Usage of Body Part Terminology

The human body serves as a conceptual template for much of our understanding about the outside world. As an example, the main types of numeral systems, decimal & quinary, are developed from the number of fingers on each hand. The transfer of body part terminology follows these basic principles:...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Language and linguistics (Taipei) 2007-07, Vol.8 (3), p.711-722
Main Author: Li, Paul Jen-kuei
Format: Article
Language:Chinese
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The human body serves as a conceptual template for much of our understanding about the outside world. As an example, the main types of numeral systems, decimal & quinary, are developed from the number of fingers on each hand. The transfer of body part terminology follows these basic principles: (1) from up to down, (2) from front to back, & (3) from part to whole. The human body part terminology is extended to apply to animate & inanimate objects, as based on similarity in shape, size, & function. The usage of body part terminology is ubiquitous in language. Many of the body part terms belong to the basic vocabulary, & 24 out of 192 radicals in a Chinese dictionary have to do with body parts. Moreover, the usage of body part terminology is mostly metaphorical, & most terms for body parts have such a usage. References. Adapted from the source document
ISSN:1606-822X