The construction of emotional meaning in language
These videos have been matched automatically. Contact us if they are not relevant.
These videos have been matched automatically. Contact us if they are not relevant.
View abstract on PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.This study proposes using language features like attention, construal, and appraisal to better understand emotional meaning-making. This approach offers a richer, dynamic view of how emotions relate to circumstances.
Area Of Science
- Psychology
- Linguistics
- Computational Linguistics
Background
- Emotion experience is a form of meaning-making, revealing individual relationships to circumstances.
- Current psychological studies often focus narrowly on explicitly named emotions or subjective feelings.
- A broader linguistic perspective is needed to fully capture the nuances of emotional meaning.
Purpose Of The Study
- To advocate for a wider range of tools in psychology for studying emotional meaning in language.
- To introduce three sets of language features—attention, construal, and appraisal—for analyzing emotional meaning.
- To demonstrate how these linguistic features can illuminate variations in emotional meaning across situations, individuals, and cultures.
Main Methods
- Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach integrating socio-, cognitive, and computational linguistics.
- Incorporating insights from discursive, cognitive, and emotion psychology.
- Analyzing language features related to contextual salience (attention), conceptual viewpoint (construal), and evaluative dimensions (appraisal).
Main Results
- Language features of attention, construal, and appraisal offer measurable insights into emotional meaning-making.
- These features allow for nuanced analysis of how emotional meaning is constructed in context.
- The framework facilitates understanding emotional variability based on situational, personal, and cultural factors.
Conclusions
- A higher-dimensional, dynamical account of emotional meaning is achievable through linguistic analysis.
- Broader linguistic tools enhance the study of emotion, moving beyond subjective reports.
- This interdisciplinary framework provides a robust method for investigating the complexities of emotional experience.
These videos have been matched automatically. Contact us if they are not relevant.
These videos have been matched automatically. Contact us if they are not relevant.
Related Concept Videos
Language, whether spoken, signed, or written, consists of specific components: lexicon and grammar. The lexicon is the vocabulary of a language, comprising its words. Grammar is the set of rules used to convey meaning through the lexicon. For example, English grammar adds “-ed” to most verbs to indicate past tense. Words are formed by combining phonemes, which are the basic sound units of a language. Different languages have different sets of phonemes (e.g., “ah” vs.
Language is a unique communication system that uses words and systematic rules to organize and transmit information. Unlike other forms of communication, which may involve postures, movements, odors, or vocalizations, language relies on symbols and grammar. This makes human communication distinct from that of other species, who also communicate but do not use language in the same way humans do.
Corballis and Suddendorf (2007) and Tomasello and Rakoczy (2003) highlight the role of language in...
Emotional labeling is a cognitive process that involves identifying and naming one's emotions, such as anger, fear, happiness, or sadness. It allows individuals to recognize and express their internal emotional states, a critical aspect of emotional regulation and communication. Labeling emotions requires more than mere recognition; it also involves drawing upon memory and contextual cues to understand the current situation and apply a corresponding emotional label. For instance, feeling...
Language serves as a bridge between ideas and communication, influencing how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Psychologists have long debated whether language shapes thought or vice versa. This discussion gained grip with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s, who proposed that language determines thought, a concept known as linguistic determinism. They suggested that the vocabulary and structure of a language influence how its speakers think and perceive reality.
Emotional expression encompasses how individuals convey their emotions through verbal communication and non-verbal cues. These non-verbal actions include facial expressions, body language, and physical gestures, such as frowning or smiling. Among these, facial expressions play a crucial role in emotional expression and are understood universally, indicating a biological basis for how humans communicate emotions.
Universal Facial Expressions
Psychologist Paul Ekman identified seven basic...
Children master language quickly and with relative ease, supported by both biological predisposition and reinforcement. B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through reinforcement, while Noam Chomsky (1965) argued that language acquisition mechanisms are biologically determined.
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...