English and Romanian Body Parts Idioms Reflecting the Concept of Common Sense. A Cognitive Perspective
English and Romanian Body Parts Idioms Reflecting the Concept of Common Sense. A Cognitive Perspective

Summary/Abstract: Phraseology represents a complex and controversial domain of semantics. The paper analyses from a cognitive point of view a series of English and Romanian body parts idioms reflecting the idea of common sense, of sound practical judgement. While traditional linguists study mainly the formal and functional aspects of idioms, cognitive linguists have a completely different approach. They consider that there is a systematic conceptual motivation for many idioms. Most idioms are products of our conceptual system and not simply a matter of language. Our work is based on the cognitive theory according to which idioms are motivated by conceptual structures: conventional knowledge, conceptual metonymies, and metaphors. The notion of embodiment can be easily applied especially to human body idioms. We also try to prove that there is a considerable degree of correspondence regarding these idioms in both languages, i.e., they share the same figurative meaning, as well as the same underlying conceptual strategies.

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