Semantic features of words that describe a human body part: hind limbs (foot) in Chinese and Vietnamese

Abstract

Human body is composed of many parts, each of which has a distinctive function and is closely related to one another. Through hands-on experience, people have become more aware of their body parts. Therefore, the words that describe human body parts are used to create the metaphor and metonymy, making meanings of these words become diverse and able to meet the communicative needs. The article bases on cognitive theories, uses research methods and techniques such as statistics, analysis, compare-contrast to investigate the meanings of words that describe a human body part, particularly “足/脚/腿” in Chinese and “chân” in Vietnamese, contributing a reference to Chinese-Vietnamese translation and interpretation.