Polysemy in Najdi Arabic: a corpus-based descriptive study on the terms of body parts
The aim of the research is to investigate the polysemy of twelve body parts in Najdi Arabic from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. The data was collected from online corpora and interviews with Native Najdi speakers. The researcher analysed the literal and peripheral meanings of the words in the study by using the cognitive devices: conceptual metaphors, conceptual metonymies, image and orientation schemata as the research is based on Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). The results of the study showed some disparity in the productivity of the words in the study. yadd ‘hand’ has the highest number of polysemes followed by ra:s ‘head’ and galb ‘heart’. fam ‘mouth’ , kabd ‘liver’ and idhin ‘ear’ have the least extended meanings in the study.
The extended meanings of the body parts found in the study varied as they referred to different domains of knowledge such as character traits, cultural values, emotions, feelings, mental faculties, extremities, and spatial relations. The conceptual metonymies detected in the study are: WHOLE FOR PART, PART FOR WHOLE, PART FOR PART, and ORGAN FOR FUNCTION. The image schemata found in the analysis are the CONTAINER schema, SURFACE schema, the OBJECT schema, and the SOURCE-PATH-GOAL schema.
The researcher investigated the role of the prototypical properties of the twelve words in the study in light of the Prototype theory (Rosch, 1975) to investigate the feasibility of the Prototype Selection Procedure (Iberretxe-Antunano, 1999a). In addition, collocates were analysed in light of cognitive semantics and grammar to investigate the feasibility of compositional polysemy (Iberretxe-Antunano, 1999a). The analysis highlighted the collaboration between the body part and its collocate in meaning extension.
As the study aimed to investigate the universality of polysemes in Najdi Arabic, the researcher compared the extended meanings of the words in Najdi Arabic with other languages and dialects. The results of the study showed that the meanings of words in Najdi Arabic agreed to a large extent with the extended meanings of the words in other languages. According to the embodiment thesis (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980), the convergence of meanings is a result of the similarity of bodily experiences. The conceptual metaphors found in the study proved to be universal as they were found in other languages. However, few instances were specific to Najdi Arabic due to cultural differences.
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