto i denti perché si ha fame. (CP)
Well, eating a pizza doesn't mean just puttingsomething in ourstomach just because we're hungry.
Well, eating a pizza doesn't meant just have something to eat just because we're hungry.
EAT
Gli altri si indignano e mostrano i denti.(CP)
The other people get angry and show their teeth.
THREAT
122
Ma anche la Sposa era piuttosto potente e Gogo trovò innanzi pane per i suoi denti. (CP)
The Bride as wellwas very powerful and Gogo found it's match.
That woman is too beautiful, she’s beyond your means!
EQUALCONFRONTATION
Qui non troveranno pane per i loro denti, rischiando di compromettere leproprie tasche. (CP)
This place it's not for them, they will risk to compromise theirsavings.
This place it's not their cup of tea, they will riskto compromise their savings.
UNEQUALCONFRONTATION
Davanti al Re Juan Carlos di Spagna i due a fine gara hanno finto una stretta di mano e un sorriso a denti stretti . (CP)
In front of the king Juan Carlos of Spain, the two men pretended a handshake and a tight-lipped smile at the end of the match.
RELUCTANCE
Il povero cane splendido trema come una foglia ebatte i denti. (CP)
The poor wonderful dog shakes like a leaf and its teeth chatter.
FEAR / COLD
123
La pasta si cuoce al dente e si mischia in una casseruola al condimento. (CP)
Pasta should be cooked to the tooth and then mixed with a sauce in a casserole.
Pasta should be cooked to the bite and then mixed with a sauce in a casserole.
COOKING TIME
Nitti aveva il dente avvelenatonei confronti degli uomini politici della sua generazione. (CP)
Nitti bore a grudge against the politicians belonging to his own generation.
ANGER
Vi ho lasciato a denti asciutti in tutte le vostre città e con mancanza di panein tutti i vostri villaggi. (CP)
I made you go hungry in all of your cities and without bread in any of your villages.
DISAPPOINTMENT
“No” dissi ancora, digrignando i denti. (CP)
“No” I said again, grinding my teeth.
“No” I said again, gnashing my teeth.
“No” I said again, gritting my teeth.
THREAT
124
2.2.6. Tongue
“Tongue” used as noun:
a) Denotation
English (OED):
1. the soft part in the mouth that moves around, used for
tasting, swallowing, speaking, etc
2. the tongue of some animals, cooked and eaten
3. a language
4. a particular way of speaking
5. (-tongued): (in adjectives) speaking in the way mentioned
6. a long narrow piece of leather under the laces on a show
7. something that is long and narrow and shaped like a tongue
Italian (LoZ): Lingua
1. (con riferimento all'organo anatomico): a) organo muscolare
ricoperto di mucosa, mobile, posto nella cavità boccale, che
partecipa alle funzioni della suzione, della masticazione,
della deglutizione e della fonazione; b) lingua di animale,
solitamente bue o vitello, cotta per vivanda; c) tutto ciò che
ha forma più o meno simile a quella di una lingua; d) (in
zoologia) sogliola76; e) (in botanica) lingua cervina: felce
delle zone umide e ombrose con foglie coriacee e lucenti,
intere e ondulate ai margini; lingua di cane: cinoglossa;
lingua d'acqua: erba delle Potamogetonacee che cresce
galleggiando sulle acque a lento fluire77; f) (in botanica)
lingua di bue: fungo basidiomicete a forma di clava carnoso,
76 Examples not retrieved
77 Examples not retrieved
125
di color rosso sangue78
2. (con riferimento alla funzione che l'organo anatomico
adempie nell'articolazione dei suoni): a) sistema
grammaticale e lessicale per mezzo del quale gli
appartenenti ad una comunità comunicano tra loro; b) modo
di esprimersi proprio di un ambiente, di un mestiere, di una
scienza, di uno scrittore; c) (assolutamente) lingua italiana79;
d) (al plurale) complesso delle lingue straniere80; e)
nazione81; f) persona82; g) informazione, notizia83
Table 35 – The denotative use of the word “tongue” in English and its
equivalent translation in Italian
DENOTATION ENGLISH ITALIAN
Tongue: 1 Lingua: 1a
Rick bit into the juicy strawberry and felt the taste explode on his tongue. (WR)
Rick morse una fragola succosa e sentì il suo gusto esplodere sulla sua lingua.
78 Examples not retrieved
79 Examples not retrieved
80 Examples not retrieved
81 Examples not retrieved
82 Examples not retrieved
83 Examples not retrieved
126
Tongue: 2 Lingua: 1b
Patricia served tongue for lunch.(WR)
Patricia servì la lingua per pranzo.
Tongue: 6 At breakfast, he’swearing shoes with enormous tongues, loose-fitting trousers and an oversized shirt. (OD)
A colazione, indossava delle scarpe con delle linguette enormi,dei pantaloni larghi e un’ampiacamicia.
Tongue: 7 He'd built units intongue and groove. (OD)
The tongue of the bell should weight 1/20 the weight of the bell. (OD)
Ha costruito delleunità con la giunzione a maschio e femmina.
Il batacchio dellacampana deve pesare 1/20 del peso della campana.
Tongue: 7 Lingua: 1c
The moment the blade touched it, it flared into flame, sending tongues of fire up the blade. (OD)
The Wakhan, a tongue of land in Afghanistan’s north-east, touches China. (OD)
Il momento in cuila lama lo toccò, scoppiò in fiamme lanciando lingue di fuoco su tutta la lama.
Il Wakhan, una lingua di terra nel nordest dell’Afghanistan,tocca la Cina.
127
b) Metonymy
Table 36 – The metonimic use of the word “tongue” in English and its
equivalent translation in Italian
DENOTATION ENGLISH ITALIAN
Tongue: 3 Lingua: 2a
The drive has to come from the students who choose to speak their native tongue instead ofa language that everyone understands. (OD)
La spinta deve venire dagli studenti che hanno scelto di parlare la loro lingua nativa invece di una lingua che tutti possono capire.
Tongue: 4 Lingua: 2b
We might well have appreciated the importance ofa silver tongue. (SkE)
Avremmo apprezzato bene l'importanza di essere molto eloquenti.
Tongue: 5 Lingua: 2b
Their possessing familiars are sharp-tongued vipers. (SkE)
I suoi familiari sono vipere dallalingua tagliente.
128
“Tongue” used as verb:
Table 37 – The use of the verb “to tongue” in English and its equivalent
translation in Italian
ENGLISH ITALIANABSTRACTCONCEPT
Eugene has worked out the correct tonguing.(OD)
Eugene ha lavorato sul modo corretto di staccare le note.
PLAYING
After the fight, the young man tongued his teethmaking sure they were all still there. (WR)
Dopo il combattimento il giovane si toccò identi con la lingua, accertandosi che fossero ancora tutti lì.
LICK
Sarah found it difficult to concentrate on the film because of the two teenagers tonguing each other in the row in front of her. (WR)
Sarah trovava difficile concentrarsi sul film a causa dei due adolescenti che si baciavano con la lingua nella fila davanti a lei.
KISS
129
“Tongue” used in idioms and phrases:
Table 38 – The use of the word “tongue” in idioms and phrases in English and
its equivalent translation in Italian
ENGLISH ITALIANABSTRACTCONCEPT
What’s the matter? Has the cat got your tongue? (WR)
Lost your tongue? (OD)
Qual è il problema? Il gatto ti ha morsola lingua?
Hai perso la lingua?
KEEP QUIET
Please sir, keep acivil tongue in your head and behave like a gentleman. (OD)
Per favore signore, parli educatamente e si comporti comeun gentiluomo.
POLITENESS
She found very difficult to get her tongue round the unfamiliar words.(OD)
Trovò difficoltà nel pronunciare quelle parole insolite.
EASY ARTICULATION
130
You must hold your tongue and not tell your mother-in-law what you really think of her cooking. (WR)
I had to bite my tongue and accept his explanation. (OD)
Dovresti morderti la lingua e non dire a tua suocera che cosa veramente pensi della sua cucina.
Dovresti frenare la lingua e non dire a tua suocerache cosa veramente pensi della sua cucina
Ho dovuto mordermi la lingua e accettarela sua spiegazione.
Ho dovuto frenare la linguae accettare la sua spiegazione.
KEEP QUIET
One suspects thathe is writing withtongue in cheek. (OD)
Si sospetta che stia scrivendo in modo ironico.
IRONY, DECEIT
I’m going to havea whisky - my tongue’s hanging out. (OD)
Prenderò un whisky, non vedo l’ora.
DESIRE
131
Ace stuck out her tongue at Daak, who was grinning at her. (SkE)
Ace fece la linguaccia a Daak che le stavainvece facendole un gran sorriso.
DERISION
Minor slips of the tongue merely reminded me of the live nature of the performance. (OD)
Le sviste marginali mi ricordano semplicemente lanatura viva dell'esibizione.
Gli errori marginali mi ricordano semplicemente lanatura viva dell'esibizione.
I lapsus marginali mi ricordano semplicemente lanatura viva dell'esibizione.
MISTAKE
It's not a name that exactly trips off the tongue, isit? (OD)
Non è un nome che si pronunciafacilmente, no?
EASY ARTICULATION
132
Having a boyfriend or husband who is young enough to be your son can still raise a few eyebrows and settongues wagging. (SkE)
Avere un fidanzato o un marito che sia giovane abbastanza da sembrare tuo figlio può ancora far alzare il sopracciglio e suscitare pettegolezzi.
RUMOURS
Table 39 – The use of the word “lingua” in idioms and phrases in Italian and
its equivalent translation in English
ITALIAN ENGLISHABSTRACTCONCEPT
Mi prude la lingua! (WR)
I’m itching to say something!
DESIRE
Quest'uomo non ha peli sulla lingua, dice esattamente ciò che pensa. (WR)
That man does not mince words,he says exactly what he thinks.
That man speaks bluntly, he says exactly what he thinks.
FRANKNESS,
SINCERITY,
STRAIGHT_
FORWARDNESS,
FAIRNESS
In che lingua te lo devo dire? (WR)
How else do I have to say it?
INCOMPREHENSION
133
Il giovane San Giuliano riuscì presto a padroneggiare le principali lingue europee che affinò durante alcuni viaggi a Londra e a Vienna. (CP)
The young saint Giuliano quickly succeeded in mastering the major European languages improving its language skills along its journeysto London and Vienna.
IMPROVEMENT
La sua lingua sciolta iniziò a metterlo nei guai immediatamente. (OD)
His glib tongue started to put himinto trouble right away.
SPEAK FREELY,LOQUACITY
Nel frattempo "Er Soffia", per colpa della sua "lingua lunga", viene assassinato dai colombiani. (CP)
In the meantime “Er Soffia” has been murdered by Colombians because of he's agossip.
MISCHIEVOUSNESS
Il suo nome ce l'ho sulla punta della lingua. (OD)
His name's on the tip of my tongue.
LAPSE OF MEMORY
134
E poi, tra le retrovie dell'opinionismo in erba, è nata una nuova linguabiforcuta decisamente brillante. (CP)
And then, behind the scenes of budding critics, a new forked tongue is born, and she's really a sparkling wit.
MISCHIEVOUSNESS
135
3. Automatic retrieval
3.1 Introduction
In order to examine in depth the topic treated, it has been necessary to collect
more information analysing the data retrieved from two main corpora: one for
the Italian language and one for the English one, respectively Paisà
(www.corpusitaliano.it) and the British National Corpus (through
www.sketchengine.co.uk).
Paisà is a corpus that contains a collection of 380000 web Italian texts
approximately. The files included have been selected using two parameters.
The first one consisted in the identification of the url of the files that have to be
downloaded from a search engine (Yahoo!) according to random combinations
of words (about 50000 pairs of words) taken from the Vocabolario di Base
della Lingua Italiana by Tullio De Mauro. The second one consisted in the
collection of files taken from the Italian editions of various web projects of
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia, Wikinews, Wikibooks, Wikiversity,
Wikivoyage). Therefore, all the files collected come from around 1000
different web sites including 250 millions of words roughly. Besides, every
document has been identified through a XML “text” made of one “id”, which is
a unique numeric identifier, and a “url” which reveals the address from which
it has been downloaded84.
This corpus allows us various kinds of research: a “Simple Research”,
which lets the user investigate as it can be done through a general search
engine; an “Advanced Research”, that offers a menu that enables more
advanced investigation; a “CQP Research” (Corpus Query Processor) using the
CQP investigation language; and a research through “Filters” which allows us
84 For an overview of its functioning www.corpusitaliano.it
136
to select texts and create subcorpora.
Finally, results can be downloaded in a .txt file in the form of “KWIC
format”, in which they are shown in different lines with the key words between
angular brackets ( < … > ), “TVS format” in which every result is shown on a
line which is divided into three parts through tab (left context, key word and
right context), and “CoNLL format”, in which results are shown with one word
in each line in CoNLL format.
The kind of research used in this survey has been the “Advanced research”
that allows us to investigate the corpus according to combinations of words,
inflected forms, lemmas, or part of speech (POS). The interface is divided into
three parts (word 1, 2, 3) and two fields (# words) to specify the distance, in
terms of middle words, within words.
Sketch Engine is a search engine which contains corpora of languages
which have an appropriate level of linguistic mark-up, allowing us
investigations such as “Concordance”, that is to say a view of all occurrences
from the corpus of a given language according to a given query including
textual context, or “Word sketches” which are corpus-based summaries of a
word's grammatical collocational behaviour. This web based program includes
the British National Corpus (BNC) as well, which is the one used in this
research.
The BNC85 is a 100 million word collection of samples of written and
spoken language designed to represent a wide section of British English from
the later part of the 20th century, both spoken and written. The documents
collected belong to a wide range of sources: the written part of the corpus,
which is the 90% of it, includes extracts from regional and national
85 www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk
137
newspapers, specialist periodicals and journals for all ages and interests,
academic books, and popular fiction, published and unpublished letters and
memoranda, school and university essays, among many other kinds of text;
while the spoken part which represents the 10 % of the entire corpus, consists
of orthographic transcriptions of unscripted informal conversations (recorded
by volunteers selected from different age, region and social classes in a
demographically balanced way) and spoken language collected in different
contexts ranging from formal business or government meetings to radio shows
and phone callings.
The investigation tool of the BNC I used is the “Concordance” option. Once
inserted the term in the query box, all the occurrences are shown in the KWIC
format, though it is possible to expand the context displaying the entire
sentence in which the selected term is contained. Moreover, other view options
can be chosen to show the tags which identify the parts of speech or
information about the text from which the term has been taken from.
The research consisted in extracting the KWIC files of the occurrences of
the terms denoting some chosen parts of the head in Italian (faccia, viso, volto,
occhio, naso, bocca, dente, lingua) from the Italian language corpus Paisà, and
of those one which denote the same parts of the head in English (face, eye,
nose, mouth, tooth, tongue) from the English language corpus BNC. Once
obtained, the files have been analysed, identification of the figurative usages
(the metaphoric expressions, idioms and sayings including the body part terms
listed above) was carried out manually writing down the number of times they
occurred. After this operation, all the figurative and metaphoric expressions
have been grouped together into metonymic or figurative categories and
finally, an abstract concept has been assigned to each one of the expressions.
Certainly the analysis I carried out and the meaning I associated to
138
figurative expressions cannot be considered a unique interpretation of the data
collected, as the lexicon (the set of the lexemes of a language) constitutes the
more external layer of a language, being the more subject to the conditionings
of extralinguistic factors. Actually, the lexicon is very susceptible to changes
because is always ready to catch the complexity of the world and the enormous
quantity of entities that is made up of.
Furthermore it is important to take into account the semantic relationships
which connect lexemes together according to their meaning. The kind of
semantic relationship which is important not to underestimate in this
investigation is polysemy which identifies the presence of more than one
meaning associated to a single signifiant. Polysemous words consists of one
lexeme with different meanings which are related to one another or derive from
one another. This phenomenon happens because linguistic signs are
characterised by a semantic plasticity according to the use speakers make of
them.
Therefore, the fuzzy borders and the plasticity of the metonymic and
figurative categories and the abstract concepts identified for the expressions
retrieved, determine the fact that they can overlap. Indeed lexical meaning,
especially the one referring to abstract world, position itself in a place where
language, thought and external world meet together, making its inspection
quite ambiguous and indefinite.
139
3.2. Occurrences of the figurative or metaphoric expressions
3.2.1 Paisà (Italian Language Corpus)
Table 40 – Occurrences of figurative expressions of viso, volto, faccia, occhio,
naso, bocca, dente and lingua in Paisà
Figurative or metaphoric expressions
Number of occurrences
VISO:• 4409: total
occurrences;• 294: total
figurative occurrences;
• 10: different figurative occurrences.
A viso aperto 146
A viso scoperto 41
Fare buon viso a cattiva sorte 17
Fare buon viso a cattivo gioco 70
Fare buon viso a qualcuno 2
Fare il viso duro 3
Leggere sul viso 3
Viso a viso 3
Viso lungo 1
Viso pallido 8
VOLTO:• 11765: total
occurrences;• 352: total
figurative occurrences;
• 5: different figurative occurrences.
Cambiare volto 62
Cambiarsi in volto 1
Il volto di 266
Mutare volto 17
Svelare il volto 6
140
FACCIA:• 14947: total
occurrences;• 4172: total
figurative occurrences;
• 46: different figurative occurrences.
(uomo) a due facce 17
Alla faccia di 141
Alla faccia tua! 33
Alla faccia! 12
Avere la faccia di dire o fare qualcosa
3
Cambiare faccia 76
Cancellare / eliminare dalla faccia della terra
51
Chiudere la porta in faccia 28
Dire le cose in faccia a qualcuno 48
Doppia faccia 54
Faccia da funerale 1
Faccia da schiaffi 39
Faccia di bronzo 39
Faccia a faccia 759
Faccia tosta 130
Fare la faccia feroce 4
Gettare in faccia a qualcuno (į favori fatti)
6
Giocarsi la faccia 8
Guardare in faccia la realtà 44
Guardare in faccia la verità 2
Guardare bene in faccia qualcuno 68
L'altra faccia della luna di qualcosa 4
L'altra faccia della medaglia 93
L'altra faccia di qualcosa 192
Le mille facce di (una questione) 1
Leggere in faccia 15
141
Metterci la faccia 166
Mettere į piedi in faccia 2
Non guardare in faccia a nessuno 100
Perdere la faccia 115
Porta in faccia 119
Prendere a / trattare a / lanciare pesci in faccia
40
Prendere a calci in faccia 8
Recuperare la faccia 6
Ridere in faccia a qualcuno 66
Rimetterci la faccia 8
Rischiare la faccia 1
Salvare la faccia 87
Sbattere qualcosa in faccia 83
Schiaffo in faccia 20
Sporcarsi la faccia 2
Torta in faccia 25
Vedere la morte in faccia 10
Viva la faccia! 3
Voltafaccia 3
Voltare la faccia a qualcuno 10
OCCHIO:• 12148: total
occurrences;• 10593: total
figurative occurrences;
• 118: different figurative occurrences.
(far) aprire gli occhi (a) 431
A / ad occhio e croce 46
A /ad occhio 54
A me gli occhi 11
A occhi chiusi 21
A occhio nudo 135
142
A perdita d'occhio 59
A portata d'occhio 4
A quattr'occhi 29
A svista d'occhio 1
A un occhio esperto 57
A vista d'occhio 95
Aguzzare gli occhi 1
Agli occhi dei profani 2
Agli occhi di 2277
Ai propri occhi 980
Anche l'occhio vuole la sua parte 14
Appagare gli occhi 2
Attraverso gli occhi di 189
Avere ancora qualcosa davanti agli occhi
4
Avere buon occhio 2
Avere gli occhi 3
Avere gli occhi foderati 2
Avere gli occhi fuori dalle orbite 9
Avere gli occhi umidi 2
Avere il sangue negli occhi 11
Avere la benda sugli occhi 1
Avere le fette di prosciutto sugli occhi
12
Avere le fette di salame sugli occhi 12
Avere le lacrime agli occhi 11
Avere mille occhi 4
Avere occhi solo per 21
Avere occhio 6
143
Avere sott'occhio 23
Avere un occhio di riguardo per 199
Balzare all'occhio 101
Buttare / gettare fumo negli occhi 110
Buttare un / l'occhio 42
Catturare l'occhio 21
Cavarsi gli occhi 6
Chiudere un occhio 169
Colpo d'occhio 271
Come il fumo negli occhi 22
Come un dito in un occhio 1
Con un occhio a 116
Costare / pagare / spendere un occhiodella testa
10
Costare un occhio 1
Dare nell'occhio 91
Dare un occhio a 55
Davanti agli occhi 425
Davanti ai propri occhi 247
Essere un pugno in un occhio 4
Fare gli occhi dolci a qualcuno 22
Fare l'occhio a 7
Gettare la polvere negli occhi 2
Gettare un occhio 11
Gli occhi del mondo 110
Gradevole agli occhi 1
Guardare con tanto d'occhi 1
Guardare con un occhio diverso 6
Guardarsi negli occhi 22
144
In un batter d'occhio 96
Leggere negli occhi 36
Lontano dagli occhi, lontano dal cuore
2
Luce dei miei occhi 13
Ma dove hai gli occhi? 1
Mangiare con gli occhi 6
Mettere gli occhi addosso 11
Mettere gli occhi su 89
Mi è caduto l'occhio su 16
Nell'occhio del ciclone 91
Non chiudere occhio 34
Non credere ai propri occhi 97
Non perdere d'occhio 23
Non riuscire a tenere gli occhi aperti 5
Occhi bassi 10
Occhio a 29
Occhio benevolo 11
Occhio clinico 8
Occhio critico 29
Occhio! 6
Occhio non vede, cuore non duole 5
Occhio per occhio, dente per dente 52
Occhio per occhio 47
Piacevole agli occhi 5
Posare gli occhi su 4
Prendere di buon occhio 9
Quattro occhi vedono meglio di due 1
145
Rifarsi gli occhi 10
Saltare all'occhio 318
Sbarrare / spalancare /stralunare gli occhi
41
Sfuggire agli occhi 28
Sognare ad occhi aperti 64
Sogno ad occhi aperti 50
Sotto ai propri occhi 254
Sotto gli occhi di 212
Sotto gli occhi di tutti 360
Sotto l'occhio del ciclone 3
Sotto l'occhio di 112
Strabuzzare gli occhi 38
Strizzare l'occhio a 214
Strizzata/strizzatina d'occhio 59
Stropicciarsi / sfregarsi gli occhi 11
Tenere d'occhio 509
Tenere gli occhi aperti 30
Tenere gli occhi su 2
Tenere sott'occhio 87
Trovarsi / essere nell'occhio del ciclone
11
Un occhio di interesse verso 2
Un occhio particolare a 11
Una luce negli occhi 10
Vedere / guardare con la coda dell'occhio
38
Vedere con i propri occhi 175
Vedere con occhi nuovi 23
146
Vedere di buon occhio 533
Vedere di cattivo occhio 26
Vedere di pessimo occhio 1
Volgere / alzare gli occhi al cielo 44
NASO• 3687: total
occurrences;• 799: total
figurative occurrences;
• 34: different figurative occurrences.
Al naso 26
Andare / giudicare a naso / a lume di naso
34
Arricciare il naso 17
Avere buon naso 2
Avere il naso per / in aria 7
Avere la puzza sotto il naso 91
Con un palmo di naso 5
Davanti al naso 12
Far saltare la mosca al naso a qualcuno
2
Fare qualcosa turandosi il naso 30
Farsi i conti sul naso 1
Ficcare il naso in qualcosa 44
Guardare oltre il proprio naso 9
Guardare oltre la punta del proprio naso
2
Menare qualcuno per il naso 9
Mettere fuori il naso 2
Mettere il naso fuori 21
Mettere il naso in qualcosa 40
Mettere naso 2
Montare la mosca al naso 1
147
Naso dell'aereo 4
Naso fino 3
Non vedere a un palmo dal proprio naso
1
Non vedere a una spanna dal naso 1
Non vedere al di là del proprio naso 14
Prendere per il naso 10
Rimanere con un palmo di naso 10
Saltare al naso 3
Sbattere il naso 6
Soffiare qualcosa da sotto il naso 6
Sotto il naso 88
Storcere il naso 312
Tenere il naso fuori da 1
Torcere il naso 4
BOCCA:• 10302: total
occurrences;• 2020: total
figurative occurrences;
• 61: different figurative occurrences.
A bocca aperta 297
A bocca asciutta 12
A caval donato non si guarda in bocca
4
Acqua in bocca! 8
Acquolina in bocca 16
Amaro in bocca 196
Arricciare la bocca 3
Avere il latte alla bocca 5
Avere la bava alla bocca (brama) 7
Avere la bava alla bocca (rabbia) 26
148
Avere la verità in bocca 4
Avere qualcosa / qualcuno in / sulla bocca
7
Bocca amara 5
Bocca cucita 21
Bocca d'oro 3
Bocca da sfamare 18
Bocca impastata 8
Chiudere la bocca 51
Cogliere di bocca 2
Con il sorriso sulla / in bocca 13
Cucire / cucirsi la bocca (a qualcuno) 10
Dar aria alla bocca 14
Dar fiato alla bocca 17
Essere / andare sulla bocca di tutti 74
Essere di bocca buona 22
Essere la bocca della verità 1
Far venire l'acquolina in bocca 17
Fare la bocca a qualcosa 3
Gonfiarsi la bocca con / di 3
La schiuma alla bocca 3
Lasciare il dolce in bocca 5
Lasciarsi sfuggire / scappare di boccaqualcosa
6
Lavarsi la bocca 5
Levare il pane di bocca a qualcuno 1
Mettere bocca in qualcosa 26
Mettere in bocca a qualcuno 7
149
Non aprire bocca 280
Parlare / dire / suggerire / ammettere / rispondere a mezza bocca
24
Passare di bocca in bocca 38
Per bocca di qualcuno 306
Restare / rimanere / lasciare qualcunoa bocca asciutta
54
Restare a bocca aperta 18
Riempire / riempirsi la bocca di /con 150
Rimanere con la bocca chiusa 3
Sciacquarsi la bocca 18
Serrare la bocca a qualcuno 1
Sfamare delle bocche 3
Sorriso a mezza bocca 4
Storcere la bocca 30
Strappare le parole di bocca a qualcuno
3
Sulla / nella bocca di 31
Tappare la bocca 69
Tenere la bocca chiusa 40
Tirar qualcosa fuori dalla bocca di qualcuno
1
Togliere il pane di bocca a 7
Togliere le parole di bocca a qualcuno
14
Togliersi il pane di bocca 2
Tramandare per bocca 1
Troncare la parola in bocca a 2
Un sorriso a tutta bocca 3
150
Venir fuori dalla bocca 1
DENTE:• 6845: total
occurrences; • 672: total
figurative occurrences;
• 29: different figurative occurrences.
A denti asciutti / secchi 1
A denti stretti 95
Aguzzare / arrotare / digrignare i denti
37
Al dente 83
Avere il dente avvelenato contro qualcuno
44
Battere i denti 18
Calcio nei denti 11
Con le unghie e con i denti 37
Dare aria ai denti 6
Dente della discordia 1
Dente per dente 2
Dente sdegnoso 1
Dente superbo 1
Difendere qualcosa con i denti 6
Doversi dare qualcosa sui denti 1
Essere armati fino ai denti 61
Fuori dai denti 20
Levarsi il dente 3
Lottare con i denti 7
Mettere i denti 2
Mettere qualcosa sotto i denti 6
Mostrare i denti 51
Non è pane per i propri denti 3
Occhio per occhio, dente per dente 60
151
Stringere i denti 59
Togliersi un dente 6
Tra i denti 4
Trovare pane per i propri denti 47
Via il dente, via il dolore 1
LINGUA:• 37135: total
occurrences; • 471: total
figurative occurrences;
• 23: different figurative occurrences.
Affinare la lingua 1
Avere la lingua che taglia e cuce 1
Avere la lingua fuori 11
Avere la lingua lunga 13
Avere la lingua penzoloni 4
Avere la lingua sciolta 4
Avere la lingua tagliente 15
Avere la lingua velenosa 2
Avere qualcosa sulla punta della lingua
13
Frenare la lingua 2
La lingua biforcuta 34
Lingua di fuoco 54
Lingua di terra 88
Mala lingua / male lingue 25
Mordersi la lingua 24
Non avere peli sulla lingua 48
Non parlare la stessa lingua 15
Parlare lingue diverse 1
Perdere la lingua 5
Sciogliere la lingua 6
Senza peli sulla lingua 98
152
Tenere a freno la lingua 3
Una lingua bugiarda 4
3.2.2 British National Corpus (English Language Corpus )
Table 41 – Occurrences of figurative expressions of face, eye, nose, mouth,
tooth and tongue in BNC.
Figurative or metaphoric expressions
Number of occurrences
FACE:• 29325: total
occurrences; • 4172: total
figurative occurrences;
• 48: different figurative occurrences.
A slap in the face 35
A straight face 57
A volte face 22
about-face 11
Face to face (with sb) 996
In sb's face 15
In the face of 1489
It's written all over sb's face 19
On the face of it 259
Open face 22
Sb's face doesn't fit 4
Sb's face fits 3
Sb's / sb has face is like thunder 7
Shut your face! 6
The / a face value 31
To be red in the face 39
To blow up in sb's face 15
153
To change the face of sth 70
To do sth till you are blue in the face 28
To fall flat on sb's face 29
To feed your face 7
To fly in the face of sth 78
To get out of sb's face 3
To have an egg on / all over your face
16
To have the face to do sth 3
To kick sb in the face 5
To laugh in sb's face 23
To lit up sb's face 80
To lose face 83
To preserve face 3
To pull / make faces / a face (at sb) 276
To put / wear / pull a long face 42
To put a good face on sth 6
To put on a brave face (on sth) 61
To put on a face 5
To read an expression on / in the face 45
To read sb's face 1
To save sb's face 52
To sb's face 1
To screw up sb's face 77
To set your face against sb / sth 18
To show your face 50
To shut / slam the door in sb's face 20
To take / accept sth at face value 124
154
To throw sth back in sb's face 3
To vanish off the face of the earth 4
To wear faces 1
To wipe off the face of the earth 5
What's his / her face? 6
EYE:• 36148: total
occurrences;• 5171: total
figurative occurrences;
• 89: different figurative occurrences.
(can't) keep sb's eyes off 13
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth 4
An eye for an eye 6
A bird's eye view 26
A sight for sore eyes 8
A twinkle in sb's eyes 45
All eyes and ears 1
All eyes on 6
Another pair of eyes 7
As far as the eye can see 19
Bedroom eyes 1
Before / in front of sb's (very) eyes 349
Black eye 282
Bloodshot eyes 24
Can hardly believe sb's eyes 14
Can't / couldn't believe sb's own eyes 70
Eagle eye 28
Easy on the eyes 13
Evil eye 29
Eye opener 19
For sb's eyes only 10
155
In one's eyes 51
In the blink of an eye 11
In the eyes of 418
In the public eye 136
In the twinkling of an eye 14
My eye! 1
Not (be able to) take your eyes off sb/ sth
144
Not believe your ears and eyes 1
Not to see eye to eye with sb (on sth) 63
One in the eye (for sb /sth) 14
Private eye 158
Red eye 86
Sb's eye are bigger than their bellies 1
The apple of sb's eye 33
The eyes of the law / world 43
The naked eye 145
There's more to sb / sth than meets the eyes
43
Through the eyes of 107
To bat your eye 2
To bawl sb's eyes out 2
To be all eyes 2
To be up to sb's eyes at 1
To blink sb's eye 56
To catch sb's eye 333
To clap / lay / set eyes on sb / sth 157
To close sb's eyes to 34
To cock an eye at 3
156
To feast your eyes on sth 13
To give sb the eye / to make eyes at sb
15
To grab the eye 2
To have a good eye 6
To have a keen eye 52
To have a roving eye 2
To have a sharp eye 61
To have an eye for / on the main chance
4
To have an eye on / half an eye on sth 11
To have eyes in the back of your head
7
To have your eye on sth 1
To have your eyes on sb 9
To hit sb (straight / right) in the eye 24
To howl sb's eyes out 3
To keep a close eye on sth 48
To keep a weather eye on sb / sth 4
To keep an eye on sb / sth 488
To keep an eye out (for sb / sth) 48
To keep your eye on the ball 8
To keep your eyes peeled / skinned 17
To meet sb's eye(s) 319
To only have eyes for / to have eyes only for
23
To please the eye 5
To pull the wool over sb's eyes 17
To roll sb's eyes 145
157
To run / cast an eye / your eyes over sth
22
To sb's eyes 32
To screw up sb's eyes 44
To see sth out of the corner of the eye 46
To see with half an eye 2
To shut / close your eyes to sth 57
To take your eyes off the ball 6
To turn a blind eye to sth 135
Under the (watchful) eye of sb 80
Under the eye of 38
What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over
4
With an eye to / to doing sth 65
With your eyes (wide) open 6
With your eyes shut / closed 107
Without blinking an eye 1
Your mind's eye 161
NOSE:• 4423: total
occurrences;• 586: total
figurative occurrences;
• 30: different figurative occurrences.
by a nose 5
nose to nose with 2
nose to tail 23
on the nose 4
the plane / aircraft's nose 12
to bury sb's nose in sth 5
To cut off your nose to spite your face
3
to follow your nose 16
158
to get up sb's nose 30
to have a nose for 13
to have a nose round 1
to have your nose in sth 6
to hold sb's nose 4
to keep your nose clean 11
to keep your nose out of sth 15
to keep your nose to the grindstone 8
to lead sb by the nose 7
to look down your nose at sb/sth 31
to pay through the nose 17
to poke nose into 17
to powder your nose 18
to put sb's nose out of joint 6
to rub sb's nose in in it 6
to see beyond the end of / sb's nose 4
to stick / poke your nose into 28
to thumb your nose at sb / sth 10
to turn your nose up at sth 17
to wrinkle sb's nose 85
under sb's nose 175
with your nose in the air 7
159
MOUTH:• 9336: total
occurrences;• 734: total
figurative occurrences;
• 31: different figurative occurrences.
A foul mouth 7
A mouth to feed 25
A zip for the mouth 3
By word of mouth 74
From mouth to mouth 8
From the horse's mouth 8
Shut your mouth! 44
To be all mouth 6
To be born with a silver spoon in the mouth
15
To be down in the mouth 11
To blow / shoot sb's mouth off 11
To froth at the mouth 15
To have a big mouth 40
To have foam at the mouth 30
To keep your mouth shut 122
To leave a bad / nasty taste in the mouth
6
To look a gift horse in the mouth 16
To make sb's mouth watering 42
To open sb's mouth 166
To put words into sb's mouth 19
To put your foot in your mouth 7
To put your money where your mouth is
34
To run off at the mouth 1
To speak out of both sides of the mouth
1
To take the bread out of sb's mouth 1
160
To take words right out of sb's mouth 5
To talk / speak out of the side of the mouth
6
To talk from the side of sb's mouth 1
To talk with diarrhoea in sb's mouth 3
Watch your mouth! 6
With one mouth 1
TOOTH:• 5069: total
occurrences;• 887: total
figurative occurrences;
• 29: different figurative occurrences.
A kick in the teeth 13
A tooth for a tooth 10
By the skin of your teeth 18
God's teeth! 9
Hell's teeth! 21
In / into the teeth of sth 64
Lack of teeth 3
Long in the tooth 20
To bare your teeth 91
To be armed to the teeth 9
To be fed up to the back teeth 1
To be sick to the back teeth 7
To cut a tooth 3
To cut your teeth on sth 32
To fight tooth and nail 37
To get the bit between your teeth 14
To get your teeth into sth 36
To give eye teeth for / to do sth 3
To give sb's back teeth to do sth 2
To give teeth to 4
161
To gnash your teeth 28
To grit your teeth 238
To have a sweet tooth 45
To have teeth 17
To kick sb in the teeth 48
To lie through your teeth 11
To set sb's teeth on edge 25
To show sb's teeth 54
To sink sb's teeth into 24
TONGUE:• 2636: total
occurrences;• 482: total
figurative occurrences;
• 33: different figurative occurrences.
A slip of the tongue 28
Cat got your tongue? 6
Devil tongue 1
Forked tongue 18
Lost your tongue? 1
Mind your tongue! 3
On every tongue 1
On the tip of the tongue 29
Sharp tongue 14
Silver tongue 4
Talk in a tongue 5
To bite your tongue 75
To find your tongue 13
To get your tongue around / round sth
13
To give tongue 13
To have a tongue loosened 27
To hold your tongue 46
162
To loosen sb's tongue 19
To set tongues wagging 4
To speak / talk with forked tongues 5
To speak a tongue 30
To speak in tongues 31
To stick out sb's tongue 11
To stick tongue out at sb 5
To talk tongue 2
To tie sb's tongue 4
To trip / roll / slip off the tongue 14
To trust sb's tongue 1
To untie sb's tongue 1
Tongue of flame 12
Tongue of land 3
Watch your tongue 7
With your tongue in your cheek 36
163
3.3 Identification of: figurative or metonymic category and abstract
concepts
3.3.1 Faccia, viso, volto – Face
Table 42 - Figurative or metonymic category: mental or emotional attitude or
behaviour
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS A viso aperto
Frankness, sincerity,
straightforwardness,
fairness
A viso scoperto
Frankness, sincerity,
straightforwardness,
fairness
Avere la faccia di dire o
fare qualcosaInsolence, audacity
Faccia di bronzo Insolence, audacity
Faccia tosta Insolence, audacity
Fare buon viso a cattiva
sorteResignation, acceptance
164
Fare buon viso a cattivo
giocoResignation, acceptance
Fare buon viso a
qualcunoJoy
Fare il viso duro Intransigence, severity
Fare la faccia feroce Intransigence, severity
Non guardare in faccia a
nessunoImpassivity, impartiality
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONS Open face
Frankness, sincerity,
straightforwardness,
fairness
Red in the face Embarrassment
To have the face to do
sthInsolence, audacity
To lit up sb's face Joy
To put on a brave face Intransigence, severity
165
To put on a face Camouflage
To put on a good face
on sthResignation, acceptance
To wear faces Camouflage
Table 43 - Figurative or metonymic category: aspect/aspects of a situation
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSCambiare faccia a Transformation
Cambiare volto a Transformation
Il volto di Outlook
L'altra faccia della luna
di qualcosaOutlook
L'altra faccia della
medagliaOutlook
L'altra faccia di qualcosa Outlook
Le mille facce (di una
situazione)Outlook
166
Mutare il volto Transformation
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSTo change the face of sth Transformation
In the face of Regardlessness
Table 44 - Figurative or metonymic category: person, human being
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS Faccia a facciaConfrontation (to
confront a situation)
Guardare bene in faccia
qualcuno
Frankness, sincerity,
straightforwardness,
fairness
Viso a visoConfrontation (to
confront a situation)
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONS Face to face (with sb)Confrontation (to
confront a situation)
To get out of sb's face Annoyance
To show your face Turn up
167
Table 45 - Figurative or metonymic category: facial expressions
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSCambiare faccia Change in mood
Cambiarsi in volto Change in mood
Faccia da funerale Sadness
Leggere in faccia Clearness of emotions
Leggere sul viso Clearness of emotions
Viso lungo Sadness
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSA straight face Impassivity, impartiality
It's written all over your
faceClearness of emotions
Sb's face / sb has face is
like thunderAnger
To pull / make a face /
faces (at sb)
Insult, offence,
humiliation
To put on/wear/pull a
long faceSadness
To read an expression
in/on the faceClearness of emotions
To read sb's face Clearness of emotions
168
To screw up sb's face Aversion
Table 46 - Figurative or metonymic category: reputation
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSAlla faccia! Contempt
Alla faccia di Contempt
Alla faccia tua! Contempt
Giocarsi la facciaRisk, compromise
yourself
Metterci la facciaRisk, compromise
yourself
Mettere i piedi in facciaInsult, offence,
humiliation
Perdere la faccia Failure
Prendere a calci in facciaInsult, offence,
humiliation
Prendere a pesci in
faccia
Insult, offence,
humiliation
Recuperare la faccia Consideration, charisma
Ridere in faccia a
qualcuno
Insult, offence,
humiliation
169
Rimetterci la facciaRisk, compromise
yourself
Rischiare la facciaRisk, compromise
yourself
Salvare la faccia Consideration, charisma
Schiaffo in facciaInsult, offence,
humiliation
Sporcarsi la facciaRisk, compromise
yourself
Torte in facciaInsult, offence,
humiliation
Viva la faccia! Contempt
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSA slap in the face
Insult, offence,
humiliation
In sb's face! Contempt
To do sth till your are
blue in the faceFailure
To have an egg on/all
over your face
Insult, offence,
humiliation
To kick sb in the faceInsult, offence,
humiliation
To laugh in sb's faceInsult, offence,
humiliation
To lose face Failure
To preserve face Consideration, charisma
170
To save sb's face Consideration, charisma
Table 47 - Figurative or metonymic category: personality, character, essence
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS(uomo) a due facce Insincerity
Doppia faccia Insincerity
Faccia da schiaffi Insolence, audacity
Guardare in faccia la
realtà
Confrontation (to
confront a situation)
Guardare in faccia la
verità
Confrontation (to
confront a situation)
Svelare il volto Revelation
Volta faccia Betrayal
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSTo fly in the face of sth Opposition
To set your face against
sb/sthOpposition
Volte face Betrayal
171
Table 48 - Figurative or metonymic category: awareness
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS Dire le cose in faccia
Frankness, sincerity,
straightforwardness,
fairness
Gettare in faccia a
qualcuno (i favori fatti)
Insult, offence,
humiliation
Sbattere in faccia
Frankness, sincerity,
straightforwardness,
fairness
Vedere la morte in facciaRisk, compromise
yourself
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONS To blow up on sb's face Failure
To fall flat on sb's faceInsult, offence,
humiliation
To sb's face
Frankness, sincerity,
straightforwardness,
fairness
To throw sth back in sb's
faceReproach
172
Table 49 - Figurative or metonymic category: denial of help
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS
Chiudere la porta in
facciaRefusal
Porta in faccia Refusal
Voltare la faccia a
qualcunoBetrayal
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONS
To shut / slam the door
into sb's faceRefusal
Table 50 - Figurative or metonymic category: quality
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSSb's face doesn't fit Proficiency
Sb's face fits Proficiency
Table 51 - Figurative or metonymic category: apparent value
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSOn the face of it Appearance
173
Take/accept sth at face
valueNaivety
The / a face value Appearance
Table 52 - Figurative or metonymic category: earth
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS
Cancellare / eliminare
dalla faccia della terraDestruction
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONS
To wipe off the face of
the earthDestruction
Table 53 - Figurative or metonymic category: mouth
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSShut your face! Keep quiet
Table 54 - Figurative or metonymic category: name
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSWhat's his / her face? Recognition
174
Table 55 - Figurative or metonymic category: to confront
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSTo face the music
Confrontation (to
confront a situation)
Table 56 - Figurative or metonymic category: direction
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSAbout-face Betrayal
175
3.3.2 Occhio – Eye
Table 57 - Figurative or metonymic category: general opinion, point of view
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSA occhio Approximation
A occhio e croce Approximation
Agli occhi dei profani Opinion
Agli occhi di Opinion
Ai propri occhi Opinion
All'occhio di Opinion
Attraverso gli occhi di Opinion
Gli occhi del mondo Opinion
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSAnother pair of eyes Opinion
In sb's eyes Opinion
In the eyes of Opinion
Not to see eye to eye
with sbDisagreement
The eyes of the law /
worldOpinion
176
There's more to sb / sth
than meets the eyesChange of idea
Through the eyes of Opinion
Your mind's eye Opinion
Table 58 - Figurative or metonymic category: personal opinion
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS
Guardare con un occhio
diversoChange of idea
Luce dei miei occhi Propensity
Occhio benevolo Propensity
Occhio clinico Proficiency
Occhio critico Contempt
Prendere di buon occhio Propensity
Vedere con occhi nuovi Change of idea
Vedere di buon occhio Propensity
Vedere di cattivo occhio Contempt
Vedere di pessimo
occhioContempt
ENGLISH The apple of sb's eye Propensity
177
EXPRESSIONS To be one in the eye (for
sb)Disappointment
Table 59 - Figurative or metonymic category: sight, vision
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSA occhio nudo Clear display
A perdita d'occhio Sight
A portata d'occhio Clear display
Avere gli occhi Sight
A vista d'occhio Rapidity
A svista d'occhio Rapidity
Balzare all'occhio Clear display
Non credere ai propri
occhiIncredulity
Saltare all'occhio Clear display
Vedere con i propri occhi Witness
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSAs far as the eye can see Sight
Can hardly believe sb's
eyesIncredulity
Can't / couldn't believe
sb's eyesIncredulity
178
Eagle eye Sight
Easy on the eyes Delight, pleasure
In the public eye Clear display
Not believe your eyes
and earsIncredulity
The naked eye Clear display
To have a good eye Sight
To have a keen eye Sight
To sb's eyes Sight
Table 60 - Figurative or metonymic category: (type of) look
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSA me gli occhi Desire, interest
Aguzzare gli occhi Attention
Avere gli occhi fuori
dalle orbiteAnger
Avere il sangue negli
occhiAnger
Avere mille occhi Attention
179
Avere un occhio di
riguardo perPropensity
Buttare un/l'occhio Desire, interest
Catturare l'occhio Desire, interest
Dare nell'occhio Clear display
Dare un occhio a Desire, interest
Davanti agli occhi Clear display
Davanti ai propri occhi Clear display
Fare gli occhi dolci a
qualcunoDesire, interest
Fare l'occhio a Habit
Gettare un occhio Desire, interest
Guardare con la coda
dell'occhioFurtive look
Guardare con tanto
d'occhiDesire, interest
Leggere negli occhi Revelation
Mi è caduto l'occhio su Clear display
Occhi bassi Shame
180
Occhio a Attention
Occhio! Attention
Sbarrare/spalancare/stral
unare gli occhiAstonishment
Sotto ai propri occhi Clear display
Sotto gli occhi di Clear display
Sotto gli occhi di tutti Clear display
Sotto l'occhio di Control
Strabuzzare gli occhi Astonishment
Tenere gli occhi aperti Attention
Un occhio di interesse
versoDesire, interest
Una luce negli occhi Joy
Volgere gli occhi al cielo Annoyance
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSA bird's eye view Stand point
A twinkle in sb's eye Astonishment
All eyes on Attention
181
Bedroom eyes Desire, interest
Before / in front of sb's
(very) eyesClear display
Bloodshot eyes Anger
Can't keep sb's eyes off Desire, interest
Evil eye Threat
Not (be able to) take
your eyes off sb/sthDesire, interest
To catch sb's eye Desire, interest
To give sb the eye /
make eyes at sbDesire, interest
To grab the eye Desire, interest
To have a roving eye Desire, interest
To have an eye / half an
eye on sthAbsent-minded look
To have eyes in the back
of your headAttention
To hit sb (straight / right)
in the eyeDesire, interest
To keep a weather eye
on sb / sthAttention
To keep your eyes peeled
/ skinnedAttention
182
To meet sb's eyeConfrontation (to
confront a situation)
To roll sb's eyes Annoyance
To run / cast an eye /
your eyes over sthAbsent-minded look
To screw up sb's eyes Incredulity
To see sth out of the
corner of the eyeFurtive look
To see with half an eye Clear display
Under the eye of Control
Under the watchful eye
of sbControl
With your eyes (wide)
openAttention
Table 61 - Figurative or metonymic category: amount of money
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS
Costare / pagare un
occhio della testa Expensiveness
Costare un occhio Expensiveness
183
Table 62 - Figurative or metonymic category: control
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSAvere sott'occhio Control
Non perdere d'occhio Control
Sfuggire agli occhi Control
Tenere d'occhio Control
Tenere gli occhi su Control
Tenere sott'occhio Control
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONS
To keep a close eye on
sthControl
To keep an eye on sb /
sthControl
To keep an eye out (for
sb/sth)Control
Table 63 - Figurative or metonymic category: aesthetic sense
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSAvere occhio Proficiency
Avere buon occhio Proficiency
184
Rifarsi gli occhi Delight, pleasure
Essere un pugno in un
occhioContempt
Essere un dito in un
occhioContempt
Appagare gli occhi Delight, pleasure
Piacevole agli occhi Delight, pleasure
Gradevole agli occhi Delight, pleasure
ENGLISH EXPRESSIONS To feast your eyes on sth Delight, pleasure
To please the eye Delight, pleasure
Table 64 - Figurative or metonymic category: mind, brain
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS
Avere ancora qualcosa
davanti agli occhiMemento
A un occhio esperto Proficiency
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSEye-opener Revelation
To have a sharp eye Proficiency
185
Table 65 - Figurative or metonymic category: awareness
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSA occhi chiusi Trust
Avere gli occhi foderati Blindness
Avere la benda agli occhi Blindness
Avere le fette di
prosciutto sugli occhiBlindness
Avere le fette di salame
sugli occhiBlindness
Buttare / gettare fumo
negli occhiDeceit
Chiudere un occhio Indulgence
Far aprire gli occhi Attention
Fumo negli occhi Contempt
Gettare la polvere negli
occhiDeceit
Ma dove hai gli occhi? Blindness
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSTo close sb's eye to Indulgence
To shut / close your eyes
to sthIndulgence
186
To turn a blind eye to sth Indulgence
With your eyes shut /
closedTrust
Table 66 - Figurative or metonymic category: consciousness
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSSognare ad occhi aperti Illusion
Sogno ad occhi aperti Illusion
Table 67 - Figurative or metonymic category: centre
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSSotto l'occhio del ciclone Hurdle
Trovarsi / essere
nell'occhio del cicloneHurdle
Nell'occhio del ciclone Hurdle
187
Table 68 - Figurative or metonymic category: interest
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSAvere occhi solo per Propensity
Con un occhio a Propensity
Mangiare con gli occhi Desire, interest
Mettere gli occhi
addosso Desire, interest
Mettere gli occhi su Desire, interest
Posare gli occhi su Desire, interest
Un occhio particolare a Propensity
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSAll eyes and ears Attention
For sb's eyes only Propensity
Only have eyes for Propensity
To be all eyes Desire, interest
To clap / lay / set eyes on
sb / sthDesire, interest
To have an eye for / on
the main chanceDesire, interest
188
To have your eye on sb Desire, interest
To have your eyes on sth Desire, interest
With an eye to/to doing
sthDesire, interest
Table 69 - Figurative or metonymic category: human being, person
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSA quattr'occhi
Confrontation (to
confront a situation)
Guardarsi negli occhiConfrontation (to
confront a situation)
Quattro occhi vedono
meglio di dueAttention
Table 70 - Figurative or metonymic category: ear, hearing
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSTo cock an eye at Attention
189
Table 71 - Figurative or metonymic category: hunger
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONS
Sb's eye are bigger than
their bellies Exaggeration
Table 72 - Figurative or metonymic category: eyelid
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSIn un batter d'occhio Rapidity
Non chiudere occhio Insomnia
Non riuscire a tenere gli
occhi apertiSleepiness
Strizzare l'occhio a Propensity
Strizzata/strizzatina
d'occhioPropensity
Stropicciarsi / sfregarsi
gli occhiIncredulity / sleepiness
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSIn the blink of an eye Rapidity
In the twinkling of an
eyeRapidity
To bat your eyes Impassivity
190
To blink sb's eye Astonishment
Without blinking an eye Impassivity
Table 73 - Figurative or metonymic category: concentration
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONS
To take your eyes off the
ball Focus
To keep your eyes off the
ballFocus
Table 74 - Figurative or metonymic category: mood
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSA sight for sore eyes Delight, pleasure
To pull the wool over
sb's eyesDisappointment
191
Table 75 - Figurative or metonymic category: mental or emotional attitude or
behaviour
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSAvere gli occhi umidi Sadness
Avere le lacrime agli
occhiSadness
Table 76 - Figurative or metonymic category: reputation
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSBlack eye Failure
My eye!Astonishment /
disagreement
Table 77 - Figurative or metonymic category: tears
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSTo howl sb's eyes out Despair
To bawl sb's eyes out Despair
192
Table 78 - Figurative or metonymic category: commitment
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSTo be up to one's eyes at Busyness
193
3.3.3 Naso – Nose
Table 79 - Figurative or metonymic category: (type of) look
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSDavanti al naso Clear display
Soffiare qualcosa da
sotto il nasoClear display
Sotto il naso Clear display
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSUnder sb's nose Clear display
To have a nose round Exploration
To look down your nose
at sbArrogance
Table 80 - Figurative or metonymic category: human being, person
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSMettere fuori il naso Egress, outflow
Mettere il naso fuori Egress, outflow
Non vedere a una spanna
dal nasoSightlessness
194
Non vedere a un palmo
dal nasoSightlessness
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSNose to nose with
Confrontation (to
confront a situation)
Table 81 - Figurative or metonymic category: awareness
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSSbattere il naso Clear display
Saltare al naso Clear display
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSTo rub sb's nose in it Reproach
Table 82 - Figurative or metonymic category: intuition
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSAl naso Instinct
Andare / giudicare a
naso/lume di nasoInstinct
Avere buon naso Instinct
Naso fino Instinct
195
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSTo follow your nose Instinct
To have a nose for Instinct
Table 83 - Figurative or metonymic category: opinion, point of view
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS
Guardare oltre il proprio
nasoWisdom
Guardare oltre la punta
del proprio nasoWisdom
Non vedere al di là del
proprio nasoIgnorance
Non vedere a una spanna
dal nasoIgnorance
Non vedere a un palmo
dal nasoIgnorance
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONS
To see beyond the end of
the / sb's noseWisdom
196
Table 84 - Figurative or metonymic category: mental or emotional attitude,
behaviour
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSArricciare il naso Aversion
Avere la puzza sotto il
nasoArrogance
Fare qualcosa turandosi
il nasoReluctance
Rimanere con un palmo
di nasoDisappointment
Storcere il naso Aversion
Torcere il naso Aversion
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSTo hold your nose Aversion
To keep your nose clean Restraint
To thumb your nose at sb
/ sth
Insult, offence,
humiliation
To turn your nose up at
sthAversion
To wrinkle your nose Aversion
With your nose in the air Arrogance
197
Table 85 - Figurative or metonymic category: curiosity, interest
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS
Ficcare il naso in
qualcosaIntrusion
Mettere il naso in
qualcosaIntrusion
Mettere naso Intrusion
Tenere il naso fuori da Respect
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONS
To keep your nose out of
sthRespect
To poke nose into Intrusion
To stick / poke your nose
intoIntrusion
Table 86 - Figurative or metonymic category: patience
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS
Far saltare la mosca al
naso a qualcunoAnger
Montare la mosca al
nasoAnger
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSTo get up sb's nose Anger
198
To put sb's nose out of
jointAnger
Table 87 - Figurative or metonymic category: concentration
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSAvere il naso per / in aria Distraction
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSTo bury your nose in sth Focus
To have your nose in sth Focus
To keep your nose to the
grindstoneFocus
Table 88 - Figurative or metonymic category: value
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSBy a nose Proximity
Nose to tail Proximity
On the nose Precision
To pay through the nose Expensiveness
199
Table 89 - Figurative or metonymic category: reputation
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS
Menare qualcuno per il
nasoDeceit
Prendere per il naso Deceit
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSLead sb by the nose Deceit
Table 90 - Figurative or metonymic category: pocket
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSFarsi i conti sul naso Parsimony
200
3.3.4 Bocca – Mouth
Table 91 - Figurative or metonymic category: act of speaking
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS Acqua in bocca Keep quiet
Avere qualcosa/qualcuno
in/sulla boccaObsession
Bocca cucita Keep quiet
Chiudere la bocca Keep quiet
Cogliere di bocca Revelation
Cucire/cucirsi la bocca Keep quiet
Dar aria alla bocca Prattle
201
Dar fiato alla bocca Prattle
Lasciarsi
sfuggire/scappare di
bocca qualcosa
Revelation
Non aprire bocca Keep quiet
Per bocca di qualcuno Dissemination
Rimanere con la bocca
chiusaKeep quiet
Serrare la bocca a
qualcunoKeep quiet
Strappare le parole di
bocca a qualcunoDifficult acquisition
Tappare la bocca a
qualcunoKeep quiet
Tenere la bocca chiusa Keep quiet
Tirar fuori dalla bocca di
qualcunoDifficult acquisition
202
Togliere le parole di
bocca a qualcunoPre-empt
Tramandare per bocca Dissemination
Troncare le parole in
boccaInterruption
Venir fuori dalla bocca Revelation
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONS A zip for the mouth Keep quiet
By word of mouth Dissemination
Shut your mouth! Keep quiet
To keep your mouth shut Keep quiet
To open sb's mouth Loquacity
To run off at the mouth Loquacity
203
To take words right out
of sb's mouthPre-empt
To talk with diarrhoea in
sb's mouthLoquacity
Table 92 - Figurative or metonymic category: way of speaking
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS Bocca d'oro Wisdom
Gonfiarsi la bocca di/con Vanity
Lavarsi la bocca (prima
di parlare)Politeness
Riempire/riempirsi la
bocca di/conVanity
Sciacquarsi la bocca
(prima di parlare)Politeness
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONS A foul mouth Insolence, audacity
204
To be all mouth Insolence, audacity
To have a big mouth Mischievousness
To shoot/blow sb's
mouth off
Frankness, sincerity,
straightforwardness,
fairness
To speak out of both
sides of the mouthContradiction
Watch your mouth! Warning
Table 93 - Figurative or metonymic category: mental or emotional attitude or
behaviour
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS A bocca aperta Astonishment
A bocca asciutta Disappointment
205
Amaro in bocca Disappointment
Arricciare la bocca Aversion
Avere la bava alla bocca Desire
Avere la bava alla bocca Anger
Avere la verità in bocca
Frankness, sincerity,
straightforwardness,
fairness
Bocca amara Disappointment
Bocca impastata Embarrassment
Con il sorriso sulla bocca Joy
Essere la bocca della
verità
Frankness, sincerity,
straightforwardness,
fairness
La schiuma alla bocca Anger
206
Restare / rimanere /
lasciare qualcuno a
bocca asciutta
Disappointment
Lasciare il dolce in
boccaJoy
Mettere bocca in
qualcosaIntrusion
Mettere in bocca a
qualcunoInstruct, suggest
Parlare / dire /
suggerire / ammettere /
rispondere a mezza
bocca
Reluctance
Restare a bocca aperta Astonishment
Sorriso a mezza bocca Reluctance
Storcere la bocca Aversion
Un sorriso a tutta bocca Joy
207
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONS To be down in the mouth Sadness
To froth at the mouth Anger
To have the foam at the
mouthAnger
To leave a bad/nasty
taste in the mouthDisappointment
To put words into sb's
mouthInstruct, suggest
To put your foot in your
mouthRegret
With one mouth Unanimity
Table 94 - Figurative or metonymic category: interest
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS
Far venire l'acquolina in
boccaDesire
208
Acquolina in bocca Desire
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONS
To make sb's mouth
wateringDesire
Table 95 - Figurative or metonymic category: gossip
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS
Andare sulla bocca di
tuttiRumours
Passare di bocca in
boccaRumours
Sulla bocca di Rumours
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSFrom mouth to mouth Rumours
Table 96 - Figurative or metonymic category: human being, person
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSBocca da sfamare Feed
Sfamare delle bocche Feed
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSA mouth to feed Feed
209
Table 97 - Figurative or metonymic category: needs
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS
Togliere il pane di bocca
a qualcunoDeprivation
Togliersi il pane di bocca Immolation
Levare il pane di bocca a
qualcunoDeprivation
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONS
To take bread out of sb's
mouthDeprivation
Table 98 - Figurative or metonymic category: personality, character
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSEssere di bocca buona Easy to please
Table 99 - Figurative or metonymic category: habit
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSFare la bocca a Routine
210
3.3.5 Dente – Tooth
Table 100 - Figurative or metonymic category: reputation
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSCalcio nei denti
Insult, offence,
humiliation
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSA kick in the teeth
Insult, offence,
humiliation
To kick sb in the teethInsult, offence,
humiliation
Table 101 - Figurative or metonymic category: way of speaking
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS Fuori dai denti
Frankness, sincerity,
straightforwardness,
fairness
Dare aria ai denti Prattle
Dente superbo Arrogance
211
Tra i denti Haziness
Table 102 - Figurative or metonymic category: mental or emotional attitude or
behaviour
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSA denti stretti Reluctance
A denti secchi / asciutti Disappointment
Aguzzare / arrotare /
digrignare i dentiThreat
Avere il dente avvelenato
contro qualcunoAnger
Battere i denti Fear
Dente della discordia Anger
Dente sdegnoso Resentment
Dente superbo Arrogance
Doversi dare il qualcosa
sui dentiKeep quiet
Mostrare i denti Threat
212
Stringere i denti Patience
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSTo bare your teeth Threat
To gnash your teeth Anger
To grit your teeth Threat / Patience
To lie through your teeth Falsehood
To show your teeth Threat
Table 103 - Figurative or metonymic category: personal taste
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSTo have a sweet tooth Greed
Table 104 - Figurative or metonymic category: commitment
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS
Con le unghie e con i
dentiTough defence
Difendere qualcosa con i
dentiTough defence
213
Lottare con i denti Tough defence
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSTo cut your teeth on sth Experience
To fight tooth and nail Tough defence
To give eye teeth for/to
do sthDesire
To give sb's back teeth to
do sthDesire
Table 105 - Figurative or metonymic category: interest
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS
Mettere qualcosa sotto ai
denti Achievement
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONS
To get the bit between
your teethPassionate confrontation
To get your teeth into sth Passionate confrontation
To sink sb's teeth into sth Passionate confrontation
214
Table 106 - Figurative or metonymic category: value
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS
Essere armati fino ai
dentiTough defence
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSTo be armed to the teeth Tough defence
By the skin of your teeth Proximity
Table 107 - Figurative or metonymic category: power
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSLack of teeth Ineffectiveness
To give teeth to Authority
To have teeth Authority
Table 108 - Figurative or metonymic category: burden
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSLavarsi il dente Relief
215
Togliersi il dente Relief
Table 109 - Figurative or metonymic category: personality, character
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS
Non è pane per i tuoi
dentiUnequal confrontation
Trovare pane per i propri
dentiEqual confrontation
Table 110 - Figurative or metonymic category: patience
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONS
To be fed up to the back
teethAnnoyance
To be sick to the back
teethAnnoyance
To set sb's teeth on edge Annoyance
216
Table 111 - Figurative or metonymic category: aspect/aspects of a situation
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSIn/ into the teeth of sth Confrontation
Table 112 - Figurative or metonymic category: age
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSLong in the tooth Oldness
Table 113 - Figurative or metonymic category: curse
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSHell's teeth! Anger
God's teeth! Anger
217
Table 114 - Figurative or metonymic category: cooking
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSAl dente Cooking time
218
3.3.6 Lingua – Tongue
Table 115 - Figurative or metonymic category: language
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSAffinare la lingua Improvement
Table 116 - Figurative or metonymic category: mind
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS
Avere qualcosa sulla
punta della linguaLapse of memory
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSOn the tip of the tongue Lapse of memory
Table 117 - Figurative or metonymic category: act of speaking
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSFrenare la lingua Keep quiet
Mordersi la lingua Keep quiet
219
Perdere la lingua Keep quiet
Tenere a freno la lingua Keep quiet
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSA slip of the tongue Mistake
Cat got your tongue? Keep quiet
Lost your tongue? Keep quiet
To bite your tongue Keep quiet
To find your tongue Speak freely
To hold your tongue Keep quiet
To tie your tongue Keep quiet
Table 118 - Figurative or metonymic category: way of speaking
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSAvere la lingua che
taglia e cuceMischievousness
Avere la lingua lunga Mischievousness
220
Avere la lingua sciolta Speak freely
Avere la lingua tagliente Mischievousness
Avere la lingua velenosa Mischievousness
Lingua biforcuta Mischievousness
Mala lingua / male
lingueMischievousness
Non avere peli sulla
lingua
Frankness, sincerity,
straightforwardness,
fairness
Sciogliere la lingua Speak freely
Senza peli sulla lingua
Frankness, sincerity,
straightforwardness,
fairness
Una lingua bugiarda Mischievousness
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONS Devil tongue Mischievousness
221
Forked tongue Mischievousness
Mind your tongue! Warning
Sharp tongue Mischievousness
Silver tongue Proficiency
Speak / talk with forked
tonguesMischievousness
To have the tongue
loosenedSpeak freely
To loosen sb's tongue Speak freely
To speak a tongue Speak freely
To speak in tongues Speak freely
To talk a tongue Speak freely
222
To talk in a tongue Speak freely
To untie sb's tongue Speak freely
Watch your tongue! Warning
With your tongue in
cheekDeceit
Table 119 - Figurative or metonymic category: opinion
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONSParlare lingue diverse Incomprehension
Non parlare la stessa
linguaIncomprehension
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSTo trust sb's tongue Trust
To give tongue Speak freely
223
Table 120 - Figurative or metonymic category: gossip
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSTo set tongues wagging Rumours
On every tongue Rumours
Table 121 - Figurative or metonymic category: pronunciation
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONS
To trip / roll / slip off the
tongueEasy articulation
To get your tongue round
/ around sthEasy articulation
Table 122 - Figurative or metonymic category: tongue
FIGURATIVE
EXPRESSION
ABSTRACT
CONCEPT
ITALIAN
EXPRESSIONS
Avere la lingua
penzoloniExhaustion
Avere la lingua di fuori Exhaustion
224
ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONSTo stick tongue out at sb Derision
To stick out sb's tongue Derision
225
4. Discussion and conclusion
4.1. Discussion
First of all I would like to specify that the data retrieved are not meant to be
exhaustive, but they should be sufficient for the purpose of the analysis carried
out in this thesis.
Actually, all the abstract concepts determining the field into which the
figurative expression can be positioned, have been identified in order to make
easier the final analysis, which main intent is to identify how much influence
both embodiment and culture specificity have in this kind of uses of the body
part terms.
Developing a cross-cultural analysis between English and Italian it is
possible to notice that in many cases some uses of the terms at hand may be
shared, but in some other cases there could be a variation in the kind of
conceptual metaphor and in the metonymic categories concerning a certain
target, or a variation in the elaboration or in the emphasis of the same concept
as it has been pinpointed by Kövecses86 as well. The four main circumstances
that can occur are the following:
• both languages use the same body part term to conceptualize the same
abstract concept (e.g.: They lost face as the result of the scandal //
Hanno perso la faccia a causa dello scandalo, Table 6, p 61); however,
sometimes the equivalent translation can include the same equivalent
term accompanied with an adjective (e.g.: He had the face to ask me for
more money // Ha avuto la faccia / faccia tosta / faccia di bronzo di
chiedermi ancora soldi, Table 6, p. 60);
• one language uses one body part term to conceptualize a specific
86 Kövecses, Z., 2002, Metaphor: a practical introduction, Oxford University Press, USA.
226
abstract concept, while the other one uses a term identifying another
body part to express the same concept (e.g.: He paid through the nose
for that car, and its nothing but a piece of junk // Quella macchina l'ha
pagata un occhio della testa, e non è nient'altro che un rottame, Table
21, p. 92);
• one language uses one body part term to conceptualize a given abstract
concept, while the other one expresses it with an expression which does
not contain any term referring to any body part (e.g.: Per quanto
riguarda i miei gusti cinematografici, sono di bocca buona // As for my
cinematographic tastes, I'm easy to please, Table 29, p. 113);
• one language uses one body part term to identify an abstract concept,
while the other one uses a term or a verb which is derived from it, or
from another body part to express the same idea (e.g.: I wish you
wouldn't throw that incident back in my face every time we have a
row // Vorrei che non mi rinfacciassi quell'episodio ogni volta che
litighiamo, Table 6, p. 63).
Another fact that has to be highlighted concerns the English body part terms
representing a verb (to face, to eye, to nose, to mouth, to tongue87): they are
often followed by a preposition and define actions that can be done through the
use of or associated with the specific body part they derive from. They do not
have an equivalent in Italian where they can be expressed by verbs into which,
however, sometimes it is easy to identify processes of derivation or
compounding from the given body part. Taking into account body parts, for
instance, the concept of “confrontation” is usually related to the face as it
implies the fact of finding oneself in front of another person or a situation that
has to be taken into consideration and possibly solved: e.g. You have got to
face your problems rendered in Italian as Devi affrontare i tuoi problemi (Table
5, p. 56), into which the verb affrontare means to confront with somebody or
87 English has no verb formed by the term tooth.
227
something. Nevertheless, analysing it, it can be noticed its derivation from
fronte (forehead) which actually is a part of the face itself.
4.1.1. Significant facts
Denotatively speaking, the English term face can be translated in various ways
in Italian (viso, volto, faccia) according to the context in which it should be
used or the aspect the speaker wants to cover.88 In essence, face can define
most of all the shades that exist in Italian using its three equivalent terms89.
Besides it is possible to notice that speakers of both languages use face to
refer to something else than the face itself: the facial expressions on it (e.g. She
did not have a happy face that day. // Non aveva una bella faccia/una bella
espressione/ un bell'aspetto/ un bel viso quel giorno, Table 3, p. 55), the aspect
of a situation (e.g. France began gradually to assume the face of a civil
government. // La Francia iniziò lentamente ad assumere la faccia/volto di un
governo civile. Table 1, p. 53), the surface of something (e.g. the face of the
earth // la faccia della terra.). Going deeper into the analysis of the example
sentences and phrases containing figurative expressions of face and viso, volto
and faccia and the further classification into metonymic or figurative categories
it is possible to observe that this part of our body can also stand for mental or
emotional attitudes or behaviours of somebody, the person itself, but even for
its reputation, its personality and its awareness90. This happens both in English
and Italian, making the two of them really similar in the conception of the face,
which being the part of the human body which best represents somebody is the
one that it is conceived as the most representative for the personality of one
88 For an overview of the denotations of face // viso, volto, faccia: pp. 51 – 52.
89 For an overview of the denotative uses: Tables 1 – 4, pp. 52 – 55.
90 For an overview of the classification: Tables 42 – 56, pp. 164 – 175.
228
person.
Another interesting fact that has to be taken into consideration is the group
of abstract concepts to which figurative phrases containing face and viso, volto,
faccia refers to in both languages. The following concepts are the ones which
appear the most within the data collected showing that they all presuppose an
encounter, or a meeting between one person and another, or one person and a
fact, making the face to stand for the whole person and its characteristics :
• confrontation: to deal directly with something or someone, which is
expressed even by the English verb to face (e.g. faccia a faccia // face
to face, Table 44, p. 167);
• frankness: to be honest (e.g. a viso aperto // open face, Table 42, pp.
164 – 165);
• insolence: to be rude (e.g. avere la faccia di dire qualcosa // to have the
face to say something, Table 42, pp. 164 – 165);
• insult: to humiliate somebody (e.g. ridere in faccia a qualcuno // to
laugh in somebody's face, Table 46, pp. 169 – 170).
Among the discrepancies between the two language it is worth to mention
the fact that English speakers use face even to talk about the professional
qualities of a person (e.g. somebody's face fits which means that a person is
suitable for a given job) or even the value of something (e.g. the face value).
While in Italian there can be noticed within the figurative examples an idiom
which expresses acceptance and resignation that in English can only be
paraphrased non–idiomatically: fare buon viso a cattivo gioco (Table 7, p. 67)
which means to bear a situation and make the best of it.
Regarding the shift in the body part used for the same idiomatic phrase there
is evidence in Table 7 (p. 67) where in Italian we have alla faccia di chi mi
vuole male that in English is rendered using the term denoting the teeth.
229
The second body part taken into account in this analysis is the organ of the
sight. The term denoting it, eye in English and occhio in Italian, is used to
denote also round-shaped objects or the centre of something both in English
and Italian (e.g. the eye of the hurricane // l'occhio del ciclone), apart from the
fact that sometimes one language use a specific term for what the other denotes
just as eye or occhio (Tables 8 – 11, pp. 70 - 75).
An important consideration at this point of the analysis is the fact that
among all the figurative examples retrieved, the ones including eye and its
Italian correlative occhio are the most numerous in both languages.
English and Italian speakers employ this body part terms especially in lieu
of words that stand for a general or a personal opinion or point of view (e.g.
agli occhi di // in the eyes of which means according to somebody's opinion,
Table 57, p. 176), the sight (e.g. He has an exceptional eye, he can read the
smallest print. // Ha un occhio/vista eccezionale, riesce a leggere i caratteri
piccolissimi., Table 10, p. 73), the look in all its shades (e.g. avere il sangue
negli occhi // bloodshot eyes which significance is a furious look, Table 60, pp.
179 - 182), the control over something (e.g. When cooking soufflés, you need to
keep an eye on them so they don't fall. // Quando cuoci un soufflé, devi tenerlo
d'occhio affinchè non sgonfi., Table 14, p. 79), the personal awareness (e.g.
Chiudere un occhio // to shut/close your eyes to meaning to pretend not to see,
understand something, being indulgent, Table 65, p. 186), the interest in
something (e.g. to clap/set/lay eyes on something/somebody // mettere gli occhi
su that is to say to show interest towards someone or something, Table 68, p.
188) and the eyelid (e.g. in the blink of an eye // in un batter d'occhio meaning
extremely quickly, Table 72, p. 190). Amid the metonymic and figurative uses
of eye it is worth to notice that there are several Italian expressions in which
occhio stands for the aesthetic sense, which is find in English just in to feast
230
sb's eyes on (to please the eye)91.
Besides, within the data collected is present a section regarding metaphoric
uses of eye in English that does not find correlatives with occhio in Italian. It
displays how this term is used to target holes (e.g. the eye of the bolt),
reputation (e.g. black eye), the centre of something (e.g. the bull's eye), the
spotlight (e.g. the public eye), a specific kind of flight (e.g. the red- eye) and
the private investigator (e.g. the private eye), as it is shown in Table 12, pp. 75
– 76.
As for the abstract concepts eye and occhio are associated with in the
figurative expressions they appear in, it can be noticed that the more recalled
ones in both languages are the following:
• opinion: somebody's point of view;
• propensity: the preference towards something or somebody;
• delight: a great pleasure or satisfaction;
• desire: the craving for something or someone;
• attention: the alertness;
• control: somebody's power over something or someone;
• a clear display: a crystal manifestation of something.
The list above shows how they are all linked to a person's standpoint and to the
perception of something that appears right in front of somebody.
Certainly there are some asymmetries in which various English figurative
phrases are not given with and Italian expression containing occhio: among all
there is to see eye to eye with somebody which means to agree with somebody
upon something, or to grab the eye meaning to catch somebody's attention
which in Italian are simply paraphrased (Table 14, pp 78 – 79). Nonetheless the
91 For an overview of the classification: Tables 57 – 78, pp. 176 – 193.
231
contrary occurs as well as it can be observed in one of the Italian illustrating
sentence Carl però non vede di buon occhio la neonata amicizia tra Molly e
Dupree rendered in English with a non – idiomatic phrase (Table 15, p. 83).
Many symmetries are present (e.g. to see out of the corner of somebody's
eye // vedere con la coda dell'occhio, Table 14, p. 79), while for what it
concerns the use of another body part instead of eye, it is possible to observe
just one expression among the data retrieved (Table 14, p. 80): in the twinkling
of an eye which in Italian is given using occhio, but even ciglia (eyelashes). It
is not a complete shift of body part, but quite a metonymic usage of it.
Scanning the parts of the head, we can find the nose in English right in the
middle of it. In both languages, nose and naso denote not only the body part,
but also the sense of smell, somebody's intuition and protrusive objects as it
looks like the nose on our face. However there are specific denotations as well
which are different in the two languages (Tables 16 – 18, pp. 87 – 89).
With reference to the metaphoric uses of this term, in English it is possible
to recognize a connection with protruding articles which in Italian are rather
called with a specific vocable (e.g. the nose of the yacht // the nose of the pliers
// the nose of the saddle, Table 19, p. 89).
According to the little corpus of the data assembled in this research, one can
remarks that the terms nose and naso are frequently employed in figurative
expressions to symbolize a mental or emotional attitude or behaviour.
Notwithstanding, other common usages of them can easily be identified in the
intuition, somebody's point of view, awareness, curiosity, patience, and the
kind of look92.
92 For an overview of the classification: Tables 79 – 90, pp. 194 – 200.
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Furthermore, what stands out from the information collected are the kind of
abstract concepts into which figurative phrases that include the terms nose and
naso map. Add to the conceptualization of a clear display (e.g. under
somebody's nose // davanti al naso, Table 79, p. 194) and the instinct (e.g.
follow your nose // andare a naso, Table 82, pp. 195 – 196), negative concepts
appear to be the most recurring ones:
• aversion: a strong feeling of repugnance towards something or someone
(e.g. He turned his nose up at the job. // Storse il naso a quel lavoro.,
Table 21, p. 92);
• anger: a strong feeling of displeasure towards something or someone
(e.g. Appena glielo ho detto, gli è saltata la mosca al naso. // As soon
as I told him, it got up his nose, Table 22, p. 96);
• intrusion: the act of going in or interfering without being wanted (e.g.
ficcare il naso in qualcosa // to poke/stick your nose into something,
Table 85, p. 198).
A meaningful fact that occurs more frequently between English and Italian
and that differentiate the terms nose and naso from the ones denoting the other
body parts of the head is the shift in the body part used in figurative
expressions as it can be noticed in table 21 (pp. 91 – 95): in the phrases in
which English uses nose, Italian uses testa (head), piede (foot), pelo (body
hair), and even occhiata (look) which is not related to the nose, yet it is an
action of the eye.
Denoting mouth both in English and Italian it is clear that it can indicate the
the body part itself, an entrance or opening as well, but also the place where the
river enters the sea or the ocean and the person who needs food. A noticeable
fact is the case in which the English mouth can denote even the way of
speaking (e.g. a foul mouth meaning to speak in an indecent way)93.
93 For an overview of the denotative uses of mouth: Tables 23 – 26, pp. 100 – 104.
233
Mouth main uses in English figurative expressions refer to one of its
fundamental functions, which is the one of talking, including the act itself of
keeping quiet or talk too much, but the way of of speaking as well, without
underestimate its employ to stand for the mental or emotional attitude or
behaviour expressing all the various emotions and feelings. Its Italian
counterpart term, bocca, behaves the same way94.
On the subject of noncroncrete concepts English and Italian use mouth and
bocca in metaphoric phrases which particularly convey emotions and feelings
people usually express through the act of speaking or the facial expression
which include some kind of movement of the body part concerned (the mouth).
Evidence is shown by the data into which the following concepts have been
recognized:
• in English one can find insolence, audacity (e.g. to be all mouth),
mischievousness (e.g. to have a big mouth), sadness (e.g. to be down in
the mouth) and regret (e.g. to put your foot in your mouth);
• in Italian it is possible to observe aversion (e.g. storcere la bocca),
embarrassment (e.g. avere la bocca impastata) and joy (e.g. con il
sorriso sulla bocca);
• in both languages the speakers conceptualize frankness, sincerity,
straightforwardness, fairness (e.g. avere la verità in bocca),
astonishment (e.g. restare a bocca aperta), disappointment (e.g. to
leave a bad/nasty taste in the mouth), anger (e.g. to froth at the mouth),
desire (e.g. to make somebody's mouth watering), reluctance (e.g.
sorriso a mezza bocca).
Nevertheless it is undeniable how the metaphoric expressions with mouth or
bocca reflect the act of speaking concerning the fact of keeping quiet (e.g. to
keep your mouth shut // tenere la bocca chiusa, Table 91, pp. 202 - 203) or
94 For an overview of the classification: Tables 91 – 99, pp. 201 – 210.
234
being talkative (e.g. to open somebody's mouth // aprire bocca, Table 91, p.
203).
A salient fact that I have observed within the data is that when English
speakers uses mouth, Italian speakers tend to use lingua (tongue), while when
Italian people use bocca, English people use lips just as it should be pinpointed
in the following examples: e.g. to have a big mouth // avere la lingua lunga;
Watch your mouth! // Tieni a freno la lingua!; Acqua in bocca! // Lips sealed!;
essere sulla bocca di tutti // to be on everyone's lips (Tables 28 – 29, pp, 105 –
114).
Apropos of the denotative uses of tooth, a similarity between English and
Italian may be found as in both languages the terms tooth and dente designate
pointed items belonging to bigger objects such as gears or disparate tools (for
instance: a saw or a comb). Nonetheless in Italian it is used to denote various
items that in English has a own name, different from tooth (Tables 30 – 31, pp.
116 – 117).
Concerning the terms referring to the teeth in English, tooth/teeth and
dente/denti in Italian, they are almost entirely used in figurative expressions to
mean commitment (e.g. I'll fight tooth and nail to make a name for myself as
an actor. // Lotterò con le unghie e con i denti pur di diventare un attore
famoso.) or the mental or emotional attitude (e.g. Gli altri si indignano e
mostrano i denti. // the other people get angry and show their teeth., Tables 33
– 34, pp. 117 - 124). Anyway there can be distinguished other metonymic
categories that define its usage in metaphoric phrases95.
An important fact concerning the term tooth regards the fact that, among all
the body parts in hand, it is the only one that in English is not used as a verb
95 For an overview of the classification: Tables 100 – 114, pp. 211 – 218.
235
(*to tooth).
Taking into account the common metonymic categories in which tooth and
dente are classified, it is possible to notice how in all the phrases indicating an
attitude, the majority of the abstract concepts involved are negative emotions as
it happened for nose and naso (Table 102, pp. 212 – 213):
• in Italian there exist some concepts which are not given in English with
phrases containing tooth: disappointment (e.g. a denti asciutti),
resentment (e.g. dente sdegnoso), arrogance (e.g. dente superbo);
• the English conceptualization of falsehood (e.g. to lie through your
teeth) has not got an Italian equivalent including dente;
• both languages use tooth and dente figuratively to conceptualize
reluctance (e,g, a denti stretti), threat (e.g. to bear your teeth), anger
(e.g. to gnash your teeth) and fear (e.g. battere i denti).
Making a comparison between the English and Italian in the figurative
usage of tooth and dente it can also be observed that the locutions into which
these two terms are the translations of one another (e.g. “No” dissi ancora,
digrignando i denti. // “No” I said again, gritting my teeth.) are fewer than the
ones into which in the other language are translated as a paraphrase (e.g. to be
fed up to the back teeth // essere stufo marcio). Notwithstanding phrases with a
variation of the body part used can be observed: we have ossa (bones) and pelo
(body hair) used in Italian when in English tooth is employed; and lip in
English is used in lieu of the Italian dente (Tables 33 – 34, pp. 117 - 124).
Latterly there is the body part term tongue, and its correlative Italian term,
lingua which denote not only the soft and movable part in the mouth, but also
the language, the type of language and tongue shaped objects (e.g. tongue of
land // lingua di terra, Tables 35 – 36, pp. 126 - 128).
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Investigating the collection of data it is clear how in the majority of
metaphoric uses this body part interested in this analysis stands for one of the
main action it accomplishes: the act and the way of speaking in both English
and Italian revealing a parallel with its container (mouth and bocca).96
Consequently the indefinite concepts that arises from the figurative uses of
tongue and lingua may be separated into two groups:
• the first group is characterized by two opposites concepts: on the one
hand there is loquacity (e.g. to untie somebody's tongue, Table 118, p.
223) while on the other hand we find silence, in other words the intent
of keeping quiet (e.g. I had to bite my tongue and accept his
explanation. // Ho dovuto mordermi/frenare la lingua e accettare la sua
spiegazione, Table 38, p. 131);
• the second group is constituted by concepts referring to attitudes
speaker adopt when speaking: freedom of talk (e.g. La sua lingua
sciolta iniziò a metterlo nei guai immediatamente. // His loosened
tongue started to put him into trouble right away., Table 39, p. 134) and
mischievousness (e.g. to speak/talk with forked tongues // avere la
lingua biforcuta); we also have frankness conceptualized in Italian (e.g.
essere senza peli sulla lingua), and the English speakers's conception of
deceit (e.g. to speak with tongue in cheek) and warning (e.g. Watch
your tongue!, Table 118, pp. 222 – 223).
Among the exemplary sentences collected I could not find any evidence for
the use of another body part in lieu of tongue or lingua in the two languages,
but I could notice parallelisms (e.g. Lost your tongue? // Hai perso la lingua?)
and differences (e.g. to keep a civil tongue // parlare educatamente; Mi prude
la lingua! // I'm itching to say something!) in the translation of the figurative
expressions as it can be realized inspecting tables 38 and 39 (pp. 130 – 135).
96 For an overview of the classification: Tables 115 – 122, pp. 219 – 225.
237
Furthermore, I have decided to collect the number of all the occurrences of
the figurative uses of the body part terms in corpora supposing to evaluate
whether some words could have been used in more figurative expressions than
others, and if this statistics could have shown differences or equivalences in the
two languages compared (Tables 40 – 41, pp. 140 – 162).
With respect to face, the figurative expressions constitute the 14% out of all
the occurrences in the BNC corpus (29325); while considering the Italian
equivalents it has been calculated that the metaphorical uses are the 6% out of
the 4409 occurrences of viso, the 2% out of the 11765 occurrences of volto and
the 17% out of the 14947 occurrences of faccia. As to eye, the figurative
expressions are the 14% out of the 36148 occurrences, while the ones
containing occhio are the 87% out of the 12148 total instances of it in Paisà.
Regarding nose, we have 13% of metaphoric phrases out of the 4423
occurrences of this term and 21% out of the 3687 examples of naso are
represented by its figurative uses. With regard to mouth the percentage of
figurative expressions is the 7% out of the 9336 total occurrences and the 19%
out of the 10302 cases including bocca for its Italian equivalent. Then we have
17% of figurative examples including the term tooth within 5069 total
occurrences of it, which needs to be compared with the 9% out of a total
instances of 6845 for the Italian dente. Finally the term tongue, in its figurative
use, represents the 18% out of a total amount of 2636 occurrences of it, far
from the 1% out of the total occurrences (37135) of its Italian correlative
lingua97.
Taking into account the fact that the total number of occurrences of the
single terms are different and comparing English with Italian, the most
outstanding information is the number of the figurative occurrences of occhio
97 For an overview of the total number of occurrences: Table 40 (pp. 140 - 153) and Table 41(pp. 153 - 163)
238
which constitute the 87% of the total exemplary sentences of the term in the
Italian corpus. Though the whole (12148 occurrences) is not as copious as for
other body part terms, such as lingua (37135 occurrences), or eye (36148
occurrences), its metaphoric uses represent almost the total of the occurrences
of occhio. On the contrary, the lower number of metaphoric phrases retrieved
concerns the term lingua being just the 1% of the entire subcorpus containing
lingua.
Besides, counting all the different figurative occurrences of the various
words analysed, it can be easily observed that eye in English and occhio in
Italian count the most numerous ones which are respectively 89 and 118. While
as for the metaphoric uses of the other terms, they are almost similar in the two
languages apart from bocca, which counts double the amount of the figurative
occurrences of mouth.
In my opinion, another paramount fact in order to draw my own conclusion
is the one of gathering together all the abstract concepts identified into groups
to try to understand which one English and Italian speakers regularly link to
their concrete body parts:
• EMOTION: anger, astonishment, clearness of emotions, delight,
pleasure, embarrassment, facial expression, fear, incredulity, joy,
sadness;
• FEELINGS: despair, disappointment, exhaustion, regret, relief,
reluctance, resentment;
• ATTITUDE: annoyance, arrogance, attention, aversion, betrayal,
change in mood, change of direction, change of idea, contempt,
contradiction, control, deceit, derision, desire, interest, disagreement,
falsehood, frankness, sincerity, straightforwardness, fairness, greed,
impassivity, impartiality, indulgence, insincerity, insolence, audacity,
instruct, suggest, insult, offence, humiliation, intransigence, severity,
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intrusion, manage, mischievousness, naivety, parsimony, patience,
politeness, pre-empt, propensity, preference, refusal, regardlessness,
reproach, resignation, acceptance, respect, restraint, risk, compromise
yourself, sacrifice, self damaging, threat, trust, truth, vanity;
• PERSONALITY: aspect, authority, consideration, charisma, easy to
please, ignorance, wisdom;
• CONFRONTATION: confrontation, equal confrontation, opposition,
passionate confrontation, tough defence, unequal confrontation;
• LOOK: absent-mind look, blindness, foresight, furtive look, sight,
standpoint, witness;
• ACT OF SPEAKING: easy articulation, keep quiet, loquacity, prattle,
speak freely;
• AWARENESS: clear display, appearance, disappearance,
incomprehension, recognition, revelation, memento, illusion, haziness,
difficult acquisition, turn up;
• PROFESSIONALISM: proficiency; improvement; focus; experience;
achievement;
• MEASURE: approximation, precision, proximity, rapidity;
• CHANGE: camouflage, destruction, reanimation, transformation.
The previous grouping shows some correlation within all the data collected
making all the abstract concepts belonging especially to few major groups
(emotions, feelings, attitudes or behaviour) giving rise to some observations
that can be useful in this kind of research and that I am going to develop in the
conclusive part.
4.2. Conclusion
Actually, it is known that in most languages of the world, body part words
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appear in expressions denoting emotions98. This happens because emotions
involve corporal bodily reactions to them, making emotions themselves
cognitive states with bodily consequences. Emotions trigger intentional and
non-intentional behaviours involving the body, such as postures, facial
expressions and speech which are our main hints to identify somebody's
emotions. This involvement of the emotions has been proved even into the
work of Ponsonnet (2014) who analysed figurative and non figurative body
part terms in the Dalabon language which is spoken in the Northern of
Australia99. Then the fact that body parts terms are so widespread in the
descriptions of emotional behaviours as it can be observed in the majority of
the metaphoric phrases retrieved in this research into which body parts are used
figuratively may have something to do with the primacy of bodily experience.
This extensive use of body part terms in the description of emotions might
even depend on the fact that these mental reactions may be considered
universal bodily responses of human beings to a given situation, irrespective of
the culture one belongs to as it is shown in the study of Ekman et al. (1969)100.
This remark recalls also what Lakoff and Johnson affirmed: “our
conceptualization of entities in more abstract domains is based on more
concrete concepts which are more clearly delineated in our experience”101.
As a matter of fact, body part terms seems to fit for the purpose of being a
98 Wierzbicka, A., 1999, Emotions across languages and cultures: diversity and universals, Cambrige University Press, Cambrige.
99 Ponsonnet, M., 2014, Figurative and non-figurative use of body-part words in descriptions of emotions in Dalabon (Northern Australia), International Journal of Language and Culture, John Benjamins Publishing, 1, pp. 98 – 120, Camberra.
100Ekman, P., Sorenson, E. R., Friesen, W. V., 1969, Pan-cultural elements in facial display of emotions, Science 164, pp. 86 – 88.
101Lakoff, G., Johnson, M., 1980, Metaphors we live by, University of Chicago Press,Chicago.
241
structural model to conceive and describe abstract concepts, helping to
facilitate communication and make it succeed. Indeed emotions, feelings and
attitudes are abstract concepts that may result difficult to understand, then
speakers internalize them and speak about them because they have associate to
them a common concrete part of the body that actually performs the reaction
people usually have when feeling a given emotion, or feeling.
According to what has been observed in the previous section, it seems that
the face, the eyes, the mouth and the tongue are mostly involved in the
conceptualization of emotions, feelings and attitudes that derive from direct
bodily experiences of them:
• the figurative expressions including face and its Italian equivalents
derive from a corporal experience of really finding yourself with the
face positioned right in front of the other person when a confrontation
of any kind takes place, then transposed even to the expressions into
which a person needs to deal with a situation;
• as for eye/occhio, metaphoric phrases which make use of this body part
term recall the concepts that I mentioned before which all involve the
kind of look one physically adopts when experiencing a given emotion
or feeling or wants to behave in some specific way;
• regarding the figurative expressions which are composed using
mouth/bocca and tongue/lingua, they implicate the conception of
concepts which are related to speech (the act of speaking and the way
of speaking) into which these two body parts are actually physically
involved.
Concerning the use of body part terms denoting the nose/naso and the
tooth/dente in metaphoric phrases, they express concepts which derive from a
bodily experience to a lesser extent compared with the above body parts.
Indeed the figurative expressions retrieved for them are less compared to the
242
others. The only examples we can find are the following: there is the nose that
wrinkles when a person perceives disgust or aversion towards somebody or
something; while teeth can be clenched showing reluctance, or one can bares
his teeth, or grit them to threaten somebody, or else chatter them when a person
is frightened. As for the the other concepts they conceptualize in figurative
expressions, they are not related to a specific physical experience, though they
especially express negative emotions and attitudes.
In this research I have examined figurative uses of body part terms,
specifically the face, the eye, the nose, the mouth , the tooth and the tongue, in
English and Italian in order to find out whether the conceptual metaphors
identified may be found in both languages and whether the motivation could be
related to the concept of the embodiment or to a culture-specifity fact.
Taking account of the evidences and considerations I have made, I suppose
that behind the observed figurative uses of the body parts at hand there could
be a universal reason which derives from universal aspects of the human body.
The two cultures seems to share physiological processes: among all, there are
the act of performing an attentive look in order to keep something or somebody
under someone's control (e.g. to keep an eye on something/somebody // tenere
d'occhio qualcosa/qualcuno) or the fact of frothing at the mouth when
someone is furious (e.g. to have foam at the mouth // avere la bava alla bocca).
Basically, in my opinion, it is through the interaction between the human
body and the environment that people make sense of what they perceive, with
which they conceive and this fact presupposes what the embodied theory of
meaning by Johnson102 states: a mind and body continuity which positions this
interaction between bodies and environment as its central tenet.
102Johnson, M., 2008, The meaning of the body. Aesthetics of Human Understanding, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London.
243
Nonetheless, it is necessary to take into account the cultural variation that
could influence the creation of conceptual metaphors, a divergence that cold
occur cross culturally, but it could be even an intracultural one as Kovecses103
claims. However, in this research the two cultures compared are really similar
in the creation of body part metaphors as it is shown in the data collected.
Thus, it should be necessary to compare them with cultures which are not
related to them in order to identify metaphors that may derive from cultural
variation, if they are present. The reason why this is a significant investigation
to carry out is the fact that bodily experiences and cultural experiences may
determine the extent to which conceptual metaphors can be considered
universal, widespread or culture-specific as Yu104 point out in its paper on
courage associated with gallbladder in Chinese culture.
To my mind, even if the embodiment motivation behind the high number of
body part figurative expressions analysed in this research is the predominant
one, the comparison between these two cultures is too limited to draw a
definitive conclusion. Further research on the cultural filters that may define
the meaning of the metaphoric uses of the body parts investigated are
necessary.
103Kövecses, Z., 2002, Metaphor: a practical introduction, Oxford University Press, USA.
104Yu, N., 2003, Metaphor, body, and culture: the Chinese understanding of Gallbladder and courage, Metaphor and symbol, 18:1, 13- 31.
244
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