Universal encoding sequence of emotion categories: 1. All languages have terms for the categories of anger and guilt. 2. All languages have folk terms for the categories of adoration, alarm, amusement, and depression. 3. Third labeled are the emotion categories of alienation, arousal, and agony. 4. Fourth labeled is the category of eagerness. 5. Fifth labeled is the cluster categories of anxiety, aggravation, and pride. 6. Sixth labeled is the category of contentment. 7. Seventh labeled are the categories of amazement, envy, and disgust. 8. Eighth labeled are the categories of pity, enthusiasm, and dismay. 9. Lastly labeled are the categories of exasperation, relief, longing, torment, and enthrallment.
Standardized
IF there is at least one folk term for the categories of exasperation, relief, longing, torment, and enthrallment, THEN there is most likely at least one term for the categories of pity, enthusiasm, and dismay. IF there is at least one folk term for the categories of pity, enthusiasm, and dismay, THEN there is most likely at least one term for the categories of amazement, envy, and disgust. IF there is at least one folk term for the categories of amazement, envy, and disgust, THEN there is most likely at least one term for the category of contentment. IF there is at least one folk term for the category of contentment, THEN there is most likely at least one term for the categories of anxiety, aggravation, and pride. IF there is at least one folk term for the categories of anxiety, aggravation, and pride, THEN there is most likely at least one term for the category of eagerness. IF there is at least one folk term for the category of eagerness, THEN there is most likely at least one term for the categories of alienation, arousal, and agony. IF there is at least one folk term for the categories of alienation, arousal, and agony, THEN there is most likely at least one term for the categories of adoration, alarm, amusement, and depression. IF there is at least one folk term for the categories of adoration, alarm, amusement, and depression, THEN there is most likely at least one term for the categories of anger and guilt.
Keywords
hierarchy, emotion categories
Domain
lexicon
Type
implicational hierarchy
Status
achronic but presumably diachronically motivated
Quality
statistical
Basis
Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) probability sample of 60 major geographical and linguistic groupings
1. Stages 1 and 2, 3 and 4, and so on, illustrate the tendency toward antonymic encoding. Hupka, Lenton & Hutchison hypothesize that the first member of each pair of binary opposites is the unmarked one and is more frequently used in English prose and is perceived to be more general than the second member of each pair. (The only exception is ‘envy-jealousy’, which is perceived to be more general than ‘pity-sympathy’.)2. In English, the terms of Stages 1 and 2 are morphologically and phonologically simpler (i.e. hate, guilt, love, fear, joy, and sad) than the terms of Stages 8 and 9 (i.e., excitement, disappointment, sympathy, frustration, and fascination). These data are in accordance with Sapir’s hypothesis that morphological development of a vocabulary tends to decrease from the earliest recorded forms to the present (see Hupka, Lenton, & Hutchison 1999: 256-7).
1. Stages 1 and 2, 3 and 4, and so on, illustrate the tendency toward antonymic encoding. Hupka, Lenton & Hutchison hypothesize that the first member of each pair of binary opposites is the unmarked one and is more frequently used in English prose and is perceived to be more general than the second member of each pair. (The only exception is ‘envy-jealousy’, which is perceived to be more general than ‘pity-sympathy’.)2. In English, the terms of Stages 1 and 2 are morphologically and phonologically simpler (i.e. hate, guilt, love, fear, joy, and sad) than the terms of Stages 8 and 9 (i.e., excitement, disappointment, sympathy, frustration, and fascination). These data are in accordance with Sapir’s hypothesis that morphological development of a vocabulary tends to decrease from the earliest recorded forms to the present (see Hupka, Lenton, & Hutchison 1999: 256-7).