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Part of
Surprise at the Intersection of Phenomenology and Linguistics
Edited by Natalie Depraz and Agnès Celle
[Consciousness & Emotion Book Series 11] 2019
► pp. 91–114

Chapter 6
Surprise in native, bilingual and non-native spontaneous and stimulated recall speech

This article discusses surprise markers in a spoken corpus of reactions to works-of-art and of retrospective interviews with forty English and French natives, bilinguals and learners of English. Following Reisenzein (2000), the study posits a three-phase psycholinguistic scenario: disruption of representations, reaction and rationalizing. In this model, cognitive discrepancy results from the interaction between the properties of the aesthetic source and the subject’s sociocultural representations and memories. Few neutral surprise episodes were identified and discourse was usually marked by intensity and emotion, supporting the hypothesis that surprise is both a triggering mechanism and a component of emotion. The analysis reveals the richness of the network of surprise markers. Work-in-progress indicates that the range of surprise-related linguistic markers elicited by aesthetic objects partly depends on linguistic status (native, bilingual and non-native) and idiomatic proficiency.

Keywords: psycholinguistic scenario, surprise linguistic markers, native, bilingual, learner, emotion, metaphorical competence
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Surprise: An emotional or a cognitive state?
  • 3.Experimental research
    • 3.1Working hypotheses
    • 3.2Experimental protocol
  • 4.Psycholinguistic scenario of surprise: Results of the experiment
    • 4.1A model of surprise processing: From disruption to repair
    • 4.2Interpreting surprise scenarios: Invariants and variations
  • 5.Disrupting artistic expectations
    • 5.1General beliefs
    • 5.2Deliberately-induced surprise
  • 6.Emotional components of the surprise experience
  • 7.The metaphorical expression of surprise
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Software programs for transcription and analysis
  • Works of art
Published online: 6 November 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ceb.11.06gou
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