Report on the Workshop “The Body as a Toolbox” in Cologne
A post by Aleksandar Milenković.
The two-day workshop titled “The Body as a Toolbox - the Grammaticalization of Body Parts in Tool Functions” took place on October 4th and 5th at the University of Cologne. It was organized by PD Dr. Helma Pasch and PhD student Steffen Lorenz from the Institute of African studies and Egyptology. A small delegation consisting of Dr. Chiara Ferella, Sonja Speck and myself attended the workshop since the conceptualization of the human body is one of our main focus points at the GRK.
The two-day workshop titled “The Body as a Toolbox - the Grammaticalization of Body Parts in Tool Functions” took place on October 4th and 5th at the University of Cologne. It was organized by PD Dr. Helma Pasch and PhD student Steffen Lorenz from the Institute of African studies and Egyptology. A small delegation consisting of Dr. Chiara Ferella, Sonja Speck and myself attended the workshop since the conceptualization of the human body is one of our main focus points at the GRK.
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| Workshop flyer available at the web-page of the department of African studies and Egyptology |
The organizers pointed out that the body, and especially body parts, are a frequent conceptual basis for linguistic images and an essential part of grammaticalization, a process in which nouns (e.g. body parts) become grammatical markers (e.g. prepositions or pronouns). The aim of the workshop was to explore the tool function of body parts in both metaphorical and literal expressions with emphasis mainly on African languages, but it certainly exceeded this focus. There were sixteen presentations in total, with a linguistic diversity including Ancient Egyptian, modern Persian and various languages of the African continent. In this report I will mention only a few of them.
The workshop started with a keynote speech, Dr. Felix Ameka’s presentation on body parts and their affordances as cultural tools. He argued that most languages have a word for body, making it a universal concept, while the diversity is manifest in the cultural activity of how we think about the body. We do not have one simple cognitive system, according to his hypothesis, since due to culture we have diversity. He spoke about the alienable – inalienable distinction, a binary possessive class system in which a language distinguishes between two types of possessions (e.g. body parts, family members, or part-whole relationships are inalienable because they always must belong to someone, while other objects do not necessarily have to belong to someone).
Dr. Anja Kootz presented some interesting points regarding the body as a toolbox in Ancient Egyptian, giving the workshop a wider cultural and linguistic context. She pointed out what kind of connotations various body parts had for Egyptians, where tongue was connected to creativity, nose to breath and consequently life, and testicles to chaotic force.
Presenting a rather atypical African language, as she put it, Dr. Yvonne Treis spoke about body part metaphors and idioms in Kambaata, one of the official languages of Ethiopia. Among many peculiarities she mentioned a fact that the words for eye and ear are used to denote seeds and edible leaves respectively. In expressions where these words are used together with the word coffee, as in eye coffee and ear coffee they signify the coffee bean and the coffee leaf.
The second keynote speaker, Prof. Dr. Bernd Heine, spoke about the body as a toolbox for grammar. Among many insightful points, he explained how body part terms are usually derived from objects, for example the French word for head tête is derived from lat. testa (“pot, jug”). There is another curious remark, that body part terms can often be expressed through other body part terms in a part-to-whole system. In some languages the word finger can be used to denote the whole hand, or the word eye to denote the whole face, but it is never the other way around. Moreover, body extremities are often used in conceptualizing dynamic situations, head and trunk for emotions, while the whole body is used to conceptualize inanimate objects. He stressed the importance of diachrony when researching grammaticalization, as this process occurs in stages. Namely, the observation stage shows how one expression denotes both a body part but also has another meaning. Further on, both meanings are historically interrelated, which sets ground for a hypothesis that one meaning is derived from the other, in order for the hypothesis to be falsified via diachronic linguistic evidence.
Ahmadu Shehu gave a presentation on body parts as tools or instruments in his native Hausa, one of the major languages spoken in Nigeria. Some of the idiomatic expressions that he presented are noteworthy in regard to conceptualization of the body. For example, since in the past people used to walk a lot while herding animals, the verb to walk also denotes work. In a modern context, the same idiomatic expression is used even in situations where no significant walking is necessary, for example in offices.
The workshop started with a keynote speech, Dr. Felix Ameka’s presentation on body parts and their affordances as cultural tools. He argued that most languages have a word for body, making it a universal concept, while the diversity is manifest in the cultural activity of how we think about the body. We do not have one simple cognitive system, according to his hypothesis, since due to culture we have diversity. He spoke about the alienable – inalienable distinction, a binary possessive class system in which a language distinguishes between two types of possessions (e.g. body parts, family members, or part-whole relationships are inalienable because they always must belong to someone, while other objects do not necessarily have to belong to someone).
Dr. Anja Kootz presented some interesting points regarding the body as a toolbox in Ancient Egyptian, giving the workshop a wider cultural and linguistic context. She pointed out what kind of connotations various body parts had for Egyptians, where tongue was connected to creativity, nose to breath and consequently life, and testicles to chaotic force.
Presenting a rather atypical African language, as she put it, Dr. Yvonne Treis spoke about body part metaphors and idioms in Kambaata, one of the official languages of Ethiopia. Among many peculiarities she mentioned a fact that the words for eye and ear are used to denote seeds and edible leaves respectively. In expressions where these words are used together with the word coffee, as in eye coffee and ear coffee they signify the coffee bean and the coffee leaf.
The second keynote speaker, Prof. Dr. Bernd Heine, spoke about the body as a toolbox for grammar. Among many insightful points, he explained how body part terms are usually derived from objects, for example the French word for head tête is derived from lat. testa (“pot, jug”). There is another curious remark, that body part terms can often be expressed through other body part terms in a part-to-whole system. In some languages the word finger can be used to denote the whole hand, or the word eye to denote the whole face, but it is never the other way around. Moreover, body extremities are often used in conceptualizing dynamic situations, head and trunk for emotions, while the whole body is used to conceptualize inanimate objects. He stressed the importance of diachrony when researching grammaticalization, as this process occurs in stages. Namely, the observation stage shows how one expression denotes both a body part but also has another meaning. Further on, both meanings are historically interrelated, which sets ground for a hypothesis that one meaning is derived from the other, in order for the hypothesis to be falsified via diachronic linguistic evidence.
Ahmadu Shehu gave a presentation on body parts as tools or instruments in his native Hausa, one of the major languages spoken in Nigeria. Some of the idiomatic expressions that he presented are noteworthy in regard to conceptualization of the body. For example, since in the past people used to walk a lot while herding animals, the verb to walk also denotes work. In a modern context, the same idiomatic expression is used even in situations where no significant walking is necessary, for example in offices.
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| Workshop program available at the web-page of the department of African studies and Egyptology |
Despite our expectations, the focus of the workshop was almost solely on grammar. While linguistic approach is crucial, we would have been more grateful to hear opinions from other perspectives, including anthropology, psychology or philosophy, in order to gain a more comprehensive picture of conceptualization of the body and body parts. Unfortunately, we did not have the pleasure to hear enough from Mr. Lorenz, co-organizer of the workshop, as he only gave a presentation on what he would not be talking about. The hints of what he would have spoken about (a more cognitive approach, especially with metaphor theory, a focus on information processing with the aim of conceptualizing the body) seemed to be highly interesting and related to the GRK and the questions we are dealing with. Nonetheless, since our research does not involve contemporary African cultures, we found the topics important especially in the light of our interdisciplinary pursue to examine concepts and their universality.
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