the culture of language and the language of culture: conceptualizations of del ‘heart-stomach’ in persian (in honor of professor farzad sharifian)

The paper explores conceptualizations that are reflected in the use of persian expressions that include the body-part term del ‘heart-stomach’. this body part term provides a conceptual base for profiling a relatively large number of conceptualizations in persian. by examining a number of expressions from modern persian the study shows how del is conceptualized as being either equal to, or the container of, emotions, desires, patience, courage, compassion, and also thoughts and memories. a set of expressions in persian also reflects conceptualizations of del as the center of personality traits, character, and mood. the present paper provides brief background information about persian and examines conceptualizations that are reflected in the use of expressions that include the word del. from a cultural linguistics perspective, the fact that people’s experience of the human body is a function of more general cultural conceptualizations deeply rooted in cultural traditions such as folk medicine or religion cannot be emphasized enough. overall, it appears that the body part del provides a conceptual foundation for speakers of persian to represent their cognitive, emotional, socio-cultural, and linguistic experiences. the observed conceptualizations of del are very likely to have originated in cultural models derived from iranian traditional medicine and persian spiritual belief systems such as the sufi world view, which has influenced persian cultural cognition through sufi literature. the linguistic expressions discussed in this study provide a clear example of how language can serve as a ‘memory bank’ for cultural conceptualizations that have prevailed at different stages in the history of a speech community. and the analysis presented in this study reveals that del provides a conceptual base for profiling a relatively large number of conceptualizations in persian.