The Language of Emotion in Kavalan
Date Issued
2006
Date
2006
Author(s)
Lin, Dong-yi
DOI
en-US
Abstract
The present thesis investigates the language of emotion and the conceptualization of emotion concepts in Kavalan, a Formosan language spoken on eastern part of Taiwan.
The expression of emotion and affect is an indispensable feature in communication and interaction. Interjections and final particles are two significant strategies to achieve this end. In Kavalan, four primary interjections, wanay, azkaw, ou, and niampa, can respectively signal a speaker’s different attitudes. Wanay expresses a positive affective stance; azkaw signals a discontented attitude; ou is associated with surprise; niampa denotes sympathy or pity. Final particles in Kavalan also provide a rich source of mechanism for emotion expression in daily communication. It is argued that haw is employed to seek agreement or confirmation from other interlocutors. On the contrary, yu functions to assert or reinforce an assertion. This function can be evidenced by the collocation ‘zin-ku yu,’ which not only frames reported thought but also accentuates the speaker’s conviction. As for ya, it can denote a speaker’s agreement, signal exclamatory mood, or mitigate a speaker’s tone. Finally, kwa can highlight a description especially when a speaker aims to refute the other interlocutor’s idea.
While interjections and final particles directly express emotion and affect, emotion can also be described and expressed via descriptive emotion words. Taking Johnson-Laird & Oatley’s (1989) model of classification for English emotion words as a basis, we propose that Kavalan descriptive emotion words be classified into six categories, including generic emotion, basic/caused emotions, emotional relations, causatives, emotional goals, and complex emotions. It is also found that there seems to be no discrete demarcation between sadness and fear modes and that between anger and disgust modes in this language.
Metaphors and metonymies are two crucial mechanisms to conceptualize emotion concepts in the folk model of emotion. It is found that Kavalan resorts to five primary metaphors, including EMOTION IS OBJECT, EMOTION IS PHYSICAL STATE, EMOTION IS LOCATION, EMOTION IS MOTION, and EMOTION IS CONTAINER, to conceptualize emotion concepts. Unlike English and Squliq Atayal, both of which rely on not only category-wide but also category-specific metaphors for emotion concepts, the primary emotion metaphors in Kavalan are mainly constituted by category-wide metaphors. Another significant and peculiar feature of emotion expression in Kavalan is the prevalence of anem, the generic emotion noun in this language, as evidenced by the particular construction ‘PREDICATE ANEM TU NOMINALIZED.EMOTION.’ In addition to metaphor, two metonymic principles, i.e. THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF AN EMOTION STAND FOR THE EMOTION and THE BEHAVIORAL REACTIONS OF AN EMOTION STAND FOR THE EMOTION, also constitute an integral part of the conceptual structure of Kavalan emotion concepts.
Emotion is not merely a state, but should be interpreted as a scenario or event consisting of cause, emotion itself, control/loss of control, and physiological effects (Kövecses 1990). In Kavalan, while metaphor proves an important mechanism to express emotion and control/loss of control, other specific constructions, including causative pa- construction, 'clause/NP sa-…-an' construction, 'qena-Emotion tu cause' construction, 'Emotion.verb tu physiological.effects' construction, and 'Physiological.effects tu nominalized.emotion' construction, are deployed to denote the other two stages, i.e. cause and effects. Finally, compared with English, in which the force dynamics of emotion concepts correlate highly with their metaphorical mappings (Kövecses 2000), the results on Kavalan emotion discourse indicate that the force schemata of emotion concepts in this language are represented mainly via specific constructions instead due to the minor role that metaphor plays in the expression of the cause and effects of emotion.
Subjects
情緒
感嘆詞
語尾助詞
隱喻
轉喻
力量動態
emotion
interjection
final particle
metaphor
metonymy
force dynamics
Type
other
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