Tariana body parts in North Arawak perspective

Abstract

AbstractIn many languages, terms denoting parts of a human body have special grammatical properties. In Tariana, a North Arawak language from north-west Amazonia (Brazil), external and internal body parts are obligatorily, inalienably, possessed. They are used in double-object constructions, where the body part and its owner are both marked as objects. Terms for internal and external body parts can occur with classifiers in derivational function. Bodily fluids and detachable parts (such as ‘hair’) are treated as optionally possessed and do not participate in double-object constructions; they do not occur with classifiers. Of all the terms for internal body parts, only -kale ‘heart’ can refer to the locus of emotions and feelings, and the essence of a human being (notably in shamanic incantations); in this sense it has a number of special features. Unlike other body-part terms, including ‘heart’ as a physical part of human body, it cannot take classifiers; nor does it occur in double-object constructions. It occurs in double-subject constructions: ‘I am sad’ translates in Tariana as ‘My heart I-shrink’, where both ‘my heart’ and ‘I’ have subject properties. Differences in the grammatical behavior of the term ‘heart’ in its two distinct meanings reflect the ways in which the entity is conceptualized. Grammatical properties of internal and external body parts are then compared with their cognates in the closely related North Arawak languages Baniwa of Içana-Kurripako and Piapoco, within the context of the Arawak language family.