
Lingthusiasm - A podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics
75: Love and fury at the linguistics of emotions
Dec 15, 2022
27:02
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Quick takeaways
- Different languages have different ways of grouping together emotions into single words, reflecting how languages carve up the emotion space and the concepts they associate closely.
- Understanding emotional perspectives across languages and cultures can lead to greater appreciation and potential for mutual understanding.
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Different Languages and the Carving Up of Emotion Space
Different languages have different ways of grouping together emotions into single words, a process known as co-lexification. For example, Spanish uses the word 'Pueblo' to mean both 'people' and 'village', while English treats these as separate concepts. Similarly, Japanese has 'shima' which can mean both 'community' and 'island'. Languages may also distinguish between different types of love, like Spanish's 'querere' for love towards friends and family, and 'amar' for romantic love. These differences in emotion words reflect how languages carve up the emotion space and the concepts they associate closely.
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