Semantics of Body Part Terms in Juchiteco Locative Descriptions
Gabriela Pérez-Báez · Smithsonian Digital Repository (Smithsonian Institution) · 2012
This paper explores the system of body part terms used in locative descriptions in Juchitán Zapotec or Juchiteco.In particular, it examines their semantic properties as heads of Ground phrases to determine whether they encode spatial and locative relations or whether they remain as object-part denoting nominals.The analysis shows that structural and functional analogy allows body part terms to be extended to denote object parts as well as generalized object parts.Data suggests, however, that spatial and locative relations are not encoded in the semantic properties of body part terms in Juchiteco.