The conceptualisation of primary emotions in the Serbian language (The case of verbs expressing joy, sadness, fear and anger)

Abstract

The paper analyses the conceptual mechanisms underlying the development of secondary emotional meanings of “non-emotional” verbs (in relation to their primary meaning). Being abstract, psychological entities, emotions are formalised and expressed by linguistic means using emotional lexis. Emotional verbs represent a type of this lexis: they denote emotions, emotional relationships and processes, emotional expression and an emotional situation as a whole. The research material consists of 92 verbs which are classified according to two criteria: a. the semantic role of the experiencer, i.e. whether the verbs denote experiencing or provoking an emotion (emotionally-active and emotionally-passive verbs) and b. the criterion of the primary emotion, i.e. whether the verbs belong to the emotional domain of joy, sorrow, fear or anger. The analysis showed that emotions are conceptualised by specific emotional metaphors, based on the pleasure: discomfort distinction. The primary metaphor MAN IS THE CONTAINER FOR EMOTIONS and the general metonymic rule PHYSIOLOGICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF EMOTIONS ARE THE EMOTION ITSELF, represent general mechanisms for the conceptualisation of secondary emotional meanings of verbs. It has also been shown that a certain type of a verb’s primary meaning potentially develops a certain secondary emotional meaning; in other words, each primary emotion has an intrinsic source domain which concretises its abstract meanings.

Keywords

• emotions
• verbs of emotion
• conceptualisation
• metaphor
• metonymy