A Corpus-Based Study of the Use of HEART and HEAD in English

The purpose of this paper is to provide corpus-based quantitative analyses of HEART and HEAD in order to examine their actual usage status and to consider some cognitive linguistic aspects associated with their use. The two corpora COCA and COHA are used for analysis in this study. The analysis of COCA corpus reveals that the total frequency of HEAD is much higher than that of HEART, and that the figurative use of HEART (60%) is two times higher than its literal use (32%); by contrast, the figurative use of HEAD (41%) is a bit higher than its literal use (38%). Among all four genres, both lexemes occur most frequently in fictions and then in magazines. Over the past two centuries, the use of HEART has been steadily decreasing; by contrast, that the use of HEAD has been steadily increasing. It is assumed that the decreasing use of HEART has partially to do with the decrease in its figurative use and that the increasing use of HEAD is attributable to its diverse meanings, the increase of its lexical use, and the partial increase in its figurative use. The analysis of the collocation of verbs and adjectives preceding HEART and HEAD, as well the modifying and predicating forms of HEART and HEAD also provides some relevant information of the usage of the two lexemes. This paper showcases that the quantitative information helps understanding not only of the actual usage of the two lexemes but also of the cognitive forces working behind it.