Open AccessIdioms containing the lexeme obraz
Author(s) -
M Danko Sipka
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
južnoslovenski filolog
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2406-0763
pISSN - 0350-185X
DOI - 10.2298/jfi0864561s
Subject(s) - lexeme , righteousness , honor , shame , philosophy , linguistics , psychology , theology , computer science , social psychology , operating system
The present paper addresses a group of idioms such as imati (ili nemati) obraza, pogaziti obraz, osvjetlati obraz and others, which refer to moral reactions and values of shame, honor, righteousness, etc. The question being discus sed in relation to these idioms is why they contain the lexeme obraz 'cheek', which, when used on its own, has a secondary (extended) sense of 'honor', 'righteousness'. As a result of a meticulous analysis the author concludes that those senses stem from the fact that one who commits something shameful usually blushes in his / her cheeks, which makes a cheek a mirror of such feelings of morality. The extended sense of the lexeme obraz developed in such a manner, which in turn conveyed to the idioms containing that lexeme