Linguistic Representations of <i>Disgust</i> in the Modern German Language

Abstract

The present research featured linguistic units of the primary and secondary nomination, as well as expressive interjections, which describe the emotion of disgust and its physiological characteristics. The purpose of the research was to analyze the linguistic representations of disgust and to describe the physiological characteristics that reflect the fundamental status of the emotion. The study focused on the German lexeme Ekel, linguistic metaphors, metaphors with somatic components, and expressive interjections. The authors analyzed linguistic representations of the emotion of disgust, outlined its somatic components, described its physiological characteristics, defined the actual linguistic nomination of disgust, classified linguistic metaphors and metaphors with the somatic components according to linguistic hierarchy, and analyzed the somatic components that reflect the physiological characteristics of disgust. The emotion of disgust appeared to be based on such physical sensations as choking, nausea, and vomiting. The expressive interjections proved to reflect the intensity of the emotion. Disgust is represented at three levels: non-verbal – by facial expressions and gestures; physiological – nausea, asthma attacks, gag reflex; verbally – the base lexeme-representative der Ekel, the metaphor-word die Grenze, the metaphorword with the somatic component Brechmittel, the metaphor-phrase Ekel schüren, the metaphor-sentence with the somatic component Das Ekelhafte würgt mich, and the expressive interjections Bäh!, Ih!, Igitt!, Pfui!