Translate this page:
Please select your language to translate the article


You can just close the window to don't translate
Library
Your profile

Back to contents

Litera
Reference:

Linguistic Representation of the Emotional State of «SURPRISE» in American English

Kuraleva Tatiana

ORCID: 0000-0003-3738-9198

PhD in Philology

Senior lecturer, Department of English philology and translation, St. Petersburg State University

199034, Russia, Saint Petersburg, nab. University, 11

t.kuraleva@spbu.ru
Pavlenko Elena

ORCID: 0000-0001-7276-1448

PhD in Philology

Senior lecturer, Department of English philology and translation, St. Petersburg State University

199034, Russia, Saint Petersburg, nab. University, 11

e.a.pavlenko@spbu.ru
Vyunova Ekaterina

ORCID: 0000-0001-9977-7829

PhD in Philology

Associate professor, Department of English philology and translation, St. Petersburg State University

199034, Russia, Saint Petersburg, nab. University, 11

e.vyunova@spbu.ru

DOI:

10.25136/2409-8698.2023.9.38886

EDN:

ZPNUXU

Received:

05-10-2022


Published:

05-10-2023


Abstract: The paper discusses major grammatical constructions that are used to describe the emotion of surprise in American English. Linguistic description of this emotion is difficult to formalize as this emotion is short-lived and is usually described in a clustered way. The linguistic material includes data from the Corpus of Contemporary American English. The paper focuses on grammatical constructions that are used by the speaker to describe their emotions rather than on lexemes that nominate emotional states. Corpus analysis shows that the whole range of grammatical constructions in question can be categorized into two groups: constructions with one proposition and constructions with two propositions. The use of constructions with two propositions allows for a more extended description of the emotion and to shift the focus to the reason, time or action. The paper also claims that, although the emotion of surprise is regarded as a neutral emotion, the grammatical construction, by itself, foregrounds a negative discourse prosody of the lexemes that nominate the emotion of surprise.


Keywords:

construction grammar, grammatical construction, nomination of emotional states, emotion studies, corpus studies, emotion of surprise, discourse prosody, linguistic representation, American English, linguistic patterns

This article is automatically translated.

 

introduction

Currently, various social and psychological aspects are increasingly coming into the field of linguistic science. Linguists are primarily interested in various ways of linguistic representation of a particular fragment of objective reality. Emotional states have not been considered an object of linguistics for a long time, but in the second half of the XX century, the first works on the methods of verbalization of emotions appeared. In modern linguistics, there is a great interest in the linguistic theory of emotions [12], emotional concepts [4, 7] and a range of grammatical constructions describing emotions [8, 9]. The inclusion of emotions in the object of linguistic research raises the question of the need to expand and clarify the approach to the linguistic categorization of emotions and to identify the variable possibilities of their verbalization, taking into account the diversity of intentions of communicants [2 p. 64]. The subjective nature of emotional states causes difficulties arising during their verbalization. In addition, emotions are more often represented in the language in clusters and represent complex or mixed emotions. At the same time, the specificity of the choice of language means is often associated with the type of linguistic personality and is situationally determined [13]. In connection with the above, we can conclude about the complexity of the formalized description of emotions, despite the presence of a large number of works devoted to the linguistics of emotions. In addition, there is a lack of theoretical works using the data of language corpora to build theoretical models.

METHODOLOGY

This article presents an analysis of language constructions describing, describing the emotion of surprise. Surprise is the most short-term emotion, which is quickly replaced by another emotion [16, p.98], i.e. it is often a complex emotion. Thus, the linguistic realization of such an unstable emotional state is of particular interest. For the purposes of a comprehensive and detailed description, we will limit ourselves to cases when the speech describes the emotional state of a third person (a non-preferential description of emotions) that has an external expression. In other words, only those cases fall into the circle of phenomena of interest to us when the predicate in the linguistic construction are verbs with the meaning "to look, to seem". Such a choice of language material is due, firstly, to the fact that such an expression of emotions is as subjective as possible and, therefore, is very difficult for a formalized description. Secondly, as N. G. Talashova notes, in the non-egor-preferential description of emotions, communicants use more diverse constructions and more complex linguistic means [10, p. 132].

The data of the Corpus of Contemporary American English (Corpus of Contemporary American English) were taken as the research material [14]. This corpus is a balanced corpus of modern English in its American version and allows you to track changes in the language and identify linguistic models. The genre balance of the included texts and the large volume (more than one billion words) provide a reliable representation of linguistic phenomena [15].

results

As mentioned above, emotions as an object of linguistic science have become the subject of numerous studies conducted on the material of different languages. If it is important for psychologists to study the nature of emotions, functions and forms of their manifestation, then for linguists the main task is to study linguistic ways of representing emotional states.

In any language, a lexicon of emotions is distinguished, and these lexicons are similar to each other. In many languages, there will be more emotive lexemes that actualize negative emotions in quantitative terms than those that express positive emotions. Positive emotions are expressed in different languages more monotonously than negative ones [18, p.59].

Despite a number of regularities, it seems rather difficult to present a formalized model of linguistic representation of emotional states due to the subjective nature of emotions and a wide variety of lexemes nominating emotions. In addition, there is no consensus among psychologists about which mental phenomena relate to emotional reactions. A broad or narrow interpretation allows scientists to attribute a variety of phenomena of the human psyche to emotional states. The number of basic emotions in different researchers ranges from five to ten. Finally, the binary division of emotions into positive and negative is not universal. As K. notes Izard, the true sign of emotion can only be determined by taking into account the broad context. At the same time, the author attributes the emotion of surprise to neutral emotions, i.e. to emotions that do not have an emotional sign [1]

The identification of language models describing the emotion of surprise involves the consideration of constructions that are used by the speaker in the situation of describing an emotional state. The study of grammatical constructions fits into the modern paradigm, according to which the subject of linguistics is larger linguistic units. The concept of construction was introduced into scientific use by Ch . Fillmore and his co–authors are P. Kay and K. O'Connor.  According to the grammar of constructions, the meaning of a construction does not consist directly of the meaning of its lexical units and syntactic connections between them; the meaning of a construction consists of the complex interaction of its constituent units [6]. In other words, the construction is a linguistic structure that has a plan of expression or a plan of content that is not derived from the meaning or form of the components [5, 6 p. 19, 17 p. 9].

So, let's move on to the consideration of constructions describing the emotion of surprise related to a third person. As mentioned above, cases of visible manifestation of emotion fall into the range of phenomena under consideration. As O. E. Filimonova notes, in statements describing the emotional state of third parties, two main propositions are distinguished: an emotional reaction and its cause. At the same time, an important role is played by the external representation of the emotional state [11, p. 72].

So, let's move on to considering the corpus of examples. As the analysis shows, it is possible to distinguish several constructions used by the speaker to describe the emotional state of a third person. All the cases considered can be divided into two groups: statements with one proposition and statements with two propositions.

Statements with one proposition make up more than half of all examples. Here we have included those cases in which there is only an indication of the emotion of surprise. For example: The big man looked surprised. Even the reporters seemed surprised. In such cases, the communicant uses the construction: SUBJECT + LINK VERB + SURPRISED.

Statements containing two propositions represent a heterogeneous group. Among the cases considered, it seems possible to distinguish the following models: a statement expressing the emotion of surprise and the cause of its occurrence, a statement expressing the emotion of surprise and the time of the emotion, a statement expressing the emotion of surprise and the accompanying emotion, and a statement expressing the emotion of surprise and the action accompanying this emotion. Let's consider these models in more detail.

1.        A statement with two propositions (emotion + reason).

Example

Construction

She looked surprised to see me.

SUBJECT + LINK VERB + SURPRISED + INFINITIVE PHRASE

She looked surprised, as if it was an outlandish question.

SUBJECT + LINK VERB + SURPRISED + AS IF + SUBORDINATE CLAUSE

Sam looked surprised that Charlie agreed with him.

SUBJECT + LINK VERB + SURPRISED + THAT + SUBORDINATE CLAUSE

They seemed surprised by my appalled reaction, every time.

SUBJECT + LINK VERB + SURPRISED + BY/AT + PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE

As N. G. Talashova notes, this method of verbalization of emotions is more typical for male speech behavior [10, p. 81]. In addition, the speech of men is distinguished by the desire to mask emotion by using metaphors or slang words [3 p. 65]. In our opinion, the use of grammatical constructions with the meaning of the cause also serves the purpose of masking emotions, since it shifts the emphasis from the emotion itself to its cause. A wide range of grammatical constructions used to express emotions is also interesting. Attention is drawn to the fact that the subordinate clause of comparison as part of a grammatical construction acquires an additional causal meaning.

2.        A statement with two propositions (emotion + indication of time).

Example

Construction

Broker seemed surprised when I suggested she check with a lawyer. She looked surprised when she saw me passing a thank you card to her.

SUBJECT + LINK VERB + SURPRISED + WHEN + SUBORDINATE CLASUE

Tyler seems surprised until Klaus walks into the room.

SUBJECT + LINK VERB + SURPRISED + UNTIL + SUBORDINATE CLASUE

The girls appeared surprised the first time they came to the Girls Circle.

 

SUBJECT + LINK VERB + SURPRISED + THE FIRST TIME + SUBORDINATE CLASUE

As can be seen from the examples, constructions describing emotion and temporal characteristics are polypredicative structures. At the same time, the second proposition may include both an indication of the duration of the emotional state and the moment of its occurrence. In this case, the grammatical construction may have an additional causal meaning. Such ambiguity, in general, is characteristic of the semantic field "temporal relations", as evidenced by the presence in the inventory of linguistic units of unions that have both causal and temporal meaning (since, now that).

3.        A statement with two propositions (two emotions).

Example

Construction

Nilik looked surprised, then pleased.

SUBJECT + LINK VERB + SURPRISED + THEN + ADJECTIVE

Tomlinson looked surprised, almost hurt.

SUBJECT + LINK VERB + SURPRISED + ALMOST + ADJECTIVE

Sarah looked surprised, but not shocked. She seemed surprised, but not annoyed by the additional kid in her house.

SUBJECT + LINK VERB + SURPRISED + BUT NOT + ADJECTIVE

Five seems surprised and scared. 

SUBJECT + LINK VERB + SURPRISED + AND + ADJECTIVE

It has already been noted that the emotion of surprise is short-lived and is quickly replaced by another emotion. As the analysis of corpus data shows, the emotion of surprise can be replaced by both a positive emotion (pleased, thrilled) and a negative one (confused, shocked, puzzled, nervous, offended, irritated).At the same time, lexemes nominating negative emotion are more frequent in such constructions.

4.        A statement with two propositions (emotion and action).

Example

Construction

Tommy seemed surprised, but smiled.

SUBJECT + LINK VERB + SURPRISED + BUT + VERB

He appeared surprised and came closer to see what I had in my bag. He looked surprised and took out his cell phone.

SUBJECT + LINK VERB + SURPRISED + AND + VERB

As can be seen from the examples, the relationship between the two propositions is based on equality. At the same time, in such constructions, the emotion of surprise can be represented as a longer or short-term, rapidly changing action.

conclusions

So, we have considered cases of non-preferential description of emotions, since such a description of the emotional state seems to be more subjective and is of interest from the point of view of identifying language models. As the analysis of corpus data has shown, despite all the variety of grammatical constructions, the ways of expressing emotions are quite amenable to a formalized description. The analysis also showed that the use of the lexeme nominating surprise in certain grammatical constructions allows you to create additional meanings within this construction. Thus, we observe the deployment of discursive meanings in the utterance, or their accumulation. In addition, it is in the grammatical construction that the realization of the negative discursive prosody of lexemes with the meaning of surprise is observed.

References
1. Izard, K. E. (1999). The Psychology of Emotions. St. Petersburg: Peter Publishing House.
2. Ionova, S. V., & Shteba A.A. (2019). Mixed emotions: about linguistic representation and descriptive metalanguage. Issues in Psycholinguisics, 2(40), 63-81.
3. Kolpakova, L. V. (2018). Representation of gender characteristics of a personality in the language. Vestnik TGPU, 6(195), 62-67.
4. Krasavskiy, N. A. (2008). Emotional Concepts in German and Russian Linguocultures. Moscow: Gnozis.
5. Rakhikina, E. V. (Ed.). (2010). Linguistics of Constructions. (2010). Moscow.: Azbukobnok publishing Centre.
6. Rakhilina, E. V., Testelets, Ya. G. (2016). Scientific heritage of Ch. Fillmore and modern linguistic theory. Voprosy Jazykoznanija, 2, 7-21.
7. Silinskaya, N. P. (2008). Concepts of Negative Emotions in the English Phraseological World Picture. Thesis of the Candidate of Philological Sciences. St. Petersburg.
8. Talashova, N. G. (2013). Direct description of female negative emotional states in English-language fiction. Philological Sciences. Issues of Theory and Practice, 2(30), 195-197.
9. Talashova, N. G. (2015). Direct Description of Male Negative Emotional States in English-language fiction. Philological Sciences. Issues of Theory and Practice, 1(43) V. II, 192-195.
10. Talashova, N. G. (2016). Gender-Specific Linguistic Representaion of Negative Emotions in English Language Fiction Thesis of the Candidate of Philological Sciences. St. Petersbug.
11. Filimonova, O. E. (2007). Emotiology of the Text. Representation of Emotions in the English Text. St. Petersburg: Knizhnyi Dom.
12. Shakhovskiy, V. I. (2008). Linguistic Theory of Emotions. Moscow: Gnozis.
13. Shakhovskiy, V. I. (2010). Emotions: Pre-linguistics, Linguistics, Cultural Studies. Librokom Publishing House.
14. Corpus of Contemporary American English. [Digital source]. Retrieved from https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/
15. Davis M. (2010). The Corpus of Contemporary American English as the first reliable monitor corpus of English. Literary and Linguistic Computing, 25(4), 447-464.
16. Ekman P., & Friesen W. (2003). Unmasking the Face. Cambridge, MA.
17. Goldberg A. (2009). Constructions: A New Theoretical Approach to Language. Cognitive Linguistics, 20(1), 93-127.
18. Noth W. (1992). Symmetries and Asymmetries between Positive and Negative Emotion Words. Proceedings. Tubingen: Niemeyer.

Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The article presented for consideration "Linguistic representation of the emotional state of "SURPRISE" (based on the material of the American version of the English language)", proposed for publication in the journal "Litera", is undoubtedly relevant due to the fact that various social and psychological aspects are increasingly coming into the field of linguistic science. In addition, there has been a steady trend towards the differentiation of British and American versions of English in both teaching and research environments, which makes the article relevant. As the author rightly notes, in modern linguistics there is a great interest in the linguistic theory of emotions, emotional concepts [and a range of grammatical constructions describing emotions. This article presents an analysis of linguistic constructions describing the emotion of surprise. The article presents a research methodology, the choice of which is quite adequate to the goals and objectives of the work. The author turns, among other things, to various methods to confirm the hypothesis put forward. The following research methods are used: comparative, hermeneutical, descriptive, etc. As the author notes, the qualification and description of such units is accompanied by a number of problems. These problematic issues are what the author is trying to solve in the course of his work. The practical research material taken by the author is not entirely clear. The author does not specify the sample size on which the work is based. It should be noted that the postulated by the author is illustrated by language examples with explanations. This work was done professionally, in compliance with the basic canons of scientific research. The study was carried out in line with modern scientific approaches, the work consists of an introduction containing a statement of the problem, mention of the main researchers of this topic, the main part, traditionally beginning with a review of theoretical sources and scientific directions, research and final, which presents the conclusions obtained by the author. The disadvantages include poorly formulated conclusions in the final part of the article. The bibliography of the article contains 18 sources, including both works in Russian and in a foreign language. The practical significance of the research lies in the possibility of using its results in the process of teaching university courses on the practice of speech, lexicology and cognition. In general, it should be noted that the article is written in a simple, understandable language for the reader. Typos, spelling and syntactic errors, inaccuracies in the text of the work were not found. However, the author made a typo in the title of the article - it should read "Representation". In the methodology section: the first sentence is a repetition of the same word. The comments made are not significant and do not affect the content. The work is innovative, representing the author's vision of solving the issue under consideration and may have a logical continuation in further research. The article will undoubtedly be useful to a wide range of people, philologists, undergraduates and graduate students of specialized universities. The article "Linguistic representation of the emotional state of "SURPRISE" (based on the material of the American version of the English language)" can be recommended for publication in a scientific journal.