On the Linguistic Encoding of Love, Empathy and the Divine Being in Palestinian Arabic

Abstract

In this paper, we argue that the concept of MOTHER constitutes a fundamental component in the human conceptualization of love, empathy, and the Divine being. Some theories of psychology, psychoanalysis, and other disciplines attribute a prominent role for the mother-child relation in the very formation of the human SELF or identity. We present some linguistic evidence from Palestinian Arabic (and Hebrew) to substantiate the claim that the predicate woman/feminine is a necessary element in individuating the mental space of these concepts. Further linguistic evidence from Palestinian Arabic will be adduced for the lexicalization of the interdependence of the SELF- (significant) OTHER relation. We conclude by drawing some theoretical implications which relate to the proper treatment of proper names and the use of empathy in education (cf. Rogers 1983).