3. The generalization of the notion “semiotic pairs of somatic objects”
Some body parts, organs and other types of somatic objects, which have similar structure and perform similar functions and actions, form a complex somatic unit. Take for example fingers on the right hand. Each right-hand finger is characterized by its own functions and linguistic nominations. The index finger and the little finger participate in pointing, Russian mizinec ‘little finger’ denotes the youngest son in a family, at the ceremony of marriage the ring is put on the ring finger, etc. Nevertheless, all right-hand fingers participate jointly in the actions like holding and grabbing something or clenching fist. When people point in some direction with their right arm, the fingers are adducted (not spread) as though symbolizing unity.
Among most important linguistic markers of a complex somatic unit are (a) lexical markers – the complex unit has a specific name like systema ‘system’ (cf. pishevaritel’naja systema ‘alimentary system’, systema dykhanija ‘respiratory system’), cherty ‘features’ (cf. cherty lica ‘facial features’), vnutrennosti ‘guts’, konechnosti ‘limbs’, etc., (b) morphological markers – the plural form of the name of the complex unit (cf. nogi ‘legs’, pal’cy ‘fingers’), (c) syntactical markers – the complex unit is denoted by a coordinating construction (On moi glaza i ushi ‘He is my eyes and ears’), a binomial construction (Ruki-nogi perelomaju! lit. ‘I’ll break your arms-legs!’), a supra-phrasal unit (cf. various descriptions of body appearance or behavior, e. g. descriptions of fighting, walking, table manners, etc.). These complex somatic units are semiotic homogeneous from a semiotic point of view, and their semiotic homogeneity can be treated as a generalization of the notion semiotic pair.
4. The salience of a member of a semiotic pair
A significant characteristic of the names of somatic objects forming a semiotic pair is their spatial location. This characteristic is supposed to be the only semantic difference between the interpretations of the object’s names. But the total semantic description of collocations like levaja/pravaja ruka ‘left/right hand’or levaja/pravaja noga ‘left/right leg’ should not be limited to interpretations only, as each collocation has its own semantic and cultural connotations. In many cases one member of a pair is more important, or more salient, than the other. Salience is always denoted in a relation to some semantic, communicative, social or cultural context. For example, in the Russian culture the left hand is more salient than the right in the semantic context of ‘an action easy to perform’: we say sdelat’cto-to odnoj levoj lit. ‘to do something with the left (hand) only’, but not *sdelat’cto-to odnoj/tol’ko pravoj lit. ‘to do something with the right (hand) only’. The idiom vstatj s levoj/ne s toj nogi lit. ‘to step on the wrong/left leg while getting up’ means that the person is in bad mood from early morning. Here the left leg is more salient than the right.
The salience of a member of a semiotic pair is also culturally relative; e. g. left-hand gestures are tabooed in the West African cultures[7], but not in the Russian or European. Muslims think the left hand to be dirty, “toilet” and do not use it for giving or accepting gifts, but in the Russian culture the left hand does not possess connotations of this kind.