An Exploration of the Cultural Conceptualisations of Dil ‘Heart’ in the Balochi Language

Abstract

This research analyses the linguistic expression of the Balochi word Dil ‘Heart ‘to explore the cultural conceptualisations that reflect the community's worldview. It seeks to determine the reasons and ways in which the heart is metaphorically or metonymically linked to emotions, character traits, and intellectual/mental faculties. For primary sources, data is collected from fifteen Balochi native speakers through interviews and dictionaries, books, and online sources are used for secondary data to gain insights into their attitude towards dil expressions and the cultural reasons behind them. A corpus of data is constructed and analyzed qualitatively through the lens of Sharifian's (2017) Cultural Linguistics framework and analytical tools (cultural schema, cultural category, and cultural metaphor). The findings reveal that the heart is conceptualized as a movable object, an object with different colors and weights, as a container of emotions and feelings, and perceived as the nucleus of thoughts and memories. These symbolic expressions embody both emotional and rational faculties, rooted in cultural beliefs that have been transmitted across generations. The study contributes to cultural and cognitive linguistics by highlighting Balochi cultural knowledge embedded in language. Furthermore, the findings support the language education embodiment hypothesis and raise awareness for marginalized voices within the Balochi language community.