Emotional expression: A cross-linguistic study

Melanie Elizabeth Lotz, Purdue University

Abstract

This study investigates how speakers of 14 different languages (e.g. Basque, Malay, Spanish) express feelings about things and people, thereby creating, defining, and maintaining relationships. Previous studies about the language of emotions focused on specific words or phrases and how well they translate across languages. Pavlenko (2008) shows that the lexical possibilities regarding emotional expression vary across languages, and Besemeres (2004) argues that these differences reflect differences in cultural interpretation of emotion. Wilkins and Gareis (2006) study cross-linguistic usage of the phrase “I love you,” showing that speakers of different languages use the phrase with varying frequency and in different contexts. This variance, however, does not mean that different cultures think differently about emotions or relationships. On the contrary, the present study takes account of a wider range of expressions within a given language and finds that the way speakers think about emotional and relational expression is very similar regardless of culture or linguistic resources. In the discussion, the concepts of relative and absolute strength are introduced, as is a framework for understanding how meaning is created in communicative contexts. It is demonstrated that regardless of the lexical possibilities in a language, speakers find ways to make the same basic distinctions and create the same kinds of meaning across languages.

Degree

M.A.

Advisors

Roberts, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Linguistics|Sociolinguistics

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