The pupil of the eye in many languages of the world often receives names which usually in the same language indicate a ‘daughter’, a ‘girl’, a ‘beloved one’. Other names used for the same denotatum indicate the ‘apple’, the ‘seed’, the ‘moon’ or a ‘star’; the pupil is also called the ‘mother’ of the eye, is considered a ‘goddess’, even the ‘soul’ of the person. The present paper deals with such names especially in Indoeuropean languages and Romance dialects. A particular attention is devoted to Indian and Iranian records, and to the linguistic atlases of the Romance dialects, where other interesting names for the pupil are found, such as ‘mirror’ . The conclusion is drawn that similar names of the pupil are found in languages very distant in time and space, making the researcher wonder if it is possible to speak of semantic universals.
Studio iconomastico dei nomi della 'pupilla' nelle lingue indoeuropee e nei dialetti romanzi
CAPRINI, RITA;RONZITTI, ROSA
2007-01-01
Abstract
The pupil of the eye in many languages of the world often receives names which usually in the same language indicate a ‘daughter’, a ‘girl’, a ‘beloved one’. Other names used for the same denotatum indicate the ‘apple’, the ‘seed’, the ‘moon’ or a ‘star’; the pupil is also called the ‘mother’ of the eye, is considered a ‘goddess’, even the ‘soul’ of the person. The present paper deals with such names especially in Indoeuropean languages and Romance dialects. A particular attention is devoted to Indian and Iranian records, and to the linguistic atlases of the Romance dialects, where other interesting names for the pupil are found, such as ‘mirror’ . The conclusion is drawn that similar names of the pupil are found in languages very distant in time and space, making the researcher wonder if it is possible to speak of semantic universals.
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