Cross-linguistic Analysis of Body Part Metaphor Conceptualization from a Cognitive Semiosis Perspective

Abstract

In accordance with Lakovian cognitive linguistics in metaphoric analysis, this paper aims to  explore the human cognitive capacity of metaphoric conceptualization of body parts. A contrastive  analysis on the cognitive features of metaphorical expressions utilizing various body parts  pertaining to the "˜head' domain, e.g., face and tongue in the English and Farsi languages is carried out. After a cross-linguistic comparison of metaphors in both languages, five main linguistic  categories emerge. Similarities and differences of metaphor construction, mappings and  mechanisms in both languages used to convey common concepts are highlighted using these  categories. While corroborating Lakoff's approach whereby metaphors constitute an inherent part of language itself, it is shown that there is a universal cognitive grid from which different languages  externalize the world differently through semiosis. Therefore, the main aim is to show how  language invariance and variation may be explained within a cognitive framework. These  universals are due to cognitive constraints, whereas languages owe their variation to the options they have out of the cognitively available pool. They are limited to their selections which are  restrained by cultural and perhaps religious factors of semiotic mechanisms which are cognitively  accessible to them.