Based on the contrastive analysis of the
grammaticalization of some Chinese and English body-part nouns in the course of
metaphorizing spatial relationship, this essay reaches the conclusions that these body-part nouns share the following features: a) undergoing three similar stages: the stage of metaphor, of metonymy, and of
grammaticalization; b) requiring the same semantic restriction-the salient
configurational relationship between a part and a larger whole; and c) the external conditions: the withdrawal of metaphorical meanings and the constraints of language development. They also show differences in some ways: a) the grammaticalized body-part nouns in Chinese find a major source in the upper part of body-head,suggesting the significant role of the notion"up"in Chinese culture; while in English,"side" is a more productive element in building English spatial adpositions;b) Chinese body-part nouns are grammaticalized by means of conversion,while English mainly through lexicalization as well as conversion.