Love, anger, joy and hate: how words we use to describe the way we feel differ between languages
- Researchers have discovered that the way we think of emotions such as anger, fear, and joy depends on our language
- ‘Surprise’ can be associated with ‘fear’ in one language, for example, and linked to ‘hope’ and ‘want’ in another
The English word “love” can be translated as “sevgi” in Turkish and “szerelem” in Hungarian – but does the concept carry the same meaning for speakers of all three tongues?
Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the US state of North Carolina and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany have used a new tool in comparative linguistics to examine emotional concepts across the world.
It found the way we think of things such as anger, fear, and joy depends on our language.
Sometimes, words used to describe emotions are so unique, it seems they are rooted exclusively in a particular culture. The German word “Sehnsucht”, referring to a strong desire for an alternative life, has no translation in English. Nor does the word “awumbuk”, used by the Baining people of Papua New Guinea to describe feelings of listlessness that hosts feel after their guests leave.