The conceptual structure of Basque buru ‘head’i

Abstract

The prototypical meaning of the Basque word buru is ‘head’. As is the case in many other languages, the word for head is polysemous not only because it refers to this body part but also because it can be used in several other contexts (buru as mind, reflexive pronoun, self…). Although dictionaries deal with these meanings separately, I propose that all these senses form an organised lexical network with three main nodes of extended meanings. These three nodes are structured and bound to the prototypical buru by means of three different metonymies: WHOLE FOR PART, ENTITY FOR LOCATION, AND PART FOR WHOLE. These three metonymies conform the conceptual basis for the rest of the semantic extensions in buru, which are obtained with the help of other cognitive devices such as metaphor and compositional polysemy.