This paper aims to seek ways to investigate the relationships between emotion words under linguistic perspective, rather than developing new algorithms to process emotion detection.
Keywords: language, word, meaning, emotional meaning, sentiment analysis, emotional vocabulary classes.
Language is a way of communicating ideas and information using signs. It is a tool that people use to share their experiences and learn from each other. Linguists study the ways in which people use language to communicate their emotions. They use this knowledge to help people communicate more effectively in English. Linguists learn about how people use language to communicate their emotions by studying how people talk about emotions in everyday life.
Any language is comprised of many words. It is impossible to learn a language without knowing the words. A word can be generally defined as a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible [1]. In linguistics, a word of a spoken language defined as the smallest sequence of phonemes that uttered in isolation with objective or practical meaning. And S. I. Ozhegov in his explanatory dictionary gave remarkable meaning to word: “A word is a unit of language that serves to name concepts, objects, persons, actions, signs, states, connections, relationships, assessments.” In many languages, words also correspond to sequences of graphemes («letters») in their standard writing systems that delimited by spaces wider than the normal inter-letter space, or by other graphical conventions.
The word is the central meaningful unit of language. It is distinguished external and internal forms of the word. By the external form of the word meant the word itself, considered from the point of view of various aspects of the language. Meanwhile, the inner form is the meaning of the word.
The meaning of each word helps to distinguish one word from another. Therefore, knowing the meaning of the word sticks up for using them in correct context. Except lexical and grammatical meaning words have an emotional meaning. By emotional word, we refer to any word characterized by emotional connotations (e.g., “lonely,” “poverty,” “neglect,” “bless,” “reward,” “elegant”) or denoting a specific emotional reaction (e.g., “anger,” “happy,” “sadness“). Although emotional words can convey the emotions we feel, they used without subjective experiencing of an emotion, as well. We have non-verbal channels — facial expression, prosody, and body language — to communicate emotions. So is there another reason for using emotional words? How do emotional words convey emotional meanings? To answer these questions, it is necessary to first explore the purpose of using the language system and its relationship with semantic memory, where meanings and concepts, or knowledge about the world, represented in the mind.
With an increase in interest in the deeper functional levels of meanings constructed through social interaction, expressing one’s emotion has gained great importance in the field of second language learning and teaching [2]. One of the main and most important purposes of a speech act is to convey the speaker's emotional state. Leech (1981) clarified the functions of a language, among which is an expressive function, that is, to “express its originator’s feelings and attitudes” [3]. Understanding how to convey one's feelings through linguistic forms is without a doubt at the basis of learning and teaching English, especially in light of the fact that emotions are a fundamental component of human mental and social existence.
Emotions are a big part of life. People use the same words to express different emotions all the time. This is important for people who want to understand what someone is saying. Modern psychologists understand emotions as «the whole range of human emotional experiences». This includes mood, emotion itself, feelings, and affect. Some words in the text have strong emotional meanings. For example, «please» is often used to ask for something politely, and «thank you» is used to express gratitude.
Sentiment analysis is a way of understanding the emotions in a text. There are many different approaches to sentiment analysis, and some have been shown to be more effective than others. One of the most important resources for sentiment analysis is a lexicon of emotion words, which assumes that all emotion words have a specific, fixed meaning. However, this is not always the case. The meaning of an emotion word is always influenced by the context in which it is used.
Sentiment analysis is a way of understanding the different emotions that words can express. Researchers are starting to take this into account when exploring the sentiments of words, in order to avoid creating polarized views.
The way a person speaks and the way they express themselves can affect how other people feel. This is because language is used to communicate emotions and feelings.
L. G. Babenko identifies some grammatical classes of vocabulary expressing emotions:
1) Emotive verbs. According to L. G. Babenko, this part of speech is most suitable for expressing emotions. This part of speech has tremendous possibilities for displaying various feelings. “Emotions are conveyed by verbs as a state (to be sad) and as the formation of a state (to fall in love), as an attitude (to love), and as an impact (to fall in love), and also as an external manifestation of emotions (to kiss, hug)” [4, p.65].
2) Emotive nouns. Substantial vocabulary expressing emotions belongs to the lexico-grammatical category of abstract nouns. But it should be noted that most of this vocabulary is made up of «motivated words, various nominalizations, as well as verbal words, such as fury, affection, tenderness» [4, p.65–66]. The smaller part is “unmotivated words such as trouble, fear, sadness, passion, torment, sadness” [4, p.65]. Verbal emotive nouns denote emotional states, relationships, actions: inspiration, favor.
3) Emotive adjectives, which «due to their explicit situationality, semantically and functionally are attracted to the verb, and formally grammatically gravitate towards nouns» [4, p.67]. «An emotive adjective has a combination of meanings that convey emotion as a state of being (identifier «filled with feeling»), causation of the state (identifier «evoking feeling»), expression of an emotional state (identifier «expressing feeling»), emotional attitude (identifier «related to feeling»).
4) Emotive adverbs, expressing emotions, are guided by «accompanying states that characterize emotively, various actions (sad to look, sad to say) and signs (sad-languid eyes)" [4, p.68]. The depiction of emotions in adverbs has its own specifics. It should be noted that this specificity is manifested in the peculiarities of their compatibility: “the grammatical nature of emotive adverbs does not allow them to correlate emotions directly with their carrier, therefore, the relationship with the subject of emotions is carried out in the text indirectly, through his actions or adjectively expressed signs” [4, p.68–69].
5) Emotive interjections. L. G. Babenko defines this type of interjections, due to their complex nature, as “a special syncretic class of words, gravitating towards emotives — nominatives, and emotives — connotatives” [4, p.70].
Linguists have a hard time representing emotions in language because emotions are very complex. They involve a person's entire psyche, which is why emotions get represented in ways that are even more complex. And even though linguists study emotionality in language, it's still a part of general linguistics and psycholinguistics.
References:
- Brown, E. K. (2013). The Cambridge dictionary of linguistics. J. E. Miller. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 473. ISBN 978–0–521–76675–3. OCLC 801681536.
- Brown, H. D. (2007). Principles of language learning and teaching (5th ed.). New York: Pearson Longman.
- Leech, G. (1981). Semantics: The study of meaning (2nd ed.). Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books. p.40.
- L. G. Babenko, Lexical means of designating emotions in Russian.- Yekaterinburg: Publishing house of the Ural unti, pp. 130, 1989.
