Chapter Cultural Conceptualisations of mouth, lips, tongue and teeth in Bulgarian and English Alexandra Bagasheva

Chapter 9. Cultural Conceptualisations of MOUTH, LIPS, TONGUE and TEETH in Bulgarian and English
Alexandra Bagasheva
To comprehend the nature of the emerging conceptual structure in embodiment via body parts, we must revisit the idea of figurativity in an emergent, sophisticated adaptive perceptual-symbol system, such as human language, whose comprehension requires embodied enactment by an immersed experiencer.
An “aspect of language that embodies cultural conceptualisations is the use of expressions which include a body part and appear to be metaphoric”. In other words, in the contrastive analysis presented below the focus falls on similarities and contrasts in the abstract conceptualisations which the mouth and its parts are deployed to construe in the linguistic inventories, on specific figuration patterns and on the scenic details projected via the cultural formulas. Prominent place in this occupy frames and conceptual metaphors and metonymies. For example, in both Bulgarian and English the spread of information by oral communication from person to person is conceptualised metonymically via the mouth. In English by word of mouth is more explicit and involves the mentioning of the actual means of communication—words, which metonymically stands for the whole process of communication, speaking, exchanging information, etc. In Bulgarian oт ycтa нa ycтa [ot usta na usta, ‘from mouth to mouth’, by word of mouth] is characterised by greater scenic implicitness, since nothing about the actual exchange is mentioned.The mouth is defined as the opening and cavity in the lower part of the human face, surrounded by the lips, through which food is taken in and vocal sounds are emitted and consequently is made up of the following parts—lips, teeth, tongue, cavity, muscular floor and roof (palate). Tongue-based cultural formulas in Bulgarian and English are pre￾sented. The data are organised in alphabetical order of the projected abstract conceptualisations. An empty slot in column 2 or 4 indicates that there are not cultural formulas with tongue in such a wide use in the respective cultural group for the figurative conceptualisation of the target abstract domain as to be recorded in the representative lexicographic reference materials. Teeth-based cultural formulas in Bulgarian and English are presented. The data are organised in alphabetical order of the abstract conceptualisations projected. An empty slot in column 2 or 4 indicates that there are not cultural formulas with teeth in such a wide use in the respective cultural group for the figurative conceptualisation of the target abstract domain as to be recorded in the representative lexicographic reference materials.
To summarize, Overall, mouth and teeth are the members of the mouth meronymy that are most frequently used as sources for cultural metaphthonymies in both cultural groups. Metonymy is more fundamental and appears prior to any metaphorical mappings in both cultural groups in embodiment via body parts, due to the nature of language as a complex adaptive system and the nature of human meaning-making strategies based on enactment, with metaphors contributing to a lesser extent.