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Emotional Relativity—Argument from Nurture

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Book cover Emotional Prosody Processing for Non-Native English Speakers

Part of the book series: The Bilingual Mind and Brain Book Series ((BMBBS,volume 3))

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Abstract

The anthropological principle of linguistic relativity constitutes the framework of anthropological research on all aspects of communication including emotions. Treated as an observable and immutable principle in anthropology, linguistic relativity has long been largely misconstrued outside its original discipline. Through a process of vulgarization, that is misinterpretation through oversimplification and decontextualization (Joseph 2002), the principle became known in other disciplines as the Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis. This chapter describes the development of the original linguistic relativity principle from the works of Franz Boas to the major contributions from Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf. It then traces the roots of the process of vulgarization of the principle which transformed it into the long controversial Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis. Recent reconciliatory developments in emotion psychology towards the original formulation of linguistic relativity principle are also included. Following this historical analysis, the anthropological literature on the intersection of language and emotions is reviewed in sections devoted to emotion–specific syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Margaret Mead’s Coming of age in Samoa (1928) was a widely read and appreciated book in both popular and academic circles. The book made her name but over time garnered controversy for both its candid descriptions of sexual practices in the Samoan community and the lack of professional distance an impartiality in her descriptions of Samoan cultural practices.

  2. 2.

    Ferdinand de Saussure—a Swiss scholar mostly honored for his major contributions to linguistics and semiotics. The basic tenet of Saussurean theory of language was that it has two principal forms. The first was la langue, that is the abstract, inherent, and perfect system of meanings and grammar retained in the mind. The second was la parole, that is the actual manifestation of la langue in speech and interpersonal communication, which was imperfect but the only means of accessing and analyzing la langue (Saussure 1959).

  3. 3.

    Even Nietzshe was not quite so radical. David Lovekin traced the origins of the “prison-house” metaphor to a poetic mistranslation of Nietzshe’s words by Erich Heller. The original wording from Nietzshe implied that the logical thought is “constrained” rather than “imprisoned” by language (Lovekin 1991).

  4. 4.

    Bronislaw Malinowski—a Polish anthropologist and ethnographer most famous for his works on the Trobriand Island cultures, largely covered by his seminal works Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An account of native enterprise and adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea (1922) and The Sexual Life of Savages in North-Western Melanesia (1929). His greatest methodological contribution to anthropology ws the participant observation method.

  5. 5.

    Romaji—a style of notation of the Japanese language using the Latin alphabet.

  6. 6.

    Coining the term “emotion” to denote a coherent category of psychosomatic experiences is usually attributed to Descartes who first described it in his 1649 essay Passions de l’Ame (Frijda 2008).

  7. 7.

    The Great Emigration—a significant and heavily romanticized episode of Polish cultural history typically defined as the period just before, during and immediately following the gradual partition of the country between Austria, Prussia, and Russia in the 19th century. The Great Emigration was an exodus of the intellectual elite from Poland to continue their political, scientific, and creative work in countries sympathetic to the Polish cause. Frédéric Chopin was one of those Great Emigrants.

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  1. Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland

    Halszka Bąk

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Bąk, H. (2016). Emotional Relativity—Argument from Nurture. In: Emotional Prosody Processing for Non-Native English Speakers. The Bilingual Mind and Brain Book Series, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44042-2_1

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