This study will examine the representation and embodiment of the body part eye(s), in proverbs. The research is cross-linguistic as the proverbs analysed are in the languages English, Swedish, and Japanese. Information about the origins of proverbs, their expansion across the globe, their use in order to embellish everyday communication in all different types of languages, even those belonging to cultures not similar to the Western norm, will be discussed with references to sources based in the area of Paremiology. The study will also investigate cultural markers found in the proverbs and how the metaphoric interpretations of eye(s) are displayed through our bodily experiences. In order to analyse the representation of eye(s) in the proverbs, through metaphoric concepts, this study will employ Lakoff and Johnson’s conceptual metaphor theory. Categories which will accompany the conceptual metaphors are based on one of the Oxford English Dictionary’s definitions of ‘eye’. Thereafter, an analysis is conducted regarding eyes(s) in the example proverbs. The results of the analysis showed that there are quite a few similarities in all three languages. However, the western languages differ from the Japanese language in regards to how the proverbs are worded. Further, cultural markers could only be found in one example in the Japanese proverbs.

Det här är en lexikal typologisk pilotstudie som undersöker begreppet LIV i elva olika språk. Huvudmaterialet består av texter från Bibeln, Nya testamentet. Studien utgår ifrån de koine-grekiska lexemen för liv, ζωή (zōḗ), ψυχή (psūkhḗ) och βῐ́ος (bíos). Uti- från huvudmaterial från parallelltexterna har probabilistiska semantiska kartor skapats genom multidimensionell skalering för varje språk och har analyserats med partitio- ning around medoids pam(). Resultatet visar på två intressanta fenomen. För det förs- ta har zōḗ översatts mest enhetligt. psūkhḗ och bíos översätts på ett mer varierande sätt i det flesta språken där fler olika lexem har använts och det här tyder på att deras be- tydelse är mer varierad. De koine-grekiska lexemen bildar en konceptuell struktur, vilket innebär att de olika koncepten för LIV inordnas efter en snävare och bredare be- tydelse. För det andra, visar resultatet även att språken anpassar sitt vokabulär för att efterliknar denna struktur. Det visar sig tydligast i språk med flera lexem för LIV samt hur de används för att översätta de tre koine-grekiska lexemen. / This is a lexical typological pilot study that examines the concept of LIFE in eleven different languages. The main material consists of texts retrieved from the Bible, the New Testament. The study is based on the Koine-Greek lexemes for life, ζωή (zōḗ), ψυχή (psūkhḗ) and βῐ́ος (bíos). Probabilistic semantic maps have been created through multidimensional scaling for each language and have been analyzed with partitioning around medoids pam(). The results show two interesting phenomena. Firstly, zōḗ has been translated most consistently. psūkhḗ and bíos have been translated with more va- riation in most languages where several different lexemes have been used, and this indicates that their meaning is more varied. The Koine-Greek lexemes form a concep- tual structure, which means that the various concepts of LIFE is arranged according to a narrower and broader meaning. Secondly the results also show that the languages adapt their vocabulary to mimic this structure, it is most evident in languages with several lexemes for LIFE and how they are used to translate the three Koine-Greek lexemes.