Clustering of affective categories in scandinavian and romance languages

Abstract

[Abstract] Cross-cultural comparable data collected in several Romance and Scandinavian languages with the help of a series of tasks inspired by Fehr and Rusell’s prototype approach to emotions are analyzed from a perspective that goes beyond the interpretation of prototype theory and aligns with the theorybased approaches to categorization (cfr. the seminal paper by Murphy and Medin 1985). Due to space limitations, only the data obtained with the help of a supplemented version of the traditional free-listing task will be considered here. Special attention is devoted, not as much to frequency of mention, order of mention and indexes of salience – parameters that are usually discussed in categorization and cultural domain studies – but first and foremost to the patterns of clustering and the relationships holding between the various categories mentioned by every single informant and across the lists, as made obvious by the data. Domain access point is identified as a privileged position that tends to coincide with categories promoting richest conceptual connections with other category members, while the prevailing relationships between mentioned categories appear to be metonymic, metaphoric, similarity or contrast