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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. 165–192

Chapter 9
Labeling, describing and indicating emotions

Zande has only few genuine emotion terms, most of them being specific notions of polysemous non-emotion terms. Many emotions are described by metaphorical constructions with bodypart terms. They can all be easily elicited, but they are normally used to describe weak or socially acceptable emotions, but they are not very frequently used in actual descriptions of emotions. In particular strong emotions are referred to by describing the – socially not acceptable – bodily reactions of the experiencers which indicate loss of self-control: screaming, dashing off, beating, throwing things away.

Keywords: congruent/incongurent emotion terms, figurative expressions of emotions, metaphor, metonymy, bodypart terms, impetuous bodily reactions as indicators of strong emotions, social acceptability/inacceptability of emotions, Zande
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Communicating emotions
  • 3.Literal expressions
  • 4.Figurative expressions
    • 4.1Non-experiencer verbs in figurative expressions of emotion
    • 4.2Metonymic expressions
      • HEART
      • HEAD
      • EYE
      • MOUTH
      • HAND
  • 5.Bodily reactions indicating emotions
    • 5.1Fright, anger
    • 5.2Shame
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 10 March 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/clu.19.09pas
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