The present volume contains an analysis in a motivational perspective of
all the words for 'finger' and the names of individual fingers in the
Iranian languages, both ancient and modern, according to the lines of
modern onomasiology. It also contains several cross-linguistic
semasiological digressions with occasional sorties in conceptual domains
other than finger. After a general introduction (chapter one), where the
position of the human hand and fingers in human imagery, their ordinary
functions, their symbolic value, their role in substaining devotional
and ideological systems, their capacity to communicate, etc. are
commented, the relevant words and expressions, grouped according to
their iconomastic type, and inside these groupings, to their etymons,
are discussed in the chapters two to seven, devoted to the general terms
for finger and the names for thumb, forefinger, middle finger, etc.
Looking for the 'pathways' through which the fingers have been
conceptualized and verbalized, and going back (when possible) to the
original source concepts, many regularities in the recurrent schemas
have been proved to exist, some of which are universal, being present
not only in Iranian or areally connected languages, but also in
languages not related at all. A comprehensive word-index closes the
volume. The present book, which follows the publication of the volume
The Pupil of the eye in the Iranian languages (1995) by the same author,
represents the first issue of an editorial project on the Iranian
languages (Onomasiological Studies on Body-Part Terms), aimed at the
diffusion of the results of a long-term research which has produced over
the years a database including several thousands of Iranian words and
expressions relevant to the body part lexical domain. For this purpose,
the author has used sources often difficult to trace in Europe such as
dictionaries, glossaries, dialectal literature and running texts, and
for some languages (as Persian, Balochi, Baxtiari, Kurdish, Ossetic,
etc.), also spoken texts recorded in different environments by native
speakers.
