LINGUIST List 13.2110

Fri Aug 16 2002

Sum: "Face"/"Eye" Polysemy

Editor for this issue: Marie Klopfenstein <marielinguistlist.org>

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  • george huttar, 'face'/'eye' polysemy

    Message 1: 'face'/'eye' polysemy

     Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2002 13:07:44 -0400
    From: george huttar <george_huttarsil.org>
    Subject: 'face'/'eye' polysemy


    On 26 July I asked in what languages the occurrence of a single

    lexeme for 'face' and 'eye' is found, in addition to those already

    mentioned in the literature Sango, Tarascan, 30 or so Mayan languages, Ijo

    and Berbice Dutch Creole). First, my thanks to the following respondents:

    Paul Boersma (Dutch) Mike Cahill (Konni) Rod Casali (Nawuri...) Stefan Dienst (Bambara) Robert Early (Austronesian, Eastern Oceanic, Lewo)

    Johanna Laakso (Estonian, Finnish) Richard Laurent (Greek) Mark A. Mandel (Greek) Wiltrud Mihatsch (Cahuilla, Ojibway, Quechua, Warao, Upper Sorbian, Basque Hans Schmidt (Rotuman) Uwe Seibert (Chadic) Pete Unseth (Gimira [3D Bench}, Majang) Bart van der Veer (Dutch)

    Second, the replies show that the polysemy in question is quite

    widespread (though nothing was reported for most of Asia), with the

    use of the same lexeme for 'face' and 'eye' reported for the following

    languages:

    Homeric Greek

    Eastern Oceanic (reconstructed) and (all? many?) descendants--e.g.,

    Lewo of Vanuatu, Rotoman/Rotuman of Fiji); but separate forms are

    reconstructed for Austronesian

    Africa:

    Konni (Gur, Ghana) -- 'face' 3D 'eyes' (pl.)

    Gimira (Omotic, Ethiopia)

    Majang (Surmic, Ethiopia, contiguous to preceding language)

    Chadic languages

    Bambara (Mande, Mali & other countries)

    North America:

    Cahuilla (Uto-Aztecan, USA)

    Ojibwa(y)(Algonquian, Canada)

    South America

    Quechua/Quichua, Ecaudor Highland (Quechuan)

    Warao (isolate, Guyana)

    Third, several replies mentioned derivational or compounding

    relationships between 'face' and 'eye', or relationships between

    'face' and 'sight':

    Estonian nE4gu 'face' - cf. nE4ge- 'to see'

    Finnish "metonymic use of "silmE4t" ('eyes' [pl.]) denoting

    'face', at least in some special contexts as in "pestE4 silmE4n sE4"

    'to wash one's eyes 3D face'."

    Dutch gezicht 'face', 'sight (power of seeing)', 'sight

    (something seen)'

    Nawuri (Kwa, Ghana; possibly other Guang languages such as

    Chumburu) "the word for face is a compound of the plural for

    'eyes' with a postposition meaning at, literally 'at the eyes'."

    Upper Sorbian (Slavic, Germany) and Basque (France & Spain)

    'face' 3D 'between the eyes'



    Finally, special thanks to Wiltrud Mihatsch who pointed out the

    following article: BROWN, C. H./WITKOWSKI, S. R. (1985): Polysemy,

    lexical change and cultural importance, _Man_ 18, 72-89, and further

    wrote:

    Besides FACE/EYE polysemies, there are many compounds with EYE,

    MOUTH, NOSE etc. that mean FACE, or polysemies with other parts

    of the face all over the world.

    ...the observations I send you are from a research project that

    collects and analyses sources of body part lexemes in a large

    sample of languages (for further information:

    http://www.sfb441.uni-tuebingen.de/b6/index-engl.html)

    The site mentioned has connections to a number of interesting

    abstracts and other items on the semantics of body-part terms in many

    languages.

    George Huttar george_huttarsil.org

    Box 24686 00502 Karen Nairobi KENYA