A Semantic Analysis of Body Part Terms in Proverbs

“Proverbs” are commonly used in language due to their deep contents and simple structure which makes it possible to be easily understood. Simplicity of proverbs is partly because of the use of usual and accustomed words, such as the names of animals, plants, foods, colors and body part names. The aim of the present research is to study the usage of body part terms in proverbs from the viewpoints of signification, semantic component and subjectivity. So, after extracting 234 proverbs including at least one body part term, they were analyzed and classified according to the above mentioned criteria. Data analyses show the following signification of body part terms in the proverbs is semi-referential,specific, inconstant and metaphoric: the dominant subjects are ethical manners,emotional and social: the metaphoric usage of body part terms show certain prominent semantic features in their meanings: and the use of body part terms is the real diagram of creativity in language.