The international conference “The Body in Language: Lexicon, Metaphor, Grammar and Culture” will be hosted at the University of Warsaw, Poland, and is organized in collaboration with the University of Cologne, Germany, on the 21 - 22 October 2011. Programme.
The research of the past decades has shown that the human body is a fascinating topic for semantic and cultural studies. For example, various body parts provide natural source domains in linguistic conceptualization. In many languages, the term for the body part back also means ‘behind’ or ‘past’; likewise, the term for face often means ‘front’ or ‘future’. Hand is typically associated with the concept of ‘help’, ‘work’ or ‘possession’, while some inner body parts (stomach, heart, liver) with emotions. How much are such patters language-specific or universal? Are body parts likely to have similar codings in various languages? In what ways different gestures and expressions are connected to and conventionalized in particular cultures? These are some of the questions we ask.
The conference will accommodate papers with descriptive, as well as theoretical perspectives with the aim of contributing to a better understanding of the linguistic categorization of the body and its parts and the role this domain plays in languages of the world. The conference will also host a special session on African languages.
Topics to be covered include:
* The coding and categorization of body parts in different languages
* Polysemy and semantic change of body part terms
* Body part terms in conceptualization of abstract concepts
* Grammaticalization of body part terms
* Metaphor and metonymy in lexical semantics of body part terms
* Expressing emotional concepts through their “embodiment”
* Cultural values associated with body part terms
* Unique syntax involving body part terms
* The use of body parts (gestures) in communication
Conference organizers: Matthias Brenziger (University of Cologne), Iwona Kraska-Szlenk (University of Warsaw)
Invited keynote speakers (in the lexicographic order):
Alexandra Aikhenvald (James Cook University, Australia), topic: Mind, body and spirit: on meanings and functions of body part terms in the languages of the Sepik area, Papua New Guinea
Jerzy Bartmiński (Maria Curie-Skłodowska University), topic: The body as source domain of the metaphorization processes
Bernd Heine (University of Cologne), topic: The human body as template in the evolution of grammar