Emotion semantics show both cultural variation and universal structure

Science • Vol/Iss. 366 (6472) • AAAS • • Published In • Pages: 1517-1522 •
By Jackson, Joshua Conrad, Watts, Joseph, Henry, Teague R., List, Johann-Mattis, Forkel, Robert, Mucha, Peter J., Greenhill, Simon J. , Gray, Russell D. , Lindquist, Kristen A.

Abstract

Researchers looked at the meaning of various emotion concepts, 'emotion semantics' in an attempt to determine the patterns and processes behind meaning cross-culturally. They used maps of colexification patterns (where semantically related concepts are named with the same word), adjusted Rand indices (ARIs) which indicated the similarities of two community's network structures, and various psychophysiological dimensions to test relationships and patterns of variability /structure in emotion semantics. These methods shed light on the underlying mechanisms behind emotions, both their words and their meanings in languages across the world. Their findings show substantial difference in language families and relationships between geographic proximity of language families and subsequent variation in emotion colexification tied to an evolutionary relationship, while also finding cultural universals in emotion colexification networks with languages primarily differentiating emotions on the basis of valence and activation.
Documents and Hypotheses Filed By: matthew.g.roth  abbe.mccarter  anj.droe