A Cognitive And Cross-Cultural Study On Body Part Terms In English And Turkish Colour Idioms
A Cognitive And Cross-Cultural Study On Body Part Terms In English And Turkish Colour Idioms

Summary/Abstract: This study aims to reveal and compare the embodied cognition of English and Turkish speakers through their use of body part terms in basic colour term idioms. More specifically, it addresses the distribution of the body part terms in Turkish and English basic colour term idioms and conceptual metonymies underlying these idioms, and it interprets the findings in terms of socio-cultural and socio-cognitive structures in the minds and linguistic practices of people of Turkish and English cultures. In order to achieve this aim, the idioms with Berlin and Kay’s basic colour terms and body part terms are selected from the specialized dictionaries on idioms. After the collection of data, the cognitive analysis is conducted within the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory. The result demonstrates that although there are some conceptual metaphors and metonymies which tend to be universal as they are grounded in bodily experience, English and Turkish speakers’ conceptualizations through the basic colour terms and body parts vary tremendously because of different socio-cultural and socio-cognitive backgrounds of these speech communities.

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