embodiment and body parts metaphors, idioms and figurative … · 2017-03-22 · embodiment and...

Embodiment and body parts metaphors, idioms and figurative

expressions

INDEX

1. Background

1.1. Cognition

1.2. The mind- body dualism

1.2.1 Two generations of cognitive researchers

1.3. Embodiment

1.4. Embodied cognition

1.5. Embodiment and language analysis

1.6. Metaphor and metonymy

1.6.1 Objectivism, subjectivism and experientialist

synthesis

1.7. Idioms

1.7.1 Features and classification of idioms

1.7.2 Investigation on idioms

1.7.3 Idioms and embodiment

2. Collection of data

2.1. Process of data collection

2.2. Data: English body part examples and their Italian

equivalents

2.2.1 Face

2.2.2 Eye

2.2.3 Nose

2.2.4 Mouth

2.2.5 Tooth

2.2.6 Tongue

3

3

4

6

7

10

13

24

40

42

43

45

46

48

48

51

51

69

86

98

115

125

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3. Automatic retrieval

3.1. Introduction

3.2. Occurrences of the figurative and metaphoric

expressions

3.2.1 Paisà (Italian Language Corpus)

3.2.2 British National Corpus (English Language

Corpus)

3.3. Identification of: figurative or metonymic category

and abstract concepts

3.3.1 Faccia, viso, volto – Face

3.3.2 Occhio – Eye

3.3.3 Naso – Nose

3.3.4 Bocca – Mouth

3.3.5 Dente – Tooth

3.3.6 Lingua – Tongue

4. Discussion and conclusions

4.1. Discussion

4.1.1. Significant facts

4.2. Conclusion

REFERENCES

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1. Background

1.1. Cognition

The term “cognition” refers to the mental processes by which knowledge is

acquired and managed, including attention, intuition, perception, memory and

working memory, judgement and evaluation, reasoning and computation,

problem solving and decision making, comprehension and production of

language. These processes have been analysed in various fields, from

philosophy to psychology, from cognitive science to neuroscience, and

computer science as well and in each of these domains different aspects of it

have been taken into account.

Although the term “cognitive" concerns all the aspects of thought, conscious

and unconscious, it should be highlighted that reason and thought are mostly

unconscious, largely metaphorical, imaginative, and emotionally engaged.

Actually, the cognitive unconscious, the place where all our beliefs and

knowledge in terms of conceptual systems reside, which shapes how we

conceptualise and comprehend our experience as well, constitutes the 95% of

all thought1. The analysis of mind remained the province of philosophy until

the nineteenth century when experimental psychology, the study of sensation

and perception, memory, cognition, learning, emotion, developmental

processes, social psychology and their neural substrates, developed.

1 Lakoff, G., M. Johnson, 1999, Philosophy in the flesh: the embodied mind and its challengeto western thought , Basic Books, New York.

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1.2. The mind-body dualism

In a very quick overview of the mind-body dualism, Gibbs (2006) points out

that the Western intellectual tradition began with the Ancient Greeks who have

always denied the body in the study of thought2.

In 400 BCE Plato argued that the body came from the material world, while

the soul from the world of ideas (or forms), thus it is immortal. As body and

soul are temporally united, they will be separated with death. Besides since

soul does not exist in time and space, it is a disembodied state, and it can

access universal truths which are recalled by the souls eventually considering

the body as a distracting element for intellectual life.

Later on, in 300 BCE, Aristotle, Plato’s pupil, claimed that the mind is a

faculty of the soul and that the relation between body and soul was not that

complicated: he considered the soul as a property of the body, and as the body

perishes so the soul does.

Afterwards, in the 17th century, Descartes, a French philosopher and

mathematician, focused his attention on the pineal gland, where he positioned

the soul and the development of all the thoughts. His hypothesis, the so-called

Cartesian dualism, supports the distinction between mind and matter (body),

but simultaneously the influence of the former upon the latter, eventually

forming an empirical unit. Descartes’ argument for this separation is part of a

long legacy of dualistic thinking, in which Plato’s discussion about the

immateriality of the soul played a central role. However, for the Cartesian

philosophy, the body is both necessary and unacceptable because he claimed

that the body is just an idea in the mind that materializes only if we pay

2 Gibbs, R. W., 2006, Embodiment and cognitive science, Cambrige University Press,Cambrige

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attention to it: he doubted its existence, but not the one of the thought and

thinking.

During the 18th century Kant claimed the fact that beyond mind and matter

there exists a world of a priori forms, such as time and space, which are pre-

programmed in the brain. Therefore, as it is believed by this philosopher, the

interaction mind-body occurs through forces that may be of different kinds for

mind and body.

At the beginning of the 20th century Piaget, in his writings on developmental

psychology, explored how embodied action may underlie children’s acquisition

of perceptual and conceptual knowledge. Indeed children learn to reason about

the physical world through visual inspection of real-world events, their

interactions with objects and other people.

However, over the last fifty years in philosophy, the nature of cognition has

been re-thought: instead of emphasizing formal operations on abstract symbols,

this new approach focuses on the fact that cognition is rather a situated and an

embodied activity suggesting that thinking beings ought to be considered first

and foremost as active beings. Thus, this new view claims that most real-world

thinking occurs in very particular environments, is employed for very practical

purposes, and exploits the possibility of interaction with and manipulation of

external objects.

Besides, over the last decades a division in cognitive sciences seems to have

emerged between advocates of embodied approaches and those who support

symbolic procedures to language understanding. While the former group thinks

that language comprehension requires the activation of our experiences with

the world, the latter one argues that it should rely on interdependence of words.

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1.2.1. Two generations of cognitive researchers

In order to examine in depth these two conceptions of cognitive science, two

generations of researchers have to be distinguished3.

The first generation of cognitive science developed between the 1950s and

the 1960s claiming the idea that reason was disembodied and that thought

could be represented using formal symbol systems. With respect to meaning, it

was considered simply as an abstract relation among symbols or between

symbols and a state of affairs in the world. This view was based on

functionalism that supported the idea that mental representations are symbolic

and that mind could be studied in terms of its cognitive functions, ignoring

which functions arise from the body and brain. Thus, according to this

“functionalist” perspective, body and brain do not contribute to the nature of

human concepts and reason.

Whereas the second generation of cognitive science developed in the mid-

late 1970s sustaining the idea of a strong dependence of concepts and reason

upon the body and the centrality in conceptualisation and reason of imaginative

processes, namely metaphor, imagery, metonymy, prototypes, frames and

mental spaces. Moreover its three major findings are the fact that the mind is

inherently embodied, thought is mostly unconscious, and abstract concepts are

largely metaphorical. Thus, its key points are the following:

• conceptual structure arises from our sensorimotor experience and the

neural structures that give rise to it: the neural and cognitive

mechanisms that allow us to perceive and move around also create our

conceptual systems and modes of reason;

• mental structures are intrinsically meaningful by virtue of their


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connection to our body and embodied experience;

• our brains are structured so as to project activation patterns from

sensorimotor areas to higher cortical areas through the building of

primary metaphors;

• reason is embodied and arises from the nature of our brains, bodies and

bodily based experiences; consequently, inferences arise from

sensorimotor and body-based forms of inference.

1.3. Embodiment

Actually, since the mid-1980s the concept of embodiment has been used

extensively in the cognitive science and AI literature, in such terms as

embodied mind4, embodied intelligence5, embodied action6, embodied

cognition7, embodied AI (Chrisley, in press), and embodied cognitive science8.

Nowadays, embodiment is considered a condition sine qua non for any form

of natural or artificial intelligence: Pfeifer and Scheuer9 argued that

“intelligence cannot merely exist in the form of an abstract algorithm, but

4 Lakoff, G., M. Johnson, 1999, Philosophy in the flesh: the embodied mind and its challenge to western thought , Basic Books, New York.

5 Brooks, R. A., 1991, Intelligence Without Reason Proceedings of the Twelfth InternationalJoint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (pp. 569-595) San Mateo, CA: MorganKaufmann.

6 Varela, F. J.; Thompson, E. & Rosch, E., 1991, The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science andHuman Experience Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

7 Clark, A., 1997, Being There - Putting Brain, Body and World Together Again Cambridge,MA: MIT Press.

8 Clark, A., 1999, An embodied cognitive science?, Trends in cognitive science, 3

9 Pfeifer, R. & Scheier, C., 1999, Understanding Intelligence. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

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requires a physical instantiation, a body”. Nevertheless, it is far from clear

what kind of body (if any) is required for embodied cognition; hence, while it

might be agreed upon that humans are embodied cognizers, there’s little

agreement upon what kind of body artificial intelligence would have to be

equipped with. Indeed Ziemke, in its paper “What’s that thing called

embodiment?”10, claims that it is then necessary to distinguish between several

notions of embodiment:

• embodiment as a structural coupling between agent and environment

• historical embodiment as the result of a history of structural coupling

• physical embodiment

• organismoid embodiment

• organismic embodiment

• social embodiment

The broadest notion of embodiment is that systems are embodied if they are

structurally coupled to their environment: Quick et al.11 stated that a system X

is embodied in an environment E if perturbatory channels exist between the

two. This means that X is embodied in E if every time at which both E and X

exist, some subset of E’s possible states with respect to X have the capacity to

perturb X’s state, and some subset of X’s possible states with respect to E have

the capacity to perturb E’s state.

Some researchers emphasized that the embodiment of cognitive systems is a

result or reflection of a history of agent-environment interaction and in many

10 Ziemke, T., 2003, What's that thing called embodiment? In R. Alterman, D, Kirsh (eds.) Proceedings of the 25th annual meeting of Cognitive Science Society, Lawrence Erlbaum, NJ, pp 1305-1310.

11 Quick, T. & Dautenhahn, K., 1999, Making embodiment measurable, Proceedings of ‘4.Fachtagung der Gesellschaft für Kognitionswissenschaft’, Bielefeld, Germany.

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cases co-adaptation. Riegler12 argues that a system is embodied if it has gained

competence within the environment in which it has developed.

Historical and physical embodiment, after all, are special cases of structural

coupling and, in a more restricted view, the embodied systems should be

connected to their environment, not just through physical forces, but through

sensors and motors: sensorimotor embodiment, then, should be taken into

account.

A more restrictive notion of physical embodiment, the organismoid one,

argues that certain types of organism-like cognition might be limited to

organism-like bodies covering both living organisms and their artificial

counterparts.

The notion of organismic embodiment claims the fact that only living bodies

should be taken into account because living organisms are autonomous and

autopoietic, while man-made machines are heteronomous and allopoietic.

Living organism are acting plans, whereas machines are governed by human

rules. However this notion does not rule out the possibility of future artificial

autopoietic systems that can grow in interaction with their environment through

the use of artificial evolutionary and learning techniques.

Barsalou et al. (in press)13, instead, have addressed the notion of social

embodiment by which they mean that states of the body, such as postures, arm

movements and facial expressions, arise during social interaction and play

central roles in social information processing.

12 Riegler, A., 2002, When is a cognitive system embodied? Cognitive Systems research,special issue on “Situated and embodied cognition” 3, 339-348.

13 Barsalou, L. W., Niedenthal, P. M., Barbey, A. K., & Ruppert, J. A., 2003, Social embodiment in B. H. Ross (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation, Vol. 43 (pp.43–92). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

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Therefore, the recent interest linked to the pair body-mind has increased and

the hypothesis that bodily experiences play an essential role in the development

of mind, in the cognitive development has been widely approved.

In the term “embodied cognition” the term “body” highlights that the

cognitive development is related to the development of motor functions and

their management to reach special purposes. In the light of this view, cognition

is rooted in the body and develops from the perception of our physical being.

Thus, there is a very close link among perception-action-cognition and the

notion of mind, of thought that arises and develops from the interaction of the

body with the environment, in contrast with the cognitivist view that dominated

the period after the war. This connection between motor aspects and cognitive

functions is also established by Lieberman14 who observed that basal ganglia

that control complex motor actions, play a role in cognitive activities such as

language. Action, perception and cognition are three aspects of the same

function: interacting with the world.

Consequently, the knowledge-awareness of ourselves in the sense of

regulation and control of our inner states and the capacity to coordinate

movement and intentionality is the premise to develop an embodied cognition.

1.4. Embodied cognition

The concept of embodied cognition recalls the argumentation that states that

we are creatures whose cognitive activity is primarily related to sensorimotor

processing connected to on-line interaction with the external world. Indeed, the

evolution of the brain and the senses has been driven by immediate needs of

embodied creatures, hungry for information and inseparable from their

14 Lieberman P., 2000, Human Language and Reptilian Brain: The Subcortical Bases ofSpeech, Syntax, Thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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immediate environments. Biology demonstrates that mental life has physical

basis in the synapses of the brain. Actually on-line aspects of embodied

cognition include cognitive activities embedded in a task-relevant external

situation, involving time pressure too. However, off-line aspects are significant

to assist in the mental representation and manipulation of things that are not

present making the body serve the mind. Nonetheless, even if this hypothesis

has been widely supported, it is important to take into account the different

views that interpret the notion of embodied cognition. Wilson examined them

in her article15:

1. Cognition is situated: cognitive activity involves perception and action

because it takes place in real-world environment. Situated cognition is

based on the fact that one person’s action is not rooted in one’s

knowledge, but it comes from the web of social relationships that

defines the context of our action, thus it is the cognition that takes place

in the context of task-relevant inputs and outputs. Our ancestors relied

mostly on situated skills because before civilization the most important

problem to deal with was an immediate reaction to avoid predators and

find food. As early humans became more sophisticated the use of off-

line measures increased (shaping tools, language and depictive art), but

situated cognition has not disappeared. Actually, spatial cognition tends

to be situated, because for instance, trying to fit a piece into a puzzle

may need continuous revaluation of spatial relationships that are being

continuously manipulated.

2. Cognition is time pressured: cognitive activity needs to be considered

in relation to the pressures of real-time, that matter because they create

what has been called the “representational bottleneck”. When situations

need fast responses, there may not be time to build a mental model of

the environment from which to derive a plan of action. Humans usually

15 Wilson, M., 2002, Six views of embodied cognition, Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 9,pp. 625-636.

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crumble under time pressure and they do not successfully cope with the

representational bottleneck. Actually, given the opportunity, they

choose to behave in an off-line way. Anyhow, forms of real-time

situated cognition can be seen in any activity that involves a continuous

updating of plans in response to the continuous changing of the

situation.

3. We off-load cognitive work onto the environment: in this way, our

cognitive work is reduced. Indeed when we are dealing with on-line

tasks, two kinds of strategies can be used: the first is to rely on

information acquired in previous situations, while the second is using

the environment itself in a strategic way in order to reduce our

cognitive workload making use of epistemic actions to alter the

environment and help cognitive processes.

4. The environment is part of the cognitive system: in order to study the

cognitive activity, mind and environment have to be both of them taken

into consideration. Cognition is distributed across the entire interacting

situation: from the mind, to the body and the environment. Thus, to

understand cognition we need to study the situation and the situated

cognizers together as a unified system.

5. Cognition is for action: cognitive processes contribute to situation-

appropriate behaviour. Works on memory and perception are

meaningful for this claim because the aim of the visual system is to

build an internal representation of what is perceived externally:

consistent with this view, the ventral and dorsal visual pathways are

considered to be the “what” and “where” ones which generate

representations of object structure and spatial relationships respectively.

Nevertheless, the dorsal stream is thought to be the “how” pathway as

well. Our mental representations are often sketchy and incomplete, but

they contain more information than the one needed for the original

purpose, thus they’re useful for future activities.

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6. Off-line cognition is body based: cognitive mechanisms are grounded in

the mechanisms developed from the sensorimotor interaction with the

environment. Mental structures that were built for perception or action

can be useful to off-line tasks, different from their original purpose, to

assist in thinking and knowing. Therefore sensorimotor simulations are

implicated in human cognition. Mental imagery, not only the visual

one, but the auditory and the kinesthetic imagery as well, take place in

the absence of relevant external simulation. Working memory appears

to be an example of symbolic off-loading, it off-loads information onto

perceptual and motor control systems in the brain. Episodic memory

(long-term memory) stores spatiotemporally localized events with all

the attendant visual, kinaesthetic and spatial impressions. There also is

implicit memory that can be considered as an embodied form of

knowledge because through it, we learn skills, automatizing what was

formerly effortful. The internal representations of the situation

automatized contain certain regularities that allow us to circumvent the

representational bottleneck. Finally reasoning and problem-solving

should be taken into account because they make a heavy use of

sensorimotor simulation. It appears then that off-line embodied

cognition is a widespread phenomenon in the human mind.

1.5. Embodiment and language analysis

In linguistics, the notion of embodiment was introduced in connection with the

following problems:

• How can we understand each other?

• How do we get to the same shared meaning?

• How can we be sure that we are thinking the same thought as a result of

our communication?

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In order to find a response to these questions about language and semantics

Rohrer16 distinguished two approaches. On the one hand philosophy and

linguistics that posit meaning as something abstract, propositional and

symbolic and consider complex language as the result of a logical combination

of atomic propositions. This is a method adopted by most of the analytic

philosophers of language and Chomskian linguists who consider semantics

purely referential and syntactic structures able to resolve to logic relations, and

pragmatics is seen as the first source of ambiguity, subjectivity and error. To

name two philosophers, Plato and Frege can be positioned within the extreme

forms of this tradition: the objectivist one. On the other hand, there are

researchers that in observing language as learned and used within the child-

parent pair where a single word has a pragmatic meaning and used to establish

a relation between them, found that the first purpose of language is

communicate and share experiences and not merely objectively describing the

world.

Actually, we know from Cognitive Neuroscience that the physical brain

does not process visual information in a disembodied, nonimagistic way, but

instead maintains the perceptual topology of images presented to it, and then

re-represents abstract spatial and imagistic details of that topology. Thus a

focus on what people find meaningful necessitates investigating the cognitive

and social embodiment that shapes and constrains meaningful expression. A

question that can be asked is how does bodily apparatus itself shape our

linguistic categorization and conceptualisation? The spirit of this transition

from the Objectivist traditions to a more Cognitive Semantics can be revealed

in an experiment proposed by Langacker17 to characterize the process of

linguistic change known as subjectification. He makes an example about the

16 Rohrer, T., 2007, Embodiment and experientialism, In Geeraerts, D., Cuyckens, H. (eds.)The Oxford handbook of Cognitive Linguistics Oxford, Oxford University Press.

17 Langacker, Ronald W., 1990, Subjectification, Cognitive Linguistics 1: 5-38.

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glasses he wears pointing out that if he takes them off and examines them they

function solely as the object of perception; by contrast when he’s wearing

them, they become part of the perceiving apparatus, thus they function

exclusively as part of the subject of perception.

The embodiment hypothesis is the claim that human physical, cognitive and

social embodiment ground our conceptual and linguistic systems.

In the late 1970s Lakoff and Johnson18 discovered that much of the ordinary

language we use to characterize a wide variety of experiences is systematically

shaped by a relatively small number of metaphors. Thus this work called into

question the distinction between “dead” metaphors (deeply conventionalised

and thus hard to notice as we listen to everyday speech) and “live” metaphors

(the inferential and creative extensions of an underlying metaphor). They

dubbed the notion of conceptual metaphor to distinguish it from linguistic

metaphor emphasizing the fact that metaphors are a matter of cognition and

conceptual structure rather than a matter of mere language. Actually, metaphors

tend to refer to the abstract in terms of the concrete. They identify the more

concrete concepts as the “natural kinds of experience” and they are composed

of basic “experiential gestalts” which are the natural products of our bodies,

our interactions with the physical environment and our interactions with other

people in our culture. These three domains constitute the basic source domains

upon which metaphors draw.

Over the ensuing twenty years the notion of experientialism, embodiment

and directionality of conceptual metaphor received much elaboration and

surveys showed that bodily source domains were prevalent not only for the

semantics of English but, also for other languages, distant from it such as

18 Lakoff, G., Johnson, M., 1980, Metaphors we live by, University of Chicago Press,Chicago.

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Japanese and Mixtec19. Sweetser20 has argued that an historical semantic

change motivated by the embodiment hypothesis has occurred within Indo-

European languages for metaphors such as KNOWING IS SEEING. Therefore

the direction of the semantic change is for languages to use terms for

perception as terms for knowing, rather than the contrary. We do understand

knowing as seeing thus this semantic change is motivated by the embodiment

hypothesis.

Furthermore, in the preface to The body in the mind, Johnson (1987)21

presents six bodies of evidence for the embodiment hypothesis including not

only cross-cultural research on metaphor and historical semantic change, but

work on prototypes in categorization, the framing of concepts, polysemy and

inferential patterns in metaphor as well.

In the same year, 1987, Lakoff characterized experientialism (or experiential

realism22) as the core of embodiment including the internally genetic acquired

make-up of the organism and the nature of its interactions in both its physical

and social environments in the make up of actual or potential experiences of

either individual organisms or communities organisms.

As the scope of embodiment enlarged, criticisms on its central tenets arose

highlighting their underspecification. Johnson tried to develop a theory of

19 The Mixtec languages are a group of languages spoken in the Mexican states of Oaxaca,Puebla and Guerrero, and in California in the USA.

20 Sweetser E., 1990, From etymology to pragmatics: Metaphorical and cultural aspects ofsemantic structure, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

21 Johnson, M., 1990, The body in the mind: the bodily basis of meaning, imagination and reason, Chicago University Press, Chicago.

22 Lakoff, G., 1987, Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things, University of Chicago Press.

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image schemata23, that is to say recurrent pattern, shape or regularity in, or of,

our actions, perceptions, and conceptions. They are patterns that emerge

primarily as meaningful structures for us at the level of our bodily movements

throughout space, our manipulation of objects, our perceptual interactions. He

argued that these patterns can be metaphorically extended to structure non-

physical, non-tactile, and non-visual experiences. An example is the image

schema of CONTAINMENT that we can find for instance in our typical

morning routine: we wake up out of a deep sleep, drag ourselves up out of the

bed and into the bathroom. Such schemata are preconceptual embodied

structures of meaning in two important ways:

• image schemata are developmentally prior to conceptual thinking

because conceptual structure is accessible to us by means of language.

As infants we experience patterns of feelings before we develop a

linguistic self, but these structures are shared;

• Image schemata are preconceptual because they underlay multiple

different conceptual metaphors.

Advocates of the disembodied mind say that conceptual structures must

have a neural realization in the brain which just happens to reside in the body,

but they deny that anything in the body is essential for characterizing what

concepts are. On the contrary, Lakoff and Johnson argue that conceptual and

perceptual processes share many of the same physiological and

neurophysiological subprocesses. They claim that in an embodied mind the

same neural system engaged in perception (lower-level activities) plays a

central role in conception (higher-level cognitive abilities)24.

23 Johnson, M., 1990, The body in the mind: the bodily basis of meaning, imagination andreason, Chicago University Press, Chicago.


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The term embodiment had a gradual evolution and expansion from simply a

hypothesis about the grounding of conceptual metaphors to one which has

grown increasingly large in scope throughout its dialogue with other branches

of cognitive science.

The body is conceived as a material and biologic entity, while embodiment

as an undetermined methodological field, defined by the perceptive

experiences and by the interaction with the world. Perception is an essential

embodied experience where the body is not an object but a subject and

embodiment is the condition necessary to build the objective structure of

reality. Moreover the embodiment hypothesis makes us understand our being-

in-the-world. Heidegger25 shows in his analysis, that this condition of being-in-

the-world that allows us to form disengaged representations of reality arises

from the fact that we are already engaged in coping with the world, dealing

with the things in it, highlighting the fact that even in our theoretical stance we

are agents. The body should be considered as the raw material of mental

representations and not the place of subjectivity. Metaphors, for instance, are

phenomena related to intelligent bodies and represent our experience in the

world. The formation of embodied representations involves different sensory

faculties giving birth to multisensory images.

Likewise Merleau-Ponty26, argues that perception and mental representation

always occur in the context of and are structured by the embodied agent while

he is interacting with the world. Therefore representations are the result of

bodily experiences, possessed of content already, and not given by an

autonomous mind. According to him consciousness, the world and the human

body as a perceiving thing are intricately intertwined because the body is not

25 Heidegger, M., Macquarrie, J., & Robinson, E., 1962, Being and time, MA: Blackwell, Malden.

26 Merleau-Ponty, M., 2002, The Phenomenology of Perception, Routledge, New York.

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only a thing, but is also a permanent condition of experience, a constituent of

the perceptual openness to the world demonstrating the primacy of perception,

then of experience. This one is unified into a single object of consciousness,

which has corporeity like the internationality of the body in contrast with the

dualist ontology of mind and body claimed by Descartes.

There have been neural modelling studies that have analysed which

configuration of neurons are involved in rational thought or rational inferences

and whether they can be computed by the same neural structures used in

perception and bodily movement. Upon this topic it is possible to notice a

differentiation between Western philosophical tradition and Cognitive science.

According to the former, our capacity to reason is what differentiates us from

animals, and it is considered separated from our bodies and independent of

perception and bodily movement; reason is then seen as transcendent,

independent of human bodies, therefore disembodied, making human concepts

objective categories of body-free reality. The latter, on the contrary, claims that

reason uses and grows out of such bodily capacity supporting the evolutionary

view and the fact that reason is embodied because our bodies, brains, and

interactions with the environment provide the unconscious basis for our sense

of what is real, indeed shaped by both evolution and experience. In fact, reason

is evolutionary, that is to say that human beings should be placed in a

continuum with animals, and not separated from them. It is necessary to state

that reason is not universal in the transcendent sense, but in the sense that it is

shared universally by all human beings thanks to the commonalities that exist

in the way our minds are embodied.

According to cognitive science, then, every living being categorizes as a

consequence of our biological make-up: our categories are mostly formed

automatically and unconsciously, they are conceptualised in terms of

prototypes which correspond to neural structures in our brains making use of

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the sensorimotor system. Therefore the locus of reason is the locus of

perception.

The body is eventually involved in conceptualisation, shaping its nature as

we can assume it in analysing colour concepts or spatial relation concepts.

Colours do not exist in the external world, their internal structures and the

relationship between them are tied to our embodiment, they are a consequence

of four interacting facts: lighting conditions, wavelengths of electromagnetic

radiation, colour cones retinas and neural processing. Light is not coloured,

only when electromagnetic radiations impinges our retinas and the surrounding

lighting conditions are right, our colour cones absorb the radiation producing

an electrical signal processed by neurons circuits of our brains making us

seeing colours. This is what is called neural embodiment27.

As for spatial-relation concepts, researchers talk about phenomenological

embodiment. Spatial-relation concepts characterize what spatial form is and

define spatial inferences, varying from language to language. They are used

unconsciously and via our perceptual and conceptual systems, mostly made up

of elementary spatial relations which have further internal structures consisting

of an image schema, a profile and a trajector-landmark structure. Among these

structures there are:

• the container schema: given two containers, A and B, and an object X,

if A is in B and X is in A, then X is in B; this schema is can be

physically instantiated as a concrete object (room) or as a bounded

region of space (football field);

• the source-path-goal schema: it is topological in the sense that the path

can be modified, but it still remains a path, and trajectories are not

entities in the world but they are conceptualised as a trail left by an


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object that moves following a direction;

• bodily projections: refer to our body that define a set of fundamental

spatial orientations we can use to orient ourselves and to perceive the

relationships of one object to another (backs and fronts).

There exist three models which show that conceptual system makes use of

important parts of sensorimotor system that impose crucial conceptual

structure:

• Regier’s model (1996)28 for learning spatial relation which is both

perceptual and conceptual shows how neural structures in the brain that

do perceptual work can be recruited to do conceptual work as well;

• Bailey’s model (1997)29 for learning verbs of hand motion where motor

mechanisms do a conceptual work of categorizing actions for the

purpose of naming them;

• Narayanan’s model (1997)30 of motor schemata, linguistic aspects and

metaphor discovering that the same neural structure that can perform

motor actions characterizes the conceptual structure and mechanisms

that allow us to perform logical inferences about the structure of actions

in general.

Brain tends to optimise on the basis of what it already has in order to add

only what is necessary. Concepts have then evolved from our sensorimotor

systems which have in turn evolved to allow us to function well in our physical

environment. The embodiment of mind leads to a philosophy of embodied




21

realism that claims a level of physical interaction in the world at which we

have evolved to function successfully, that is to say that our embodied system

of basic-level concepts has evolved to fit the ways in which our bodies have

been coupled to our environment.

Gibbs31 argued that embodiment may refer to three levels of personhood:

neural events, the cognitive unconscious and phenomenological experience.

This view of embodied mind has the following features:

• the concept of self is highly linked to tactile/kinaesthetic activity;

• embodiment is constituted by recurring patterns of kinaesthetic

proprioceptive action that provide much of people’s experience;

• perception is linked to thought processes where objects are perceived

by how they may be physically manipulated;

• language reflects important aspects of human conceptualisation;

• memory, mental imagery, problem solving are linked to sensorimotor

simulations;

• embodied experiences are shaped by cultural processes.

Our bodies, then, take centre stage in the empirical study of perception,

cognition and language in cognitive science’s theoretical accounts on human

behaviour.

In actuality, in order to survive, human beings develop patterns of

interaction with the environment based on their bodily capacities (senses),

culture and language. During this interaction, not all the information provided

are recorded, but just the needed ones, which actually can be different cross-

culturally because there can be differences in the perception of reality among

cultures. De facto, our perception of reality is inseparable from our

31 Gibbs, R. W., 2006, Embodiment and cognitive science, Cambrige University Press,Cambrige.

22

embodiment because the knowledge we have about the world is provided by

our sensory means (eyes, skin, fingers, tongue, mouth, nose).

This is what embodied cognition claims aiming at achieving three related,

but distinct goals always highlighting the importance of the body in the

explanation of cognitive abilities: its first purpose is to demonstrate that the

body structure creates constraints for neural control, that is that symbol

manipulation emerges from the physical attributes of the body; its second goal

is to account for the content of cognition by appeal to the nature of the body

containing the brain, namely there are some basic concepts that stem directly

from the body human beings have and the manner it interacts with the

environment; thirdly it wants to demonstrate that cognitive processes could be

extended into the environment where the organism lives, becoming cognitive

friendly in the sense that it eliminates steps that cognitive tasks would

otherwise require.

Oppositely, the Traditional Cognitive Science considers thought and

knowledge as a syntactically determined manipulation of symbols, in other

words cognition receives inputs from the organism’s sense organs that translate

them into a syntactic code from the environment and send them to the nervous

system where they are manipulated according to various rules which are either

innate or learned, therefore cognition begins and ends with inputs to and

outputs from the nervous system without interacting with the external world.

Anyhow, afterwards we vehicle all that information processed by our brains

through language, which is part of our genetic endowment, using both literal

terms and figurative speech, namely metaphors.

23

1.6. Metaphor and metonymy

Now that we have reached this point, metaphor and metonymy should be taken

into account and analysed because our conceptual system is metaphorical in

nature and because metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language,

but in action and thought as well, as Lakoff and Johnson claim in their work

“Metaphors we live by”32, and even if people are not aware of their conceptual

system, they think and act automatically.

According to them metaphor is ultimately grounded in bodily experience

pointing out that human concepts are not just reflections of reality, they are

ultimately shaped by our bodies and brains, especially our sensorimotor data.

Human beings give central importance to their bodies since the beginning of

their existence using body part terms to define a huge part of our daily

experience. For instance a lot of proverbs and idioms that contain body terms

may be considered as primary metaphors hidden in our long-term memory.

In fact, cognitive science considers metaphor and metonymy as two

important conceptual processes: the former involves two different domains,

meaning that a concept is understood in terms of another which belongs to

another semantic field, while the latter involves a single domain in which one

entity is described in terms of another within the same domain; further while

metaphor is characterized by resemblance or correlation, metonymy is a

relationship of contiguity or proximity.

Metonymy is a figure of speech and it is, loosely speaking, a stand-for

relation (X is used to stand for Y): the element that stand for another is the


24

vehicle while the latter one is the target, thus the vehicle provides mental

access to another conceptual entity, the target which is within the same domain,

then it can be considered a within-domain mapping. Actually, some

representative examples in our culture are:

- THE PART FOR THE WHOLE

- PRODUCER FOR PRODUCT

- OBJECT USED FOR USER

- INSTITUTION FOR PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE

- THE PLACE FOR THE INSTITUTION

Metonymy is a linguistic device that relies on frames, domains and Idealized

Cognitive Models (ICM) which are cognitive constructs which can refer to a

kind of knowledge structure which can serve as a background for interpreting

the meaning of linguistic forms. Anyhow there is sometimes an overlap in how

they are used by different researchers: frames paved the way for particular

theories of grammar; ICMs are a way for capturing the role of background

knowledge for certain kinds of semantic analysis particularly as they are

related to questions of categorization; domains play a central role in conceptual

metaphor theory and cognitive grammar33.

As regards metaphor, it is a basic phenomenon that occurs throughout the

whole range of language activity: it is a very common figure of speech, not just

a mere embellishment to create more singular poems, but it can be

contemplated as a systematic pattern that permeates our everyday thoughts, our

everyday language, our everyday interaction with the environment, with the

objects, with the other people. Though we are not aware of our conceptual

system, we think and act along certain lines everyday more or less

automatically and we can find in language a lot of evidence for what this

33 Kovekses, Z., 2006, Language, mind and culture, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

25

system is like because communication is based on the same conceptual system

used in thinking and acting. As a consequence the language we use to talk

about some aspects of a concept is systematic. Therefore, studying

metaphorical expressions we gain an understanding of the metaphorical nature

of our activities.

For instance, considering the concept ARGUMENT and the conceptual

metaphor ARGUMENT IS WAR, they are reflected in our everyday language

by a wide variety of expressions. We do talk about arguments that way because

we conceive of them that way, consequently we act according to the way we

conceive of things. Therefore the way of talking about, conceiving and

experiencing a situation is then metaphorically structured. For instance we talk

in terms of IDEAS ARE FOOD or THEORIES ARE BUILDINGS. The “used”

parts of the concept of BUILDING used to structure the concept of THEORY

are the foundation and the outer shell, while the rooms, staircases are the

“unused” parts.

Three subspecies of imaginative (non literal) metaphors can be

distinguished34:

• extensions of the used part of a metaphor (e.g. bricks and mortar of a

theory);

• instances of the unused part of the literal metaphor (e.g. a theory with

thousands of little rooms and long, winding corridors);

• instances of novel metaphors which are new ways of thinking of

something (e.g. classical theories are patriarchs who father many

children).

Metaphor is then a basic process of word meanings formation: practically, it


26

consists in the use of language to refer to something other than what it was

originally applied to or what it literally means in order to support some

resemblance or make a connection between the two things. People use it

because sometimes there is no other way to refer to a particular thing, to

communicate what they feel or think about something, to explain what a

particular thing is like, to convey a meaning in a more interesting or creative

way or to do all of these. A lot of understanding is mediated through metaphor

since people might not well understand something without the help of

metaphorical models as they often allow them to use concrete images to

convey something abstract, then its functions are explaining, clarifying,

describing, expressing, evaluating and entertaining. Consequently, people draw

inferences, set goals, make commitments and execute plans, all on the basis of

how they in part structure their experience, consciously and unconsciously, by

means of metaphor which is among their principal vehicles of understanding.

Furthermore metaphors refer to and have a meaning that is fundamentally

grounded in people’s ordinary body experiences even if most of the time

speakers are not conscious of it.

Indeed there exist, on the one hand, dead metaphors for instance, the ones

which express metaphorical distinctions opaque to contemporary speakers such

as kick the bucket which meaning, “to die”, may be known but not the reason

of its figurative sense. On the other hand there are conventional expressions

which reflect metaphorical concepts that are very much a part of our everyday

cognition such as LOVE IS A JOURNEY, where an abstract domain of

experience (love) is understood in terms of another domain of experience

(journeys) which is more concrete: in reality the entities in the domain of love

(lovers, common goals…) correspond to the ones in the domain of a journey

(the travellers, destinations…).

27

Therefore the way we talk about certain domains of our experience reflects

significant patterns of bodily experience, thus metaphor in both thought and

language partly arises from these recurring patterns of embodiment.

As a matter of fact the whole body is structured to perform activities in

order to reach information from our natural and cultural environment. Our

body has its axes of reference, closely connected to gravity (head-foot, right-

left, front-back) making our language mirror reality and follow its changes.

Well known areas of experience are used to explain less known areas in fact

many words associated with the human body are used to define non-human

technical world; the Roman numerals as well were first based on human

fingers.

Man unconsciously projects into the external world describing it in terms of

its own measures (the eye of the typhoon) and the body parts are used to

conceptualise the non-human world (outside) and our inner world, mental

structures are then meaningful by virtue of their connection to our body parts

(heart, head, face, etc.). It is then clear that human body and its structure

directly influence the way things can be meaningful for us. According to Skara

we can say, “we don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are”35.

In order to deepen our analysis of the involvement of the body in our

conception of the world some basic everyday schemata should be considered

since human beings, orienting themselves to the features of the environment,

give rise to metaphorical projections of the body posture and consequently to

spatial conception of the body which generates many metaphors. Metaphorical

systems of understanding are then connected up with image schemata because

part of the structure of the source domain is projected onto the target domain

35 Škara, D., 2004, Body metaphors: Reading the body in contemporary culture, CollegiumAntropologicum, 28.

28

which is the used portion of metaphor. They consist in a cluster of knowledge

which provides a skeleton structure for a concept that can be filled out with the

detailed properties of the particular instance being represented. According to

Schank and Abelson36, people understand many situations by fitting them into

structured frameworks (scripts) which include items by means of which we

organize our knowledge of the world. These structures, nevertheless, are not

fixed, but altered in their application to a particular situation, meaning they are

not just templates of past experience, rather plans for interacting with people

and objects.

The most important image-schemata are the following:

• the IN-OUT orientation in which the body is viewed as a physical

object that presupposes a three-dimensional form of a container: it has

its structure that is an inside, a boundary, and an outside. People

conceptualise the interior of the body as the container of the mind, soul,

words, emotions and thoughts, which are described as within air and

water activities (“deep in his mind”); the human body is then bounded

by its skin (“to jump out one’s skin”). An example of these schema is

given by Lakoff and Johnson in their work “Metaphors we live by”

when they claim that we do speak in linear order, consequently we

conceptualise language metaphorically in terms of space. Spatial

concepts naturally apply to linguistic expressions: we know which word

occupies the first position in the sentence and whether it is short or

long, we spatialize linguistic forms. Thus the conduit metaphor defines

a spatial relationship between form and content: LINGUISTIC

EXPRESSIONS ARE CONTAINERS, meanings are the content of

those containers.

• the FRONT-BACK schema refers to the posture of our body where the

36 Schank, R.C., Abelson, R., 1977, Scripts, Plans, Goals, and Understanding, EarlbaumAssociation, Hillsdale , NJ.

29

front part is the conscious, clear, rational (we move forward, we see in

front) and the back part is the stored and forgotten linked with negative

feelings

• the UP/RIGHT - DOWN/UNDER schema is a schema of verticality to

categorize meaningful structures of experience: actually the backbone

which allows us to have a standing position is associated with strength

and bravery (for instance, someone who is spineless means that he lacks

of determination), then activities which are referred to as UP are viewed

positively, while the DOWN ones are negative

• the BALANCE/SYMMETRY schema refers to the left/right axis that is

related to our body balance and symmetry (“a balanced personality”) in

which left is related to the clumsy, awkward, insincere and the right to

law, morals, strong.

Besides there are emotions: bodies function as containers where emotions are

contained.

Nevertheless the information gathered by our senses needs to be processed

by our brains, as it has been hinted above, and senses are perceived as the basis

for knowledge and the channels of our selective perception.

First of all among the senses’ organs there are the eyes and the sight, which

is connected with them. Sight is our prominent sense; it plays a crucial role in

our acquisition of knowledge and this coordination between vision and

knowledge is evident from the fact that we can see in spite of closed eyes

because information is stored in our minds.

There are the hands and the sense related to them, which is touch that

enables to detect objects by the skin providing us with sensations of spatial

depth and the three dimensional shape of material bodies. Vocabulary of touch

is used for metaphorical projections of emotional sensations (an appeal that

30

touched deeply), while the “hands” refer to power, control and fingers to

abilities (v. Bertuccelli Papi 2013).

Then, there are mouth and tongue and the sense of taste, which refers to the

mental ability to judge what is aesthetically appropriate or emotions (bitter

smile, how sweet it is).

Further there is the nose and the smell that has fewer metaphorical

projections than the other senses and usually it has negative associations (We

smell trouble).

Finally there are the ears and the sense of hearing which is associated to

capability, emotions, mental activities.

Actually, man unconsciously projects himself into the external world

describing it in terms of his own measures. Thus body parts are used to

conceptualise:

• the non human world (the eye of the typhoon)

• mental activities in terms of the outside (I smell a rat)

• metaphorical projections between senses are frequent in the form of

synaesthesia: touch transfers to taste (sharp taste) and sound (soft

sound); taste to smell (sour smell) and sound (sweet music); sight to

sound (bright sound), and touch (eye contact)

• eye and sight generate more metaphorical projections than the other

senses.

As for conceptualising the external world, an interactionist view has been

proposed by Bipin Indurkhya37: it presents however a problem that derives

37 Indurkhya B., 1992, Metaphor and cognition. An interactionist approach, SpringerNetherlands.

31

from maintaining on the one hand that the attributes and structures do not

reflect pre-existing ones, and on the other hand that this creation is not

arbitrary, but constrained by the environment at some level. As a matter of fact,

our concepts create the structure by a process called perception that occurs

through our sense organs, thus concepts can be considered as aggregates of

sense data. However even if one can conceptualise the same sense data, the

same world, in alternate ways, this process is not arbitrary because all

conceptual organizations share some invariant structures referred to as

“universals” which are rooted in the physiological structure of the cognitive

agent’s body and brain; for instance, our perception of colours through our

retinas where there are three kinds of cones that are most sensitive to the

wavelengths corresponding to the colours red, green ad blue respectively.

In order to analyse this interactionist view it is necessary to take into

account concept networks which are the internal representations of the

cognitive agents who link together concepts with parts of sensorimotor data

through cognitive relations. Its components then are two: a set of symbols

(concepts) and a set of operators (link between concepts that can combine

symbols to generate another symbol, or decompose a symbol into others).

However a cognitive model should have a coherence which is acquired

thanks to two mechanisms:

1. accommodation, that works by changing the structure of a concept

network while keeping the cognitive relation fixed;

2. projection, that works by keeping the structure of the concept network

invariant, but modifying the cognitive relation, thereby changing the

structure of the experiential ontology of the environment so that its

structure become coherent with the one of the concept network.

The initial problem of interactionism is than resolved by pointing out that

32

while it is the cognitive agent who gives the ontology to the external world by

instantiating concept networks, the structure of the external world, as seen from

this ontology is determined by reality.

The reason why I made reference to this view depends on the fact that the

projection process underlies metaphors which are unconventional ways of

describing (or representing) some object, event or situation (real or imagined):

the object of description is the target, and the object used to unconventionally

describe the target is the source. The novelty in this account is the distinction

between an object or experience and its representation, which is crucial to

resolve the paradox of creation of similarity. Then similarity-based metaphors

should be considered: there are syntactic metaphors where the process of

interpretation is mediated by the target concept network drawing attention to

certain parts of the target realm highlighting them; suggestive (open-ended)

metaphors provide an initial ontology for the target realm where additional

structures can be imported from the source concept network to enhance the

structure of the target realm; finally there are projective (similarity-creating)

metaphors where the concept network is discarded and the source concept is

interpreted in the target realm as if the target realm is being encountered for the

first time. Therefore if the primary role of cognition is to link together the

impressions we get from our senses into a meaningful pattern, projective

metaphors are the ones that make it possible.

In order to further explore the conceptual processing, it should be

highlighted that theories of cognition have often assumed that a single type of

representation underlies knowledge just like Traditional theories, which claim

that amodal symbols provide a uniform knowledge representation although

they differ from linguistic forms. However predicates that represent objects,

properties, and event concepts often hold a rough one-to-one correspondence

with words which refer to them. For instance, bird refers to X, red refers to X,

33

buy refers to X,Y.

Among recent theories there are the ones that argue that knowledge is

grounded in linguistic context-vectors, meaning that the representation of a

word is a distribution of words that co-occur with that word in natural

language; and the ones, which claim that knowledge is grounded in modal

simulations, embodiment, situations where images of experience play a central

role in knowledge representation, which are situated, that is that knowledge

about something is simulated in the context of likely background situations (a

context of relevant settings, actions, events and introspections). This happens

because the brain captures modal states during perception, action and

introspection and then simulates these states to represent knowledge.

The LASS (Language and Situated Simulation)38 theory of conceptual

processing focuses on the fact that representation and processing of concepts

relies on both language and situated simulation assuming that linguistic forms

and situated simulations interact continuously. Conceptual systems evolved to

process non linguistic stimuli (perceptual, motor, and introspection aspects of

experience), in fact the processing of experience is more central than the

processing of words. Nevertheless, many of these systems probably contribute

to other processes besides language and simulation; for example the vision and

motor systems contribute to perception and action, respectively, not just to

language. The LASS theory can be studied according to four frameworks:

• linguistic processing: when a word is perceived, the linguistic system

activates to categorize it (the linguistic form can be visual, auditory,

tactile). Along with it the simulation system activates, but the former

peaks: a cue word elicits other words associated with it. Thus

38 Barsalou, L. W., Santos, A., Simmons, W.K., Wilson, C. D., 2008, Language and simulationin conceptual processing, In de Vega, M., Glenberg, A., Graesser, A. (eds.) Symbols and Embodiment debates on meaning and cognition, Oxford University Press: Oxford, pp. 245-284.

34

activation of words meaning is shallow when read in the context of

non-words that lack acceptable phonology and orthography, conversely

when non-words satisfy rules of phonology and orthography, words

access meaning more deeply

• situated simulation: as the linguistic system recognizes the word

presented, the word after several seconds activates associated

simulations where conceptual content about properties and relations

resides. Further symbolic operations on linguistic forms operate most

effectively when both linguistic forms and simulations contribute

• mixtures and interactions of language situated simulation: when

shallow linguistic processing is sufficient to support adequate task

performance, processing relies mostly on the linguistic system and little

on simulation, conversely when linguistic processing is not adequate,

the simulation system must be consulted for the required conceptual

information, thus they interact: linguistic forms associated with the

simulator (words and syntactic structures) activate and integrate into the

evolving motor program for an utterance. In reasoning people

simultaneously engage in simulating the relevant situation and

verbalizing about it because linguistic forms provide powerful means of

indexing simulations (via simulators) and for manipulating simulations

in language and thought. The two systems interact, one may dominate

momentarily, followed by the other, perhaps cycling many times, but at

many points they can be active simultaneously.

• Statistical underpinnings of language and situated simulation:

simulators capture the statistical frequencies of properties and the

relation between them in experience: frequencies and correlations in

perceived situations are mirrored in frequencies and correlations of

words used to describe them, and these statistical information are stored

naturally in the neural architecture.

35

Empirical evidences for the LASS theory can be found in two related views:

• Paivio’s dual code theory39 has much in common with the LASS one:

both assume two basic systems, one linguistic and the other grounded in

modalities that operate interactively and underlie cognitive activities;

whereas, as for the differences, conversely of what the LASS theory

assumes, the dual code theory claims that deep conceptual processing

occurs in both systems and that for abstract concepts the linguistic

system is central;

• Glaser’s lexical hypothesis40 argues that the linguistic system has less

computational power than the simulation system. Starting from Paivio’s

theory, he modifies it in two ways: first Glaser suggests that Paivio’s

imagery system might be populated not only with amodal

representations, but with modal ones as well; second he assumes that

the linguistic system can perform relatively superficial processing

independently of the conceptual system, what he calls the lexical

hypothesis. Further he addresses the ability of pictures versus words to

access the conceptual system during verification tasks and to produce

conceptual effects on priming and interference tasks. Actually it is

highly similar to the LASS theory.

The evidence for the LASS theory from the laboratory have been analysed

according to three lines of research.

Experiments41 consisted in giving to the participants a specific word for a

concept and they had to generate related information verbally. In the first

39 Paivio, A., 1971, Imagery and verbal processes, Holt, Rinehart, Winston, New York.

Paivio, A., 1986, Mental Representations: a dual coding approach, Oxford University,Oxford, England.

40 Glaser, W. R., 1992, Picture naming, Cognition, 42, 61-105.

36

experiment participants generated word associates, while in the second

properties of a concept’s instances. In both experiments, LASS predicts that the

linguistic system and the simulation system both contribute to the responses

that participants produce verbally: the initially responses should come from the

linguistic system and the from the simulation one, even if in the word

association task the linguistic system would give a larger contribute.

In the word association task participants produced 1-3 responses in less than

5 seconds for each cue word and a response could have been linguistically

related to the cue as a compound continuation (bee > hive), backward

compound continuation (bee > honey), synonym (car > automobile), antonym

(good > bad), root similarity (self > selfish), sound similarity (bumpy >

lumpy); or it could be a taxonomic response which includes superordinate

categories (dog > animal), coordinate categories (dog > cat) and subordinate

categories (dog > terrier); or it could fall into an object-situation response

which is a property of the cue concept or a thematic associate of the cue

concept that could co-occur with it in a situation. The results of this experiment

supported the LASS theory: linguistically-related responses were produced

earlier than object-situation responses and responses that were more likely to

originate in the linguistic system occurred earlier than the ones in the

simulation system. Taxonomic responses fell halfway in between. This

suggests that taxonomic responses were retrieved as memorized lexical

phrases.

The property generation experiment offered similar evidence: participants

typically produced 6-7 responses to each cue in the 15-second period allowed

for responding. One prediction was that participants would produce fewer

linguistic responses and more object-situation one than in the first experiment.

41 Santos, A., Barsalou, L. W., Chaigneau, S. E., 2008, Word association and situatedsimulation in conceptual processing: Behavioural confirmation of neuroimaging findings.

37

This is because the task is more conceptual in nature and because participants

produced responses for longer periods, more responses should then originate

from the simulation system. A second prediction was again that linguistic

responses should precede object-situation ones. The results confirmed the

predictions developed.

To sum up the experiments confirmed the predictions of LASS theory,

which were that linguistic responses tended to occur earlier from a a faster

linguistic system, than object-situation responses from a slower simulation

system.

The second experiment was performed even analysing fMRI findings: the

two systems appear responsible for producing conceptual information and the

linguistic system appear to produce responses earlier than the simulation

system supporting again the LASS theory.

As for the representation of abstract concepts, it can recruit differentially the

language and simulation systems: when task conditions allow, participants rely

only on the language system; whereas, when they require deeper conceptual

processing, participants rely on the simulation system. Then the interplay

between the language and simulation systems may be pervasive throughout

diverse psychological phenomena. Multiple systems support conceptual

processing according to different concepts and task concepts: the frequency of

representations, along with correlations between them enter into conceptual

processing. However an interesting question is whether statistical structures

can serve representational purposes in the absence of linguistic and modal

representations: regardless of where the empirical findings come down on this

particular issue, there is no doubt that statistical representations play central

roles throughout conceptual processing.

38

Understanding takes place in terms of entire domains of experience and not

in terms of isolated concepts. These experiences are then conceptualized and

defined in terms of other basic domains of experience which are structured

within our experience that is conceptualized as an experiential gestalt. Such

gestalts are experientially basic because they represent coherent organizations

of our experiences in terms of natural dimensions. These domains of

experience are called natural kinds of experience, and they are natural because

they are a product of our bodies, our interactions with our physical

environment and or interaction with other people within our culture. In other

words they are products of human nature, some may be universal, while others

will vary from culture to culture.

Our conceptual system is grounded in our experiences in the world and both

concepts and metaphors are grounded in our constant interaction with our

physical and cultural environments. The standard view assumed that

experiences and objects have inherent properties and that human beings

understand them solely in terms of these properties. This objective account

consider a BLACK GUN a GUN, while it is not the case for a FAKE GUN

because according to it BLACK is an additional property of GUN, whereas

FAKE is seen as a property added to the concept of GUN in order to yield

another concept that is not a subcategory of GUN.

According to the objectivist view a category is a set theory, that is a set of

inherent properties of the entities in the category, and everything in the

universe is either inside or outside the category. On the contrary, Rosch42, for

instance, argues that we categorize things in terms of prototypes. Further

categories are open-ended, that is that an object may be seen as being in a

category or not, depending on our purpose in classifying it.

42 Rosch, E., 1977, Human categorization, In Warren, N., ed., Advances in cross-cultural psychology, vol. 1., Academic Press, New York.

39

Concepts are defined by prototypes and by types of relations to prototypes.

Moreover concepts rather than being rigidly defined, concepts arising from our

experience are open-ended and metaphors and hedges are systematic devices

for further defining a concept and for changing its rage of applicability.

1.6.1. Objectivism, subjectivism and the experientialist synthesis

Objectivism’s essential assumptions43 are the following:

• the world is made up of objects which have properties independent of

any people’s experience of them

• people get their knowledge of the world by experiencing the objects in

it and getting to know what properties they have and how they are

related to one another

• people understand the objects of the world in terms of categories and

concepts

• there exists an objective reality of which we can say things which are

unconditionally true or false

• words have fixed meanings

• metaphor and other kinds of figurative language should be avoided

since their meanings are not clear

• being objective means being rational

• subjectivity is dangerous because makes people loose touch with

reality.

Subjectivism44 on the contrary argues that:

• people develop intuitions that they can trust



40

• the most important things in life are people’s feelings, aesthetical

sensibilities, moral practices and spiritual awareness

• the language of imagination, namely metaphor, expresses significant

aspects of our experience

• objectivity is dangerous because it misses what is most important and

meaningful to individual people.

However, Lakoff and Johnson45 propose a third alternative to objectivism

and subjectivism which is an experientialist synthesis. Indeed this theory of

definition accounts for individual concepts as defined in terms of their roles in

natural kinds of experiences, their interactional properties focusing so much on

metaphor since it unites reason and imagination. Reason involves

categorization, entailment and inference, while imagination involves seeing

one kind of thing in terms of another kind of thing, namely a metaphorical

thought. It can be said that metaphor is imaginative rationality for the reason

that since categories of our everyday thought are largely metaphorical and our

everyday reasoning involves metaphorical entailments and inferences, ordinary

rationality is therefore imaginative by its very nature.

Metaphor is an important tool to comprehend partially, what cannot be

comprehended totally. Therefore what the myths of both objectivism and

subjectivism miss is the way we understand the world through our interactions

with it. This account of metaphor goes against this tradition, and place

metaphor in an essential position in the human understanding. Most of the

conceptual structure of natural language is metaphorical in nature, grounded in

physical and cultural experience, meaning then is never disembodied or

objective, truth is not absolute, but based on understanding.


41

The experientialist alternative thus assumes that truth is always relative to

understanding which is based on a non-universal conceptual system. In fact

what is significant to a person depends on his/her past experiences, values,

feelings and intuitive insight showing how meaning always is meaning to a

person.

1.7. Idioms

The lexicon of a language is the most related to the extralinguistic reality and it

modifies in relation to the development of culture, society, human relationships

and science. It is often enriched by speakers who make a creative use of words,

introduce loan words form other languages, and adapt old forms to new

meanings to form new words, often triggering processes of semantic change.

Idiomatic expressions should be taken in account as an integral part of every

language, as they occur frequently and constitute an essential portion of a

speaker's lexicon. Being typical of a specific language, idioms usually remain

inseparable from the language of their origin, consequently they also are

difficult to translate word by word from one language to another, as they could

result having a different meaning or even meaningless in the target language.

Idiomatic expressions arise in the domain of ideas46, originating from the

common behaviour of the members of a linguistic community and they turn

into habits which may differ over the centuries.

Idiomatic expressions are phraseological sequences, approved by their usage

in a certain society and endowed with a lexical and syntactic autonomy, their

meaning cannot be totally inferred from the individual meanings of its

constituents. In most cases, the meaning of the whole phrase is different from

the meaning which might be derived componentially from the individual words

46 Roberts, M. H., 1944, The science of idiom: a method of inquiry into the cognitive design oflanguage, in Publications of the Modern Language Association, 59, pp. 291-306.

42

in the phrase. Overall, they are fixed expressions with a figurative meaning

which presumably wasn't such in their original use, which behave as single

units semantically, but can be flexible grammatically, though in various

degrees.

An idiom can appear as a word, a combination of words, a phrase, an entire

clause and an entire sentence.

1.7.1. Features and classification of idioms

In general, idiomatic expressions are characterized in the literature by the

following features:

• stability of sequence, as their components recur often together in

discourse and written texts;

• resistance to syntactic and semantic transformation;

• flexibility which is accepted until it does not change their meaning: for

example the changing of the verb tense can be allowed, while

relativization and passivization are not.

Langlotz47 has further specified the following features:

• institutionalisation which refers to the degree of familiarity and

conventionality;

• compositeness, which has to do with the complexity of an expression:

idioms are commonly accepted as multi-word expressions, though there

are some scholars who accept them even when they appear as single

words;

• frozenness, that concerns restrictions in the lexico-grammatical

behaviour ;

47 Langlotz, A., 2006, Idiomatic creativity: a cognitive linguistic model of idiom-representations and idiom-variation in English, John Benjamins, Amsterdam, Philadelphia.

43

• non-compositionality, or semantic opacity, which is related to the

figurative meaning of an expression, contradicting the principle of

compositionality that states that the meaning of the whole is given by

the one of the single parts that form it.

However these features can be modulated and articulated differently from

different perspectives:

• from a syntactic point of view, Federica Casadei48 distinguished

between the following types of fixedness: in the order of constituents,

in the context of a transformational fixedness, in the grammatical

categories (change in tense, person and number) and in the inventory of

constituents (insertions, deletion, substitution);

• Simonetta Vietri49 analysed transformations in idioms affirming that

passivization and relativization are not always possible, while

dislocation and extraction can be applied sometimes;

• Fraser50 had defined a classification of idioms based on their possibility

to be syntactically modified elaborating a frozenness hierarchy made of

six levels in which an expression present on one level has all the

features of the ones present on the lower ones: completely frozen (L0),

adjuction (L1), insertion (L2), permutation (L3), extraction (L4),

reconstruction (L5), unrestricted (L6).

Other scholars have suggested other properties of idioms claiming that a

48 Casadei, F., 1996, Metafore ed espressioni idiomatiche. Uno studio semantico sull'italiano,Bulzoni, Roma.

49 Vietri, S., 1985, On the study of idiomatic expressions in Italian, in Franchi De Bellis, A.,Savoia, L. M., (eds.) Sintassi e morfologia della lingua italiana d'uso. Teorie e applicazionidescrittive, (Atti del XVII Congresso della Società di Linguistica Italiana, Urbino 11-13/9/1983), Bulzoni, Roma.

50 Fraser, B., 1970, Idioms within a transformational grammar, In Foundations of Language, n.6.

44

prototypical idiom has some orthogonal properties:

• conventionality: its use or significance is not predictable, or better it is

not entirely predictable from the meaning of its constituents;

• Lack of syntactic flexibility: they appear only in a limited and selected

number of syntactic constructions;

• Figurative sense: they imply the use of metaphor, metonymies,

hyperboles, and not always listeners are able to comprehend the real

reason of the image involved (shoot the breeze: to chat; kick the bucket:

to die);

• Proverbial sense: they are used especially to describe or implicitly

explain situations of particular social interest, due to their resemblance

to or relation with circumstances that imply a familiar environment

(chewing fat: to chat; climbing the walls: hit the head on walls);

• Informality: idioms are associated to the colloquial and informal

register, to the popular and oral talk of a culture;

• Affectivity: idioms express a certain evaluation, an affective attitude

towards things they referred to. They are not used to express neutral

actions (read a book, buy a ticket).

1.7.2. Investigation on idioms

The investigation on idiomatic expressions can be divided into three main

parts: the very beginning of the 20th century, the 1950s, and the period between

the late 1980s and the 1990s where the greatest results have been achieved.

Among the scholars, there have been Smith51 who defined idioms as “little

sparks of life and energy in our speech” focusing on the idiosyncrasies of

English, many of which are lexically and grammatically irregular.

51 Smith, L. P., 1925, Words and idioms: study in the English Language, Houghton Mifflin,Boston

45

Another researcher who investigated on this topic was Roberts52, according

to whom idioms are manifestations of a specific inner design or structure of

thought communicated via a given language code recalling the de Sausserean's

langue/parole dichotomy stating that individual creativity (parole) becomes

part of the common system of elements (langue) that comprise a language.

One more researcher has been Strassler53 who aimed at identifying the idiom

functions starting from the fact that every idiom has a non-idiomatic synonym

on the semantic level.

1.7.3. Idioms and embodiment

A new perspective has been introduced by Cognitive Linguistics. Language is

the major source of communication and according to Cognitive Linguistics

cannot be investigated in isolation from human embodiment54. Considering the

meaning of language as embodied, it means that it is the speaker's bodily

experience which triggers the linguistic expression that carries the meaning to

the hearer because all the experiences are filtered by perception55. Actually

everyone perceives the world differently and each one has a different

perception even of the same event or situation; consequently, language used to

define the world must undergo changes through speaker's perception, being

language a description of human perception of reality. Therefore, people's

52 Roberts, M. H., 1944, The science of idiom: a method of inquiry into the cognitive design oflanguage, in Publications of the Modern Language Association, 59, pp. 291-306.

53 Strässler, J., 1982, Idioms in English: a pragmatic analysis, Gunter Narr Verlag, Tübingen

54 Evans, V., Green, M., 2006, Cognitive linguistics: an introduction, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.

55 Janda, L., 2006, Cognitive linguistics, University of Carolina

46

everyday interaction with the world produces recurring patterns of embodied

activity that develop unique ways of interpreting the world. These patterns then

result pervasive in language giving rise to metaphorical structuring of abstract

concepts: actually, idioms retain a good deal of metaphoricity because they

often arise from conceptual metaphorical mapping between embodied source

domains and more abstract target domains.

Overall, embodied experience plays a major role in why certain idioms

emerge in language, in why people have intuitions about the meaning of

idioms, and in online processes of learning, speaking and understanding

idioms.

47

2. Collection of data

2.1. Process of data collection

In order to investigate the influence of the embodied experience onto the

language it has been necessary to do some parallel research in English and

Italian analysing the use of some selected body parts in phrases and idiomatic

expressions.

The body parts taken into account in this thesis belong to the upper part of

the body and they are the following:

– the face,

– the eyes,

– the nose,

– the mouth,

– the teeth,

– the tongue.

It has been decided to create some tables, differentiating the examples

retrieved in the English language from the one retrieved in Italian.

For each of the single body part chosen has been dedicated a research of

examples with the aim of comparing its different kind of use: a denotative use,

a metonymic use, a metaphoric use, if present, and finally its presence in

phrases and idiomatic expressions. However, the survey has included instances

containing all the English terms, and their plural forms, denoting the body parts

listed above (face/faces; eye/eyes; nose/noses; mouth/mouths; tooth/teeth;

tongue/tongues) and their Italian counterparts (faccia, viso, volto/facce, visi,

volti; occhio/occhi; naso/nasi; bocca/bocche; dente/denti; lingua/lingue).

48

All of the examples have been taken from various sources:

– www.wordreference.com: it is an online bilingual dictionary which is

growing gradually and which started in 1999 thanks to Michael Kellog.

It is specialized most of all for translations English-Spanish, English-

French, English-Italian, Spanish-French and Spanish-Portuguese;

– www.oxforddictionaries.com: it is an online dictionary created by the

Oxford University Press dictionaries, which is a department of Oxford

University, which has more than 150 years of dictionary-making

experience. It includes definitions as well as information on grammar

usage and regional variation;

– www.sketchengine.co.uk: it is a website which contains corpora of

languages with an appropriate level of linguistic mark-up, including the

British National Corpus (BNC), which is the one used in this research;

– Oxford Advanced Learner's dictionary of current English (Albert

Sydney Hornby): it is a monolingual English dictionary for learners of

English;

– Lo Zingarelli 2014 (Nicola Zingarelli): it is a monolingual Italian

dictionary;

– www.corpuspaisa.it: it is a web corpus which allows the exploration the

Italian language, thanks to the collection of about 250 millions of

words;

– Il Ragazzini 2015 (Giuseppe Ragazzini): it is bilingual English-Italian

and Italian-English dictionary

The first online dictionary has been used to acquire most of the examples

and their possible translations in Italian and English. The second one, the third

one and the forth one have been used to collect more English examples to

analyse; the fifth one and the sixth one, to find more Italian examples; while

the seventh one to collect more information about the possible translation of

some phrases.

49

http://www.wordreference.com/

http://www.corpuspaisa.it/

http://www.sketchengine.co.uk/

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/

The contribution of the first one has been the major one, because it helped a

lot in finding the meaning of most of the figurative English and Italian phrases.

While the examples obtained from the monolingual dictionaries has been

translated by myself, always with the help of the bilingual dictionary, Il

Ragazzini 2015, and the online dictionary www.wordreference.com.

In the following tables of data, add to the collection of example sentences in

which the denotations of the selected terms are specified, there are tables for

the English body part terms which can be used as verbs (to face, to eye, to

nose, to mouth) when they exist. Besides, in the parts where examples of

idioms and phrases are listed, there is a column where the abstract concepts

which they cover is indicated.

50


2.2. Data: English body parts examples and their Italian outputs

2.2.1. Face

“Face” used as noun:

a) Denotation

English (OD):

1. (front of head): front part of the head between the forehead

and the chin

2. (expression): an expression that is shown on somebody's

face

3. (-faced): (in adjectives) having the type of face or

expression mentioned

4. (person): (in compounds) used to refer to a person of type

mentioned

5. (side/surface): a side or surface of something

6. (front of the clock): the front part of a clock or watch

7. (character/aspect): the particular character or aspect of

something

Italian (LoZ):

● Faccia:

1. parte anteriore della testa, nella quale si trovano gli

occhi, il naso e la bocca

2. espressione, aspetto

3. parte e superficie esterna o anteriore di qualcosa

4. ciascuna delle superfici che individuano un poliedro

5. superficie piana che delimita un cristallo in una sua

parte, assumendo una posizione ben precisa rispetto agli

assi cristallografici a distanze qualsiasi

● Viso:

51

1. parte anteriore della testa umana, in cui hanno sede gli

organi della vista, dell'olfatto e della parola

2. espressione del volto

3. fisionomia particolare, aspetto inconfondibile di una

persona (quel viso non mi è nuovo)

4. occhio, sguardo, vista (accezione arcaica)

5. attenzione (accezione arcaica)56

● Volto:

1. viso, faccia

2. aspetto esteriore, modo di apparire, mostrarsi,

manifestarsi

3. carattere, essenza, natura

4. sguardo, vista (accezione arcaica)57

Table 1 – The denotative use of the word “face” in English and its equivalent

translation in Italian

DENOTATION ENGLISH ITALIAN

Face: 1 Faccia: 1 Viso: 1 Volto: 1

The ball hit him in the face. (WR)

La palla lo ha colpito sul viso.

La palla lo ha colpito in faccia.

La palla lo ha colpito sul volto.

56 Examples not retrieved


52

Face: 3 He turned, pale-faced, and made off the corridor. (SkE)

Si girò, con la faccia pallida, e scappò lungo il corridoio.

Si girò, con il viso pallido, e scappò lungo il corridoio.

Si girò, con il volto pallido, e scappò lungo il corridoio.

Face: 5 Faccia: 3

I was the luckiest man on the face of earth. (WR)

Ero l'uomo più felice sulla faccia della terra.

Face: 6 Do you know just what your clock face is like? (SkE)

Sai come è fatto il quadrante del tuo orologio?

Face: 7 Faccia: 2 Volto: 2

France began gradually to assume the face of a civil government. (OD)

La Francia iniziò lentamente ad assumere la faccia di un governo civile

La Francia iniziò lentamente ad assumere il volto di un governo civile.

53

Table 2 – The denotative use of the word “faccia” in Italian and its equivalent

translation in English

DENOTATION ITALIAN ENGLISH

Face: 5 Faccia: 4

Nasce per essere personalizzato, sipossono sceglierei disegni o le fotoda mettere su ogni faccia del cubo. (CP)

It has been created to be personalised, youcan choose drawings or pictures in order to decorate each face of the cube.

Face: 5 Faccia: 5

La quantità di facce rende i cristalli di almandino molto apprezzati. (CP)

The number of faces makes almandine crystals very appreciated.

b) Metonymy

Table 3 – The metonymic use of the word “face” in English and its equivalent



Face: 4 Volto: 3

The face of the party must be someone who appeals to all voters. (WR)

Il volto del partito deve essere qualcuno che attragga gli elettori.

54

Face: 2 Faccia: 2 Viso: 2

She did not have a happy face that day. (WR)

Non aveva una bella faccia quel giorno.

Non aveva un belviso quel giorno.

Non aveva un bell'aspetto quel giorno.

Non aveva una bella espressione quel giorno.

Face: 4 Viso: 3

She looked around for a familiar face. (OD)

Si guardò intornoin cerca di un volto familiare.

Table 4 – The metonymic use of the word “volto” and “viso” in Italian and its

equivalent translation in English


Viso: 4 Tu hai l'udir mortal sì come il viso. (Dante Par. XXI, 61) (LoZ)

You have a mortal hearing just as your sight.

Volto: 3 Vorrei conoscere il suo vero volto. (WR)

I'd like to know his true essence.

55

“Face” used as verb:

Table 5 – The use of the verb “to face” in English and its equivalent


ENGLISH ITALIANABSTRACTCONCEPT

Her mind faces towards the future. (WR)

La sua mente guarda al futuro.

La sua mente si volge al futuro.

FORSIGHT

Our bedroom faces east. (WR)

La nostra camera da letto guarda a est.

DIRECTION

Face the teacher when you are talking to her. (WR)

Guarda l'insegnante quando le parli.

OBSERVATION

Turn and face theaudience. (WR)

Girati e mettiti difronte al pubblico.

POSITION

You have got to face your problems. (WR)

Devi affrontare ituoi problemi.

CONFRONTATION

56

He was to old to face up to the responsibilities ofhis position. (OD)

Era troppo vecchio per affrontare le responsabilità delsuo ruolo.

CONFRONTATION

The front of the house was faced with limestone. (WR)

Il parte anteriore della casa era ricoperta di calcare.

COVER

Lay your cards down without facing any of them. (WR)

Metti giù le carte senza scoprirne nessuna.

POSITION

Face the soldier to your right! (WR)

Fianco destro! DIRECTION

Both teams are ready to face off. (OD)

Entrambe le squadre sono pronte a cominciare la partita.

BEGINNING

57

Others criticise the police for wanting to “contain” sectarian fans rather than face them down and arrest them wholesale. (OD)

Gli altri criticano la polizia che vuole contenere i tifosi faziosi invece di contrastarli e arrestarli in blocco.

CONFRONTATION

“Face” used in idioms and phrases:

Table 6 – The use of the word “face” in idioms and phrases in English and its

equivalent translation in Italian

ENGLISH ITALIAN ABSTRACTCONCEPT

We exchanged e-mails for a year before finally meeting face to face. We'd seen each other's photos, but the first time we met face to face was a shock. (WR)

Ci siamo scambiati e-mail per un anno prima di incontrarci finalmente facciaa faccia. Ci eravamo scambiati le nostre foto, ma laprima volta che ci siamo visti faccia a faccia è stato uno shock.

CONFRONTATION

58

She was at an early age broughtface to face with the horrors of war. (OD)

Già in giovane età fu messa faccia a faccia con gli orrori della guerra.

Già in giovane età fu messa di fronte agli orrori della guerra

CONFRONTATION

Keep looking, they can't just have vanished off the face of earth. (OD)

Continua a cercare, non possono essere scomparsi dalla faccia della terra.

DISAPPEARENCE

It doesn't matter how well qualified you are,if your face doesn't fit, you don't stand a chance. (OD)

Non importa quanto tu sia qualificato, se non sei adatto al lavoro, non avrai alcuna possibilità.

PROFICIENCY

59

Harry walked on,his face like thunder, his fists still clenched. (SkE)

Harry continuò a camminare, scuro in volto, i pugni ancora stretti.

Harry continuò a camminare, con una faccia scura,i pugni ancora stretti.

Harry continuò a camminare, con un espressione furibonda, i pugni ancora stretti.

ANGER

He had the face to ask me for more money. (WR)

Ha avuto la faccia di chiedermi ancora soldi.

Ha avuto la faccia tosta di chiedermi ancora soldi.

Ha avuto la faccia di bronzo di chiedermi ancora soldi.

INSOLENCE,AUDACITY

In the face of all her problems, Mary persisted inher studies. (WR)

Nonostante tutti isuoi problemi, Mary continuò i suoi studi.

REGARDLESSNESS

60

They lost face as a result of the scandal. (WR)

Hanno perso la faccia a causa dello scandalo.

Ci hanno rimesso la facciaa causa dello scandalo.

Hanno perso la reputazione a causa dello scandalo.

FAILURE

Stop pulling faces! (WR)

Smettila di fare le boccacce.

Smettila di fare le smorfie.

INSULT,HUMILIATION,

OFFENCE

I've got to go upstairs and put my face on, very quickly. (SkE)

Devo andare su e truccarmi, molto velocemente.

PUT MAKE UP

His only option was to go home and face the music. (WR)

Poteva solo andare a casa e affrontare le conseguenze.

CONFRONTATION

You can't take what she says at face value: she always has an agenda. (WR)

Non puoi mai prendere ciò che dice alla lettera: ha sempre dei secondi fini.

NAIVETY

61

This government continues to fly in the face of notjust internationalopinion, but commonsense and decency. (OD)

Questo governo continua ad andare contro non solo l'opinione internazionale, ma anche contro il buonsenso e la moralità.

OPPOSITION

In your face! (WR)

Beccati questo! Alla faccia tua! Va al diavolo! Tiè!

CONTEMPT

On the face of it, he's a great candidate, but have you checkedout his referencesyet? (WR)

All'apparenza è un ottimo candidato, ma haigià controllato le sue referenze?

APPEARENCE

His refusal to accept my apology was a slap in the face. (WR)

Il suo rifiuto nell'accettare le mie scuse è stato un affronto.

Il suo rifiuto nell'accettare le mie scuse è stato uno schiaffo nei denti.

Il suo rifiuto nell'accettare le mie scuse è stato uno smacco.

INSULT,HUMILIATION,

OFFENCE

62

I wish you wouldn't throw that incident back in my face every time we have a row. (WR)

Vorrei che non mi rinfacciassi quell'episodio ogni volta che litighiamo.

REPROACH

When he gave them 300 roubles, the soldiers threw thenotes back in hisface and said: “You have dollars and only want to give us roubles?”.(OD)

Quando gli dette 300 rubli, i soldati non li accettarono e e dissero: “hai I dollari e ci vuoi dare i rubli?”

REFUSAL

Are you still working for what's her face? (OD)

Stai ancora lavorando per come si chiama?

RECOGNITION

It has set its faceagainst cutting prices. (SkE)

Si è opposto al taglio dei prezzi.

OPPOSITION

Alexandra, listen to me. Look up. Iwish to speak to your face. (SkE)

Alexandra, ascoltami. Guardami. Vorreidirti le cose in faccia.

FRANKNESS,

SINCERITY,

STRAIGHT_

FORWARDNESS,

FAIRNESS

63

Following a strong public outcry, the politician did an about-face regarding his position on global warming. (WR)

Company halt! About-face! Forward march! (WR)

Dopo forti proteste pubbliche, il politico ha fatto marcia indietro sulle sue affermazioni sul riscaldamento globale.

Compagnia alt! Dietrofront! Marcia avanti!

BETRAYAL

Table 7 – The use of the words “faccia”, “viso”, “volto” in idioms and

phrases in Italian and its equivalent translation in English

ITALIAN EXAMPLE ENGLISHCORRESPONDENT

ABSTRACTCONCEPT

Il senso di colpa gli si legge in faccia. (CP)

Subito dopo si può leggere sul suo volto un senso di grande liberazione. (CP)

The sense of guiltis written all over his face.

Immediately, a great sense of freedom is written all over his face.

CLEARNESS OFEMOTIONS

Che faccia che hai fatto! (WR)

You should have seen the look on your face!

Your expression was priceless!

EXPRESSION

64

E soprattutto c'è da fidarsi di un'azienda che prende a pesci infaccia i propri clienti? (CP)

And above all can we trust a company that treats its customers like dirt?

And above all can we trust a company that mistreats its customers?

And above all can we trust a company that insults its customers?

INSULT, OFFENCE,HUMILIATION

Sam questa volta non guarderà in faccia a nessunoe non esiterà a premere il grilletto. (CP)

This time Sam will go ahead regardless of everyone and won't hesitate to pull the trigger.

This time Sam won't answer to anyone and won'thesitate to pull the trigger.

This time Same will answer to no one and won'thesitate to pull the trigger.

IMPASSIVITY,

IMPARTIALITY

Non fare quella faccia!(WR)

Don't look at melike that!

Don't look at mewith that face!

EXPRESSION

65

Grazie a chi ci ha messo la faccia. (CP)

Thanks to those who stood up for it.

RISK, COMPROMISE

YOURSELF

Il test finale sarà un faccia a faccia con l'assassino del figlio. (CP)

The last test will be a face-to-facewith his son's murderer.

The last test will be a one-to-one with his son's murderer.

CONFRONTATION

Le pare possibile che abbiano una tale faccia tosta?(CP)

Do you think it ispossible they have that nerve?

Do you think it ispossible they have that face?

INSOLENCE,

AUDACITY

La sorte sembrò voltare la faccia ad Andrisco. (CP)

Fate seemed to turn its back on Andrisco.

BETRAYAL

Dobbiamo riderein faccia alla tragedia, alla sfortuna e alla nostra impotenza contro le forze della natura se non vogliamo impazzire. (CP)

We should laughin the tragedy's face, in the misfortune's face,in our powerlessness face against the forces of nature otherwise we willgo crazy.

INSULT, OFFENCE,

HUMILIATION

66

Alla faccia di chimi vuole male! (LoZ)

In the teeth of whom bears me ill will!

CONTEMPT

Rutelli ha soprattutto l'intenzione di fare la faccia feroce con il crimine. (CP)

Rutelli above all intends to put a brave face on crime.

INTRANSIGENCE,

SEVERITY

Un bel tipino, con la faccia da schiaffi! (CP)

What a character he is, a cheeky face!

What a character he is, a brazen face!

INSOLENCE,

AUDACITY

Sullo sfondo mamma Carmela ha una faccia da funerale. (CP)

In the background mumCarmela has a face as long a a fiddle.

SADNESS

Fare buon viso acattivo gioco. (WR)

To make the bestof it.

To grin and bearit.

To keep a stiff upper lip.

RESIGNATION,

ACCEPTANCE

67

Henry non teme di affrontare la vita a viso aperto. (CP)

Henry is not afraid of facing life openly and fairly.

Henry is not afraid of facing life head on.

FRANKNESS,

SINCERITY,

STRAIGHT_

FORWARDNESS,

FAIRNESS

68

2.2.2. Eye

“Eye” used as noun:

a) Denotation

English (OED)

1. (part of the body): either the two organs on the face that you see

with

2. (-eyed): (in adjectives) having the type or number of eyes

mentioned

3. (ability to see): the ability to see

4. (way of seeing): a particular way of seeing something

5. (of needle): the hole in the end of a needle that you pit the

thread through

6. (on clothes): a small thin piece of metal curved round, that a

small hook fits into, used for fastening clothes

7. (of storm): a calm area at the centre of a storm

8. (on potato): a dark mark on a potato from which another plant

will grow

Italian (LoZ): Occhio

1. (in relazione alla sua natura e alle sue funzioni anatomiche e

fisiologiche): a) organo della vista, diversamente complesso e

strutturato negli invertebrati e nei vertebrati, costituito

nell'uomo da una formazione sferoidale contenuta in ognuna

delle cavità orbitarie del cranio; b) sguardo, vista

2. (in relazione alle attività intellettuali o spirituali dell'uomo): a)

senso estetico, gusto del bello; b) espressione, stato d'animo

espresso dallo sguardo58; c) capacità di comprendere, capire,

intuire, giudicare e simili; d) attenzione


69

3. (con valore analogico): a) ciò che per le sue caratteristiche

ricorda un globo oculare; b) foro o apertura tondeggiante59; c) in

tipografia, lettera o segno inciso a rovescio e in rilievo nella

superficie superiore del fusto del carattere; d) (in botanica)

gemma60; e) (in zoologia) occhio di pavone: farfalla le cui ali

presentano quattro macchie simili a ocelli; f) occhio di bue: in

architettura, finestrino circolare od ovale sopra una porta, nel

centro di una cupola e simili61; g) occhio di pernice:

nell'industria tessile, disegno di un tessuto a puntini chiari su

sfondo piuttosto scuro; h) (in fotografia) o occhio di pesce, tipo

di obiettivo grandangolare dotato di un angolo di campo molto

grande; i) (in mineralogia) occhio di gatto, occhio di tigre:

varietà di quarzo di colore variabile dal grigio-verdastro al

giallo, usate come gemme, caratterizzate dal fenomeno del

gatteggiamento

Table 8 – The denotative use of the word “eye” in English and its equivalent



Eye: 1 Occhio: 1a

She had beautifulgreen eyes. (WR)

Aveva magnifici occhi verdi.




70

Eye: 2 She could see he was fair-haired and blue-eyed. (SkE)

Poteva vedere che lui aveva I capelli chiari e gli occhi azzurri.

Eye: 5 I used to put threads through the eye of the needles for my mother. (WR)

Mettevo sempre ifili nella cruna dell'ago a mia madre.

Eye: 7 Occhio: 3a

The eye of the hurricane was clearly defined. (WR)

Il centro dell'uragano era ben definito.

L'occhio del ciclone era ben definito.

Eye: 8 Occhio: 3a

You need to peel potatoes and remove all the eyes as well. (WR)

Devi pelare le patate e rimuovere anche gli occhi.

Eye: 6 It fastens with a hook and eye. (OD)

Si chiude con unachiusura a gancio e occhiello.

71

Table 9 – The denotative use of the word “occhio” in Italian and its equivalent



Occhio: 3i Altra pietra dal nome particolarmente pittoresco nella quale è possibile osservare questo fenomeno è l'occhio di tigre, che appartiene però ai quarzi. (CP)

Another stone with a really typical name and in which it is possible to observe this phenomenon is the tiger’s eye, which belongs to the family of quartzes.

Occhio: 3e L'occhio di pavone sverna in letargo prima di deporre gruppi dioltre 500 uova alla volta ad inizio primavera. (CP)

The peacock butterfly winters in hibernation before laying groups of 500 eggs at a time at the beginning of Spring.

Occhio: 3h Mentre l'immagine viene proiettata, essa deve passare per una lente a occhio di pesce e le proporzioni originali sono così riprodotte. (CP)

While the pictureis projected, it should pass through a fish-eye lens and the original sizes are then reproduced.

72

Occhio: 3g La batteria è interamente costruita in faggio, finitura occhio di pernice, satinata. (CP)

The drums are completely made of beech, with a bird's eye patternand a satin finish.

b) Metonymy

Table 10 – The metonymic use of the word “eye” in English and its equivalent



Eye: 3 Occhio: 1b

He has an exceptional eye, he can read the smallest print. (WR)

Ha un occhio eccezionale, riesce a leggere i caratteri piccolissimi.

Ha una vista eccezionale, riesce a leggere i caratteri piccolissimi.

Eye: 3 Occhio: 1b

To my eye, the windows seem out of proportion.(OD)

Ai miei occhi, le finestre sembranosproporzionate.

73

Eye: 4 I got a bird's-eye view of the Atlantic as my plane flew over it. (WR)

Ho goduto del panorama dall'alto dell'Atlantico mentre ci volavamo sopra con l'aereo.

Eye: 4 Occhio: 1b

I know all about your behaviour atyou last school soI'll be keeping an eagle eye on you.(WR)

So tutto circa il tuo comportamento nella tua vecchia scuola, quindi sappi che ti terrò d'occhio.

So tutto circa il tuo comportamento nella tua vecchia scuola, quindi sappi che avrò unocchio vigile su di te.

Occhio: 2c In the eyes of younger colleagues, Mr Arness was an eccentric. (OD)

Agli occhi dei suoi colleghi più giovani, il signor Arness era un eccentrico.

74

Table 11 – The metonymic use of the word “occhio” in Italian and its



Occhio: 2a Un quadro che appaga gli occhi,ma anche lo spirito. (CP)

A painting which is a feast for the eyes, and for the soul as well.

Occhio: 2d Occhio! (LoZ) Mind your eye! Watch out! Be careful!

c) Metaphor

Table 12 – The metaphoric use of the word “eye” in English and its equivalent


ENGLISH EXAMPLE ITALIAN CORRESPONDENT

She always likes to be right in the eye of things. (WR)

Le piace stare sempre al centro delle situazioni.

You need to hook these on the metal eyes hanging from the ceiling. (WR)

Devi agganciare questi agli occhielli di metallo appesi al soffitto.

The eye of this bolt is blocked up with grease. (WR)

Il foro di questo bullone è bloccato dal grasso.

75

The eye of the daisy is yellow. (WR)

Il pistillo della margherita è giallo.

The company suffered a blackeye when the police charged its chairman with fraud. (WR)

L'azienda si guadagnò una brutta reputazione quando la polizia accusò il presidente delconsiglio di amministrazione di frode.

John threw a dart, which hit the bull's eye (WR)

At certain places there were thick bull's eye windows, by means of which the under-water travellers could look out into the ocean through which they were moving. (OD)

John tirò una freccia e fece centro nel bersaglio.

In certi punti c'erano degli oblò dai vetri spessi, attraversoi quali i viaggiatori sottomarinipotevano ammirare l'oceano nel quale si stavano muovendo.

The children of politicians grow up in the public eye. (WR)

I bambini dei politici crescono sotto i riflettori.

Thompson hired a private eye to find out if his wife was having an affair. (WR)

Thompson assunse un investigatore privato per scoprire se sua moglie aveva un'altra relazione.

I'm exhausted: I took the red-eye from London to New York.(WR)

Ho preso il volo notturno da Londra a New York e ora sonoesausto.

76

“Eye” used as verb:

Table 13 – The use of the verb “to eye” in English and its equivalent



He eyed her across the room, making her nervous. (WR)

La osservava attraverso la stanza rendendola nervosa.

LOOK

Margot saw the woman eyeing up her boyfriend.(OD)

Margot vide la donna guardare con desiderio il suo ragazzo.

DESIRE

“Eye” used in idioms and phrases:

Table 14 – The use of the word “eye” in idioms and phrases in English and its



Jenny loved her children, but her eldest child was the apple of her eye. (WR)

Jenny amava i suoi figli, ma il suo pupillo era il primogenito.

PROPENSITY,PREFERENCE

77

For murder I believe an eye for an eye is a fair punishment. (WR)

His laws were very cruel and were based on the principle of an eye for an eyeand a tooth for atooth. (OED)

Per l'omicidio credo che la legge del taglione sia una punizione giusta.

Per l'omicidio credo che l'occhio per occhio, dente perdente sia una giusta punizione.

Le sue leggi erano molto crudeli e si basavano sul principio dell'occhio per occhio, dente perdente.

THREAT

Well, we don't always see eye toeye about things. (SkE)

Certo, non siamo sempre pienamente d'accordo sulle cose.

Certo, non siamo sempre dello stesso avviso sulle cose.

DISAGREEMENT

A woman stole my parking spot, so when I saw her in the store, I gave her the eye. (WR)

Una donna mi rubò il parcheggio, così quando la vidi nel negozio, le tirai un’ occhiataccia.

THREAT

78

Anyway, we were sitting thereand I could see this young girl giving me the eye. (OD)

Ad ogni modo, eravamo seduti lì e potevo vedere questa ragazzina farmi gli occhi dolci.

DESIRE, INTEREST

When cooking soufflés, you need to keep an eye on them so they don’t fall. (WR)

Quando cuoci un soufflé, devi tenerlo d’occhio affinché non sgonfi.

CONTROL

Maybe there's more to this situation than meets the eye. (OD)

Forse questa situazione è molto più complessa di quello che sembra.

HIDDEN ASPECT

She couldn't describe him accurately because she'd only seen him out of the cornerof her eye. (WR)

Non poté descriverlo accuratamente perché lo aveva visto con la codadell'occhio.

FURTIVE LOOK

Wow, that’s an outfit that’ll grabthe eye. (WR)

Wow, quello sì che è un completo che attirerà l’attenzione.

DESIRE, INTEREST

79

I’ve got my eye on a little yellow handbag I saw in a shop window. (WR)

Ho messo gli occhi su una borsetta gialla che ho visto in una vetrina.

DESIRE, INTEREST

The company has an eye on expanding into overseas markets in the future. (WR)

La compagnia haintenzione di espandersi nei mercati oltremarein futuro.

DESIRE, INTEREST

I can't see them with the naked eye. (SkE)

Non riesco a vederli a occhio nudo.

CLEAR DISPLAY

I knew exactly what she was up to but decided to turn a blind eye. (WR)

Sapevo esattamente cosa stava combinando, ma ho deciso di chiudere un occhio.

INDULGENCE

And in the twinkling of an eye she was gone.(WR)

E in un batter d’occhio, sparì.

E in un batter di ciglia, sparì.

RAPIDITY

80

She dressed in her best clothes with an eye to making him notice her. (WR)

Indosso i suoi abiti migliori tenendo conto difarsi notare da lui.

Indossò i suoi abiti migliori nella speranza difarsi notare da lui.

DESIRE, INTERST

The ideal candidate will have an eye for detail, be able to work independently and as part of a team and most importantly – have a passion for games! (OED)

Il candidato ideale deve avereocchio per i dettagli, essere capace di lavorare sia indipendentemente che in squadra efondamentale è avere passione per i giochi!

PROFICIENCY

We're up to our eyes at work. (OD)

Siamo occupatissimi con il lavoro.

Siamo indaffaratissimi con il lavoro.

Siamo sommersi di lavoro.

BUSINESS,OVERWORK

81

She was obviously jealousand gave me the evil eye when no one was looking. (WR)

Ovviamente era gelosa e mi ha gettato il malocchio addosso quando nessuno stava guardando.

THRET

A visit to the docks can be a fascinating eye opener. (OD)

Una visita al molo può essere un'affascinante rivelazione.

REVELATION

Table 15 – The use of the word “occhio” in idioms and phrases in Italian and

its equivalent translation in English

ITALIAN ENGLISHABSTRACTCONCEPT

Anche se non è veterinario mio nonno aveva un occhio clinico per tutte le malattie delle vacche. (WR)

Even though he’snot a veterinarianmy grandfather had a good eye for all of the cows’ diseases.

PROFICIENCY

82

Si occupa, infatti,anche dell'atleticaleggera , con il consueto occhio di riguardo per i giovani. (CP)

Actually, he dealswith track and field as well, with a special consideration for teenagers.

Actually, he dealswith track and field as well, holding teenagers with the highest regards.

PROPENCITY,PREFERECE

Carl però non vede di buon occhio la neonataamicizia fra Molly e Dupree. (CP)

However Carl doesn't look kindly upon the newborn friendship between Molly and Dupree.

However Carl doesn't view highly the newborn friendship between Molly and Dupree.

PROPENCITY,PREFERENCE

Ragazzi, compratelo a occhi chiusi. (CP)

Guys, buy it blindly.

TRUST

83

Era che non se l' aspettava , dopo tutto , di trovare un tempio così bello , così interessante , proprio qui , tra boschi e campi , a perdita d'occhio. (CP)

After all, the fact was that he didn'texpect it, to find such a beautiful temple, so interesting, just there, in the middle of woods and fields, as far as the eye can see.

SIGHT

Ha gli occhi fuori dalle orbiteed è paonazzo in volto. (CP)

Pop-eyed and red-faced.

With his eyes popping out of his head and red-faced.

ANGER

Anche l'occhio vuole la sua parte! (CP)

Look also count! DELIGHT, PLEASURE

Un occasione perrifarsi gli occhi davanti ad una delle auto sportive giapponesi più mitiche dell'era moderna. (CP)

A chance to feastour eyes on one of the most legendary Japanese sport cars of modern times.

DELIGHT, PLEASURE

Con Young Modern la band strizza l'occhio alpop rock. (CP)

The band winks at pop rock with their song Young Modern.

PROPENSITY,PREFERENCE

84

Questo evento però apre gli occhi a Rosa che si rende finalmente autonoma. (CP)

However this event opens Rosa's eyes that finally becomes independent.

However this event undeceives Rosa that finally becomes independent.

ATTENTION

85

2.2.3. Nose

“Nose” used as noun:

a) Denotation

English (OD):

1. the part of the face that sticks out above the mouth, used for

breathing and smelling things

2. (-nosed): (in adjectives) having the type of nose mentioned

3. the front part of the plane

4. a special ability for finding or recognizing something

5. a sense of smell

6. a characteristic smell

Italian (LoZ): Naso

1. parte prominente del volto dell'uomo e del muso di alcuni

animali, posta tra la fronte e la bocca, sede dell'inizio delle

vie respiratorie e protezione dell'organo dell'olfatto

2. faccia, volto

3. senso dell'olfatto, fiuto

4. intuito, perspicacia

5. parte sporgente di alcuni oggetti

6. (in meccanica) parte anteriore del mandrino, sulle macchine

utensili, di forma internamente tronco-conica ed

esternamente cilindrica e filettata su cui si avvita la

piattaforma o disco menabrida per il montaggio del perno62


86

Table 16 – The denotative use of the word “nose” in English and its equivalent



Nose: 1 Naso: 1

A fly landed on my nose. (WR)

Una mosca è volata sul mio naso

Nose: 2 A red-nosed ostler took their horses. (SkE)

Uno stalliere dal naso rosso prese i loro cavalli.

Nose: 3 Naso: 5

The nose of the plane pitched down. (WR)

Il naso dell'aereo si è scagliato verso il basso.

La prua dell’aereo si è scagliata verso il basso.

Il muso dell'aereo si è scagliato verso il basso.

87

b) Metonymy

Table 17 – The metonimic use of the word “nose” in English and its equivalent


DENOTATION ENGLISH EXAMPLEITALIAN

CORRESPONDENT

Nose: 4, 5 Naso: 3, 4

He has a great nose for good books. (WR)

My hound dog has a great nose and can track anysmell. (WR)

Ha un sesto senso per scoprire buoni libri.

Il mio cane da caccia ha un grande fiuto e segue ogni odore.

Nose: 6 This Chardonnay has a wonderful nose. (WR)

Questo Chardonnay ha un profumo fantastico.

Table 18 – The metonymic use of the word “naso” in Italian and its equivalent


DENOTATION ITALIAN EXAMPLEENGLISH

CORRESPONDENT

Naso: 4 A naso, ti direi disì! (WR)

Off the top of myhead, yes!

At a guess, yes!

88

Naso: 2 Yuri Gagarin, primo uomo a mettere il naso fuori dall'atmosfera terrestre. (CP)

Yuri Gagarin, first man to put his nose out of the atmosphere.

Yuri Gagarin, first man to set foot outside the atmosphere.

c) Metaphor

Table 19 – The metaphoric use of the word “nose” in English and its


ENGLISH ITALIAN

The captain guided the nose ofthe yacht towards the dock. (WR)

Il capitano ha guidato la prua dello yacht verso la banchina.

He used the nose of the pliers to reach into the crack. (WR)

Ha usato il becco delle pinze per raggiungere l’interno della fessura.

Positioning the nose of the saddle downwards may relieveyour initial discomfort but it may cause long term pain. (OED)

Posizionando l'arcione della sella verso il basso si può alleviare il fastidio iniziale, mapuò causare dolore a lungo andare.

89

“Nose” used as verb:

Table 20 – The use of the verb “to nose” in English and its equivalent



He nosed close enough to see theentertainer. (WR)

Si avvicinò abbastanza da poter vedere l’intrattenitore.

APPROACH

The dog nosed the door so he could pass through. (WR)

Il cane ha spinto la porta con il naso per poterci passare.

PUSH

Horse number seven seemed all set to win, but then number eleven nosed him out. (WR)

Il cavallo numerosette sembrava destinato a vincere, ma poi ilnumero undici l’ha battuto per un soffio.

HARD-FOUGHTDEFEAT

The detective decided to nose around the slumsto see what mischief was afoot. (WR)

L’investigatore decise di ficcanasare nei quartieri bassi perverificare quale guaio fosse in corso.

INTRUSION

90

The stock nose dived. (WR)

Il mercato finanziario precipitò.

DOWNFALL

After the avalanche, bloodhounds nosed out the buried skiers. (WR)

Dopo la valanga, i cani hanno fiutato alla ricerca degli sciatori sepolti.

SENSE OF SMELL

She's always nosing into my business. (OD)

Ficca sempre il naso nei miei affari.

INTRUSION

He nosed out the signs of trespass. (OD)

Scoprì i segni di un'intrusione.

DISCOVER

“Nose” used in idioms and phrases:

Table 21 – The use of the word “nose” in idioms and phrases in English and

its equivalent translation in Italian


What a good guess! You hit my birthday righton the nose! (WR)

Bravo! Hai indovinato esattamente il mio compleanno!

PRECISION

91

He paid through the nose for that car, and it’s nothing but a piece of junk. (WR)

Quella macchina l’ha pagata un occhio della testa, e non è nient’altro che unrottame!

EXPENSIVENESS

It was a very close race. Our horse won by a nose. (WR)

È stata una gara molto equilibrata.Il nostro cavallo ha vinto per un pelo.

PROXIMITY

He turned his nose up at the job. (OD)

Storse il naso a quel lavoro.

Arricciò il naso nei confronti di quel lavoro.

AVERSION

When I was at college I used to bury my nose in a book rather than join one of the societies. (SkE)

Quando ero all'università di solito mi immergevo in un libro piuttosto che unirmi alle varie associazioni.

FOCUS

We count noses at Church conventions. (OD)

Contiamo le teste ai convegni clericali.

SUM

92

Opposition Members are cutting off their noses to spite their own faces by encouraging Mr. Millan. (SkE)

I membri dell'opposizione si stavano dandola zappa sui piedi incoraggiando Mr. Millan.

SELF DAMAGEMENT

Angela got up my nose as usual on this point overlunch. (SkE)

A questo punto del pranzo, Angela iniziava ad irritarmi comeal solito.

ANGER

They're either in the greenhouse orin the shed. Oh right. I think. Yeah, I'll have a nose round. (SkE)

Sono entrambi nella serra o nel capanno. Perfetto. Credo. Si, darò un'occhiata in giro.

EXPLORATION

Since leaving prison, he's managed to keep his nose clean. (OD)

Da quando è uscito di prigioneha cercato di stare fuori dai guai.

RESTRAINT

“Why don't you keep your nose out of my business?” he demanded. (OD)

“Perchè non tienifuori il naso dai miei affari?” domandò.

RESPECT

93

He keeps his nose to the grindstone and thinks everyone else should. (SkE)

Ci sta dando dentro e crede che tutti dovrebbero farlo.

FOCUS

You're looking down your nose at us. (SkE)

Ci stai guardando dall'alto al basso.

ARROGANCE

The Montego was nose to tail with the car in front of it. (SkE)

La Montego era appiccicato alla macchina di fronte a essa.

PROXIMITY

I searched everywhere for the letter and it was under my nose all the time!(OD)

Ho cercato la lettera dappertutto ed è stata sotto il mio naso tutto il tempo.

Ho cercato la lettera dappertutto ed è stata sotto i miei occhi tutto il tempo.

CLEAR DISPLAY

94

The boxer went nose to nose with his opponent. (WR)

Sam was nose to nose with his girlfriend, Mary. (WR)

Il pugile giunse al faccia a facciacon il suo avversario.

Sam era a un palmo di naso dalla sua ragazza,Mary.

CONFRONTATION

Sure enough, he could smell the magic in the air, and he followed his nose across the great hall and down a long series of hallways. (OD)

Quasi sicuramente poteva sentire la magia nell'aria, e seguì il suo nasoattraverso il grande salone e giù per una serie di lunghi corridoi.

Quasi sicuramente poteva sentire la magia nell'aria, e seguì il suo istinto attraverso il grande salone egiù per una serie di lunghi corridoi.

Quasi sicuramente poteva sentire la magia nell'aria, e seguì il suo cuore attraverso il grande salone egiù per una serie di lunghi corridoi.

INSTINCT

95

Table 22 – The use of the word “naso” in idioms and phrases in Italian and its



Appena glielo ho detto, gli è saltata la mosca al naso. (WR)

As soon as I told him, he lost his patience.

As soon as I told him, he got his back up.

As soon as I told him, it got up hisnose.

ANGER

Passò davanti allemacchine con la puzza sotto al naso. (OD)

She walked past the cars with his nose in the air.

She walked past the cars being snooty.

She walked past the cars being toffee-nosed.

ARROGANCE

Si ostina a non vedere più in là del proprio naso.(CP)

He persists in seeing no fartherthan the end of his nose.

IGNORANCE

96

Ma lui ha lasciato tutti con un palmo di naso e così continuerà a fare in futuro. (CP)

However he has deceived everyone and he will do like this even in the future.

However he has left everyone badly disappointed and he will do like this even in the future.

However he has outwitted everyone and he will do like this even in the future.

DISAPPOINTMENT

Uno come Bush, Al Turabi lo mena per il nasodove e quando vuole. (CP)

Bush is someone who can take Al Turabi for a ride whenever he wants to.

DECEIT

Gli italiani non sono stupidi e soprattutto sono stanchi di turarsiil naso. (CP)

Italians are not stupid and above all they are tired of holding their noses.

RELUCTANCE

97

2.2.4. Mouth

“Mouth” used as noun:

a) Denotation

English (OD):

1. (part of face): the opening in the face used for speaking,

eating, etc; the area inside the head behind this opening

2. (person needed food): a person considered only as

somebody who needs to be provided with food

3. (entrance/opening): the entrance or opening of something

4. (of river): the place where the river joins the sea

5. (way of speaking): a particular way of speaking

6. (-mouthed): (in adjectives) having the type or shape of

mouth mentioned

Italian (LoZ): Bocca

1. cavità nella parte inferiore del capo, limitata dalle labbra,

che costituisce la prima porzione dell'apparato digerente ed è

sede del senso del gusto e, nell'uomo, della parola

2. in varie locuzioni con riferimento alla cavità anatomica

3. in varie locuzioni con riferimento alle funzioni nutritive,

gustative

4. in varie locuzioni con riferimento alla funzione vocale63

5. labbra

6. apertura di recipienti e oggetti svariati

7. (in tecnologia) l'apertura compresa fra le ganasce di una

pinza o una tenaglia, destinata a racchiudere il pezzo da

afferrare o lavorare64

8. parte anteriore dell'anima di ogni arma da fuoco


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9. foce di fiume

10. (in botanica) bocca di leone: antirrino; bocca di lupo:

piccola pianta erbacea

11. bocca di dama: pasta dolce a base di uova, mandorle e

zucchero65

12. (in scienza e tecnica militare) bocca di lupo: difesa

accessoria della fortificazione66

13. (in edilizia) bocca di lupo: apertura di aerazione nella parete

di un locale interrato

14. (in marina) bocca di lupo: nodo scorsoio; bocca di rancio:

piastra metallica sagomata in forma di tenaglia aperta,

dentro la quale passano le cime d'ormeggio67

15. (in elettronica) bocca irradiante: terminazione aperta di

guida d'onda generalmente a forma di tromba, avente

funzione di antenna68

16. (in idraulica) bocca d'acqua: ogni apertura per far fluire un

liquido dall'esterno69

17. (in tecnica tessile) bocca d'ordito: apertura che si forma per

lasciar passare la navetta, durante il movimento dei licci

18. foratico nella tonnara70

19. bocca del martello: la parte piana leggermente convessa con







99

cui si batte71

20. (in architettura) bocca di lupo: collegamento ortogonale tra

due travi rettangolari72

21. (in anatomia) bocca dello stomaco: nel linguaggio comune,

la regione superiore dell'addome che corrisponde

all'epigastrio.

Table 23 – The denotative use of the word “mouth” in English and its



Mouth: 1 Bocca: 1

He opened his mouth for the dentist. (WR)

Ha aperto la bocca per il dentista.

Mouth: 4 Bocca: 9

The mouth of theriver is at the Atlantic Ocean. (WR)

La bocca del fiume si immette nell'Oceano Atlantico.

La foce del fiumesi immette nell'Oceano Atlantico.




100

Mouth: 3 Bocca: 6

The mouth of thecave was small, but the inside was huge. (WR)

La bocca della grotta era piccola, ma l'interno era enorme.

L'apertura della grotta era piccola, ma l'interno era enorme.

L'entrata della grotta era piccola, ma l'interno era enorme.

L'imboccatura della grotta era piccola, ma l'interno era enorme.

Table 24 – The denotative use of the word “bocca” in Italian and its equivalent



Bocca: 8 La palla di cannone doveva avere un diametro leggermente inferiore a quello della bocca da fuoco. (CP)

The cannonball should have had a slightly smaller diameter than thepiece of ordnance.

101

Bocca: 10 I ricercatori hanno trasferito due geni dei fiori di "bocca di leone" , che producono antocianina , nella pianta del pomodoro. (CP)

Researchers transferred two genes of the flowers of the “snapdragon”, that produce anthocianin, in the tomato plant.

Bocca: 13 Le celle avevano inoltre la caratteristica di avere le finestre a "bocca di lupo", che permettevano di vedere soltanto il cielo. (CP)

Besides, the cells had the characteristic to have air vents that allow to see just the sky.

Bocca: 17 La sua caratteristica , a differenza dell'altro tipo di telaio usato per gli arazzi è di avere l' apertura della "bocca d' ordito" azionata da pedali. (CP)

Its peculiarity, unlike the other kind of loom used to produce tapestries is that the opening of the “shed” is activated by treadles.

102

Bocca: 21 Mentre Allison è in lacrime tra le sue braccia , non si accorge che l' uomo le sta pigiando una pistola alla boccadello stomaco. (CP)

While Allison is crying in his arms, she doesn't realize that he's pulling a gun on her pit of the stomach.

b) Metonymy

Table 25 – The metonimic use of the word “mouth” in English and its



Mouth: 2 Bocca: 3

I have five mouths to feed. (WR)

Ho cinque bocche da sfamare.

Mouth: 5 He has a foul mouth on him! (OD)

Gli parla in modo sboccato.

Mouth: 6 Bocca: 6

Take a wide-mouthed Thermos of boiling water to warm bottles. (SkE)

Prendi un Thermos dalla bocca ampia di acqua bollente per scaldare le bottiglie.

103

Table 26 – The metonimic use of the word “bocca” in Italian and its

corresponding translation in English


Bocca: 5, 2 Hai una bellissima bocca.(WR)

You have a beautiful mouth.

“Mouth” used as verb:

Table 27 – The use of the verb “to mouth” in English and its equivalent



The student got kicked out of the class for mouthing off toomuch. (WR)

Lo studente è stato sbattuto fuori dalla classe per aver fatto troppi commenti ad alta voce.

INSULT, OFFENCE

His teacher was mouthing each letter sound and having him to repeat sequences.(OD)

La sua insegnantepronunciava il suono di ogni lettera facendogliripetere le sequenze.

LANGUAGEARTICULATION

104

The dog mouthed the ball.(WR)

Il cane prese la palla con la bocca.

GRAB

So the kids wouldn't hear, she just mouthed the word “candy”. (WR)

Ha mimato con la bocca la parola“caramella” in modo che i bambini non la sentissero.

MIME

“Mouth” used in idioms and phrases:

Table 28 – The use of the word “mouth” in idioms and phrases in English and



Though they appeared wealthy, they actually lived from hand to mouth. (WR)

Sembrano benestanti, ma in realtà vivono allagiornata.

MANAGE

105

He’s always getting into trouble because of his big mouth.(WR)

Finisce sempre nei guai a causa della sua lingua lunga.

Finisce sempre nei guai perchè è un chiacchierone.

Finisce sempre nei guai perchè non sa tenere la lingua a posto.

MISCHIEVOUSNESS

When I asked myuncle for extra money on my birthday, my mother said, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”. (WR)

Quando ho chiesto a mio zio altri soldi per l mio compleanno,mia madre mi disse “A caval donato non si guarda in bocca”.

ACCEPTANCE

Of course it’s true – I got it straight from the horse’s mouth. (WR)

Certo che è vero, l’ho saputo direttamente dalla fonte.

TRUTH

The governor was frothing at the mouth after she was accused of misconduct. (WR)

La governatrice stava schiumando di rabbia dopo che era stata accusatadi cattiva condotta.

ANGER

106

The smell of that steak on the grill is making my mouth water. (WR)

Il profumo di quella bistecca sulla griglia mi ha fatto venire l’acquolina in bocca.

DESIRE

What did you think? That I wasborn with a silver spoon in my mouth? (SkE)

Che cosa pensavi? Che fossi nato con la camicia?

WEALTH

They all have answered with one mouth. (SkE)

Risposero tutti inmodo unanime.

UNANIMITY

Zip your mouth, I don’t want anyone knowing our business. (WR)

Chiudi la bocca, non voglio che tutti sappiano i fatti nostri.

KEEP QUIET

When the scent isstruck, the dogs give mouth. (OD)

Quando sentono l’odore, i cani iniziano ad abbaiare.

BARK

Sorry, I’ll never open my mouth about you again. (OD)

Scusa, non dirò più niente di te.

LOQUACITY

107

She's all mouth! (SkE)

È tutto fumo e niente arrosto!

È una sbruffona!

INSOLENCE,AUDACITY

Fish Sparks has been a bit down in the mouth since we rumbledhis story. (SkE)

Fish Sparks si è un pò abbattuto da quando abbiamo scopertola sua storia.

SADNESS

I've warned them to keep their mouth shut aboutthis! (OD)

Li ho avvertiti di tenere la bocca chiusa su questo argomento.

KEEP QUIET

Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings! (OD)

I bambini sono la bocca della verità.

FRANKNESS,

SINCERITY,

STRAIGHT_

FORWARDNESS,

FAIRNESS

That never used to be a fault of his, running off at the mouth. It must be your noxious influence. (SkE)

Non è mai stata colpa sua, parlare troppo. Deve essere la tua influenza nociva.

LOQUACITY

108

Watch your mouth! (OD)

Attento a ciò chedici!

Attento a come parli!

Tieni a freno la lingua!

WARNING

Table 29 – The use of the word “bocca” in idioms and phrases in Italian and



Devo riconoscereche Luca è la bocca della verità! (CP)

I have to admit that Luca is the soul of truth!

FRANKNESS,

SINCERITY,

STRAIGHT_

FORWARDNESS,

FAIRNESS

Acqua in bocca! (WR)

Lips sealed! Keep it quiet! Keep quiet about

it! Keep it under

your hat! Mum's the

word!

KEEP QUIET

109

"Ma che ti hanno detto lì?" Massimo, a mezza bocca: "Mi hanno detto, ora esci, godi- ti questa situazione..." (CP)

“What did you tell there?” Massimo answersreluctantly: “They told me to enjoy this situation...”

“What did you tell there?” Massimo answershalf-heartedly: “They told me to enjoy this situation...”

“What did you tell there?” Massimo answersunder his breath:“They told me to enjoy this situation...”

“What did you tell there?” Massimo answersout of the cornerof his mouth: “They told me to enjoy this situation...”

RELUCTANCE

In bocca al lupo! (WR)

Good luck! Break a leg!

WISH

Non travisare le mie parole mettendomi in bocca frasi che non ho detto. (CP)

Do not misinterpret my words putting words I've never said into my mouth.

INSTRUCT, SUGGEST

110

È divertente come mi senta la bocca impastata proprio adesso. (SkE)

Funny how I feel all my mouth full of rubber right now.

Funny how tongue-tied I feelright now.

EMBARRASSMENT

Non abbiamo maipensato di cucirela bocca ad alcuno. (CP)

We have never thought to seal lips to anyone.

We have never thought to keep people quiet.

We have never thought to stop anyone's mouth.

We have never though to shut anyone up.

KEEP QUIET

Chi si attendeva accese contestazioni è rimasto a bocca asciutta. (CP)

Those who expected fierce objections, they have been left empty-handed.

Those who expected fierce objections, they have been disappointed.

Those who expected fierce objections, they have been left high and dry.

DISAPPOINTMENT

111

Puoi mettere bocca su tutto senza sapere nulla? (CP)

How can you get your word in without knowing anything?

How can you putin your two centswithout knowing anything?

How can you comment on everything without knowing anything?

INTRUSION

Il nome del narratore è sulla bocca di tutti ad Harlem. (CP)

The name of the storyteller is on everyone's lips inHarlem.

RUMOURS

Lana gli fa la respirazione bocca a bocca per farlo sopravvivere. (CP)

Lana gives him amouth-to-mouth resuscitation in order to let him survive.

Lana gives him the kiss of life in order to let him survive.

REANIMATION

Mi hai tolto la parola di bocca! (OD)

I was just about to say that!

PRE-EMPT

112

Il mondo rimase a bocca aperta per quel capolavoro di chirurgia. (CP)

The world was open-mouthed infront of that masterpiece of surgery.

The world was gobsmacked, in front of that masterpiece of surgery.

The world was with its mouth wide open, in front of that masterpiece of surgery.

The world was dumbfounded, infront of that masterpiece of surgery.

The world was left gaping, in front of that masterpiece of surgery.

ASTONISHMENT

Per quanto riguarda i miei gusti cinematografici sono di bocca buona. (CP)

As for my cinematographic tastes I'm easy to please.

EASY TO PLEASE

113

È proprio questo particolare che fastorcere la bocca. (CP)

It's exactly this detail that makes twist one's mouth.

It's exactly this detail that makes one make a wry face.

It's exactly this detail that makes one sneer.

It's exactly this detail that makes curl up one's lips.

AVERSION

Sono giorni che mi faccio la bocca a tutti questi vestiti entrati nella storia della moda.(CP)

It's been days thatI acquire a taste for all of these clothes which arepart of the fashion history.

It's been days thatI get to like all of these clothes which are part of the fashion history.

HABIT, ROUTINE

Loro ci ricambiano facendoci morire di fame, mangiando i nostri stipendi, portando via il pane di bocca ai nostri figli. (CP)

In return they make us starve todeath, they cut our salaries, taking the bread out of our sons mouth.

DEPRIVATION

114

2.2.5. Tooth

“Tooth” used as noun:

a) Denotation

English (OED):

1. any of the hard white structures in the mouth used for biting

and chewing food

2. a narrowed pointed part that sticks out of an object

Italian (LoZ): Dente

1. ognuno degli organi ossei sporgenti nel cavo orale che,

nell'uomo e nei Vertebrati degli Gnatostomi, sono destinati

alla masticazione

2. assalto, morso

3. sporgenza o risalto di varia forma e dimensione su

ingranaggi, utensili e simili

4. intaccatura più o meno profonda in un tessuto o in un

risvolto73

5. cima aguzza di un monte74

6. nelle antiche fortificazioni, opera formata da due facce

congiunte a saliente verso il nemico75

7. (in botanica) dente di canino: gramigna dei medici; dente di

cane: piccola pianta erbacea bulbosa; dente di leone:

tarassaco




115

Table 30 – The denotative use of the word “tooth” in English and its



Tooth: 1 Dente: 1

The dentist askedthe patient to open his mouth so he could look at his teeth. (WR)

Il dentista chiese al paziente di aprire la bocca per vedere i denti.

Tooth: 2 Dente: 3

The teeth on this saw are blunt, it will hardly cut anything anymore. (WR)

The teeth of the gears interlock. (WR)

It was an old comb with several broken teeth. (WR)

I denti di questa sega sono spuntati, non taglia quasi più niente.

I denti delle ruotedentate si incastrano tra loro.

Era un vecchio pettine con diversi denti rotti.

116

Table 31 – The denotative use of the word “dente” in Italian and its equivalent



Dente: 1 I denti del cobra iniettano veleni quando morde. (WR)

The fangs of a cobra inject venom when it bites.

Dente: 7 Nelle praterie aperte abbondanoi pascoli erbosi colorati dalle margherite e dal dente di leone, dai caratteristici fiori gialli. (CP)

In the meadows itis plentiful of grassy pastures coloured by daisies and dandelions, characterized by its yellow flowers.

“Tooth” used in idioms and phrases:

Table 33 – The use of the word “tooth” in idioms and phrases in English and



The law must have teeth, and itmust be enforced.(SkE)

La legge deve avere autorità, e deve essere rafforzata.

AUTHORITY

117

The brothers cut their professionalteeth at Lusardi's before starting their own restaurant. (OD)

I due fratelli si sono fatti le ossa a livello professionale da Lusardi prima di avviare il loro proprio ristorante.

EXPERIENCE

The argument hascentred on men being fed up to the teeth with being blamed for all that is wrong in the world. (OD)

La discussione si concentrò sugli uomini che sono stufi marci di essere incolpati per tutto ciò che c'è di sbagliato nel mondo.

ANNOYANCE

She acknowledged the existence of differences between men andwomen, but argued that the reason “women are as scarce (rare) as hen's teeth” in academia is due to discrimination.(OD)

Constatò l'esistenza tra uomini e donne, ma affermò che la ragione per cui“le donne sono molto rare” in accademia fosse dovuta alla discriminazione.

RARITY

118

You have escaped from going to prison by the skin of your teeth. (OD)

Sei scampato allaprigione per il rotto della cuffia.

Sei scampato allaprigione per un pelo.

PROXIMITY

Parliament must grit its teeth and take action. (OD)

Il parlamento deve stringere i denti e procedereall'azione.

PATIENCE

Yesterday was a very long day in the teeth of a cold wind and theoccasional shower. (OD)

Ieri è stata una lunga giornata direttamente contro un vento freddo e una pioggia occasionale.

CONFRONTATION

I'll fight tooth and nail to make a name for myself as an actor. (WR)

Combatterò con le unghie e con identi pur di diventare un attore famoso.

TOUGH DEFENCE

Just the sound of her voice sets myteeth on the edge. (OD)

Basta il suono della sua voce a farmi rabbrividire.

ANNOYANCE

119

It's meaty material and I think any actor loves to do stuff you can sink your teeth into. (OD)

È un materiale denso di contenuto e penso che gli attori amino fare cose in cui possano buttarsi a capofitto.

È un materiale denso di contenuto e penso che gli attori amino fare cose che possanoaffrontare con entusiasmo.

PASSIONATECONFRONTATION

The chairman described the council's decisionto reject the scheme as a kick in the teeth. (OD)

Il presidente del consiglio di amministrazione descrisse la decisione del consiglio di rifiutare il programma comeun calcio nei denti.

Il presidente del consiglio di amministrazione descrisse la decisione del consiglio di rifiutare il programma comeun calcio in faccia.

INSULT, OFFENCE,HUMILIATION

120

The last two nights have been worse, because he's cutting a tooth or two and has developed a cold. (OD)

Le ultime due notti sono state peggiori perché sta mettendo unoo due denti e ha preso il raffreddore.

TEETHING

Table 34 – The use of the word “dente” in idioms and phrases in Italian and its



Una giovane ragazza milanese che a costo di passare per antipatica e impopolare, difende a denti stretti i componenti della sua squadra e le sue decisioni. (CP)

A young girl from Milan stoodup for the members of the team and her decisions through clenched teeth, even though she could appear unpleasant and unpopular.

A young girl from Milan stoodup for the members of the team and her decisions reluctantly, even though she could appear unpleasant and unpopular.

RELUCTANCE

121

Il direttore della rete " giovane " di Mediaset parlafuori dai denti. (CP)

The manager of the young network Mediaset speaks without mincing words.

The manager of the young network Mediaset speaks frankly.

The manager of the young network Mediaset speaks his mind.

FRANKNESS,

SINCERITY,

STRAIGHT_

FORWARDNESS,

FAIRNESS

Già, perché mangiare una pizza non significa solo mettere qualcosasotto i denti perché si ha fame. (CP)

Well, eating a pizza doesn't mean just puttingsomething in ourstomach just because we're hungry.

Well, eating a pizza doesn't meant just have something to eat just because we're hungry.

EAT

Gli altri si indignano e mostrano i denti.(CP)

The other people get angry and show their teeth.

THREAT

122

Ma anche la Sposa era piuttosto potente e Gogo trovò innanzi pane per i suoi denti. (CP)

The Bride as wellwas very powerful and Gogo found it's match.

That woman is too beautiful, she’s beyond your means!

EQUALCONFRONTATION

Qui non troveranno pane per i loro denti, rischiando di compromettere leproprie tasche. (CP)

This place it's not for them, they will risk to compromise theirsavings.

This place it's not their cup of tea, they will riskto compromise their savings.

UNEQUALCONFRONTATION

Davanti al Re Juan Carlos di Spagna i due a fine gara hanno finto una stretta di mano e un sorriso a denti stretti . (CP)

In front of the king Juan Carlos of Spain, the two men pretended a handshake and a tight-lipped smile at the end of the match.

RELUCTANCE

Il povero cane splendido trema come una foglia ebatte i denti. (CP)

The poor wonderful dog shakes like a leaf and its teeth chatter.

FEAR / COLD

123

La pasta si cuoce al dente e si mischia in una casseruola al condimento. (CP)

Pasta should be cooked to the tooth and then mixed with a sauce in a casserole.

Pasta should be cooked to the bite and then mixed with a sauce in a casserole.

COOKING TIME

Nitti aveva il dente avvelenatonei confronti degli uomini politici della sua generazione. (CP)

Nitti bore a grudge against the politicians belonging to his own generation.

ANGER

Vi ho lasciato a denti asciutti in tutte le vostre città e con mancanza di panein tutti i vostri villaggi. (CP)

I made you go hungry in all of your cities and without bread in any of your villages.

DISAPPOINTMENT

“No” dissi ancora, digrignando i denti. (CP)

“No” I said again, grinding my teeth.

“No” I said again, gnashing my teeth.

“No” I said again, gritting my teeth.

THREAT

124

2.2.6. Tongue

“Tongue” used as noun:

a) Denotation

English (OED):

1. the soft part in the mouth that moves around, used for

tasting, swallowing, speaking, etc

2. the tongue of some animals, cooked and eaten

3. a language

4. a particular way of speaking

5. (-tongued): (in adjectives) speaking in the way mentioned

6. a long narrow piece of leather under the laces on a show

7. something that is long and narrow and shaped like a tongue

Italian (LoZ): Lingua

1. (con riferimento all'organo anatomico): a) organo muscolare

ricoperto di mucosa, mobile, posto nella cavità boccale, che

partecipa alle funzioni della suzione, della masticazione,

della deglutizione e della fonazione; b) lingua di animale,

solitamente bue o vitello, cotta per vivanda; c) tutto ciò che

ha forma più o meno simile a quella di una lingua; d) (in

zoologia) sogliola76; e) (in botanica) lingua cervina: felce

delle zone umide e ombrose con foglie coriacee e lucenti,

intere e ondulate ai margini; lingua di cane: cinoglossa;

lingua d'acqua: erba delle Potamogetonacee che cresce

galleggiando sulle acque a lento fluire77; f) (in botanica)

lingua di bue: fungo basidiomicete a forma di clava carnoso,



125

di color rosso sangue78

2. (con riferimento alla funzione che l'organo anatomico

adempie nell'articolazione dei suoni): a) sistema

grammaticale e lessicale per mezzo del quale gli

appartenenti ad una comunità comunicano tra loro; b) modo

di esprimersi proprio di un ambiente, di un mestiere, di una

scienza, di uno scrittore; c) (assolutamente) lingua italiana79;

d) (al plurale) complesso delle lingue straniere80; e)

nazione81; f) persona82; g) informazione, notizia83

Table 35 – The denotative use of the word “tongue” in English and its



Tongue: 1 Lingua: 1a

Rick bit into the juicy strawberry and felt the taste explode on his tongue. (WR)

Rick morse una fragola succosa e sentì il suo gusto esplodere sulla sua lingua.







126

Tongue: 2 Lingua: 1b

Patricia served tongue for lunch.(WR)

Patricia servì la lingua per pranzo.

Tongue: 6 At breakfast, he’swearing shoes with enormous tongues, loose-fitting trousers and an oversized shirt. (OD)

A colazione, indossava delle scarpe con delle linguette enormi,dei pantaloni larghi e un’ampiacamicia.

Tongue: 7 He'd built units intongue and groove. (OD)

The tongue of the bell should weight 1/20 the weight of the bell. (OD)

Ha costruito delleunità con la giunzione a maschio e femmina.

Il batacchio dellacampana deve pesare 1/20 del peso della campana.

Tongue: 7 Lingua: 1c

The moment the blade touched it, it flared into flame, sending tongues of fire up the blade. (OD)

The Wakhan, a tongue of land in Afghanistan’s north-east, touches China. (OD)

Il momento in cuila lama lo toccò, scoppiò in fiamme lanciando lingue di fuoco su tutta la lama.

Il Wakhan, una lingua di terra nel nordest dell’Afghanistan,tocca la Cina.

127

b) Metonymy

Table 36 – The metonimic use of the word “tongue” in English and its



Tongue: 3 Lingua: 2a

The drive has to come from the students who choose to speak their native tongue instead ofa language that everyone understands. (OD)

La spinta deve venire dagli studenti che hanno scelto di parlare la loro lingua nativa invece di una lingua che tutti possono capire.


We might well have appreciated the importance ofa silver tongue. (SkE)

Avremmo apprezzato bene l'importanza di essere molto eloquenti.


Their possessing familiars are sharp-tongued vipers. (SkE)

I suoi familiari sono vipere dallalingua tagliente.

128

“Tongue” used as verb:

Table 37 – The use of the verb “to tongue” in English and its equivalent



Eugene has worked out the correct tonguing.(OD)

Eugene ha lavorato sul modo corretto di staccare le note.

PLAYING

After the fight, the young man tongued his teethmaking sure they were all still there. (WR)

Dopo il combattimento il giovane si toccò identi con la lingua, accertandosi che fossero ancora tutti lì.

LICK

Sarah found it difficult to concentrate on the film because of the two teenagers tonguing each other in the row in front of her. (WR)

Sarah trovava difficile concentrarsi sul film a causa dei due adolescenti che si baciavano con la lingua nella fila davanti a lei.

KISS

129

“Tongue” used in idioms and phrases:

Table 38 – The use of the word “tongue” in idioms and phrases in English and



What’s the matter? Has the cat got your tongue? (WR)

Lost your tongue? (OD)

Qual è il problema? Il gatto ti ha morsola lingua?

Hai perso la lingua?

KEEP QUIET

Please sir, keep acivil tongue in your head and behave like a gentleman. (OD)

Per favore signore, parli educatamente e si comporti comeun gentiluomo.

POLITENESS

She found very difficult to get her tongue round the unfamiliar words.(OD)

Trovò difficoltà nel pronunciare quelle parole insolite.

EASY ARTICULATION

130

You must hold your tongue and not tell your mother-in-law what you really think of her cooking. (WR)

I had to bite my tongue and accept his explanation. (OD)

Dovresti morderti la lingua e non dire a tua suocera che cosa veramente pensi della sua cucina.

Dovresti frenare la lingua e non dire a tua suocerache cosa veramente pensi della sua cucina

Ho dovuto mordermi la lingua e accettarela sua spiegazione.

Ho dovuto frenare la linguae accettare la sua spiegazione.

KEEP QUIET

One suspects thathe is writing withtongue in cheek. (OD)

Si sospetta che stia scrivendo in modo ironico.

IRONY, DECEIT

I’m going to havea whisky - my tongue’s hanging out. (OD)

Prenderò un whisky, non vedo l’ora.

DESIRE

131

Ace stuck out her tongue at Daak, who was grinning at her. (SkE)

Ace fece la linguaccia a Daak che le stavainvece facendole un gran sorriso.

DERISION

Minor slips of the tongue merely reminded me of the live nature of the performance. (OD)

Le sviste marginali mi ricordano semplicemente lanatura viva dell'esibizione.

Gli errori marginali mi ricordano semplicemente lanatura viva dell'esibizione.

I lapsus marginali mi ricordano semplicemente lanatura viva dell'esibizione.

MISTAKE

It's not a name that exactly trips off the tongue, isit? (OD)

Non è un nome che si pronunciafacilmente, no?

EASY ARTICULATION

132

Having a boyfriend or husband who is young enough to be your son can still raise a few eyebrows and settongues wagging. (SkE)

Avere un fidanzato o un marito che sia giovane abbastanza da sembrare tuo figlio può ancora far alzare il sopracciglio e suscitare pettegolezzi.

RUMOURS

Table 39 – The use of the word “lingua” in idioms and phrases in Italian and



Mi prude la lingua! (WR)

I’m itching to say something!

DESIRE

Quest'uomo non ha peli sulla lingua, dice esattamente ciò che pensa. (WR)

That man does not mince words,he says exactly what he thinks.

That man speaks bluntly, he says exactly what he thinks.

FRANKNESS,

SINCERITY,

STRAIGHT_

FORWARDNESS,

FAIRNESS

In che lingua te lo devo dire? (WR)

How else do I have to say it?

INCOMPREHENSION

133

Il giovane San Giuliano riuscì presto a padroneggiare le principali lingue europee che affinò durante alcuni viaggi a Londra e a Vienna. (CP)

The young saint Giuliano quickly succeeded in mastering the major European languages improving its language skills along its journeysto London and Vienna.

IMPROVEMENT

La sua lingua sciolta iniziò a metterlo nei guai immediatamente. (OD)

His glib tongue started to put himinto trouble right away.

SPEAK FREELY,LOQUACITY

Nel frattempo "Er Soffia", per colpa della sua "lingua lunga", viene assassinato dai colombiani. (CP)

In the meantime “Er Soffia” has been murdered by Colombians because of he's agossip.

MISCHIEVOUSNESS

Il suo nome ce l'ho sulla punta della lingua. (OD)

His name's on the tip of my tongue.

LAPSE OF MEMORY

134

E poi, tra le retrovie dell'opinionismo in erba, è nata una nuova linguabiforcuta decisamente brillante. (CP)

And then, behind the scenes of budding critics, a new forked tongue is born, and she's really a sparkling wit.

MISCHIEVOUSNESS

135

3. Automatic retrieval

3.1 Introduction

In order to examine in depth the topic treated, it has been necessary to collect

more information analysing the data retrieved from two main corpora: one for

the Italian language and one for the English one, respectively Paisà

(www.corpusitaliano.it) and the British National Corpus (through

www.sketchengine.co.uk).

Paisà is a corpus that contains a collection of 380000 web Italian texts

approximately. The files included have been selected using two parameters.

The first one consisted in the identification of the url of the files that have to be

downloaded from a search engine (Yahoo!) according to random combinations

of words (about 50000 pairs of words) taken from the Vocabolario di Base

della Lingua Italiana by Tullio De Mauro. The second one consisted in the

collection of files taken from the Italian editions of various web projects of

Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia, Wikinews, Wikibooks, Wikiversity,

Wikivoyage). Therefore, all the files collected come from around 1000

different web sites including 250 millions of words roughly. Besides, every

document has been identified through a XML “text” made of one “id”, which is

a unique numeric identifier, and a “url” which reveals the address from which

it has been downloaded84.

This corpus allows us various kinds of research: a “Simple Research”,

which lets the user investigate as it can be done through a general search

engine; an “Advanced Research”, that offers a menu that enables more

advanced investigation; a “CQP Research” (Corpus Query Processor) using the

CQP investigation language; and a research through “Filters” which allows us

84 For an overview of its functioning www.corpusitaliano.it

136


http://www.corpusitaliano.it/

to select texts and create subcorpora.

Finally, results can be downloaded in a .txt file in the form of “KWIC

format”, in which they are shown in different lines with the key words between

angular brackets ( < … > ), “TVS format” in which every result is shown on a

line which is divided into three parts through tab (left context, key word and

right context), and “CoNLL format”, in which results are shown with one word

in each line in CoNLL format.

The kind of research used in this survey has been the “Advanced research”

that allows us to investigate the corpus according to combinations of words,

inflected forms, lemmas, or part of speech (POS). The interface is divided into

three parts (word 1, 2, 3) and two fields (# words) to specify the distance, in

terms of middle words, within words.

Sketch Engine is a search engine which contains corpora of languages

which have an appropriate level of linguistic mark-up, allowing us

investigations such as “Concordance”, that is to say a view of all occurrences

from the corpus of a given language according to a given query including

textual context, or “Word sketches” which are corpus-based summaries of a

word's grammatical collocational behaviour. This web based program includes

the British National Corpus (BNC) as well, which is the one used in this

research.

The BNC85 is a 100 million word collection of samples of written and

spoken language designed to represent a wide section of British English from

the later part of the 20th century, both spoken and written. The documents

collected belong to a wide range of sources: the written part of the corpus,

which is the 90% of it, includes extracts from regional and national

85 www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk

137

newspapers, specialist periodicals and journals for all ages and interests,

academic books, and popular fiction, published and unpublished letters and

memoranda, school and university essays, among many other kinds of text;

while the spoken part which represents the 10 % of the entire corpus, consists

of orthographic transcriptions of unscripted informal conversations (recorded

by volunteers selected from different age, region and social classes in a

demographically balanced way) and spoken language collected in different

contexts ranging from formal business or government meetings to radio shows

and phone callings.

The investigation tool of the BNC I used is the “Concordance” option. Once

inserted the term in the query box, all the occurrences are shown in the KWIC

format, though it is possible to expand the context displaying the entire

sentence in which the selected term is contained. Moreover, other view options

can be chosen to show the tags which identify the parts of speech or

information about the text from which the term has been taken from.

The research consisted in extracting the KWIC files of the occurrences of

the terms denoting some chosen parts of the head in Italian (faccia, viso, volto,

occhio, naso, bocca, dente, lingua) from the Italian language corpus Paisà, and

of those one which denote the same parts of the head in English (face, eye,

nose, mouth, tooth, tongue) from the English language corpus BNC. Once

obtained, the files have been analysed, identification of the figurative usages

(the metaphoric expressions, idioms and sayings including the body part terms

listed above) was carried out manually writing down the number of times they

occurred. After this operation, all the figurative and metaphoric expressions

have been grouped together into metonymic or figurative categories and

finally, an abstract concept has been assigned to each one of the expressions.

Certainly the analysis I carried out and the meaning I associated to

138

figurative expressions cannot be considered a unique interpretation of the data

collected, as the lexicon (the set of the lexemes of a language) constitutes the

more external layer of a language, being the more subject to the conditionings

of extralinguistic factors. Actually, the lexicon is very susceptible to changes

because is always ready to catch the complexity of the world and the enormous

quantity of entities that is made up of.

Furthermore it is important to take into account the semantic relationships

which connect lexemes together according to their meaning. The kind of

semantic relationship which is important not to underestimate in this

investigation is polysemy which identifies the presence of more than one

meaning associated to a single signifiant. Polysemous words consists of one

lexeme with different meanings which are related to one another or derive from

one another. This phenomenon happens because linguistic signs are

characterised by a semantic plasticity according to the use speakers make of

them.

Therefore, the fuzzy borders and the plasticity of the metonymic and

figurative categories and the abstract concepts identified for the expressions

retrieved, determine the fact that they can overlap. Indeed lexical meaning,

especially the one referring to abstract world, position itself in a place where

language, thought and external world meet together, making its inspection

quite ambiguous and indefinite.

139

3.2. Occurrences of the figurative or metaphoric expressions

3.2.1 Paisà (Italian Language Corpus)

Table 40 – Occurrences of figurative expressions of viso, volto, faccia, occhio,

naso, bocca, dente and lingua in Paisà

Figurative or metaphoric expressions

Number of occurrences

VISO:• 4409: total

occurrences;• 294: total

figurative occurrences;

• 10: different figurative occurrences.

A viso aperto 146

A viso scoperto 41

Fare buon viso a cattiva sorte 17

Fare buon viso a cattivo gioco 70

Fare buon viso a qualcuno 2

Fare il viso duro 3

Leggere sul viso 3

Viso a viso 3

Viso lungo 1

Viso pallido 8

VOLTO:• 11765: total




Cambiare volto 62

Cambiarsi in volto 1

Il volto di 266

Mutare volto 17

Svelare il volto 6

140

FACCIA:• 14947: total




(uomo) a due facce 17

Alla faccia di 141

Alla faccia tua! 33

Alla faccia! 12

Avere la faccia di dire o fare qualcosa

3

Cambiare faccia 76

Cancellare / eliminare dalla faccia della terra

51

Chiudere la porta in faccia 28

Dire le cose in faccia a qualcuno 48

Doppia faccia 54

Faccia da funerale 1

Faccia da schiaffi 39

Faccia di bronzo 39

Faccia a faccia 759

Faccia tosta 130

Fare la faccia feroce 4

Gettare in faccia a qualcuno (į favori fatti)

6

Giocarsi la faccia 8

Guardare in faccia la realtà 44

Guardare in faccia la verità 2

Guardare bene in faccia qualcuno 68

L'altra faccia della luna di qualcosa 4

L'altra faccia della medaglia 93

L'altra faccia di qualcosa 192

Le mille facce di (una questione) 1

Leggere in faccia 15

141

Metterci la faccia 166

Mettere į piedi in faccia 2

Non guardare in faccia a nessuno 100

Perdere la faccia 115

Porta in faccia 119

Prendere a / trattare a / lanciare pesci in faccia

40

Prendere a calci in faccia 8

Recuperare la faccia 6

Ridere in faccia a qualcuno 66

Rimetterci la faccia 8

Rischiare la faccia 1

Salvare la faccia 87

Sbattere qualcosa in faccia 83

Schiaffo in faccia 20

Sporcarsi la faccia 2

Torta in faccia 25

Vedere la morte in faccia 10

Viva la faccia! 3

Voltafaccia 3

Voltare la faccia a qualcuno 10

OCCHIO:• 12148: total




(far) aprire gli occhi (a) 431

A / ad occhio e croce 46

A /ad occhio 54

A me gli occhi 11

A occhi chiusi 21

A occhio nudo 135

142

A perdita d'occhio 59

A portata d'occhio 4

A quattr'occhi 29

A svista d'occhio 1

A un occhio esperto 57

A vista d'occhio 95

Aguzzare gli occhi 1

Agli occhi dei profani 2

Agli occhi di 2277

Ai propri occhi 980

Anche l'occhio vuole la sua parte 14

Appagare gli occhi 2

Attraverso gli occhi di 189

Avere ancora qualcosa davanti agli occhi

4

Avere buon occhio 2

Avere gli occhi 3

Avere gli occhi foderati 2

Avere gli occhi fuori dalle orbite 9

Avere gli occhi umidi 2

Avere il sangue negli occhi 11

Avere la benda sugli occhi 1

Avere le fette di prosciutto sugli occhi

12

Avere le fette di salame sugli occhi 12

Avere le lacrime agli occhi 11

Avere mille occhi 4

Avere occhi solo per 21

Avere occhio 6

143

Avere sott'occhio 23

Avere un occhio di riguardo per 199

Balzare all'occhio 101

Buttare / gettare fumo negli occhi 110

Buttare un / l'occhio 42

Catturare l'occhio 21

Cavarsi gli occhi 6

Chiudere un occhio 169

Colpo d'occhio 271

Come il fumo negli occhi 22

Come un dito in un occhio 1

Con un occhio a 116

Costare / pagare / spendere un occhiodella testa

10

Costare un occhio 1

Dare nell'occhio 91

Dare un occhio a 55

Davanti agli occhi 425

Davanti ai propri occhi 247

Essere un pugno in un occhio 4

Fare gli occhi dolci a qualcuno 22

Fare l'occhio a 7

Gettare la polvere negli occhi 2

Gettare un occhio 11

Gli occhi del mondo 110

Gradevole agli occhi 1

Guardare con tanto d'occhi 1

Guardare con un occhio diverso 6

Guardarsi negli occhi 22

144

In un batter d'occhio 96

Leggere negli occhi 36

Lontano dagli occhi, lontano dal cuore

2

Luce dei miei occhi 13

Ma dove hai gli occhi? 1

Mangiare con gli occhi 6

Mettere gli occhi addosso 11

Mettere gli occhi su 89

Mi è caduto l'occhio su 16

Nell'occhio del ciclone 91

Non chiudere occhio 34

Non credere ai propri occhi 97

Non perdere d'occhio 23

Non riuscire a tenere gli occhi aperti 5

Occhi bassi 10

Occhio a 29

Occhio benevolo 11

Occhio clinico 8

Occhio critico 29

Occhio! 6

Occhio non vede, cuore non duole 5

Occhio per occhio, dente per dente 52

Occhio per occhio 47

Piacevole agli occhi 5

Posare gli occhi su 4

Prendere di buon occhio 9

Quattro occhi vedono meglio di due 1

145

Rifarsi gli occhi 10

Saltare all'occhio 318

Sbarrare / spalancare /stralunare gli occhi

41

Sfuggire agli occhi 28

Sognare ad occhi aperti 64

Sogno ad occhi aperti 50

Sotto ai propri occhi 254

Sotto gli occhi di 212

Sotto gli occhi di tutti 360

Sotto l'occhio del ciclone 3

Sotto l'occhio di 112

Strabuzzare gli occhi 38

Strizzare l'occhio a 214

Strizzata/strizzatina d'occhio 59

Stropicciarsi / sfregarsi gli occhi 11

Tenere d'occhio 509

Tenere gli occhi aperti 30

Tenere gli occhi su 2

Tenere sott'occhio 87

Trovarsi / essere nell'occhio del ciclone

11

Un occhio di interesse verso 2

Un occhio particolare a 11

Una luce negli occhi 10

Vedere / guardare con la coda dell'occhio

38

Vedere con i propri occhi 175

Vedere con occhi nuovi 23

146

Vedere di buon occhio 533

Vedere di cattivo occhio 26

Vedere di pessimo occhio 1

Volgere / alzare gli occhi al cielo 44

NASO• 3687: total




Al naso 26

Andare / giudicare a naso / a lume di naso

34

Arricciare il naso 17

Avere buon naso 2

Avere il naso per / in aria 7

Avere la puzza sotto il naso 91

Con un palmo di naso 5

Davanti al naso 12

Far saltare la mosca al naso a qualcuno

2

Fare qualcosa turandosi il naso 30

Farsi i conti sul naso 1

Ficcare il naso in qualcosa 44

Guardare oltre il proprio naso 9

Guardare oltre la punta del proprio naso

2

Menare qualcuno per il naso 9

Mettere fuori il naso 2

Mettere il naso fuori 21

Mettere il naso in qualcosa 40

Mettere naso 2

Montare la mosca al naso 1

147

Naso dell'aereo 4

Naso fino 3

Non vedere a un palmo dal proprio naso

1

Non vedere a una spanna dal naso 1

Non vedere al di là del proprio naso 14

Prendere per il naso 10

Rimanere con un palmo di naso 10

Saltare al naso 3

Sbattere il naso 6

Soffiare qualcosa da sotto il naso 6

Sotto il naso 88

Storcere il naso 312

Tenere il naso fuori da 1

Torcere il naso 4

BOCCA:• 10302: total




A bocca aperta 297

A bocca asciutta 12

A caval donato non si guarda in bocca

4

Acqua in bocca! 8

Acquolina in bocca 16

Amaro in bocca 196

Arricciare la bocca 3

Avere il latte alla bocca 5

Avere la bava alla bocca (brama) 7

Avere la bava alla bocca (rabbia) 26

148

Avere la verità in bocca 4

Avere qualcosa / qualcuno in / sulla bocca

7

Bocca amara 5

Bocca cucita 21

Bocca d'oro 3

Bocca da sfamare 18

Bocca impastata 8

Chiudere la bocca 51

Cogliere di bocca 2

Con il sorriso sulla / in bocca 13

Cucire / cucirsi la bocca (a qualcuno) 10

Dar aria alla bocca 14

Dar fiato alla bocca 17

Essere / andare sulla bocca di tutti 74

Essere di bocca buona 22

Essere la bocca della verità 1

Far venire l'acquolina in bocca 17

Fare la bocca a qualcosa 3

Gonfiarsi la bocca con / di 3

La schiuma alla bocca 3

Lasciare il dolce in bocca 5

Lasciarsi sfuggire / scappare di boccaqualcosa

6

Lavarsi la bocca 5

Levare il pane di bocca a qualcuno 1

Mettere bocca in qualcosa 26

Mettere in bocca a qualcuno 7

149

Non aprire bocca 280

Parlare / dire / suggerire / ammettere / rispondere a mezza bocca

24

Passare di bocca in bocca 38

Per bocca di qualcuno 306

Restare / rimanere / lasciare qualcunoa bocca asciutta

54

Restare a bocca aperta 18

Riempire / riempirsi la bocca di /con 150

Rimanere con la bocca chiusa 3

Sciacquarsi la bocca 18

Serrare la bocca a qualcuno 1

Sfamare delle bocche 3

Sorriso a mezza bocca 4

Storcere la bocca 30

Strappare le parole di bocca a qualcuno

3

Sulla / nella bocca di 31

Tappare la bocca 69

Tenere la bocca chiusa 40

Tirar qualcosa fuori dalla bocca di qualcuno

1

Togliere il pane di bocca a 7

Togliere le parole di bocca a qualcuno

14

Togliersi il pane di bocca 2

Tramandare per bocca 1

Troncare la parola in bocca a 2

Un sorriso a tutta bocca 3

150

Venir fuori dalla bocca 1

DENTE:• 6845: total

occurrences; • 672: total



A denti asciutti / secchi 1

A denti stretti 95

Aguzzare / arrotare / digrignare i denti

37

Al dente 83

Avere il dente avvelenato contro qualcuno

44

Battere i denti 18

Calcio nei denti 11

Con le unghie e con i denti 37

Dare aria ai denti 6

Dente della discordia 1

Dente per dente 2

Dente sdegnoso 1

Dente superbo 1

Difendere qualcosa con i denti 6

Doversi dare qualcosa sui denti 1

Essere armati fino ai denti 61

Fuori dai denti 20

Levarsi il dente 3

Lottare con i denti 7

Mettere i denti 2

Mettere qualcosa sotto i denti 6

Mostrare i denti 51

Non è pane per i propri denti 3

Occhio per occhio, dente per dente 60

151

Stringere i denti 59

Togliersi un dente 6

Tra i denti 4

Trovare pane per i propri denti 47

Via il dente, via il dolore 1

LINGUA:• 37135: total




Affinare la lingua 1

Avere la lingua che taglia e cuce 1

Avere la lingua fuori 11

Avere la lingua lunga 13

Avere la lingua penzoloni 4

Avere la lingua sciolta 4

Avere la lingua tagliente 15

Avere la lingua velenosa 2

Avere qualcosa sulla punta della lingua

13

Frenare la lingua 2

La lingua biforcuta 34

Lingua di fuoco 54

Lingua di terra 88

Mala lingua / male lingue 25

Mordersi la lingua 24

Non avere peli sulla lingua 48

Non parlare la stessa lingua 15

Parlare lingue diverse 1

Perdere la lingua 5

Sciogliere la lingua 6

Senza peli sulla lingua 98

152

Tenere a freno la lingua 3

Una lingua bugiarda 4

3.2.2 British National Corpus (English Language Corpus )

Table 41 – Occurrences of figurative expressions of face, eye, nose, mouth,

tooth and tongue in BNC.

Figurative or metaphoric expressions

Number of occurrences

FACE:• 29325: total




A slap in the face 35

A straight face 57

A volte face 22

about-face 11

Face to face (with sb) 996

In sb's face 15

In the face of 1489

It's written all over sb's face 19

On the face of it 259

Open face 22

Sb's face doesn't fit 4

Sb's face fits 3

Sb's / sb has face is like thunder 7

Shut your face! 6

The / a face value 31

To be red in the face 39

To blow up in sb's face 15

153

To change the face of sth 70

To do sth till you are blue in the face 28

To fall flat on sb's face 29

To feed your face 7

To fly in the face of sth 78

To get out of sb's face 3

To have an egg on / all over your face

16

To have the face to do sth 3

To kick sb in the face 5

To laugh in sb's face 23

To lit up sb's face 80

To lose face 83

To preserve face 3

To pull / make faces / a face (at sb) 276

To put / wear / pull a long face 42

To put a good face on sth 6

To put on a brave face (on sth) 61

To put on a face 5

To read an expression on / in the face 45

To read sb's face 1

To save sb's face 52

To sb's face 1

To screw up sb's face 77

To set your face against sb / sth 18

To show your face 50

To shut / slam the door in sb's face 20

To take / accept sth at face value 124

154

To throw sth back in sb's face 3

To vanish off the face of the earth 4

To wear faces 1

To wipe off the face of the earth 5

What's his / her face? 6

EYE:• 36148: total




(can't) keep sb's eyes off 13

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth 4

An eye for an eye 6

A bird's eye view 26

A sight for sore eyes 8

A twinkle in sb's eyes 45

All eyes and ears 1

All eyes on 6

Another pair of eyes 7

As far as the eye can see 19

Bedroom eyes 1

Before / in front of sb's (very) eyes 349

Black eye 282

Bloodshot eyes 24

Can hardly believe sb's eyes 14

Can't / couldn't believe sb's own eyes 70

Eagle eye 28

Easy on the eyes 13

Evil eye 29

Eye opener 19

For sb's eyes only 10

155

In one's eyes 51

In the blink of an eye 11

In the eyes of 418

In the public eye 136

In the twinkling of an eye 14

My eye! 1

Not (be able to) take your eyes off sb/ sth

144

Not believe your ears and eyes 1

Not to see eye to eye with sb (on sth) 63

One in the eye (for sb /sth) 14

Private eye 158

Red eye 86

Sb's eye are bigger than their bellies 1

The apple of sb's eye 33

The eyes of the law / world 43

The naked eye 145

There's more to sb / sth than meets the eyes

43

Through the eyes of 107

To bat your eye 2

To bawl sb's eyes out 2

To be all eyes 2

To be up to sb's eyes at 1

To blink sb's eye 56

To catch sb's eye 333

To clap / lay / set eyes on sb / sth 157

To close sb's eyes to 34

To cock an eye at 3

156

To feast your eyes on sth 13

To give sb the eye / to make eyes at sb

15

To grab the eye 2

To have a good eye 6

To have a keen eye 52

To have a roving eye 2

To have a sharp eye 61

To have an eye for / on the main chance

4

To have an eye on / half an eye on sth 11

To have eyes in the back of your head

7

To have your eye on sth 1

To have your eyes on sb 9

To hit sb (straight / right) in the eye 24

To howl sb's eyes out 3

To keep a close eye on sth 48

To keep a weather eye on sb / sth 4

To keep an eye on sb / sth 488

To keep an eye out (for sb / sth) 48

To keep your eye on the ball 8

To keep your eyes peeled / skinned 17

To meet sb's eye(s) 319

To only have eyes for / to have eyes only for

23

To please the eye 5

To pull the wool over sb's eyes 17

To roll sb's eyes 145

157

To run / cast an eye / your eyes over sth

22

To sb's eyes 32

To screw up sb's eyes 44

To see sth out of the corner of the eye 46

To see with half an eye 2

To shut / close your eyes to sth 57

To take your eyes off the ball 6

To turn a blind eye to sth 135

Under the (watchful) eye of sb 80

Under the eye of 38

What the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over

4

With an eye to / to doing sth 65

With your eyes (wide) open 6

With your eyes shut / closed 107

Without blinking an eye 1

Your mind's eye 161

NOSE:• 4423: total




by a nose 5

nose to nose with 2

nose to tail 23

on the nose 4

the plane / aircraft's nose 12

to bury sb's nose in sth 5

To cut off your nose to spite your face

3

to follow your nose 16

158

to get up sb's nose 30

to have a nose for 13

to have a nose round 1

to have your nose in sth 6

to hold sb's nose 4

to keep your nose clean 11

to keep your nose out of sth 15

to keep your nose to the grindstone 8

to lead sb by the nose 7

to look down your nose at sb/sth 31

to pay through the nose 17

to poke nose into 17

to powder your nose 18

to put sb's nose out of joint 6

to rub sb's nose in in it 6

to see beyond the end of / sb's nose 4

to stick / poke your nose into 28

to thumb your nose at sb / sth 10

to turn your nose up at sth 17

to wrinkle sb's nose 85

under sb's nose 175

with your nose in the air 7

159

MOUTH:• 9336: total




A foul mouth 7

A mouth to feed 25

A zip for the mouth 3

By word of mouth 74

From mouth to mouth 8

From the horse's mouth 8

Shut your mouth! 44

To be all mouth 6

To be born with a silver spoon in the mouth

15

To be down in the mouth 11

To blow / shoot sb's mouth off 11

To froth at the mouth 15

To have a big mouth 40

To have foam at the mouth 30

To keep your mouth shut 122

To leave a bad / nasty taste in the mouth

6

To look a gift horse in the mouth 16

To make sb's mouth watering 42

To open sb's mouth 166

To put words into sb's mouth 19

To put your foot in your mouth 7

To put your money where your mouth is

34

To run off at the mouth 1

To speak out of both sides of the mouth

1

To take the bread out of sb's mouth 1

160

To take words right out of sb's mouth 5

To talk / speak out of the side of the mouth

6

To talk from the side of sb's mouth 1

To talk with diarrhoea in sb's mouth 3

Watch your mouth! 6

With one mouth 1

TOOTH:• 5069: total




A kick in the teeth 13

A tooth for a tooth 10

By the skin of your teeth 18

God's teeth! 9

Hell's teeth! 21

In / into the teeth of sth 64

Lack of teeth 3

Long in the tooth 20

To bare your teeth 91

To be armed to the teeth 9

To be fed up to the back teeth 1

To be sick to the back teeth 7

To cut a tooth 3

To cut your teeth on sth 32

To fight tooth and nail 37

To get the bit between your teeth 14

To get your teeth into sth 36

To give eye teeth for / to do sth 3

To give sb's back teeth to do sth 2

To give teeth to 4

161

To gnash your teeth 28

To grit your teeth 238

To have a sweet tooth 45

To have teeth 17

To kick sb in the teeth 48

To lie through your teeth 11

To set sb's teeth on edge 25

To show sb's teeth 54

To sink sb's teeth into 24

TONGUE:• 2636: total




A slip of the tongue 28

Cat got your tongue? 6

Devil tongue 1

Forked tongue 18

Lost your tongue? 1

Mind your tongue! 3

On every tongue 1

On the tip of the tongue 29

Sharp tongue 14

Silver tongue 4

Talk in a tongue 5

To bite your tongue 75

To find your tongue 13

To get your tongue around / round sth

13

To give tongue 13

To have a tongue loosened 27

To hold your tongue 46

162

To loosen sb's tongue 19

To set tongues wagging 4

To speak / talk with forked tongues 5

To speak a tongue 30

To speak in tongues 31

To stick out sb's tongue 11

To stick tongue out at sb 5

To talk tongue 2

To tie sb's tongue 4

To trip / roll / slip off the tongue 14

To trust sb's tongue 1

To untie sb's tongue 1

Tongue of flame 12

Tongue of land 3

Watch your tongue 7

With your tongue in your cheek 36

163

3.3 Identification of: figurative or metonymic category and abstract

concepts

3.3.1 Faccia, viso, volto – Face

Table 42 - Figurative or metonymic category: mental or emotional attitude or

behaviour

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS A viso aperto

Frankness, sincerity,

straightforwardness,

fairness

A viso scoperto



fairness

Avere la faccia di dire o

fare qualcosaInsolence, audacity

Faccia di bronzo Insolence, audacity

Faccia tosta Insolence, audacity

Fare buon viso a cattiva

sorteResignation, acceptance

164

Fare buon viso a cattivo

giocoResignation, acceptance

Fare buon viso a

qualcunoJoy

Fare il viso duro Intransigence, severity

Fare la faccia feroce Intransigence, severity

Non guardare in faccia a

nessunoImpassivity, impartiality

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONS Open face



fairness

Red in the face Embarrassment

To have the face to do

sthInsolence, audacity

To lit up sb's face Joy

To put on a brave face Intransigence, severity

165

To put on a face Camouflage

To put on a good face

on sthResignation, acceptance

To wear faces Camouflage

Table 43 - Figurative or metonymic category: aspect/aspects of a situation

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSCambiare faccia a Transformation

Cambiare volto a Transformation

Il volto di Outlook

L'altra faccia della luna

di qualcosaOutlook

L'altra faccia della

medagliaOutlook

L'altra faccia di qualcosa Outlook

Le mille facce (di una

situazione)Outlook

166

Mutare il volto Transformation

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSTo change the face of sth Transformation

In the face of Regardlessness

Table 44 - Figurative or metonymic category: person, human being

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS Faccia a facciaConfrontation (to

confront a situation)

Guardare bene in faccia

qualcuno



fairness

Viso a visoConfrontation (to


ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONS Face to face (with sb)Confrontation (to


To get out of sb's face Annoyance

To show your face Turn up

167

Table 45 - Figurative or metonymic category: facial expressions

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSCambiare faccia Change in mood

Cambiarsi in volto Change in mood

Faccia da funerale Sadness

Leggere in faccia Clearness of emotions

Leggere sul viso Clearness of emotions

Viso lungo Sadness

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSA straight face Impassivity, impartiality

It's written all over your

faceClearness of emotions

Sb's face / sb has face is

like thunderAnger

To pull / make a face /

faces (at sb)

Insult, offence,

humiliation

To put on/wear/pull a

long faceSadness

To read an expression

in/on the faceClearness of emotions

To read sb's face Clearness of emotions

168

To screw up sb's face Aversion

Table 46 - Figurative or metonymic category: reputation

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSAlla faccia! Contempt

Alla faccia di Contempt

Alla faccia tua! Contempt

Giocarsi la facciaRisk, compromise

yourself

Metterci la facciaRisk, compromise

yourself

Mettere i piedi in facciaInsult, offence,

humiliation

Perdere la faccia Failure

Prendere a calci in facciaInsult, offence,

humiliation

Prendere a pesci in

faccia

Insult, offence,

humiliation

Recuperare la faccia Consideration, charisma

Ridere in faccia a

qualcuno

Insult, offence,

humiliation

169

Rimetterci la facciaRisk, compromise

yourself

Rischiare la facciaRisk, compromise

yourself

Salvare la faccia Consideration, charisma

Schiaffo in facciaInsult, offence,

humiliation

Sporcarsi la facciaRisk, compromise

yourself

Torte in facciaInsult, offence,

humiliation

Viva la faccia! Contempt

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSA slap in the face

Insult, offence,

humiliation

In sb's face! Contempt

To do sth till your are

blue in the faceFailure

To have an egg on/all

over your face

Insult, offence,

humiliation

To kick sb in the faceInsult, offence,

humiliation

To laugh in sb's faceInsult, offence,

humiliation

To lose face Failure

To preserve face Consideration, charisma

170

To save sb's face Consideration, charisma

Table 47 - Figurative or metonymic category: personality, character, essence

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS(uomo) a due facce Insincerity

Doppia faccia Insincerity

Faccia da schiaffi Insolence, audacity

Guardare in faccia la

realtà

Confrontation (to


Guardare in faccia la

verità

Confrontation (to


Svelare il volto Revelation

Volta faccia Betrayal

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSTo fly in the face of sth Opposition

To set your face against

sb/sthOpposition

Volte face Betrayal

171

Table 48 - Figurative or metonymic category: awareness

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS Dire le cose in faccia



fairness

Gettare in faccia a

qualcuno (i favori fatti)

Insult, offence,

humiliation

Sbattere in faccia



fairness

Vedere la morte in facciaRisk, compromise

yourself

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONS To blow up on sb's face Failure

To fall flat on sb's faceInsult, offence,

humiliation

To sb's face



fairness

To throw sth back in sb's

faceReproach

172

Table 49 - Figurative or metonymic category: denial of help

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS

Chiudere la porta in

facciaRefusal

Porta in faccia Refusal

Voltare la faccia a

qualcunoBetrayal

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONS

To shut / slam the door

into sb's faceRefusal

Table 50 - Figurative or metonymic category: quality

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSSb's face doesn't fit Proficiency

Sb's face fits Proficiency

Table 51 - Figurative or metonymic category: apparent value

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSOn the face of it Appearance

173

Take/accept sth at face

valueNaivety

The / a face value Appearance

Table 52 - Figurative or metonymic category: earth

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS

Cancellare / eliminare

dalla faccia della terraDestruction

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONS

To wipe off the face of

the earthDestruction

Table 53 - Figurative or metonymic category: mouth

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSShut your face! Keep quiet

Table 54 - Figurative or metonymic category: name

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSWhat's his / her face? Recognition

174

Table 55 - Figurative or metonymic category: to confront

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSTo face the music

Confrontation (to


Table 56 - Figurative or metonymic category: direction

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSAbout-face Betrayal

175

3.3.2 Occhio – Eye

Table 57 - Figurative or metonymic category: general opinion, point of view

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSA occhio Approximation

A occhio e croce Approximation

Agli occhi dei profani Opinion

Agli occhi di Opinion

Ai propri occhi Opinion

All'occhio di Opinion

Attraverso gli occhi di Opinion

Gli occhi del mondo Opinion

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSAnother pair of eyes Opinion

In sb's eyes Opinion

In the eyes of Opinion

Not to see eye to eye

with sbDisagreement

The eyes of the law /

worldOpinion

176

There's more to sb / sth

than meets the eyesChange of idea

Through the eyes of Opinion

Your mind's eye Opinion

Table 58 - Figurative or metonymic category: personal opinion

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS

Guardare con un occhio

diversoChange of idea

Luce dei miei occhi Propensity

Occhio benevolo Propensity

Occhio clinico Proficiency

Occhio critico Contempt

Prendere di buon occhio Propensity

Vedere con occhi nuovi Change of idea

Vedere di buon occhio Propensity

Vedere di cattivo occhio Contempt

Vedere di pessimo

occhioContempt

ENGLISH The apple of sb's eye Propensity

177

EXPRESSIONS To be one in the eye (for

sb)Disappointment

Table 59 - Figurative or metonymic category: sight, vision

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSA occhio nudo Clear display

A perdita d'occhio Sight

A portata d'occhio Clear display

Avere gli occhi Sight

A vista d'occhio Rapidity

A svista d'occhio Rapidity

Balzare all'occhio Clear display

Non credere ai propri

occhiIncredulity

Saltare all'occhio Clear display

Vedere con i propri occhi Witness

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSAs far as the eye can see Sight

Can hardly believe sb's

eyesIncredulity

Can't / couldn't believe

sb's eyesIncredulity

178

Eagle eye Sight

Easy on the eyes Delight, pleasure

In the public eye Clear display

Not believe your eyes

and earsIncredulity

The naked eye Clear display

To have a good eye Sight

To have a keen eye Sight

To sb's eyes Sight

Table 60 - Figurative or metonymic category: (type of) look

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSA me gli occhi Desire, interest

Aguzzare gli occhi Attention

Avere gli occhi fuori

dalle orbiteAnger

Avere il sangue negli

occhiAnger

Avere mille occhi Attention

179

Avere un occhio di

riguardo perPropensity

Buttare un/l'occhio Desire, interest

Catturare l'occhio Desire, interest

Dare nell'occhio Clear display

Dare un occhio a Desire, interest

Davanti agli occhi Clear display

Davanti ai propri occhi Clear display

Fare gli occhi dolci a

qualcunoDesire, interest

Fare l'occhio a Habit

Gettare un occhio Desire, interest

Guardare con la coda

dell'occhioFurtive look

Guardare con tanto

d'occhiDesire, interest

Leggere negli occhi Revelation

Mi è caduto l'occhio su Clear display

Occhi bassi Shame

180

Occhio a Attention

Occhio! Attention

Sbarrare/spalancare/stral

unare gli occhiAstonishment

Sotto ai propri occhi Clear display

Sotto gli occhi di Clear display

Sotto gli occhi di tutti Clear display

Sotto l'occhio di Control

Strabuzzare gli occhi Astonishment

Tenere gli occhi aperti Attention

Un occhio di interesse

versoDesire, interest

Una luce negli occhi Joy

Volgere gli occhi al cielo Annoyance

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSA bird's eye view Stand point

A twinkle in sb's eye Astonishment

All eyes on Attention

181

Bedroom eyes Desire, interest

Before / in front of sb's

(very) eyesClear display

Bloodshot eyes Anger

Can't keep sb's eyes off Desire, interest

Evil eye Threat

Not (be able to) take

your eyes off sb/sthDesire, interest

To catch sb's eye Desire, interest

To give sb the eye /

make eyes at sbDesire, interest

To grab the eye Desire, interest

To have a roving eye Desire, interest

To have an eye / half an

eye on sthAbsent-minded look

To have eyes in the back

of your headAttention

To hit sb (straight / right)

in the eyeDesire, interest

To keep a weather eye

on sb / sthAttention

To keep your eyes peeled

/ skinnedAttention

182

To meet sb's eyeConfrontation (to


To roll sb's eyes Annoyance

To run / cast an eye /

your eyes over sthAbsent-minded look

To screw up sb's eyes Incredulity

To see sth out of the

corner of the eyeFurtive look

To see with half an eye Clear display

Under the eye of Control

Under the watchful eye

of sbControl

With your eyes (wide)

openAttention

Table 61 - Figurative or metonymic category: amount of money

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS

Costare / pagare un

occhio della testa Expensiveness

Costare un occhio Expensiveness

183

Table 62 - Figurative or metonymic category: control

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSAvere sott'occhio Control

Non perdere d'occhio Control

Sfuggire agli occhi Control

Tenere d'occhio Control

Tenere gli occhi su Control

Tenere sott'occhio Control

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONS

To keep a close eye on

sthControl

To keep an eye on sb /

sthControl

To keep an eye out (for

sb/sth)Control

Table 63 - Figurative or metonymic category: aesthetic sense

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSAvere occhio Proficiency

Avere buon occhio Proficiency

184

Rifarsi gli occhi Delight, pleasure

Essere un pugno in un

occhioContempt

Essere un dito in un

occhioContempt

Appagare gli occhi Delight, pleasure

Piacevole agli occhi Delight, pleasure

Gradevole agli occhi Delight, pleasure

ENGLISH EXPRESSIONS To feast your eyes on sth Delight, pleasure

To please the eye Delight, pleasure

Table 64 - Figurative or metonymic category: mind, brain

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS

Avere ancora qualcosa

davanti agli occhiMemento

A un occhio esperto Proficiency

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSEye-opener Revelation

To have a sharp eye Proficiency

185


FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSA occhi chiusi Trust

Avere gli occhi foderati Blindness

Avere la benda agli occhi Blindness

Avere le fette di

prosciutto sugli occhiBlindness

Avere le fette di salame

sugli occhiBlindness

Buttare / gettare fumo

negli occhiDeceit

Chiudere un occhio Indulgence

Far aprire gli occhi Attention

Fumo negli occhi Contempt

Gettare la polvere negli

occhiDeceit

Ma dove hai gli occhi? Blindness

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSTo close sb's eye to Indulgence

To shut / close your eyes

to sthIndulgence

186

To turn a blind eye to sth Indulgence

With your eyes shut /

closedTrust

Table 66 - Figurative or metonymic category: consciousness

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSSognare ad occhi aperti Illusion

Sogno ad occhi aperti Illusion

Table 67 - Figurative or metonymic category: centre

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSSotto l'occhio del ciclone Hurdle

Trovarsi / essere

nell'occhio del cicloneHurdle

Nell'occhio del ciclone Hurdle

187

Table 68 - Figurative or metonymic category: interest

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSAvere occhi solo per Propensity

Con un occhio a Propensity

Mangiare con gli occhi Desire, interest

Mettere gli occhi

addosso Desire, interest

Mettere gli occhi su Desire, interest

Posare gli occhi su Desire, interest

Un occhio particolare a Propensity

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSAll eyes and ears Attention

For sb's eyes only Propensity

Only have eyes for Propensity

To be all eyes Desire, interest

To clap / lay / set eyes on

sb / sthDesire, interest

To have an eye for / on

the main chanceDesire, interest

188

To have your eye on sb Desire, interest

To have your eyes on sth Desire, interest

With an eye to/to doing

sthDesire, interest

Table 69 - Figurative or metonymic category: human being, person

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSA quattr'occhi

Confrontation (to


Guardarsi negli occhiConfrontation (to


Quattro occhi vedono

meglio di dueAttention

Table 70 - Figurative or metonymic category: ear, hearing

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSTo cock an eye at Attention

189

Table 71 - Figurative or metonymic category: hunger

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONS

Sb's eye are bigger than

their bellies Exaggeration

Table 72 - Figurative or metonymic category: eyelid

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSIn un batter d'occhio Rapidity

Non chiudere occhio Insomnia

Non riuscire a tenere gli

occhi apertiSleepiness

Strizzare l'occhio a Propensity

Strizzata/strizzatina

d'occhioPropensity

Stropicciarsi / sfregarsi

gli occhiIncredulity / sleepiness

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSIn the blink of an eye Rapidity

In the twinkling of an

eyeRapidity

To bat your eyes Impassivity

190

To blink sb's eye Astonishment

Without blinking an eye Impassivity

Table 73 - Figurative or metonymic category: concentration

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONS

To take your eyes off the

ball Focus

To keep your eyes off the

ballFocus

Table 74 - Figurative or metonymic category: mood

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSA sight for sore eyes Delight, pleasure

To pull the wool over

sb's eyesDisappointment

191


behaviour

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSAvere gli occhi umidi Sadness

Avere le lacrime agli

occhiSadness


FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSBlack eye Failure

My eye!Astonishment /

disagreement

Table 77 - Figurative or metonymic category: tears

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSTo howl sb's eyes out Despair

To bawl sb's eyes out Despair

192

Table 78 - Figurative or metonymic category: commitment

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSTo be up to one's eyes at Busyness

193

3.3.3 Naso – Nose

Table 79 - Figurative or metonymic category: (type of) look

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSDavanti al naso Clear display

Soffiare qualcosa da

sotto il nasoClear display

Sotto il naso Clear display

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSUnder sb's nose Clear display

To have a nose round Exploration

To look down your nose

at sbArrogance


FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSMettere fuori il naso Egress, outflow

Mettere il naso fuori Egress, outflow

Non vedere a una spanna

dal nasoSightlessness

194

Non vedere a un palmo

dal nasoSightlessness

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSNose to nose with

Confrontation (to



FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSSbattere il naso Clear display

Saltare al naso Clear display

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSTo rub sb's nose in it Reproach

Table 82 - Figurative or metonymic category: intuition

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSAl naso Instinct

Andare / giudicare a

naso/lume di nasoInstinct

Avere buon naso Instinct

Naso fino Instinct

195

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSTo follow your nose Instinct

To have a nose for Instinct

Table 83 - Figurative or metonymic category: opinion, point of view

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS

Guardare oltre il proprio

nasoWisdom

Guardare oltre la punta

del proprio nasoWisdom

Non vedere al di là del

proprio nasoIgnorance

Non vedere a una spanna

dal nasoIgnorance

Non vedere a un palmo

dal nasoIgnorance

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONS

To see beyond the end of

the / sb's noseWisdom

196

Table 84 - Figurative or metonymic category: mental or emotional attitude,

behaviour

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSArricciare il naso Aversion

Avere la puzza sotto il

nasoArrogance

Fare qualcosa turandosi

il nasoReluctance

Rimanere con un palmo

di nasoDisappointment

Storcere il naso Aversion

Torcere il naso Aversion

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSTo hold your nose Aversion

To keep your nose clean Restraint

To thumb your nose at sb

/ sth

Insult, offence,

humiliation

To turn your nose up at

sthAversion

To wrinkle your nose Aversion

With your nose in the air Arrogance

197

Table 85 - Figurative or metonymic category: curiosity, interest

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS

Ficcare il naso in

qualcosaIntrusion

Mettere il naso in

qualcosaIntrusion

Mettere naso Intrusion

Tenere il naso fuori da Respect

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONS

To keep your nose out of

sthRespect

To poke nose into Intrusion

To stick / poke your nose

intoIntrusion

Table 86 - Figurative or metonymic category: patience

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS

Far saltare la mosca al

naso a qualcunoAnger

Montare la mosca al

nasoAnger

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSTo get up sb's nose Anger

198

To put sb's nose out of

jointAnger

Table 87 - Figurative or metonymic category: concentration

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSAvere il naso per / in aria Distraction

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSTo bury your nose in sth Focus

To have your nose in sth Focus

To keep your nose to the

grindstoneFocus

Table 88 - Figurative or metonymic category: value

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSBy a nose Proximity

Nose to tail Proximity

On the nose Precision

To pay through the nose Expensiveness

199


FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS

Menare qualcuno per il

nasoDeceit

Prendere per il naso Deceit

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSLead sb by the nose Deceit

Table 90 - Figurative or metonymic category: pocket

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSFarsi i conti sul naso Parsimony

200

3.3.4 Bocca – Mouth

Table 91 - Figurative or metonymic category: act of speaking

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS Acqua in bocca Keep quiet

Avere qualcosa/qualcuno

in/sulla boccaObsession

Bocca cucita Keep quiet

Chiudere la bocca Keep quiet

Cogliere di bocca Revelation

Cucire/cucirsi la bocca Keep quiet

Dar aria alla bocca Prattle

201

Dar fiato alla bocca Prattle

Lasciarsi

sfuggire/scappare di

bocca qualcosa

Revelation

Non aprire bocca Keep quiet

Per bocca di qualcuno Dissemination

Rimanere con la bocca

chiusaKeep quiet

Serrare la bocca a

qualcunoKeep quiet

Strappare le parole di

bocca a qualcunoDifficult acquisition

Tappare la bocca a

qualcunoKeep quiet

Tenere la bocca chiusa Keep quiet

Tirar fuori dalla bocca di

qualcunoDifficult acquisition

202

Togliere le parole di

bocca a qualcunoPre-empt

Tramandare per bocca Dissemination

Troncare le parole in

boccaInterruption

Venir fuori dalla bocca Revelation

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONS A zip for the mouth Keep quiet

By word of mouth Dissemination

Shut your mouth! Keep quiet

To keep your mouth shut Keep quiet

To open sb's mouth Loquacity

To run off at the mouth Loquacity

203

To take words right out

of sb's mouthPre-empt

To talk with diarrhoea in

sb's mouthLoquacity

Table 92 - Figurative or metonymic category: way of speaking

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS Bocca d'oro Wisdom

Gonfiarsi la bocca di/con Vanity

Lavarsi la bocca (prima

di parlare)Politeness

Riempire/riempirsi la

bocca di/conVanity

Sciacquarsi la bocca

(prima di parlare)Politeness

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONS A foul mouth Insolence, audacity

204

To be all mouth Insolence, audacity

To have a big mouth Mischievousness

To shoot/blow sb's

mouth off



fairness

To speak out of both

sides of the mouthContradiction

Watch your mouth! Warning


behaviour

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS A bocca aperta Astonishment

A bocca asciutta Disappointment

205

Amaro in bocca Disappointment

Arricciare la bocca Aversion

Avere la bava alla bocca Desire

Avere la bava alla bocca Anger

Avere la verità in bocca



fairness

Bocca amara Disappointment

Bocca impastata Embarrassment

Con il sorriso sulla bocca Joy

Essere la bocca della

verità



fairness

La schiuma alla bocca Anger

206

Restare / rimanere /

lasciare qualcuno a

bocca asciutta

Disappointment

Lasciare il dolce in

boccaJoy

Mettere bocca in

qualcosaIntrusion

Mettere in bocca a

qualcunoInstruct, suggest

Parlare / dire /

suggerire / ammettere /

rispondere a mezza

bocca

Reluctance

Restare a bocca aperta Astonishment

Sorriso a mezza bocca Reluctance

Storcere la bocca Aversion

Un sorriso a tutta bocca Joy

207

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONS To be down in the mouth Sadness

To froth at the mouth Anger

To have the foam at the

mouthAnger

To leave a bad/nasty

taste in the mouthDisappointment

To put words into sb's

mouthInstruct, suggest

To put your foot in your

mouthRegret

With one mouth Unanimity


FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS

Far venire l'acquolina in

boccaDesire

208

Acquolina in bocca Desire

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONS

To make sb's mouth

wateringDesire

Table 95 - Figurative or metonymic category: gossip

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS

Andare sulla bocca di

tuttiRumours

Passare di bocca in

boccaRumours

Sulla bocca di Rumours

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSFrom mouth to mouth Rumours


FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSBocca da sfamare Feed

Sfamare delle bocche Feed

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSA mouth to feed Feed

209

Table 97 - Figurative or metonymic category: needs

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS

Togliere il pane di bocca

a qualcunoDeprivation

Togliersi il pane di bocca Immolation

Levare il pane di bocca a

qualcunoDeprivation

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONS

To take bread out of sb's

mouthDeprivation

Table 98 - Figurative or metonymic category: personality, character

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSEssere di bocca buona Easy to please

Table 99 - Figurative or metonymic category: habit

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSFare la bocca a Routine

210

3.3.5 Dente – Tooth


FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSCalcio nei denti

Insult, offence,

humiliation

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSA kick in the teeth

Insult, offence,

humiliation

To kick sb in the teethInsult, offence,

humiliation


FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS Fuori dai denti



fairness

Dare aria ai denti Prattle

Dente superbo Arrogance

211

Tra i denti Haziness


behaviour

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSA denti stretti Reluctance

A denti secchi / asciutti Disappointment

Aguzzare / arrotare /

digrignare i dentiThreat

Avere il dente avvelenato

contro qualcunoAnger

Battere i denti Fear

Dente della discordia Anger

Dente sdegnoso Resentment

Dente superbo Arrogance

Doversi dare il qualcosa

sui dentiKeep quiet

Mostrare i denti Threat

212

Stringere i denti Patience

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSTo bare your teeth Threat

To gnash your teeth Anger

To grit your teeth Threat / Patience

To lie through your teeth Falsehood

To show your teeth Threat

Table 103 - Figurative or metonymic category: personal taste

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSTo have a sweet tooth Greed

Table 104 - Figurative or metonymic category: commitment

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS

Con le unghie e con i

dentiTough defence

Difendere qualcosa con i

dentiTough defence

213

Lottare con i denti Tough defence

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSTo cut your teeth on sth Experience

To fight tooth and nail Tough defence

To give eye teeth for/to

do sthDesire

To give sb's back teeth to

do sthDesire


FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS

Mettere qualcosa sotto ai

denti Achievement

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONS

To get the bit between

your teethPassionate confrontation

To get your teeth into sth Passionate confrontation

To sink sb's teeth into sth Passionate confrontation

214

Table 106 - Figurative or metonymic category: value

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS

Essere armati fino ai

dentiTough defence

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSTo be armed to the teeth Tough defence

By the skin of your teeth Proximity

Table 107 - Figurative or metonymic category: power

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSLack of teeth Ineffectiveness

To give teeth to Authority

To have teeth Authority

Table 108 - Figurative or metonymic category: burden

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSLavarsi il dente Relief

215

Togliersi il dente Relief

Table 109 - Figurative or metonymic category: personality, character

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS

Non è pane per i tuoi

dentiUnequal confrontation

Trovare pane per i propri

dentiEqual confrontation

Table 110 - Figurative or metonymic category: patience

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONS

To be fed up to the back

teethAnnoyance

To be sick to the back

teethAnnoyance

To set sb's teeth on edge Annoyance

216

Table 111 - Figurative or metonymic category: aspect/aspects of a situation

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSIn/ into the teeth of sth Confrontation

Table 112 - Figurative or metonymic category: age

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSLong in the tooth Oldness

Table 113 - Figurative or metonymic category: curse

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSHell's teeth! Anger

God's teeth! Anger

217

Table 114 - Figurative or metonymic category: cooking

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSAl dente Cooking time

218

3.3.6 Lingua – Tongue

Table 115 - Figurative or metonymic category: language

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSAffinare la lingua Improvement

Table 116 - Figurative or metonymic category: mind

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS

Avere qualcosa sulla

punta della linguaLapse of memory

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSOn the tip of the tongue Lapse of memory

Table 117 - Figurative or metonymic category: act of speaking

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSFrenare la lingua Keep quiet

Mordersi la lingua Keep quiet

219

Perdere la lingua Keep quiet

Tenere a freno la lingua Keep quiet

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSA slip of the tongue Mistake

Cat got your tongue? Keep quiet

Lost your tongue? Keep quiet

To bite your tongue Keep quiet

To find your tongue Speak freely

To hold your tongue Keep quiet

To tie your tongue Keep quiet


FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSAvere la lingua che

taglia e cuceMischievousness

Avere la lingua lunga Mischievousness

220

Avere la lingua sciolta Speak freely

Avere la lingua tagliente Mischievousness

Avere la lingua velenosa Mischievousness

Lingua biforcuta Mischievousness

Mala lingua / male

lingueMischievousness

Non avere peli sulla

lingua



fairness

Sciogliere la lingua Speak freely

Senza peli sulla lingua



fairness

Una lingua bugiarda Mischievousness

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONS Devil tongue Mischievousness

221

Forked tongue Mischievousness

Mind your tongue! Warning

Sharp tongue Mischievousness

Silver tongue Proficiency

Speak / talk with forked

tonguesMischievousness

To have the tongue

loosenedSpeak freely

To loosen sb's tongue Speak freely

To speak a tongue Speak freely

To speak in tongues Speak freely

To talk a tongue Speak freely

222

To talk in a tongue Speak freely

To untie sb's tongue Speak freely

Watch your tongue! Warning

With your tongue in

cheekDeceit

Table 119 - Figurative or metonymic category: opinion

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONSParlare lingue diverse Incomprehension

Non parlare la stessa

linguaIncomprehension

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSTo trust sb's tongue Trust

To give tongue Speak freely

223

Table 120 - Figurative or metonymic category: gossip

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSTo set tongues wagging Rumours

On every tongue Rumours

Table 121 - Figurative or metonymic category: pronunciation

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONS

To trip / roll / slip off the

tongueEasy articulation

To get your tongue round

/ around sthEasy articulation

Table 122 - Figurative or metonymic category: tongue

FIGURATIVE

EXPRESSION

ABSTRACT

CONCEPT

ITALIAN

EXPRESSIONS

Avere la lingua

penzoloniExhaustion

Avere la lingua di fuori Exhaustion

224

ENGLISH

EXPRESSIONSTo stick tongue out at sb Derision

To stick out sb's tongue Derision

225

4. Discussion and conclusion

4.1. Discussion

First of all I would like to specify that the data retrieved are not meant to be

exhaustive, but they should be sufficient for the purpose of the analysis carried

out in this thesis.

Actually, all the abstract concepts determining the field into which the

figurative expression can be positioned, have been identified in order to make

easier the final analysis, which main intent is to identify how much influence

both embodiment and culture specificity have in this kind of uses of the body

part terms.

Developing a cross-cultural analysis between English and Italian it is

possible to notice that in many cases some uses of the terms at hand may be

shared, but in some other cases there could be a variation in the kind of

conceptual metaphor and in the metonymic categories concerning a certain

target, or a variation in the elaboration or in the emphasis of the same concept

as it has been pinpointed by Kövecses86 as well. The four main circumstances

that can occur are the following:

• both languages use the same body part term to conceptualize the same

abstract concept (e.g.: They lost face as the result of the scandal //

Hanno perso la faccia a causa dello scandalo, Table 6, p 61); however,

sometimes the equivalent translation can include the same equivalent

term accompanied with an adjective (e.g.: He had the face to ask me for

more money // Ha avuto la faccia / faccia tosta / faccia di bronzo di

chiedermi ancora soldi, Table 6, p. 60);

• one language uses one body part term to conceptualize a specific

86 Kövecses, Z., 2002, Metaphor: a practical introduction, Oxford University Press, USA.

226

abstract concept, while the other one uses a term identifying another

body part to express the same concept (e.g.: He paid through the nose

for that car, and its nothing but a piece of junk // Quella macchina l'ha

pagata un occhio della testa, e non è nient'altro che un rottame, Table

21, p. 92);

• one language uses one body part term to conceptualize a given abstract

concept, while the other one expresses it with an expression which does

not contain any term referring to any body part (e.g.: Per quanto

riguarda i miei gusti cinematografici, sono di bocca buona // As for my

cinematographic tastes, I'm easy to please, Table 29, p. 113);

• one language uses one body part term to identify an abstract concept,

while the other one uses a term or a verb which is derived from it, or

from another body part to express the same idea (e.g.: I wish you

wouldn't throw that incident back in my face every time we have a

row // Vorrei che non mi rinfacciassi quell'episodio ogni volta che

litighiamo, Table 6, p. 63).

Another fact that has to be highlighted concerns the English body part terms

representing a verb (to face, to eye, to nose, to mouth, to tongue87): they are

often followed by a preposition and define actions that can be done through the

use of or associated with the specific body part they derive from. They do not

have an equivalent in Italian where they can be expressed by verbs into which,

however, sometimes it is easy to identify processes of derivation or

compounding from the given body part. Taking into account body parts, for

instance, the concept of “confrontation” is usually related to the face as it

implies the fact of finding oneself in front of another person or a situation that

has to be taken into consideration and possibly solved: e.g. You have got to

face your problems rendered in Italian as Devi affrontare i tuoi problemi (Table

5, p. 56), into which the verb affrontare means to confront with somebody or

87 English has no verb formed by the term tooth.

227

something. Nevertheless, analysing it, it can be noticed its derivation from

fronte (forehead) which actually is a part of the face itself.

4.1.1. Significant facts

Denotatively speaking, the English term face can be translated in various ways

in Italian (viso, volto, faccia) according to the context in which it should be

used or the aspect the speaker wants to cover.88 In essence, face can define

most of all the shades that exist in Italian using its three equivalent terms89.

Besides it is possible to notice that speakers of both languages use face to

refer to something else than the face itself: the facial expressions on it (e.g. She

did not have a happy face that day. // Non aveva una bella faccia/una bella

espressione/ un bell'aspetto/ un bel viso quel giorno, Table 3, p. 55), the aspect

of a situation (e.g. France began gradually to assume the face of a civil

government. // La Francia iniziò lentamente ad assumere la faccia/volto di un

governo civile. Table 1, p. 53), the surface of something (e.g. the face of the

earth // la faccia della terra.). Going deeper into the analysis of the example

sentences and phrases containing figurative expressions of face and viso, volto

and faccia and the further classification into metonymic or figurative categories

it is possible to observe that this part of our body can also stand for mental or

emotional attitudes or behaviours of somebody, the person itself, but even for

its reputation, its personality and its awareness90. This happens both in English

and Italian, making the two of them really similar in the conception of the face,

which being the part of the human body which best represents somebody is the

one that it is conceived as the most representative for the personality of one

88 For an overview of the denotations of face // viso, volto, faccia: pp. 51 – 52.

89 For an overview of the denotative uses: Tables 1 – 4, pp. 52 – 55.

90 For an overview of the classification: Tables 42 – 56, pp. 164 – 175.

228

person.

Another interesting fact that has to be taken into consideration is the group

of abstract concepts to which figurative phrases containing face and viso, volto,

faccia refers to in both languages. The following concepts are the ones which

appear the most within the data collected showing that they all presuppose an

encounter, or a meeting between one person and another, or one person and a

fact, making the face to stand for the whole person and its characteristics :

• confrontation: to deal directly with something or someone, which is

expressed even by the English verb to face (e.g. faccia a faccia // face

to face, Table 44, p. 167);

• frankness: to be honest (e.g. a viso aperto // open face, Table 42, pp.

164 – 165);

• insolence: to be rude (e.g. avere la faccia di dire qualcosa // to have the

face to say something, Table 42, pp. 164 – 165);

• insult: to humiliate somebody (e.g. ridere in faccia a qualcuno // to

laugh in somebody's face, Table 46, pp. 169 – 170).

Among the discrepancies between the two language it is worth to mention

the fact that English speakers use face even to talk about the professional

qualities of a person (e.g. somebody's face fits which means that a person is

suitable for a given job) or even the value of something (e.g. the face value).

While in Italian there can be noticed within the figurative examples an idiom

which expresses acceptance and resignation that in English can only be

paraphrased non–idiomatically: fare buon viso a cattivo gioco (Table 7, p. 67)

which means to bear a situation and make the best of it.

Regarding the shift in the body part used for the same idiomatic phrase there

is evidence in Table 7 (p. 67) where in Italian we have alla faccia di chi mi

vuole male that in English is rendered using the term denoting the teeth.

229

The second body part taken into account in this analysis is the organ of the

sight. The term denoting it, eye in English and occhio in Italian, is used to

denote also round-shaped objects or the centre of something both in English

and Italian (e.g. the eye of the hurricane // l'occhio del ciclone), apart from the

fact that sometimes one language use a specific term for what the other denotes

just as eye or occhio (Tables 8 – 11, pp. 70 - 75).

An important consideration at this point of the analysis is the fact that

among all the figurative examples retrieved, the ones including eye and its

Italian correlative occhio are the most numerous in both languages.

English and Italian speakers employ this body part terms especially in lieu

of words that stand for a general or a personal opinion or point of view (e.g.

agli occhi di // in the eyes of which means according to somebody's opinion,

Table 57, p. 176), the sight (e.g. He has an exceptional eye, he can read the

smallest print. // Ha un occhio/vista eccezionale, riesce a leggere i caratteri

piccolissimi., Table 10, p. 73), the look in all its shades (e.g. avere il sangue

negli occhi // bloodshot eyes which significance is a furious look, Table 60, pp.

179 - 182), the control over something (e.g. When cooking soufflés, you need to

keep an eye on them so they don't fall. // Quando cuoci un soufflé, devi tenerlo

d'occhio affinchè non sgonfi., Table 14, p. 79), the personal awareness (e.g.

Chiudere un occhio // to shut/close your eyes to meaning to pretend not to see,

understand something, being indulgent, Table 65, p. 186), the interest in

something (e.g. to clap/set/lay eyes on something/somebody // mettere gli occhi

su that is to say to show interest towards someone or something, Table 68, p.

188) and the eyelid (e.g. in the blink of an eye // in un batter d'occhio meaning

extremely quickly, Table 72, p. 190). Amid the metonymic and figurative uses

of eye it is worth to notice that there are several Italian expressions in which

occhio stands for the aesthetic sense, which is find in English just in to feast

230

sb's eyes on (to please the eye)91.

Besides, within the data collected is present a section regarding metaphoric

uses of eye in English that does not find correlatives with occhio in Italian. It

displays how this term is used to target holes (e.g. the eye of the bolt),

reputation (e.g. black eye), the centre of something (e.g. the bull's eye), the

spotlight (e.g. the public eye), a specific kind of flight (e.g. the red- eye) and

the private investigator (e.g. the private eye), as it is shown in Table 12, pp. 75

– 76.

As for the abstract concepts eye and occhio are associated with in the

figurative expressions they appear in, it can be noticed that the more recalled

ones in both languages are the following:

• opinion: somebody's point of view;

• propensity: the preference towards something or somebody;

• delight: a great pleasure or satisfaction;

• desire: the craving for something or someone;

• attention: the alertness;

• control: somebody's power over something or someone;

• a clear display: a crystal manifestation of something.

The list above shows how they are all linked to a person's standpoint and to the

perception of something that appears right in front of somebody.

Certainly there are some asymmetries in which various English figurative

phrases are not given with and Italian expression containing occhio: among all

there is to see eye to eye with somebody which means to agree with somebody

upon something, or to grab the eye meaning to catch somebody's attention

which in Italian are simply paraphrased (Table 14, pp 78 – 79). Nonetheless the


231

contrary occurs as well as it can be observed in one of the Italian illustrating

sentence Carl però non vede di buon occhio la neonata amicizia tra Molly e

Dupree rendered in English with a non – idiomatic phrase (Table 15, p. 83).

Many symmetries are present (e.g. to see out of the corner of somebody's

eye // vedere con la coda dell'occhio, Table 14, p. 79), while for what it

concerns the use of another body part instead of eye, it is possible to observe

just one expression among the data retrieved (Table 14, p. 80): in the twinkling

of an eye which in Italian is given using occhio, but even ciglia (eyelashes). It

is not a complete shift of body part, but quite a metonymic usage of it.

Scanning the parts of the head, we can find the nose in English right in the

middle of it. In both languages, nose and naso denote not only the body part,

but also the sense of smell, somebody's intuition and protrusive objects as it

looks like the nose on our face. However there are specific denotations as well

which are different in the two languages (Tables 16 – 18, pp. 87 – 89).

With reference to the metaphoric uses of this term, in English it is possible

to recognize a connection with protruding articles which in Italian are rather

called with a specific vocable (e.g. the nose of the yacht // the nose of the pliers

// the nose of the saddle, Table 19, p. 89).

According to the little corpus of the data assembled in this research, one can

remarks that the terms nose and naso are frequently employed in figurative

expressions to symbolize a mental or emotional attitude or behaviour.

Notwithstanding, other common usages of them can easily be identified in the

intuition, somebody's point of view, awareness, curiosity, patience, and the

kind of look92.


232

Furthermore, what stands out from the information collected are the kind of

abstract concepts into which figurative phrases that include the terms nose and

naso map. Add to the conceptualization of a clear display (e.g. under

somebody's nose // davanti al naso, Table 79, p. 194) and the instinct (e.g.

follow your nose // andare a naso, Table 82, pp. 195 – 196), negative concepts

appear to be the most recurring ones:

• aversion: a strong feeling of repugnance towards something or someone

(e.g. He turned his nose up at the job. // Storse il naso a quel lavoro.,

Table 21, p. 92);

• anger: a strong feeling of displeasure towards something or someone

(e.g. Appena glielo ho detto, gli è saltata la mosca al naso. // As soon

as I told him, it got up his nose, Table 22, p. 96);

• intrusion: the act of going in or interfering without being wanted (e.g.

ficcare il naso in qualcosa // to poke/stick your nose into something,

Table 85, p. 198).

A meaningful fact that occurs more frequently between English and Italian

and that differentiate the terms nose and naso from the ones denoting the other

body parts of the head is the shift in the body part used in figurative

expressions as it can be noticed in table 21 (pp. 91 – 95): in the phrases in

which English uses nose, Italian uses testa (head), piede (foot), pelo (body

hair), and even occhiata (look) which is not related to the nose, yet it is an

action of the eye.

Denoting mouth both in English and Italian it is clear that it can indicate the

the body part itself, an entrance or opening as well, but also the place where the

river enters the sea or the ocean and the person who needs food. A noticeable

fact is the case in which the English mouth can denote even the way of

speaking (e.g. a foul mouth meaning to speak in an indecent way)93.

93 For an overview of the denotative uses of mouth: Tables 23 – 26, pp. 100 – 104.

233

Mouth main uses in English figurative expressions refer to one of its

fundamental functions, which is the one of talking, including the act itself of

keeping quiet or talk too much, but the way of of speaking as well, without

underestimate its employ to stand for the mental or emotional attitude or

behaviour expressing all the various emotions and feelings. Its Italian

counterpart term, bocca, behaves the same way94.

On the subject of noncroncrete concepts English and Italian use mouth and

bocca in metaphoric phrases which particularly convey emotions and feelings

people usually express through the act of speaking or the facial expression

which include some kind of movement of the body part concerned (the mouth).

Evidence is shown by the data into which the following concepts have been

recognized:

• in English one can find insolence, audacity (e.g. to be all mouth),

mischievousness (e.g. to have a big mouth), sadness (e.g. to be down in

the mouth) and regret (e.g. to put your foot in your mouth);

• in Italian it is possible to observe aversion (e.g. storcere la bocca),

embarrassment (e.g. avere la bocca impastata) and joy (e.g. con il

sorriso sulla bocca);

• in both languages the speakers conceptualize frankness, sincerity,

straightforwardness, fairness (e.g. avere la verità in bocca),

astonishment (e.g. restare a bocca aperta), disappointment (e.g. to

leave a bad/nasty taste in the mouth), anger (e.g. to froth at the mouth),

desire (e.g. to make somebody's mouth watering), reluctance (e.g.

sorriso a mezza bocca).

Nevertheless it is undeniable how the metaphoric expressions with mouth or

bocca reflect the act of speaking concerning the fact of keeping quiet (e.g. to

keep your mouth shut // tenere la bocca chiusa, Table 91, pp. 202 - 203) or


234

being talkative (e.g. to open somebody's mouth // aprire bocca, Table 91, p.

203).

A salient fact that I have observed within the data is that when English

speakers uses mouth, Italian speakers tend to use lingua (tongue), while when

Italian people use bocca, English people use lips just as it should be pinpointed

in the following examples: e.g. to have a big mouth // avere la lingua lunga;

Watch your mouth! // Tieni a freno la lingua!; Acqua in bocca! // Lips sealed!;

essere sulla bocca di tutti // to be on everyone's lips (Tables 28 – 29, pp, 105 –

114).

Apropos of the denotative uses of tooth, a similarity between English and

Italian may be found as in both languages the terms tooth and dente designate

pointed items belonging to bigger objects such as gears or disparate tools (for

instance: a saw or a comb). Nonetheless in Italian it is used to denote various

items that in English has a own name, different from tooth (Tables 30 – 31, pp.

116 – 117).

Concerning the terms referring to the teeth in English, tooth/teeth and

dente/denti in Italian, they are almost entirely used in figurative expressions to

mean commitment (e.g. I'll fight tooth and nail to make a name for myself as

an actor. // Lotterò con le unghie e con i denti pur di diventare un attore

famoso.) or the mental or emotional attitude (e.g. Gli altri si indignano e

mostrano i denti. // the other people get angry and show their teeth., Tables 33

– 34, pp. 117 - 124). Anyway there can be distinguished other metonymic

categories that define its usage in metaphoric phrases95.

An important fact concerning the term tooth regards the fact that, among all

the body parts in hand, it is the only one that in English is not used as a verb


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(*to tooth).

Taking into account the common metonymic categories in which tooth and

dente are classified, it is possible to notice how in all the phrases indicating an

attitude, the majority of the abstract concepts involved are negative emotions as

it happened for nose and naso (Table 102, pp. 212 – 213):

• in Italian there exist some concepts which are not given in English with

phrases containing tooth: disappointment (e.g. a denti asciutti),

resentment (e.g. dente sdegnoso), arrogance (e.g. dente superbo);

• the English conceptualization of falsehood (e.g. to lie through your

teeth) has not got an Italian equivalent including dente;

• both languages use tooth and dente figuratively to conceptualize

reluctance (e,g, a denti stretti), threat (e.g. to bear your teeth), anger

(e.g. to gnash your teeth) and fear (e.g. battere i denti).

Making a comparison between the English and Italian in the figurative

usage of tooth and dente it can also be observed that the locutions into which

these two terms are the translations of one another (e.g. “No” dissi ancora,

digrignando i denti. // “No” I said again, gritting my teeth.) are fewer than the

ones into which in the other language are translated as a paraphrase (e.g. to be

fed up to the back teeth // essere stufo marcio). Notwithstanding phrases with a

variation of the body part used can be observed: we have ossa (bones) and pelo

(body hair) used in Italian when in English tooth is employed; and lip in

English is used in lieu of the Italian dente (Tables 33 – 34, pp. 117 - 124).

Latterly there is the body part term tongue, and its correlative Italian term,

lingua which denote not only the soft and movable part in the mouth, but also

the language, the type of language and tongue shaped objects (e.g. tongue of

land // lingua di terra, Tables 35 – 36, pp. 126 - 128).

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Investigating the collection of data it is clear how in the majority of

metaphoric uses this body part interested in this analysis stands for one of the

main action it accomplishes: the act and the way of speaking in both English

and Italian revealing a parallel with its container (mouth and bocca).96

Consequently the indefinite concepts that arises from the figurative uses of

tongue and lingua may be separated into two groups:

• the first group is characterized by two opposites concepts: on the one

hand there is loquacity (e.g. to untie somebody's tongue, Table 118, p.

223) while on the other hand we find silence, in other words the intent

of keeping quiet (e.g. I had to bite my tongue and accept his

explanation. // Ho dovuto mordermi/frenare la lingua e accettare la sua

spiegazione, Table 38, p. 131);

• the second group is constituted by concepts referring to attitudes

speaker adopt when speaking: freedom of talk (e.g. La sua lingua

sciolta iniziò a metterlo nei guai immediatamente. // His loosened

tongue started to put him into trouble right away., Table 39, p. 134) and

mischievousness (e.g. to speak/talk with forked tongues // avere la

lingua biforcuta); we also have frankness conceptualized in Italian (e.g.

essere senza peli sulla lingua), and the English speakers's conception of

deceit (e.g. to speak with tongue in cheek) and warning (e.g. Watch

your tongue!, Table 118, pp. 222 – 223).

Among the exemplary sentences collected I could not find any evidence for

the use of another body part in lieu of tongue or lingua in the two languages,

but I could notice parallelisms (e.g. Lost your tongue? // Hai perso la lingua?)

and differences (e.g. to keep a civil tongue // parlare educatamente; Mi prude

la lingua! // I'm itching to say something!) in the translation of the figurative

expressions as it can be realized inspecting tables 38 and 39 (pp. 130 – 135).


237

Furthermore, I have decided to collect the number of all the occurrences of

the figurative uses of the body part terms in corpora supposing to evaluate

whether some words could have been used in more figurative expressions than

others, and if this statistics could have shown differences or equivalences in the

two languages compared (Tables 40 – 41, pp. 140 – 162).

With respect to face, the figurative expressions constitute the 14% out of all

the occurrences in the BNC corpus (29325); while considering the Italian

equivalents it has been calculated that the metaphorical uses are the 6% out of

the 4409 occurrences of viso, the 2% out of the 11765 occurrences of volto and

the 17% out of the 14947 occurrences of faccia. As to eye, the figurative

expressions are the 14% out of the 36148 occurrences, while the ones

containing occhio are the 87% out of the 12148 total instances of it in Paisà.

Regarding nose, we have 13% of metaphoric phrases out of the 4423

occurrences of this term and 21% out of the 3687 examples of naso are

represented by its figurative uses. With regard to mouth the percentage of

figurative expressions is the 7% out of the 9336 total occurrences and the 19%

out of the 10302 cases including bocca for its Italian equivalent. Then we have

17% of figurative examples including the term tooth within 5069 total

occurrences of it, which needs to be compared with the 9% out of a total

instances of 6845 for the Italian dente. Finally the term tongue, in its figurative

use, represents the 18% out of a total amount of 2636 occurrences of it, far

from the 1% out of the total occurrences (37135) of its Italian correlative

lingua97.

Taking into account the fact that the total number of occurrences of the

single terms are different and comparing English with Italian, the most

outstanding information is the number of the figurative occurrences of occhio

97 For an overview of the total number of occurrences: Table 40 (pp. 140 - 153) and Table 41(pp. 153 - 163)

238

which constitute the 87% of the total exemplary sentences of the term in the

Italian corpus. Though the whole (12148 occurrences) is not as copious as for

other body part terms, such as lingua (37135 occurrences), or eye (36148

occurrences), its metaphoric uses represent almost the total of the occurrences

of occhio. On the contrary, the lower number of metaphoric phrases retrieved

concerns the term lingua being just the 1% of the entire subcorpus containing

lingua.

Besides, counting all the different figurative occurrences of the various

words analysed, it can be easily observed that eye in English and occhio in

Italian count the most numerous ones which are respectively 89 and 118. While

as for the metaphoric uses of the other terms, they are almost similar in the two

languages apart from bocca, which counts double the amount of the figurative

occurrences of mouth.

In my opinion, another paramount fact in order to draw my own conclusion

is the one of gathering together all the abstract concepts identified into groups

to try to understand which one English and Italian speakers regularly link to

their concrete body parts:

• EMOTION: anger, astonishment, clearness of emotions, delight,

pleasure, embarrassment, facial expression, fear, incredulity, joy,

sadness;

• FEELINGS: despair, disappointment, exhaustion, regret, relief,

reluctance, resentment;

• ATTITUDE: annoyance, arrogance, attention, aversion, betrayal,

change in mood, change of direction, change of idea, contempt,

contradiction, control, deceit, derision, desire, interest, disagreement,

falsehood, frankness, sincerity, straightforwardness, fairness, greed,

impassivity, impartiality, indulgence, insincerity, insolence, audacity,

instruct, suggest, insult, offence, humiliation, intransigence, severity,

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intrusion, manage, mischievousness, naivety, parsimony, patience,

politeness, pre-empt, propensity, preference, refusal, regardlessness,

reproach, resignation, acceptance, respect, restraint, risk, compromise

yourself, sacrifice, self damaging, threat, trust, truth, vanity;

• PERSONALITY: aspect, authority, consideration, charisma, easy to

please, ignorance, wisdom;

• CONFRONTATION: confrontation, equal confrontation, opposition,

passionate confrontation, tough defence, unequal confrontation;

• LOOK: absent-mind look, blindness, foresight, furtive look, sight,

standpoint, witness;

• ACT OF SPEAKING: easy articulation, keep quiet, loquacity, prattle,

speak freely;

• AWARENESS: clear display, appearance, disappearance,

incomprehension, recognition, revelation, memento, illusion, haziness,

difficult acquisition, turn up;

• PROFESSIONALISM: proficiency; improvement; focus; experience;

achievement;

• MEASURE: approximation, precision, proximity, rapidity;

• CHANGE: camouflage, destruction, reanimation, transformation.

The previous grouping shows some correlation within all the data collected

making all the abstract concepts belonging especially to few major groups

(emotions, feelings, attitudes or behaviour) giving rise to some observations

that can be useful in this kind of research and that I am going to develop in the

conclusive part.

4.2. Conclusion

Actually, it is known that in most languages of the world, body part words

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appear in expressions denoting emotions98. This happens because emotions

involve corporal bodily reactions to them, making emotions themselves

cognitive states with bodily consequences. Emotions trigger intentional and

non-intentional behaviours involving the body, such as postures, facial

expressions and speech which are our main hints to identify somebody's

emotions. This involvement of the emotions has been proved even into the

work of Ponsonnet (2014) who analysed figurative and non figurative body

part terms in the Dalabon language which is spoken in the Northern of

Australia99. Then the fact that body parts terms are so widespread in the

descriptions of emotional behaviours as it can be observed in the majority of

the metaphoric phrases retrieved in this research into which body parts are used

figuratively may have something to do with the primacy of bodily experience.

This extensive use of body part terms in the description of emotions might

even depend on the fact that these mental reactions may be considered

universal bodily responses of human beings to a given situation, irrespective of

the culture one belongs to as it is shown in the study of Ekman et al. (1969)100.

This remark recalls also what Lakoff and Johnson affirmed: “our

conceptualization of entities in more abstract domains is based on more

concrete concepts which are more clearly delineated in our experience”101.

As a matter of fact, body part terms seems to fit for the purpose of being a

98 Wierzbicka, A., 1999, Emotions across languages and cultures: diversity and universals, Cambrige University Press, Cambrige.

99 Ponsonnet, M., 2014, Figurative and non-figurative use of body-part words in descriptions of emotions in Dalabon (Northern Australia), International Journal of Language and Culture, John Benjamins Publishing, 1, pp. 98 – 120, Camberra.

100Ekman, P., Sorenson, E. R., Friesen, W. V., 1969, Pan-cultural elements in facial display of emotions, Science 164, pp. 86 – 88.

101Lakoff, G., Johnson, M., 1980, Metaphors we live by, University of Chicago Press,Chicago.

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structural model to conceive and describe abstract concepts, helping to

facilitate communication and make it succeed. Indeed emotions, feelings and

attitudes are abstract concepts that may result difficult to understand, then

speakers internalize them and speak about them because they have associate to

them a common concrete part of the body that actually performs the reaction

people usually have when feeling a given emotion, or feeling.

According to what has been observed in the previous section, it seems that

the face, the eyes, the mouth and the tongue are mostly involved in the

conceptualization of emotions, feelings and attitudes that derive from direct

bodily experiences of them:

• the figurative expressions including face and its Italian equivalents

derive from a corporal experience of really finding yourself with the

face positioned right in front of the other person when a confrontation

of any kind takes place, then transposed even to the expressions into

which a person needs to deal with a situation;

• as for eye/occhio, metaphoric phrases which make use of this body part

term recall the concepts that I mentioned before which all involve the

kind of look one physically adopts when experiencing a given emotion

or feeling or wants to behave in some specific way;

• regarding the figurative expressions which are composed using

mouth/bocca and tongue/lingua, they implicate the conception of

concepts which are related to speech (the act of speaking and the way

of speaking) into which these two body parts are actually physically

involved.

Concerning the use of body part terms denoting the nose/naso and the

tooth/dente in metaphoric phrases, they express concepts which derive from a

bodily experience to a lesser extent compared with the above body parts.

Indeed the figurative expressions retrieved for them are less compared to the

242

others. The only examples we can find are the following: there is the nose that

wrinkles when a person perceives disgust or aversion towards somebody or

something; while teeth can be clenched showing reluctance, or one can bares

his teeth, or grit them to threaten somebody, or else chatter them when a person

is frightened. As for the the other concepts they conceptualize in figurative

expressions, they are not related to a specific physical experience, though they

especially express negative emotions and attitudes.

In this research I have examined figurative uses of body part terms,

specifically the face, the eye, the nose, the mouth , the tooth and the tongue, in

English and Italian in order to find out whether the conceptual metaphors

identified may be found in both languages and whether the motivation could be

related to the concept of the embodiment or to a culture-specifity fact.

Taking account of the evidences and considerations I have made, I suppose

that behind the observed figurative uses of the body parts at hand there could

be a universal reason which derives from universal aspects of the human body.

The two cultures seems to share physiological processes: among all, there are

the act of performing an attentive look in order to keep something or somebody

under someone's control (e.g. to keep an eye on something/somebody // tenere

d'occhio qualcosa/qualcuno) or the fact of frothing at the mouth when

someone is furious (e.g. to have foam at the mouth // avere la bava alla bocca).

Basically, in my opinion, it is through the interaction between the human

body and the environment that people make sense of what they perceive, with

which they conceive and this fact presupposes what the embodied theory of

meaning by Johnson102 states: a mind and body continuity which positions this

interaction between bodies and environment as its central tenet.

102Johnson, M., 2008, The meaning of the body. Aesthetics of Human Understanding, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London.

243

Nonetheless, it is necessary to take into account the cultural variation that

could influence the creation of conceptual metaphors, a divergence that cold

occur cross culturally, but it could be even an intracultural one as Kovecses103

claims. However, in this research the two cultures compared are really similar

in the creation of body part metaphors as it is shown in the data collected.

Thus, it should be necessary to compare them with cultures which are not

related to them in order to identify metaphors that may derive from cultural

variation, if they are present. The reason why this is a significant investigation

to carry out is the fact that bodily experiences and cultural experiences may

determine the extent to which conceptual metaphors can be considered

universal, widespread or culture-specific as Yu104 point out in its paper on

courage associated with gallbladder in Chinese culture.

To my mind, even if the embodiment motivation behind the high number of

body part figurative expressions analysed in this research is the predominant

one, the comparison between these two cultures is too limited to draw a

definitive conclusion. Further research on the cultural filters that may define

the meaning of the metaphoric uses of the body parts investigated are

necessary.

103Kövecses, Z., 2002, Metaphor: a practical introduction, Oxford University Press, USA.

104Yu, N., 2003, Metaphor, body, and culture: the Chinese understanding of Gallbladder and courage, Metaphor and symbol, 18:1, 13- 31.

244

REFERENCES

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Wordreference, www.wordreference.com

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http://www.oxforddictionary.com/

http://www.corpusitaliano.it/

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