School of Languages and Linguistics - Theses

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Subject: linguistics × Type: Honours thesis × Author: SMOLL, LAETITIA ×

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    Speaking from the heart: the heart in language and culture
    SMOLL, LAETITIA ( 2010)
    This study takes an in-depth look at the meanings of heart in English, the idiomatic phrases and constructions involving heart, and the ways in which culturally-specific beliefs about the heart influence the meanings of heart in different languages. A multidimensional approach is employed, in which a corpus of spoken and written texts is analysed to determine the ways heart is used in naturally occurring language. An informant study was also conducted in order to investigate the conscious associations and folk models of the heart held by English speakers. Finally, a survey of Indigenous language dictionaries and literature on Indigenous ethno-medical beliefs demonstrates how the meanings of heart in different languages can reveal interesting differences in conceptualizations of the body.