Australian Journal of Linguistics

Vol. 10, no. 2 (1990)

(Special issue on the semantics of emotion)

Articles

Introduction Anna Wierzbicka 133-138
The grammatical packaging of experiencers in Ewe: A study in the semantics of syntax Felix Ameka 139-181
Experiential constructions in Mangap-Mbula Robert D. Bugenhagen 183-215
Shame/embarrassment in English and Danish Anne Dineen 217-229
"Full hearts" and empty pronominals in Thai Anthony V. N. Diller & Preecha Juntanamalaga 231-255
The lexical semantics of "good feelings" in Yankunytjatjara Cliff Goddard 257-292
Shame and shyness in the Aboriginal classroom: A case for "practical semantics" Jean Harkins 293-306
Semantics of two emotion verbs in Russian: bojat'sja 'to be afraid' and nadejat'sja 'to hope' Lidija Iordanskaja & Igor Mel'cuk 307-357
The semantics of emotions: Fear and its relatives in English Anna Wierzbicka 359-375

Book reviews

The cognitive structure of emotions (A. Ortony, G. L. Clore & A. Collins) Jean Harkins 377-387

Index to Australian Journal of Linguistics, volumes 1-10 (1981-1990) Graham Scott

Abstracts

Experiential constructions in Mangap-Mbula

Robert D. Bugenhagen

Abstract: A variety of constructions which are used for expressing experiential notions in the Austronesian language Mangap-Mbula are examined and their meanings explicated. Since there are only a few verbs in the language which encode such notions, a number of other constructions are employed. The most important of these are body image constructions in which a body part plus a verb function together as a kind of composite predicate. The final section of the paper is a study of the different encodings of the notion of 'fear'.

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Shame/embarrassment in English and Danish

Anne Dineen

Abstract: The paper discusses one area of the emotion lexicon in Danish and English, that is, a set of terms within the domain of 'shame'/'embarrassment'. This set constitutes a folk taxonomy, the internation relationships between these terms being a matter for empirical investigation. The paper uses a methodology which seeks to make semantic relationships explicit and easily comparable, that of Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). English and Danish terms are discussed in turn, and comparisons drawn between them.

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"Full hearts" and empty pronominals in Thai

Anthony V. N. Diller & Preecha Juntanamalaga

Abstract: The Thai noun cay, roughly 'heart, mind, disposition', occurs frequently in informal speech and in literary texts, forming some three hundred compounds that provide Thai speakers with a rich "vocabulary of the emotions". A number of subtypes of these "emotion predicates" are distinguished, some showing variation in terms of relative lexicalisation. Related to this are thematic-role subcategorisations and the problem of whether "superimposed" thematic roles are licensed. These questions, along with constituency issues and the determining of empty categories and their anaphoric linkages in complement constructions, are shown to be related to factors in the compositional semantics of the compounds. For a given cay compound, depending on subtype, there are certain ways in which the heart/mind is typically conceptualised or metaphorically presented; such conceptualisations lie behind construction types organising constituency, anaphoric binding and predicate relations in superficial syntax.

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Last update: 3 May 2000
Comments to Tim Curnow