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Part of
Consensus and Dissent: Negotiating Emotion in the Public Space
Edited by Anne Storch
[Culture and Language Use 19] 2017
► pp. 141–164

Chapter 8
Emotion and society

Experiences from Cherang’any (Kalenjin)

Cherang’any, a Southern Nilotic language of Kenya, displays an interesting inventory of emotion expressions, which are found in special syntactic experiencer constructions and in the use of body parts and their metaphorical extensions. Furthermore perception verbs, the manifold extents and verbs of ‘fearing’, ideophones, and culture specific words are used to express emotions. The Cherang’any themselves claim that showing emotions associated with pain or sadness is highly discouraged in their society.

Insofar, emotions in Cherang’any are discussed in the cultural perspective as a taboo, concerning how emotions are performed in traditional ceremonies, and how emotions can be recognized through whistling.

Keywords: Kenya, Cherang’any, taboo, whistling, experiencer constructions, ideophones, emotion control, public display of emotion
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • 2.Linguistic strategies for expressing emotional states
    • 2.1Experiencer constructions
    • 2.2Body parts as the seat of emotions
      • mɔɔ ‘stomach’
      • Other body parts
    • 2.3Perception verbs
      • 2.3.1The experience of an emotion
      • 2.3.2Eating as a physical need
      • 2.3.3Disgust expressed through pain
      • 2.3.4The various kinds of fearing
    • 2.4Ideophones as emotional quality markers
  • 3.The expressions of a state of missing: Emo
  • 4.The taboo of emotional exhibition
  • 5.Performing emotions
  • 6.The consequences of showing emotions: A case study of crying
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 10 March 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/clu.19.08mie
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