Metaphoric and Metonymic Conceptualization of the Nose in Hebrew and Twi.

This paper examines the metaphorical and metonymic structure of the "nose" in Biblical Hebrew and Twi, a Kwa language spoken in Ghana, West Africa. The study is done within the framework of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory propounded by Lakoff and Johnson (1980). The aim is to analyze the ways in which the body part אַף (nose) is used in the Hebrew Bible to express human experiences, and to compare them with their translations in the Akuapem Twi Bible (ATB 1964). The data reveal that there are some striking crossconceptual and cross-linguistic similarities and differences between Hebrew and the Twi language with respect to the metaphorical and metonymic conceptualization of anger in relation to the locus of emotion. While Biblical Hebrew locates anger in the nose, Twi locates it in the chest. The Biblical Hebrew term for "nose," אַף also refers to the "face," the "eyebrow," and the "whole person" in various contexts. The difference in the language-specific conceptualization may be attributed to the cultural model embedded in the two languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]