Browsing results for Emotions
Published on August 16, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Kornacki, Paweł (2010). Studies in emotions: Ethnolinguistic perspectives. Warszawa: Wydział Neofilologii UW.
Based on the methodology of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage, the work analyses selected aspects of conceptualization and verbal expressions of emotions in contemporary Chinese (pŭtōnghuà) and Polish. Referring to intercultural anthropological and psychological research on emotions, its chapters discuss the importance of the Chinese cultural key word “heart/mind”, the semantics of words for bad feelings in Chinese, colloquial Polish speech practice, and the main conceptual elements of Early-Chinese and Indian cultural emotion models.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2010). On emotions and on definitions: A response to Izard. Emotion Review, 2(4), 379-380.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 11, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2010). The “history of emotions” and the future of emotion research. Emotion Review, 2(3), 269-273. DOI: 10.1177/1754073910361983
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 5 (pp. 102-126) of:
Goddard, Cliff, & Wierzbicka, Anna (2014). Words and meanings: Lexical semantics across domains, languages, and cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
This article focuses on the emergence of a new subfield of emotion research known as “history of emotions”. People’s emotional lives depend on the construals they impose on events, situations, and human actions. Different cultures and different languages suggest different habitual construals, and since habitual construals change over time, as a result, habitual feelings change, too. But to study construals we need a suitable methodology. The article assumes that such a methodology is provided by the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). It applies the NSM approach to the history of ‘happiness’, an emotion that is very much at the forefront of current debates across a range of disciplines. The article shows how the “history of emotions” can be combined with cultural semantics and why this combination opens new perspectives for the whole interdisciplinary field of emotion research.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) happiness
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 25, 2019.
Gladkova, Anna (2010). A linguist’s view of “pride”. Emotion Review, 2(2), 178-179.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073909355014
Abstract:
This brief commentary on a paper published in the same issue offers a linguistic perspective on ‘pride’. On the basis of a semantic analysis, it demonstrates that the interpretation of pride put forward in that paper is Anglocentric and consistent with the contemporary use of the English word pride. It compares the English concept of pride with the Russian concept of гордиться gordit’sja and demonstrates their differences. It calls for a psychological account of ‘pride’ free from ethnocentric bias.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) gordit'sja гордиться, (E) take pride in
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 25, 2019.
Gladkova, Anna (2010). Sympathy, compassion, and empathy in English and Russian: A linguistic and cultural analysis. Culture & Psychology, 16(2), 267-285.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1354067X10361396
Abstract:
This corpus-based study contributes to the description and analysis of linguistic and cultural variation in the conceptualization of sympathy, compassion, and empathy. A contrastive semantic analysis of sympathy, compassion, and empathy in English and their Russian translational equivalents sočuvstvie, sostradanie, and sopereživanie uncovers significant differences in the conceptualization of these words, which are explained with reference to the prevalence of different models of social interaction in Anglo and Russian cultures, as well as different cultural attitudes towards emotional expression. The analysis uses NSM, which the author argues is a powerful tool in contrastive studies.
More information:
This paper has been plagiarized in the following publication:
Buyankina, A. S. (2015). Sympathy and empathy in English and Russian: A linguistic and cultural analysis. In С. А. Песоцкая [S. A. Pesotskaya] (Ed.), Коммуникативные аспекты языка и культуры: сборник материалов XV Международной научно-практической конференции студентов и молодых ученых [Communicative aspects of language and culture: A collection of materials of the XVth International Scientific and Practical Conference of Students and Young Scientists]: Vol. 3 (pp. 70-72). Томск [Tomsk]: Изд-во ТПУ [TPU Publishing House].
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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) compassion, (E) empathy, (E) sočuvstvie сочувствие, (E) sopereživanie сопереживание, (E) sostradanie сострадание, (E) sympathy
Published on August 6, 2018. Last updated on September 15, 2018.
Mulyadi (2010). Verba emosi statif dalam Bahasa Melayu Asahan [Stative verbs of emotion in Asahan Malay]. Linguistika [Universitas Udayana], 17(33), 168-176. PDF (open access)
Written in Indonesian.
This research proposes a new perspective on the analysis of stative emotion verbs, moving from meaning to form. It relies on evidence from Asahan Malay. The data was collected by using questionnaire, observation, interview, and intuition methods. The analysis concerns the mapping of semantic components of stative emotion verbs, which is used to determine their subcategory. For the analysis, the semantic primes of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage theory are used.
The study shows that stative emotion verbs in Asahan Malay are characterized by the component ‘X felt something not because X wanted this’. In accordance with the types of events, stative emotion verbs are divided into four subcategories: (1) ‘something bad has happened’ (“sodih-like”), (2) ‘something bad can/will happen’ (“takut-like”), (3) ‘people can know something bad about me’ (“malu-like”), and (4) ‘I don’t think that things like this can/will happen’ (“heran-like”).
No attempt is made at explicating individual verbs.
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (T) Indonesian
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Bułat Silva, Zuzanna (2010). Przydatnosc eksplikacji metajezykowych w tworzeniu definicji leksykograficznych (na przykladzie definicji nazw uczuc w jezyku portugalskim) [On the usefulness of metalanguage explications for the creation of lexicographical definitions (exemplified through the definition of nouns of emotions in Portuguese)]. In Wojciech Chlebda (Ed.), Etnolingwistyka a leksykografia: Tom poswiecony Profesorowi Jerzemu Bartminskiemu (pp. 93-102). Opole: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Opolskiego.
Written in Polish.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 11, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2011). Whatʼs wrong with “happiness studies”? The cultural semantics of happiness, bonheur, Glück, and sčas’te. In Igor Boguslavsky, Leonid Iomdin, & Leonid Krysin (Eds.), Slovo i jazyk: Sbornik statej k vos’midesjatiletiju akademika Ju. D. Apresjana (pp. 155-171). Moscow: Jazyki slavjanskoj kultury. PDF (open access)
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 5 (pp. 102-126) of:
Goddard, Cliff, & Wierzbicka, Anna (2014). Words and meanings: Lexical semantics across domains, languages, and cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
There is a huge industry of so-called “happiness studies” that relies on cross-national statistical comparisons, which challengers see as based on false and ethnocentric assumptions. ‘Happiness’ has become a big issue in politics and in economics, but here, too, a lack of attention to the meaning of words leads to unwarranted conclusions and causes confusion and miscommunication. The misunderstandings surrounding happiness, bonheur, and Glück illustrate the need for uncovering, and explaining, the differences between significant words that are wrongly assumed to be readily cross-translatable. In view of the place of ‘happiness’ at the forefront of current debates across a range of disciplines, a comparison of happiness and счастье sčast’e seems especially topical.
The assumption that all languages have a word like happiness, and that there can be a reliable “index of happiness” based on self-reports (given in different languages) is naïve and untenable. Progress in emotion research in general depends to a considerable extent on increased recognition that language goes deeper in us than many students of emotion (especially psychologists) are willing to admit. Genuine progress requires a greater linguistic and cross-cultural sophistication than that evident in much of the existing writings on the subject.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) bonheur, (E) happiness, (E) sčast’e счастье, (T) English, (T) Russian
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 16, 2021.
Bourdin, Gabriel Luis (2011). Partes del cuerpo e incorporación nominal en expresiones emocionales mayas [Body parts and nominal incorporation in Maya emotional expressions]. Dimensión antropológica, 51, 103-130. PDF (open access)
This paper relates to the expression of emotions in colonial Yucatec Maya. NSM is used on just one occasion, to explicate the Spanish word miedo ‘fear’.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 11, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2012). Is pain a human universal? Conceptualisation of pain in English, French and Polish. Colloquia Communia, 92, 29-53.
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 6 (pp. 127-155) of:
Goddard, Cliff & Wierzbicka, Anna (2014). Words and meanings: Lexical semantics across domains, languages, and cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Note (11 September 2018): Tags will be added as soon as possible.
Published on October 13, 2018. Last updated on October 13, 2018.
Dewi, Putu Dian Aryswari Octania (2012). The translation of emotions in Eat, Pray, Love into Makan, Doa, Cinta: A Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach. Thesis, Udayana University, Denpasar.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 11, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2012). Is pain a human universal? A cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective on pain. Emotion Review, 4(3), 307-317. DOI: 10.1177/1754073912439761
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 6 (pp. 127-155) of:
Goddard, Cliff & Wierzbicka, Anna (2014). Words and meanings: Lexical semantics across domains, languages, and cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pain is a global problem whose social, economic and psychological costs are immeasurable. It is now seen as the most common reason why people seek medical (including psychiatric) care. But what is pain? This article shows that the discourse of pain tends to suffer from the same problems of ethnocentrism and obscurity as the discourse of emotions in general. Noting that, in the case of pain, the costs of miscommunication are particularly high, this article offers a new paradigm for communicating about pain. It shows how the use of Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) techniques can help in this area, as in other areas concerned with human subjectivity, and can lead to a greater understanding between psychologists, psychiatrists, medical practitioners, social workers, and ordinary suffering mortals.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) hurt, (E) hurting, (E) pain, (E) pika, (E) pleasure, (E) sore, (T) English
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 16, 2021.
Baider, Fabienne (2012). Saillance scalaire et métalangue sémantique naturelle: Le sentiment haine en contexte linguistique et cognitif [Scalar salience and Natural Semantic Metalanguage: Hate in a linguistic and cognitive context]. Études romanes de Brno, 33(2), 171-188. PDF (open access)
This study attempts to provide a Franco-French definition of the emotion called hate / hatred in the NSM language. This is carried out on the basis of oral (questionnaires and interviews) and written (lexicographical definitions, electronic database and newspaper discourse) data in reference to this emotion. We combine the principles elaborated in the Dynamic Model of Meaning Framework (Kecskes 2008) and the concept of saliency (Giora 2003) to suggest the NSM definition and work our data. On the theoretical level, the collected data allow identification of the salient collective and individual features (Kecskes 2008) related to the lexical unit hate within the community under
investigation.
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2018.
Baider, Fabienne (2012). Haine et colère: Approche socio-cognitive et explicitation en métalangue sémantique naturelle [Hate and anger: A socio-cognitive approach and an explication in Natural Semantic Metalanguage]. In Franck Neveu, Valelia Muni Toke, Peter Blumenthal, Thomas Klingler, Pierluigi Ligas, Sophie Prévost, & Sandra Teston-Bonnard (Eds.), CMLF 2012 – 3e Congrès mondial de linguistique française (pp. 1701-1717). Paris: EDP Sciences. DOI: 10.1051/shsconf/20120100185. PDF (open access)
Written in French.
This study explores the semantic proximity between the two notions of haine ‘hate’ and colère ‘anger’ in European French culture and society. A quick overview of the NSM approach is followed by a presentation of the morphosyntactic differences between the two nouns, in an attempt to identify the first indications of semantic difference. The next step is entirely semantic in nature: a study of the two emotions is undertaken on the basis of oral and written discourse, with reference to the theoretical and methodological principles of the socio-cognitive approach put forward by Rachel Giora and István Kecskes. This finally leads to explications formulated in NSM.
Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) colère, (E) haine, (E) triste
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on May 1, 2019.
Bułat Silva, Zuzanna (2012). Saudade: A key Portuguese emotion. Emotion Review, 4(2). 203-211.
DOI: 10.1177/1754073911430727
Abstract:
This paper analyses the meaning of the Portuguese emotion word saudade, roughly translatable as ‘nostalgia’, in an attempt to show its cultural significance and contradict the view that nostalgia is a marginal feeling, deprived of any practical function. Saudade is not a marginal feeling in Portuguese culture, but an important and basic emotion term going hand in hand with amor ‘love’. Saudade may be viewed as a typically prototypical category, because it covers the whole scale of feelings, from sadness to happiness. The Portuguese claim it has no equivalents in any other language in the world and regard it as a fundamental and distinctive feature of their national identity. Its main characteristic lies in its ambivalence — saudade is both a memory and a feeling; it is both pleasure and pain.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) saudade
Published on July 1, 2017. Last updated on May 1, 2019.
Hărăbor, Alina (2012). An inquiry into Romanian anger-like and happiness-like emotions. Master’s thesis, Australian National University.
Open access
Abstract:
This thesis seeks to shed light on the inner lives of Romanian people via the language they use to communicate about their emotions. It is the first detailed study analysing these emotions by examining vocabulary, in particular the anger-related emotion words mânie and supărare and the happiness-related words fericire and veselie, as well as the syntactic constructions in which they occur. The thesis also highlights beliefs and cultural values that influence emotional experience.
By using NSM and drawing on instances of natural language (mainly extracted from the Romanian Corpus Linguistic), as well as proverbs, sayings, poems and songs, this study shows that Romanian emotions are very intense and that Romanians have a highly responsive behaviour: they feel and think socially rather than individually. For example, people’s ability to feel something good is intensified when they share a good feeling with someone else. Furthermore, the thesis shows that labels such as anger or happiness cannot be applied to Romanian because the emotional reality expressed in Romanian does not match the Anglo concepts described by these English labels.
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) fericire, (E) mânie, (E) supărare, (E) veselie, (S) fericire, (S) mânie, (S) supărare, (S) veselie, (T) Romanian
Published on December 12, 2018. Last updated on December 12, 2018.
Mulyadi (2013). Verba “mirip takut” dalam Bahasa Melayu Asahan [Fear-like verbs in Asahan Malay]. International Seminar “Language Maintenance and Shift III”. 331-335.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Rakić, Jelena. (2013). Emotions in English: Cultural scripts as mediators between language and culture. Facta Universitatis, Series Linguistics & Literature, 11(1), 75-89. PDF (open access)
Among studies on the English language, there is a notable absence of works on the relationship between English and its cultural underpinnings. Also, various research studies on language, emotion and culture lack descriptions of the situation in English, fostering the conclusion that English is culturally neutral. Anna Wierzbicka proposes the term Anglo-culture to cover the culture(s) behind the language, formulating cultural scripts that serve as a basis for modelling interaction, and which are founded on the
linguistic behaviour. We present those scripts relevant for understanding the domain of emotions in Anglo-culture, connecting them to the stereotypes about English reserve and politeness to show that the domain of emotions is a building block in the totality of Angloculture. The lexical items investigated show strong cultural markedness in line with the more general cultural scripts, which serves to prove that they are a useful tool for investigating the relationship between languages and cultures.
Published on August 9, 2018. Last updated on September 8, 2018.
Metom, Lilly (2013). Emotion concepts of the Ibans in Sarawak. Singapore: Trafford.
This book explains the emotion concepts of the Ibans, one of the indigenous peoples of Sarawak, Malaysia. It is an outcome of a research study that aims to analyse the Iban emotion concepts using Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). NSM enables emotion terminologies in Iban to be explicated and further defined along the concrete/abstract cultural continuum framework. The respondents of this study were the village community of Sbangki Panjai, a longhouse located in Lubok Antu, Sarawak. The findings reveal the core cultural values that underlie the people’s behaviours in the ways they express their emotions. The complex rules of logic called adat and the rules of speaking in this speech community that explain the Ibans’ communicative behaviours are discussed in detail in this book. The semantic analysis of the emotion words is exhaustive and comprehensive, which is necessary to reveal the complete meaning of the emotions being examined without creating ethnocentric bias. Thus, this book essentially describes how the Ibans relate themselves to others in their interaction.
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Published on July 18, 2017. Last updated on May 1, 2019.
Petras, Jayson D. (2013). Ang Pagsasakatutubo mula sa Loob/Kultural na Pagpapatibay ng mga Salitang Pandamdaming Tumutukoy sa “Sayá”: Isang Semantikal na Elaborasyon ng Wikang Filipino sa Larangan ng Sikolohiya. Humanities Diliman, 10(2), 56-84.
Open access
Abstract:
The Philippines has often been recognized as one of the most emotional countries in the world. Despite this, there is a scarcity of research pertaining to emotions in the context of Filipinos’ own language and culture; instead, the convenient practice of explaining phenomena based on studies published abroad continues. This is the reason why even local scholarship remains ethnocentric, particularly Anglocentric, in nature.
The author answers the need to culturally revalidate or indigenize emotion studies through the examination of the semantic elaboration of the happiness domain in Tagalog. To analyse the scope and depth of Tagalog happiness-related words, as well as their similarities and differences, it calls upon NSM. Highlighting the uniqueness of the words alíw, galák, ligáya, lugód, luwalhatì, sayá, siyá, tuwâ, and wíli thus becomes a possibility.
The paper concludes with a call for ongoing examination of the language of emotions as a means toward gaining a better understanding of Filipino personality.
More information:
Written in Tagalog. A noteworthy feature is the inclusion of a very useful tabular comparison of prime lists over time. The key dates retained are 1972, 1980, 1989, 1994, 1996 and 2002.
Rating:
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) alíw, (E) galák, (E) ligáya, (E) lugód, (E) luwalhatì, (E) sayá, (E) siyá, (E) tuwâ, (E) wíli, (T) English (synopsis)
