國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
c. yǎnméi ‘spy’
d. tóumù ‘leader of a tribe’
e. míngzuǐ ‘pundit’
f. hùkǒu ‘number of households’
(2) Instances in the [VN]V structure
a. fānliǎn ‘suddenly get mad’
b. biànmiàn ‘suddenly get mad’
c. yàoyǎn ‘dazzling’
d. dèngmù ‘stare in anger’
e. tiāozuǐ ‘be fussy about food’
f. jìkǒu ‘be on a diet’.
(3) Instances in the [VV]W1 structure
a. miànshì ‘to be published’ [VV]N
b. miànlín ‘confront’ [VV]V
4.2 Meaning Distribution
An important consideration in determining the lexicalization type of a word is
whether the meaning of a word is literal or not. The meanings of the words containing the six body-part terms are analyzed and categorized based on their linguistic context and their usages in the real world context, with the notions from Chinese Dictionary, the Chinese Wordnet and previous findings as our references. The distribution of the literal, metonymic and metaphorical meanings in the six body-part terms is given in Table 4.3.
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Table 4.3 The distribution of literal, metonymic and metaphorical meanings in the six body-part terms
Meanings Liǎn % Miàn % Yǎn % Mù % Zuǐ % Kǒu %
Literal 552 48.68 837 3.37 2503 42.8 99 0.53 401 66.28 499 6.09 Metonymic 582 51.32 6206 24.97 2181 37.3 1167 6.21 169 27.93 4017 49.01 Metaphorical 17812 71.66 1164 19.90 17517 93.26 35 5.79 3680 44.9
Total 1134 100 24855 100 5848 100 18783 100 605 100 8196 100
As shown in Table 4.3, in general, all the body-part terms are used to denote literal, metonymic and metaphorical meanings, except for liǎn, which denotes only literal and metonymic meanings. The counterparts of liǎn, yǎn, and zuǐ – miàn, mù, and kǒu – are much more frequently used to denote metonymic meanings, (e.g., kǒu, 49.01%), and metaphorical meanings (e.g., miàn, 71.66% and mù, 93.26%). Although liǎn and yǎn occur at a slightly higher percentage of frequency when they denote metonymic and metaphorical meanings than literal meanings, the percentage of the frequency of the occurrence of their literal meanings and non-literal meanings is close: 48.68% for liǎn in literal meanings versus 51.32% for liǎn in metonymic meanings; 42.8% for yǎn in literal meanings versus 57.2% for yǎn in metonymic and metaphorical meanings. As for zuǐ, it is more frequently used to denote literal
meanings than metonymic and metaphorical meanings.
In more detail, the pair of face-denoting body-part terms, liǎn (48.68%) is used literally more frequently. Next, for the pair of eye-denoting body-part terms, yǎn (42.8%) is used to denote literal meanings more frequently. Then, for the pair of mouth-denoting body-part terms, zuǐ (66.28%) is used to denote literal meanings more frequently. As for the metonymic meanings, liǎn (51.32%), yǎn (37.3%), and kǒu
‧
(49.01%) are used to denote metonymic meanings more frequently than their
counterparts. In addition, with regard to the metaphorical meanings, liǎn is not used to denote any metaphorical meanings, while its counterpart miàn (71.66%) is found to denote metaphorical meanings at a high frequency. And, mù (93.26%) denotes metaphorical meanings at a significantly high frequency. Kǒu (44.9%) also denotes metaphorical meanings at higher frequency than zuǐ (5.79%)
The metonymic and metaphorical meanings that are extended from the six body-part terms are also one of the main points of focus in this study. The distribution of the metonymic and metaphorical meanings among the six body-part terms are presented in Table 4.4 and Table 4.5.
Table 4.4 The distribution of metonymic meanings among the six body-part terms
Metonymic
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
% 94.74 5.26 100
INTELLECTION 667 30.58 411 35.22 1078
% 61.87 38.13 100
FOCUS 384 17.61 529 45.33 913
% 42.06 57.94 100
FLAVOR 26 15.38 657 16.36 683
% 3.81 96.19 100
UTTERANCES 84 49.7 1921 47.82 2005
% 4.19 95.81 100
Total 582 100 6206 100 2181 100 1167 100 169 100 4017 100
As presented in Table 4.4, the metonymic meanings that the six body-part terms denote are exhibited in the left column of the table. In total, twelve metonymic meanings are found in the case of the six body-part terms: PERSON, EMOTION, CHARACTER, DIGNITY, APPEARANCE, CONFRONT(V.), QUANTITY, ABILITY,
INTELLECTION, FOCUS, FLAVOR, and UTTERANCES.
In terms of each body-part term, five metonymic meanings are found for liǎn :
PERSON, EMOTION, CHARACTER, DIGNITY, and APPEARANCE, as illustrated in (4a),(5a),(6a),(7a) and (8a). Most of the metonymic expressions of liǎn are found to express EMOTION (71.31%). Certain percentages of these metonymic expressions are used to express DIGNITY (13.4%), CHARACTER (9.28%), APPEARANCE (5.5%), and
PERSON (0.52%). As illustrated in (4b), (5b), (6b), (7b), and (8b), the same five metonymic meanings which are denoted by liǎn are also found for miàn, while miàn is used to express two further metonymic meanings: CONFRONT (V.) and QUANTITY. This indicates that miàn is extended to express more metonymic meanings in the pair of face-denoting body-part terms. Miàn in (9) denotes the metonymic meaning
CONFRONT (V.).(10) illustrates that miàn is extended metonymically to express
‧
QUANTITY. For the seven metonymic meanings, miàn is most frequently used to denote the metonymic meaning of CONFRONT (V.) (61.8%), with certain percentages of the metonymic expressions being used to express APPEARANCE (17.05%), PERSON
(11.94%), EMOTION (4.93%), DIGNITY (3.95%), CHARACTER (0.21%) and QUANTITY
(0.13%).
As a pair of face-denoting body-part terms, liǎn and miàn are used to denote the same five metonymic meanings: PERSON, EMOTION, CHARACTER, DIGNITY, and
APPEARANCE, with miàn being used to denote two further metonymic meanings:
CONFRONT (V.) and QUANTITY. As shown in Table 4.4, although liǎn and miàn share the same five metonymic meanings, they have their own preference in denoting certain metonymic meanings. And the contrast in the metonymic meaning extensions for the pair of liǎn and miàn stands out: liǎn is mostly used in a nominal construction for expressing EMOTION, while miàn is mostly used as a predicate expressing
CONFRONT (V.).
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
b. lòumiàn ‘show up’
(9) CONFRONT (V.)
miànshì ‘to be published’
(10) QUANTITY
yímiàn as a classifier
Next, the same five metonymic meanings are found in both yǎn and mù: PERSON,
EMOTION, ABILITY, INTELLECTION, and FOCUS. Instances are given in (11) - (15).
When yǎn and mù denote metonymic meanings, yǎn is used more frequently to express the metonymic meanings EMOTION (38.38%) and INTELLECTION (30.58%), with certain percentages of the metonymic expressions being used to express FOCUS
(17.61%), ABILITY (13.2%), and PERSON (0.23%). Mù is used more frequently to express the metonymic meanings FOCUS (45.33%) and INTELLECTION (35.22%), with certain percentages of the metonymic expressions being used to express EMOTION
(12.51%), PERSON (5.57%), and ABILITY (1.37%).
As a pair of eye-denoting body-part terms, yǎn and mù are used to denote the same five metonymic meanings: PERSON, EMOTION, ABILITY, INTELLECTION, and
FOCUS. As shown in Table 4.4, although yǎn and mù share the same five metonymic meanings, they have their own preference in denoting certain metonymic meanings.
And the contrast in the metonymic meaning extensions for the pair of yǎn and mù stands out: yǎn is mostly used to express EMOTION, while mù is mostly used to express FOCUS.
(11) PERSON
a. yǎnméi ‘spy’
b. tóumù ‘leader of a tribe’
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
(12) EMOTION
a. lèiyǎn ‘tearful eyes’
b. dèngmù ‘stare in anger’
(13) ABILITY
a. yīngyǎn ‘sharp eyes’
b. yīngmù ‘sharp eyes’
(14) INTELLECTION
a. míngyǎn ‘discerning eye’
b. mùguāng ‘vision’
(15) FOCUS
a. yàoyǎn ‘dazzling’
b. duómù ‘to catch one’s eyes’
Then, five metonymic meanings are found for zuǐ: for PERSON, 3.55%; for
EMOTION, 14.2%; for CHARACTER, 17.16%; for FLAVOR, 15.38%; and for
UTTERANCES, 49.7%. Instances are provided in (16a), (17a), (18), (19a), and (20a).
As for kǒu, example (16b), (17b), (19b), (20b), and (21) can illustrate the metonymic meanings for kǒu. Five metonymic meanings are found: for PERSON, 33.48%; for
EMOTION, 0.5%; for QUANTITY, 1.84%; for FLAVOR, 16.36%; and for UTTERANCES, 47.82%. Among the metonymic meanings, both zuǐ and kǒu are more frequently used to denote UTTERANCES. The metonymic meaning CHARACTER occurs at the second highest percentage of occurrences for zuǐ, while kǒu is not used to denote
CHARACTER. Also,the metonymic meaning QUANTITY is only found for kǒu.
As a pair of mouth-denoting body-part terms, zuǐ and kǒu are used to denote the same four metonymic meanings: PERSON, EMOTION, FLAVOR and UTTERANCES.As shown in Table 4.4, although zuǐ and kǒu share the same four metonymic meanings, they have their own preference in denoting certain metonymic meanings. For
‧
example, in denoting the metonymic meaning PERSON, kǒu is used more frequently than zuǐ. Also, the contrast in the metonymic meaning extensions for the pair of zuǐ and kǒu stands out: only zuǐ is used to express CHARACTER andonlykǒu is used to express QUANTITY.
In general, in terms of metonymic meanings, the six body-part terms all denote the metonymic meanings PERSON and EMOTION, with kǒu showing the highest percentage of occurrences in denoting PERSON (62.12%) andyǎn showing the highest percentage of occurrences in denoting EMOTION (47.88%). Liǎn, miàn and zuǐ denote the metonymic meaning CHARACTER, with liǎn (56.25%) showing the highest
percentage of occurrences. Only liǎn and miàn denote DIGNITY and APPEARANCE, and miàn shows higher percentage of occurrences than liǎn in denoting either DIGNITY
(75.85%) or APPEARANCE (97.06%). As for QUANTITY, only miàn and kǒu are used to
‧
denote QUANTITY, with kǒu (90.24%) showing higher percentage of occurrence than miàn (9.76%). Only yǎn and mù denote ABILITY, INTELLECTION and FOCUS. Yǎn shows a higher percentage of occurrences in denoting ABILITY (94.74%) and
INTELLECTION (61.87%) than mù, while a little lower percentage of occurrences (42.06%) in denoting FOCUS than mù (57.94%). FLAVOR and UTTERANCES are only found in the case of words containing zuǐ and kǒu, with kǒu showing a higher percentage of occurrences than zuǐ in denoting FLAVOR (96.19%) and UTTERANCES
(95.81%).
In addition, the six body-part terms are also used to denote metaphorical meanings. The distribution of their metaphorical meanings is presented in Table 4.5.
Table 4.5 The distribution of metaphorical meanings in the six body-part terms
Metaphorical
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
% 100 100
MOUTH- SHAPED
35 100 438 11.90 473
% 7.40 92.6 100
GATEWAY 3216 87.39 3216
% 100 100
Total 17812 100 1164 100 17517 100 35 100 3680 100
As shown in Table 4.5, in total, ten metaphorical meanings are found in the six body-part terms: SURFACE, CONDITION, SIDE, NEAR SPACE, NEAR TIME, TINY HOLE, CENTER, ENTRY, MOUTH-SHAPED, and GATEWAY.
First, for the pair of face-denoting body-part terms, liǎn denotes no metaphorical meanings, while three metaphorical meanings are found for miàn as in (22) - (24):
SURFACE, CONDITION and SIDE, with SIDE (59.41%) occuring at the highest frequency.
(22) SURFACE
dìmiàn ‘ground’
(23) CONDITION
shìmiàn ‘market conditions’
(24) SIDE
běimiàn ‘the north side’
Second, as in (25) - (28), yǎn and mù both denote NEAR SPACE, NEAR TIME, TINY HOLE, and CENTER. Yǎn (76.89%) used to denote NEAR SPACE the most frequently, while mù (50.86%) used to denote NEAR TIME the most frequently. However, some differences are found between the occurences of yǎn and mù, as illustrated by (29) and (30), mù also denotes CONDITION and ENTRY.
‧
Next, both zuǐ and kǒu are used to denote MOUTH-SHAPED (31), while kǒu has two extra metaphorical meanings GATEWAY (32) and NEAR TIME (33)indicating that kǒu is more likely to be extended to express more metaphorical meanings. Zuǐ is only used to denote the metaphorical meaning MOUTH-SHAPED (100%), while kǒu shows the highest percentage of occurrences to denote the metaphorical meaning GATEWAY
(87.39%).
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
In short, both miàn and mù denote CONDITION, and miàn is found in most of the metaphorical meanings for CONDITION (99.91%). Yǎn, mù and kǒu are used to denote
NEAR TIME, and mù is found in most of the metaphorical meanings for NEAR TIME
(98.77%). TINY HOLE and CENTER are only found in the cases of yǎn and mù, with most of them being found in the case of mù: for TINY HOLE, (65.71%); for CENTER, (95.9%). In addition, both zuǐ and kǒu are used to denote MOUTH-SHAPED, with most cases being found for kǒu (92.6%).
As Table 4.3 presents, miàn, mù, and kǒu are used more frequently to denote non-literal meanings than their counterparts – liǎn, yǎn, and zuǐ. This may indicate a phenomenon of the sharing of labor in meaning: there are two candidates in each pair which refer to the same body-part in Mandarin Chinese, one is literal-meaning-oriented (e.g., liǎn, yǎn, and zuǐ ) and the other is non-literal-meaning-literal-meaning-oriented (e.g., miàn, mù, and kǒu ).
As shown in Table 4.4, five metonymic extensions are found for liǎn: PERSON,
EMOTION, CHARACTER, DIGNITY, and APPEARANCE; and seven metonymic meanings are found for miàn: PERSON, EMOTION, CHARACTER, DIGNITY, APPEARANCE,
CONFRONT, and QUANTITY in this study. In addition, the same five metonymic
meanings are found for yǎn and mù: PERSON, EMOTION, ABILITY, INTELLECTION, and
FOCUS. Moreover, five metonymic meanings are found for zuǐ: PERSON, EMOTION,
FLAVOR, UTTERANCES, and CHARACTER, and five metonymic meanings are found for kǒu: PERSON, EMOTION, FLAVOR, UTTERANCES, and QUANTITY.
Further, as shown in Table 4.5, no metaphorical meanings are found for liǎn while three metonymic meanings are found for miàn: SURFACE, CONDITION and SIDE.
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
In addition, the same four metaphorical meanings are found for yǎn and mù: NEAR SPACE, NEAR TIME, TINY HOLE, and CENTER. And,mù denotes two more metaphorical meanings: CONDITION and ENTRY. Moreover, only one metaphorical meaning is found for zuǐ: MOUTH-SHAPED, while kǒu denotes three metaphorical meanings:
MOUTH-SHAPED, NEAR TIME, and GATEWAY.
A comparison of liǎn, yǎn, and zuǐ with their counterparts- miàn, mù, and kǒu -, shows that the three pairs of body-part terms exhibit a very similar pattern: the metonymic meanings that liǎn, yǎn, and zuǐ denote are nearly the same as the
metonymic meanings denoted by their counterparts. For instance, liǎn and miàn both denote PERSON, EMOTION, CHARACTER, DIGNITY, and APPEARANCE. In addition, yǎn and mù both denote the same metonymic meanings: they are both used to denote
PERSON, EMOTION, ABILITY, INTELLECTION, and FOCUS. Moreover, zuǐ and kǒu both denote PERSON, EMOTION, and UTTERANCES. However, in terms of metaphorical meanings, miàn, mù, and kǒu are used to denote more metaphorical meanings than their corresponding counterparts. For example, in the pair of face-denoting body-part terms of liǎn and miàn, only miàn is used metaphorically to express SURFACE,
CONDITION, and SIDE. Next, in the pair of eye-denoting body-part terms of yǎn and mù, mù denotes two more metaphorical meanings than yǎn: CONDITION and ENTRY.
Then, in the pair of mouth-denoting body-part terms of zuǐ and kǒu, kǒu denotes two more metaphorical meanings than zuǐ: NEAR TIME and GATEWAY.
This current study investigates the metonymic and metaphorical meanings that the six body-part terms denote based on the real linguistic usages extracted from
‧
Sinica Corpus 4.0. Zhao (2010) also studies the metonymic and metaphorical
expressions in body-part terms in Chinese, however, the data he analyzes are mostly dictionary-based. In contrast, this present research, which is based on genuine linguistic usages provided from corpora, provides a more comprehensive picture of the metonymic and metaphorical meaings that the six body-part terms denote in Chinese. A comparison of the metonymic and metaphorical meanings of the three pairs of body-part terms proposed in Zhao’s study (2010) and found in this current study is provided in Tables 4.6 – Table 11.
Table 4.6 A comparison of metonymic meanings in liǎn and miàn in Zhao’s study (2010) and in this study
Body-Part Terms
Meaning
(Zhao (2010)) Example
(Zhao (2010)) Meaning
(This study) Example (This study)
APPEARANCE lòuliǎn
‘show up’
‧
As shown in Table 4.6, only three metonymic extensions in liǎn are proposed in Zhao’s work (2010: 44-47): DIGNITY, CHARACTER, and EMOTION, while in this study, two more metonymic extensions are also found for liǎn: PERSON and APPEARANCE. It is also found that in this study, miàn denotes not only the four metonymic meanings proposed in Zhao’s work (2010: 44-47), but also the metonymic meanings EMOTION,
CONFRONT, and APPEARANCE.
Table 4.7 A comparison of metonymic meanings in yǎn and mù in Zhao’s study (2010) and in this study
INTELLECTION yǎnguāng
‘judgment’
INTELLECTION míngyǎn
‘discerning eye’
‧
As for yǎn and mù in Table 4.7, the five metonymic extensions found in this current study are the same as those proposed in Zhao’s work (2010: 51-55). However, it is proposed that yǎn also denotes QUANTITY in Zhao’s work (2010: 51-55), but this metonymic meaning QUANTITY cannot be found in our data, yìyǎn in our data usually co-occurs with a verb (e.g., kàn ), which expresses the metaphorical meaning NEAR TIME.
Table 4.8 A comparison of the metonymic meanings in zuǐ and kǒu in Zhao’s study (2010) and in this study
INTELLECTION mùguāngyuǎndà
‘ambitious’
‧
As Table 4.8 presents, in contrast with Zhao’s work (2010: 71-74), this current study shows that zuǐ denotes one more metonymic meaning PERSON. Kǒu is used to denote the same five metonymic meanings as those proposed by Zhao in his work (2010: 71-74), while the metonymic meaning CHARACTER which was also proposed
UTTERANCES lòuzuǐ
‧
by Zhao (2010: 71-74) is not included in this study, for this metonymic meaning is usually expressed in tetrasyllabic words, but the words in this study are all disyllabic words.
Table 4.9 A comparison of metaphorical meanings in liǎn and miàn in Zhao’s study (2010) and in this study
(Present study) Example (Present study)
As Table 4.9 shows, in terms of metpahorical meanings, it is found that liǎn is not used to denote any metaphorical meanings, and this is in accord with the findings in Zhao’s work (2010: 47-48). Zhao (2010: 47-48) proposes that miàn is used to denote two metaphorical meanings SURFACE and SIDE. These two metaphorical meanings are also found for miàn in this study, but miàn denotes one more
metaphorical meaning in this study: CONDITION, which is not identified in Zhao’s work (2010: 47- 48).
‧
Table 4.10 A comparison of metaphorical meanings in yǎn and mù in Zhao’s study (2010) and in this study
Body-Part
Terms Meaning
(Zhao (2010)) Example
(Zhao (2010)) Meaning
As presented in Table 4.10, yǎn is used to denote three metaphorical meanings in this study: NEAR TIME/SPACE,TINY HOLE, and CENTER, which are the same as those proposed in Zhao’s work (2010: 55-56). Two metaphorical meanings NEAR
TIME/SPACE and CENTER are found for mù in both our study and Zhao’s work (2010:
55-56), but mù is used to denote three more metaphorical meanings CONDITION, TINY HOLE and ENTRY (which is extended from TINY HOLE) in this study.
‧
Table 4.11 A comparison of metaphorical meanings in zuǐ and kǒu in Zhao’s study (2010) and in this study
Body-Part
Terms Meaning
(Zhao (2010)) Example
(Zhao (2010)) Meaning
As shown in Table 4.11, Zhao (2010: 74-75) suggests that zuǐ denotes no metaphorical meanings, while zuǐ is used to denote the metaphorical meaning
MOUTH-SHAPED in this study. Kǒu denotes two metaphorical meanings MOUTH-SHAPED and GATEWAY in both Zhao’s work (2010: 74-75) and in this study, while it is found that kǒu denotes one more metaphorical meaning NEAR TIME/SPACE in this study.