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Toward universal semantic categories for human body space

Toward universal semantic categories for human body space A little-used manner of investigating lexical universals is explored with special reference to the domain of human body space. The investigation is supported by data obtained from verb-noun collocations in the field of dress in Japanese, Tswana, and Yoruba, as well as from under extension of the superordinate category clothes by English-speaking children and description of events of dress by Japanese-speaking children. Each of these sources establishes equivalence relations among clothing exemplars. Careful examination of the resulting categories reveals the existence of an extremely similar semantic organization of body space, with the controlling factor appearing to be where a given clothing exemplar is normally worn. In particular, the spatial area of the torso receives prominence, requiring the unmarked verb of dress and specifying where exemplars of the category clothes for English-speaking children are worn. And the complementary extremity area breaks down into three potential categories, for which a topdown principle, favoring the head over the feet, appears to guide their emergence across languages and within child development. 1.0. Introduction Language universals have assumed a distinct role in the investigation of linguistic behavior, as evidenced by the recent publication of Comrie (1981). In his succinct presentation, two major contemporary http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Linguistics - An Interdisciplinary Journal of the Language Sciences de Gruyter

Toward universal semantic categories for human body space

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Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 Walter de Gruyter
ISSN
0024-3949
eISSN
1613-396X
DOI
10.1515/ling.1985.23.3.391
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

A little-used manner of investigating lexical universals is explored with special reference to the domain of human body space. The investigation is supported by data obtained from verb-noun collocations in the field of dress in Japanese, Tswana, and Yoruba, as well as from under extension of the superordinate category clothes by English-speaking children and description of events of dress by Japanese-speaking children. Each of these sources establishes equivalence relations among clothing exemplars. Careful examination of the resulting categories reveals the existence of an extremely similar semantic organization of body space, with the controlling factor appearing to be where a given clothing exemplar is normally worn. In particular, the spatial area of the torso receives prominence, requiring the unmarked verb of dress and specifying where exemplars of the category clothes for English-speaking children are worn. And the complementary extremity area breaks down into three potential categories, for which a topdown principle, favoring the head over the feet, appears to guide their emergence across languages and within child development. 1.0. Introduction Language universals have assumed a distinct role in the investigation of linguistic behavior, as evidenced by the recent publication of Comrie (1981). In his succinct presentation, two major contemporary

Journal

Linguistics - An Interdisciplinary Journal of the Language Sciences – de Gruyter

Published: Jan 1, 1985

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