English Emotion Research Articles

The Comparative Analysis of Animal Words’ Cultural Connotations in Chinese and English Idioms

Animal words are often used to express people’s feelings and emotions both in English and Chinese, thus, these animal words is an absolutely important part of social languages and cultures. The comparative analysis method is used in this paper to classify and analyze cultural connotations of animal words in English and Chinese idioms from the aspect of cross-cultural communication. This paper focuses on the similarities and differences of animal words in both two languages and helps people to understand the language and culture better as well as avoid making cultural mistakes in the cross-cultural communication.

A Study on Korean EFL Learners’ Perception of English Emotion Words in the NSM Theory

The purpose of this study was to examine how sensitively Korean EFL learners (n = 12) at an advanced English proficiency level could distinguish subtle differences in meaning among closely related English emotion words. For data collection, this study conducted two tasks: a sentence-completion task and an explication-recognition task. For the explication-recognition task, this study followed the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) theory postulated mainly by Wierzbicka (1992 and 1999), and guided the participants to choose one word of emotion among seven emotion words to match up with its most appropriate explication. They were also asked to underline the component(s) of the explication that affected their choices to minimize any possible casual choices. Concerning the sentence completion task, the participants were asked to fill out each blank (20 blanks in total) with the most appropriate word of emotion and then briefly explain reasons for their choices. The results of this study support the Leibnizian position that it could be more effective for L2 learners to learn culture-specific words with context than without context.

Relationships between proficiency with grammatical morphemes and emotion regulation: a study of Mandarin–English preschoolers

ABSTRACTPrevious research mainly with monolingual children shows a positive relationship between English skills and emotion regulation. No study to date has examined if or how learning of grammatical morphemes might be associated with emotion regulation among bilingual preschoolers. This study examined how Mandarin-English bilingual preschoolers performed on three grammatical morphemes of plurals, past tense, present tense and whether the performance on the three morphemes was associated with emotion regulation. An elicitation task was used to assess proficiency in the three morphemes, and the Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC) and the Disappointing Gift task were used to assess emotion regulation. The results indicate that Mandarin-English bilingual preschoolers had difficulties with all the three morphemes but they had a higher proficiency level on plurals than on past and present tense. Their proficiency in past and present tense was positively correlated with emotion regulation as measured by the ERC.

Perceived vocal attractiveness by gay listeners in Hong Kong

This study investigates how Cantonese-speaking homosexual males perceive vocal attractiveness; namely, how different phonetic properties of voice influence their judgment. To this end, the present project follows the methodology in Xu et al’s (2013) study of vocal attractiveness and emotion in English, and recruited 14 Cantonese-speaking gay men in Hong Kong to rate the attractiveness of digitally synthesised stimuli. The stimuli varied in voice quality (breathy / modal / pressed), fundamental frequency and formant dispersion, all of which were means to project the speaker’s intended body size. The attractiveness ratings show that homosexual male subjects prefer male voices with low pitch, breathy voice quality and normal (neither dense nor sparse) distribution of formants. Interestingly, these preferences resemble the ratings by female English subjects in Xu et al’s (2013) study with one exception—the females favoured male voices with densely distributed formants, which signal a large body. This divergen...

Exploring Emotive Verbs in Persian and English Short Stories: A Contrastive Sociopragmatic Approach.

Current developments in the areas of discourse analysis and cross-cultural studies have led to an increased interest in the way people of different cultures express their affections on various occasions. Individuals learn how to regulate their emotional reactions according to sociocultural norms of behavior defined by the cultures to which they belong. Accordingly, this article aimed to investigate the linguistic expression of emotions in English and Persian short stories in order to fathom out the impact of culture on the way feelings are expressed cross-culturally. For this purpose, a corpus of eight different English and Persian short stories, four in each language, was selected based on a purposive sampling method. Then, using Devon's (The origin of emotions, 2006) typology of emotions, different types of emotive verbs were selected as the unit of analysis. Finally, the frequency and percentage values of emotive verb tokens used in these stories were carefully tabulated in terms of types and their respective metalinguistic categories introduced by Wierzbicka (Emotions across languages and cultures: diversity and universals, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999). The results obtained from the analysis of the targeted corpora reflected that English and Persian writers employ different types of emotive verbs in expressing their feelings. Essentially, the findings of the present study may have important implications for language teachers, material developers, and course designers.

Cultivating the Heart: Feeling and Emotion in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Religious Texts

Cultivating the Heart: Feeling and Emotion in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Religious Texts

Belief Reasoning and Emotion Understanding in Balanced Bilingual and Language-Dominant Mexican American Young Children

ABSTRACTBelief reasoning and emotion understanding were measured among 102 Mexican American bilingual children ranging from 4 to 7 years old. All children were tested in English and Spanish after ensuring minimum comprehension in each language. Belief reasoning was assessed using 2 false and 1 true belief tasks. Emotion understanding was measured using subtests from the Test for Emotion Comprehension. The influence of family background variables of yearly income, parental education level, and number of siblings on combined Spanish and English vocabulary, belief reasoning, and emotion understanding was assessed by regression analyses. Age and emotion understanding predicted belief reasoning. Vocabulary and belief reasoning predicted emotion understanding. When the sample was divided into language-dominant and balanced bilingual groups on the basis of language proficiency difference scores, there were no significant differences on belief reasoning or emotion understanding. Language groups were demographically similar with regard to child age, parental educational level, and family income. Results suggest Mexican American language-dominant and balanced bilinguals develop belief reasoning and emotion understanding similarly.

What is Wrong with Getting Emotional? On the Adjective ‘EMOTIONAL’ in British English

This paper focuses on the connotative meaning of the English adjective EMOTIONAL through the analysis of dictionary entries in several contemporary dictionaries of British English and the data retrieved from the British National Corpus (BNC). The domain of emotions has been well researched in numerous interdisciplinary investigations focusing on the relationship between languages and cultures, including those in cognitive linguistics. Different researches of conceptual metaphors involving emotions have shown that emotions in English are predominantly conceptualised as negative and potentially dangerous phenomena. This paper attempts to show that this view of emotions in English can also be validated through the analysis we hereby propose. First, we discuss the cultural factors that contribute to the assumed negativity of emotions. Secondly, the dictionary entries for the lexeme EMOTIONAL are analysed, revealing the inherent bias against emotions despite the intended objectivity. Then, we analyse the collocations EMOTIONAL forms with nouns in order to determine their overall connotative value, and finally, we investigate example sentences for the neutral phrase emotional reaction retrieved from the corpus. All the results obtained consistently point to the fact that emotions are valued negatively in the English language and culture.

Development of Emotion Word Comprehension in Chinese Children from 2 to 13 Years Old: Relationships with Valence and Empathy.

Children’s emotion word comprehension (EWC) has constantly received a great deal of attention in developmental science. However, since previous reports focused on only English emotion vocabulary, researchers thus far remained unclear as to the developmental trajectories of EWC (to Chinese emotion words) in Chinese children, let alone the cross-cultural difference of EWC in different languages (i.e., English V.S. Chinese). Furthermore, the influence of valence on EWC, as well as the interaction mechanism between EWC and empathy, has not been fully investigated. Finding answers to these research gaps has become the main motivation of the current study. For this purpose, a Chinese emotion vocabulary was first constructed to estimate EWC of Chinese children (ages 2–13 years old). Then, the valence of each emotion word was evaluated using the standard 9-point scale approach. After that, the Chinese children’s EWC and empathy were measured in terms of parental ratings. Finally, all data collected were statistically analyzed to reveal the influence of the valence of EWC, the relation between EWC and empathy, and the cross-cultural difference of children’s EWC between China and UK from the viewpoint of developmental science. The main results of the current study included the following: (i) EWC in general increased with age for Chinese children ages 2–13 years old, however, there was a dramatic increase during ages 6–8 years old; (ii) EWC of positive emotion words in general developed better than that of negative and neutral ones for Chinese children (ages 2–13 years old); and the disadvantage of EWC to negative emotion words over neutral ones was gradually observed with the increase of age, even though there were no significant differences between them from the beginning; (iii) EWC completely mediated the effect of age on empathy; and (iv) EWC of children in UK developed better than Chinese counterparts during the early childhood period (ages 4–6 years old), then Chinese counterparts developed better during the middle childhood period (ages 7–10 years old), however, there was no significant difference of EWC between both groups during the late childhood period (ages 11–12 years old).

Diminutives as Intimacy Expressions in English and Armenian

Diminutives are an important means of expressing attitudes and emotions in both English and Armenian. Diminutives as intimacy expressions have been much studied in English, meanwhile this aspect of communication has received less scholarly attention in Armenian. The comparative analysis of English and Armenian diminutives carried out in the present paper demonstrates the linguistic differences between Armenian and English diminutive systems, and comes to prove that the conceptualization of intimacy may vary across cultures.

The dimensions of emotional meaning in modern Greek

The aim of this study was to investigate the meaning structure of emotion terms from the Greek lexicon, and to assess commonalities and differences with the maps of emotional words obtained in a prior study of neo-Latin languages, a linguistic family sharing ancient roots with the Greek tongue. Twelve native speakers contributed to the selection of 33 Greek terms with a clear emotional meaning and an independent sample of 30 participants evaluated the pairwise similarities among the target words. The similarity ratings were subjected to multidimensional scaling analyses, yielding a three-dimensional configuration (Valence, Physiological Activation and Potency) in which the coping potential dimension (Potency) was more important than, or at least as important as, the Physiological Activation dimension. The map resembled that previously identified for the core neo-Latin languages, namely Italian, French and Spanish, and was quite different from those obtained for other more peripheral neo-Latin languages, and also from those obtained in some studies involving English emotion lexicon. Reasons for these similarities and differences are discussed.

감정표현 색채어 연구: 영어와 중국어를 중심으로

감정표현 색채어 연구: 영어와 중국어를 중심으로

Emotion and colour: Physiology, lexicalisation and conceptualisation

In English and in many other European languages, Croatian included, it is quite common to use colour terms as an indicator of different emotions. When we talk about colour and humans, we areactually referring to the colour of their skin, more precisely their face. The main goal of this study is to investigate the correlation between the primary colour terms in collocational units and their corresponding emotions in English and Croatian. Since most of the current research on emotion concepts has focused on English, we would like to provide further evidence from Croatian expressions of emotions. A cross-linguistic corpus-based analysis of the two language corpora (the British National Corpus and the Croatian National Corpus) in the first part of the paper should offer a better insight into the salience of basic emotion categories in reference to basic colour categories. The second part of the paper investigates the motivation behind some of the linguistic expressions within the framework of cognitive linguistics. Despite the obvious cross-linguistic differences as to the system of preference by which each language links colours and emotions, some systematic patterns, due to their motivational force, are likely to appear in both languages under study. Key words: emotion, colour, collocational units, conceptual metaphor, metonymy

The roles of culture and language in designing emotion lists: Comparing the same language in different English and Spanish speaking countries

This study investigated the effect of culture and language on reported emotions. Cross cultural studies of language need to look both between different languages and within the same language as spoken in different countries. Starting with a list of emotions in English, translation resulted in different lists for Spain and Mexico due to differences in the use of Spanish. Spanish lists were somewhat longer than the English list, as one English word could result in two Spanish words with similar meanings. A qualitative study was conducted in multiple locations in the UK, US, Mexico and Spain to identify which emotions were relevant to beverages.An on-line questionnaire combining the emotions selected by the focus groups was then completed by 600 respondents in four English speaking countries (US, UK, Australia, New Zealand) and two Spanish speaking countries (Spain, Mexico) where people were asked which emotions applied to their favourite beverage, beer and their least liked alcoholic beverage. There were more similarities among the four English speaking countries than between Spain and Mexico and more similarities between Mexican respondents and English speaking respondents than between Mexican and Spanish respondents. Spanish respondents did not consider certain emotions to be very relevant to their favourite beverage. Respondents from all countries found beverages without alcohol to be different from beverages with alcohol regarding the emotions they evoke. In addition, in English speaking countries positive emotion terms were more discriminating for both favourite and least liked beverages, while in Spanish speaking countries, both positive and negative emotions were more equally discriminating. These results demonstrate that cross cultural differences exist within the same language as well as across languages. Individuals and entire cultures do not all verbally express their emotions in the same manner. Recommendations are presented for producing emotion lists which will work in multiple countries and for conducting cross cultural emotion research.

‘Psychological Constructivism’: Comment on Iver Neumann’s ‘International Relations as a Social Science’

Iver Neumann’s assessment of IR as a social science reaches a counter-intuitive conclusion: ‘The issue is not if we should engage biological and psychological thinking about our subject matter, but how we should do it.’ His conclusion is counter-intuitive because, following Weber, Neumann believes that ‘social facts should be explained by social factors’1 and IR is above all else, social. Yet biology is a natural science and psychology walks the line between the natural and the social. So how does one privilege the social yet incorporate the natural to explain phenomenon of interest to IR? I cannot say what Neumann has in mind, but a psychological constructivist approach to emotion captures his call to draw on (what Neumann terms) the competing disciplines of psychology and biology to create a better social science of international relations. What makes emotion (and psychology) interesting and challenging is that it is not real (as a discrete measurable entity), but it is real as an identifiable experience. Psychologists have tried and failed to match discrete emotions like ‘anger’ to the brain and body. Emotions are not ‘natural kinds’ – they are not observer-independent. Psychologist Lindquist observed that one hundred years of psychological research ‘has yet to identify the discrete bodily, facial, behavioral, or neural basis of English emotion categories such as “anger,” “disgust,” “fear,” “happiness,” and “sadness”’.2 Emotion depends on the body, as well as on culture and context. Had scientists paid more attention to social

Metaphors and metonymies for the (conceptualization and expression of the) state of no emotion in English and Greek

The vocabulary of emotion terms has been treated both within and across cultures. Emotion terms, especially terms of universal emotion concepts, have been largely discussed. What has received little or no attention at all is the state of no emotion. The paper explores this state in English and Greek. It discusses the terms and the mechanisms (metaphors and metonymies) that feature in expressions showing no emotion. It will be argued (a) that the interplay between metaphor and metonymy is a very important operation for the conceptualization of no emotion; (b) in addition to shared experience, the culture-specific schemas govern this state in the two languages.

Cultural Basis of Metaphors Translation: Case of Emotions in Persian and English

Metaphorical expressions often involve culturally-specific concepts, embodying associations related to a particular cultural community. Metaphor translation poses the problems of switching between different cultural references, as well as conceptual and linguistic perspectives. Dealing with metaphors in translation, thus, is not simply a matter of identifying the linguistic correspondences in two languages under study, but of identifying correspondences between their conceptual systems corresponding to their different cultural models. The main purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a study that investigated emotive metaphoric conceptualizations and their dominant patterns in Persian and English. The emotions under study are metaphorical expressions of happiness and sadness which have been compiled from a literary source text and its two corresponding target texts. The Metaphor Identification Procedures (MIP), proposed by the Pragglejazz group (2007), and Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) were adopted as the framework for analysis. Our findings revealed that there are many cultural similarities and differences between emotive metaphorical concepts in Persian and English.

A Parallel Corpus-Based Study of Emotion Words in Hong Lou Meng and Their Translations

Emotional linguistics is a newly developed area in linguistic studies. However, up till now, inadequate attention has been paid to the contrastive study of emotion words in HLM and its English versions. This study attempts to compare and contrast the negative emotion words and their English translations in Chinese-English parallel corpus of Hong Lou Meng based on affect system in Appraisal Theory. Through quantitative and qualitative analyses of these emotion words, it is found that in terms of realization mode of emotion words, the Chinese Hong Lou Meng texts highlight affect as process while the English versions of Hong Lou Meng highlight affect as quality. In addition, the characteristics of transmission modes of Chinese and English emotion words are also revealed. The differentiation between Chinese and English emotion words will ensure the correct translation and introduction of traditional Chinese emotion culture to the western world.

On saying two things at once The historical semantics and pragmatics of Old English emotion words

AbstractThe article analyzes some aspects of the literal and figurative conceptualizations of shame in Old English. Through the reconstruction and fine-grained analysis of the whole set of literal, metonymic and metaphoric expressions of shame recorded in a corpus of Old English texts, I show here that the embodiment model for the conceptualization of this emotion was not used in Old English until the arrival of Christianity and the new moral standards it brought. The slow but progressive introduction of embodied metonymies and metaphors in Old English is, I will argue here, a direct consequence of the adaptation of patristic texts into the vernacular. The pressure to spread the Christian concept of shame, where this emotion is presented as an internal and subjective experience, and the need to substitute the old, honour-based model favoured the emergence and evolution of new figurative expressions of shame, based on its physiological effects on the experiencer.

She Sang as She Spoke: Billie Holiday and Aspects of Speech Intonation and Diction

The authors investigate the processes underlying Billie Holiday's oft-remarked “speech-like” singing. They identify sliding, or “kinetic,” pitch as a definitive characteristic of speech intonation, and discuss the relationship between kinetic pitch and the communication of emotion in spoken English. They also adduce a connection between certain spoken consonants and the pitches of the vowels which follow them. They analyze five Holiday recordings in terms of kinetic pitch and consonant/vowel “pull-down”: three versions of “Yesterdays” (J. Kern), one version of “All of Me” (G. Marks and S. Simons) and one recitation of the lyrics of “Yesterdays.” The authors' pitch transcriptions of all five performances, including the recitation, demonstrate a high incidence of kinetic pitch and of consonant/vowel pull-down. Parallels between the one recited and three sung versions of “Yesterdays” are heightened when kinetic pitches are specified and included in the analysis.