The Categorial Status of Body Part Prepositions in Valley Zapotec ...

2.9.3 Projecting Space
This extension can account for most of the prepositional meanings (see below for
some problem cases). The process, along with syntactic reanalysis, can be used to
explain the development of the body parts into grammatical prepositions. Projecting
space extends the meaning of the terms from the part of the object to the area 'projected'
by that part of the object. This seems to be a metonymic extension: "the use of a word
for something associated with its original meaning" (Hollenbach 1995:171). For
example, lohoh has a basic meaning of 'face'. Through a projecting space extension it
could also come to mean the area of space in front of a face; and lohoh 'face' could
undergo a metaphorical extension to mean 'top (of a table)'; this meaning could then
undergo a projecting space extension such that lohoh could also refer to the area above
the top of the table, i.e. the area projected from the top of the table.
Examples of all three types of meaning are given below in Table 9, which gives
examples in English, Copala Trique (a Mixtecan language), and TMZ.
Table 9. Body Part Terms and their Range of Meanings
Meaning English Copala Trique 7 TMZ
Basic My side hurts. rian
Meaning
32 ne?e 3h a 32
Rahc zh:ààa'na'.
face baby DEC hurts buttocks=1s
'the baby's face' 'My bottom hurts.'
Metaphorical I painted the side of rian
Extension the house.
32 we 3? a 32
zh:ààa'n ca'rr
face house DEC buttocks car
'the front surface of
the house'
car's buttocks = 'trunk'
Projecting
Space
The dog is beside me.
The lawnmower is on
rian
the side of the house.
32 we 3? a 32
face house DEC
'the area in front of
Bìinny nu'u zh:ààa'n ca'rr
person NEU.be.loc buttocks car
'The person is under the car.'
the house'
7 Data from Hollenbach 1995: 174-175. Tone marking is denoted with superscript
numbers following the word; DEC stands for her "declarative."
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