A discussion of a relationship between polysemy in body part terms and embodiment processes
What is it about?
The paper focuses on the phenomenon of embodiment via the perspective of meaning approximation, and re-conceptualization in terms of body-part polysemic chains of conceptualization via dynamically constructed categories. In the first part the analysis focuses primarily on the processes in which body part conceptualizations act as special reference points at relevant mental elaboration sites for broader meaning phenomena. The interpretation is further elaborated on with reference to culturally rich image schemas, emerging as a consequence of their dynamic repeatedness. In the second part the concept of embodiment is taken up, the discussion leading to a thesis which assumes the status of lexical meanings as stimulators and instructions to build mental models of objects and events. The framework adopted for the analysis presents examples of body parts from English, Polish and occasionally from other languages and combines interdisciplinary methodological instruments: Cognitive Linguistic construal and conceptualizations, cultural schemas and models, and relevant corpus linguistic tools (monolingual and parallel).
Why is it important?
The paper foregrounds processes of meaning extension for body part terms ftom the perspective of the idea of embodiment