THE CONCEPT OF HEART IN HUMAN COMMUNICATION

CONTINE UN INCEPUT DE INTRODUCERE DE CITATE LA SECTIA

LEXICALA
Radu Cozmei
Universitatea de Medicina si Farmacie Gr.T.Popa Iasi
Facultatea de Bioinginerie Medicala

THE CONCEPT OF HEART IN HUMAN COMMUNICATION (Abstract):

The remarkable amount of language and thought invested in the study and
evaluation of the well-known hollow muscular organ called heart has brought
about the development of an impressive semantic constellation associated with
this exquisite biological pump. The complex personal and collective
representation of the heart was shaped by the powerful impression it has produced
upon the minds of generations of language and symbol users all over the world.
The heart as a meaningful communicable entity belonging to the image of the
individual and of his universe is examined in its lexical manifestations within the
framework of the English language and in the symbolic forms belonging to
various human cultures.
Key words: HEART,
The anatomists describe the heart as a pear shaped, muscular organ in
vertebrates, responsible for pumping blood through the blood vessels by repeated,
rhythmic contractions, or a similar structure in annelids, mollusks, and
arthropods [[1]trimite la nota 1 din wiki]
This central, hollow muscular organ became an object of study for homo
significans, who fashioned it into a concept that plays a critical part in the
development of a model presenting the universe as a unitary and coherent entity.
As an abstract idea heart is associated with corresponding
representations in language and in symbology, and denotes all objects,
interactions, phenomena, or relationships between them extant in its category of
entities.
As mental constructs, concepts can be easily translated and words
representing them in various languages have identical meaning.
The concept of heart can be expressed as heart in English, Herz in
German, coeur in French, or corazn in Spanish.
The analysis to follow will focus on the lexical material generated by
heart in English and on the symbolic values included in the concept in various
cultures around the globe.

The English vocabulary shows the existence of two categories of lexical

units referring to heart, those belonging to common usage and the group
employed in the medical jargon.
From an etymological point of view, the terms representing heart in
English derive from heorte (Old English), herte (Middle English), kardia (Greek)
and cor (Latin), with the Indo- European root kerd-, krd- as the starting point of
this development (Websters, 645).
The form heart dominates the area of everyday speech and writing and is present
in communication in variants playing the role of noun, adjective, adverb and verb
(heartbeat, heartfree =not in love, heartily, to hearten = to cheer up); the term is
also included in a rich corpus of idiomatic phrases (Longman Dictionary of
English Idioms, 157) and is featured in a group of proverbs (Fergusson, Lefter).
Its semantic sphere includes information about the human body (the heart itself, a
certain part of the heart, [the breast or bosom: to clasp a person to one's heart],
the stomach, the heart line), components of the psyche (intellect, willpower,
desires, [intuition, feeling, or emotion: In your heart you know I'm an honest
man.], [the center of emotion, esp. as contrasted to the head as the center of the
intellect: His head told him not to fall in love, but his heart had the final say];
[capacity for sympathy; feeling; affection: His heart moved him to help the
needy]; temperament, [spirit, courage, or enthusiasm: His heart sank when he
walked into the room and saw their gloomy faces.]), [a person (used esp. in
expressions of praise or affection): dear heart]; moral categories (exemple),
philosophical categories (reality, essence and appearance, contradiction,
concordance), [the innermost or central part of anything: Notre Dame stands in
the very heart of Paris]; geopolitics (heartland=geographically central area
having crucial imp, indicating the central area of Eurasia), toponymy (Heart
River in North Dakota; cities (Sacred Heart in Minessota and South Heart in
North Dakota).
), a game of cards and playing cards, culinary preparations (heart-cake)
[Botany. the core of a tree; the solid central part without sap or albumen] and even
members of animal kingdom (the mollusk Isocardia cor ) [a conventional shape
with rounded sides meeting in a point at the bottom and curving inward to a cusp
at the top] Websters, 645-646).
In the domain of medical language, the variants cardi- / cardio-, cor and
heart coexist and are used in order to indicate the structure of the heart
(pericardium), heart diseases (carditis, cor bovinum, heart failure), normal
activity of the heart (heartbeat), the device used for the replacement of the heart
(artificial heart), other pieces of equipment required in order to address heart
problems (cadioverter), surgery performed on the heart (cardioversion,
cardiotomy), the relationships between the heart and other components of the
body (cardiovasculorenal), effects produced in the heart by various factors
(cardiotoxic, cardiotonic), a heart shaped element (cardioid), a phenomenon

having a cardiac origin (cardiogenic), the heart specialist (cardiologist), his

specialty (cardiology) and the patient suffering from a heart condition
(cardiopath), (Stedmans Medical Dictionary, 247-9, 351, 686-7).
In an ad-hoc hierarchy of the three forms, based on the number of terms
generated by each of them, cardi- / cardio- occupies the first place, followed by
heart with a group of words representing 50% of the cardi- / cardio- total, and
cor with only 8 items which indicates a higher productivity of the Greek root.
In the field of traditional symbolism heart holds a major role due to the
selection rules which operate in the promotion of semiotic units from the
condition of signs to that of symbols, i.e., from the status of conventional,
arbitrary elements to that of motivated components, the latter being able to
perform a semantic transfer based on a formal or functional similarity, on
contiguity or on the identification of the part with the whole. Usually, the selected
items belong to the realm of visible forms and are characterized by a remarkable
expressive potentiality, a feature determined by the fact that the symbolized
evokes tense, active and profound aspects of life.
The heart belongs to the category of somatic symbols which are
characterized by a marked anthropocentrism taking an isomorphic shape binding
macrouniverse and microuniverse. Thus, the Cosmic Tree, a symbol of the
tripartite structure of the universe, is placed in a homologous relation with the
human body. Consequently, it is considered that the body comprises three areas,
i.e., the superior area (the head), the median area (the chest), and the inferior area
(the abdomen), all of these being placed under the control of the heart which
corresponds to the idea of center Evseev, 178. In this capacity, the heart is
symbolized by the sun as a centre of life and the rayed sun and radiant or flaming
heart share the same symbolism as centers of the macrocosm and microcosm
(Cooper, 82). The special situation of the heart is confirmed by the etymology of
the word: the Indo-European root kerd- can be translated as center.
[The heart is also portrayed by the downward-pointing triangle.]
While the head is considered the seat of reason, the heart is supposed to be
the house of wisdom, compassion and affection (Cooper, 82).
According to the Buddhists, the Diamond Heart represents purity and
indestructibility and the man whom nothing can hurt or disturb.
According to the Bible, the heart is the centre not only of spiritual activity,
but of all the operations of human life. "Heart" and "soul" are often used
interchangeably (Deut. 6:5; 26:16; Matt. 22:37; Mark 12:30, 33), but this is not
generally the case. The heart is the "home of the personal life," and hence a man
is designated, according to his heart, wise (1 Kings 3:12), pure (Ps. 24:4; Matt.
5:8), upright and righteous (Gen. 20:5, 6; Ps. 11:2; 78:72), pious and good (Luke
8:15). In these and such passages the word "soul" could not be substituted for
"heart." The heart is also the seat of the conscience (Rom. 2:15). It is naturally
wicked (Gen. 8:21), and hence it contaminates the whole life and character (Matt.

12:34; 15:18; Eccl. 8:11; Ps. 73:7). Hence the heart must be changed, regenerated
(Ezek. 36:26; 11:19; Ps. 51:10-14), before a man can willingly obey God. The
process of salvation begins in the heart by the believing reception of the testimony
of God, while the rejection of that testimony hardens the heart (Ps. 95:8; Prov.
28:14; 2 Chr. 36:13). Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
For the Christians, the heart symbolizes love, devotion and charity; a heart
in the hand portrays love and piety; a heart pierced by an arrow indicates the
contrition and repentance Cooper, 82).; the heart transfixed by a sword and
surrounded with a wreath of roses is the Heart of St Mary the Virgin; the heart
pierced by seven swords is the emblem of the Seven Sorrows of the Mother of
God; the heart with three nails, encircled with thorns and surmounted by a cross is
the Sacred Heart of Jesus as seen in the vision of St Margaret Mary Alacoque. St
Augustine of Hippo is sometimes shown with a flaming heart indicating his
religious zeal (Metford, 118). A heart crowned with thorns is an emblem of St
Ignatius Loyola; a heart with a cross is an emblem of SS Bernadine of Siena,
Catherine of Siena, and Teresa Cooper, 82).
The Hebrews look upon the heart as the Temple of God; the Hindus
understand the heart as the Divine Center, the dwelling-place of Brahma; in this
context the heart is symbolized by the lotus; the eye of the heart is the third eye of
Siva Cooper, 82).
In the Islam, the heart is the Centre of Being, the absolute intellect and the
illumination while in Taoism the heart is the seat of understanding and the Sage
has seven open orifices in his heart Cooper, 82).
During the mummification of the viscera, the Egyptians preserved only the
heart as it was considered the essential element (Vries, 244).
In ritual cannibalism, the conqueror eats the heart to obtain the vital power
of the vanquished. The heart was also used in divination practices and represented
the preferred part sacrificed to the gods. The Aztecs regarded the heart sacrifice as
the liberating of the life-blood, the seed of life, to germinate and flower(Cooper,
82).
An eloquent example of the position occupied by the heart in Eastern
religions can be found in Chandogya Upanisad VIII, 1 (Culianu, 190): The little
space in the heart is as large as this huge universe. The Heavens and the Earth are
there, the Sun, the Moon and the stars, the fire, the lightning and the winds and all
that exists now and all that no longer exists: for the whole universe is in Him and
He lives in our heart.
Approaching the divine involves the complicated process of heart
purification. This objective can be reached by applying various methods such as
ritual formulas, breathing techniques or visualization of the space within the heart.
Once this prerequisite is achieved the disciple can focus on the prayer of the
heart, the highest way to approach the divine, a procedure which has to be
preceded by the prayer of the body and the prayer of the mind. (balan, 39).

The examination of the collective images regarding the concept of heart

shows that the level of common usages is the one most frequently employed in
order to perform language functions such as the expression of emotions, the
development of social interactions and the expression of identity, while the levels
of medical jargon and traditional symbolism are visited by a smaller number of
communicators who need this type of exercise in order to acquire a significant
element they need in order to approach hypercodified domains.
In the past, the prestige acquired by the heart, due to a dose of occultation
and mystery involved in its collective representation, ensured its position as a
language source, able to cover a wide semantic area.
Trying to investigate the present lexical condition of the concept, I looked
up the heart elements in The Oxford Dictionary of New Words, The Oxford
Dictionary of Modern Slang and the Dictionary of Common Errors. The result of
this attempt was rather dissapointing: none of these dictionaries contained some
new lexical construct based on heart. A possible explanation of this situation
could rely on the fact that the heart went through a process of desacralization,
reaching a stage in which it is even possible to replace it with an artificial device;
another aspect of this evolution indicates an incapacity, on the part of the concept,
to interact with new objects and phenomena appearing on the cultural market.
On the other side, the circulation of the traditional meanings asociated
with the heart remains quite intense, indicating the permanence of this archetypal
component of human language and thought.
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