Article.
Марія Ольхович-Новосадюк
УДК 811.111.2'27'373.4:17.026.3
THE EMOTION CONCEPT
OF JOY IN THE ENGLISH LINGUACULTURE
Досліджено засоби вербалізації та структуру концепту РАДІСТЬ в англійській лінгвокультурі. На матеріалі аналізу системних даних мови
(етимологічного, тлумачних, ідіоматичних словників, тезаурусів англійської
мови) проаналізовано концепт РАДІСТЬ в англійській лінгвокультурі, шляхом
створення когнітивної дефініції за методикою Єжи Бартмінського.
Ключові слова: концепти емоцій, вербалізація,
концептуалізація, емоційні реакції, когнітивно-емоційні структури, англійська
лінгвокультура, мовна картина світу.
The concept JOY is considered to be a basic category
of emotions and one of the key concepts in culture.The study of concepts is
valuable because it enables us not only to identify the culturally specific
worldview of a certain lingual-cultural community and single out its national
and cultural peculiarities, but also understand the word as a lexical unit in
the context of culture, cognition, and communication. Thus, the concept can be viewed
as a mental formation which possesses a specific cultural value and represents
elements of the world for people in the course of reflection and communication.
The article is aimed at explicating the
etymological layer and the lexical means of the concept JOY in the English
worldview presented in the English linguaculture. Conceptual analysis is
considered to be the basic method of logical analysis of language and cognitive
linguistics which involves modelling and description of concepts. The analysis of the concept JOY has
been carried out by applying the method of cognitive definition suggested by Jerzy Bartmiński, which involves the
analysis of means of its verbalization in the English worldview. The data is
drawn from the most authoritative etymological, explanatory, idiomatic
dictionaries and thesauri of the English language.
The relevance of the research is justified by the
integrative cognitive-linguistic-cultural approach to the investigation of the
structure and linguistic realization of the emotional concept JOY in the
English linguaculture. It seems important and timely to research the
conceptualisation and verbalisation of joy with a view to its affiliation to
basic emotions and insufficient level of the research by domestic and foreign
linguists whose attention was mainly focused on negative emotions while
positive ones were almost neglected. Moreover, the complexity of the analysis
of lexical meanings of emotions lies in the fact that the names of emotions can
not be structured according to their internal features due to their continual
pshychological nature, and therefore it is very difficult to discribe them.
The research has been conducted in the framework of
the anthropocentric functional-cognitive paradigm in which the researchers’
attention has constantly been moving towards interdisciplinary synthesis. The
requirements for further integration of linguistic, cognitive and psychological
components of linguistic studies have highlighted the research of a human being
as biocognitive-social system as well as examining his concience, thinking
process and emotions embodied in language.
The theoretical basis of the research include the ideas of cognitive semantics (Lakoff, Langacker, Talmy, Kövecses, Wierzbicka, Zhabotynska), cognitive
ethnolinguistics (Bartmiński, Martinek), diachronic semantics and
cognitive-sociolinguistic evolution (Sweetser, Geeraerts, Traugott &
Dasher, Kleparski, Koch, Grygiel, Kiełtyka, Shevchenko).
Jerzy Bartmiński (2009/2012) argues that a key
project for ethnolinguistics is to explicate the cultural knowledge encoded in
certain layers of the vocabulary of a given language. Vocabulary, in his view,
occupies a priviledged position in ethnolinguistic research, as it constitutes
a classificatory network for the social experience of people speaking a given
language. Bartmiński attaches special importance to the general patterns of
conceptual organization of lexico-semantic fields, also he pays much attention
to the semantic and cultural content of many individual words. A key analytic
tool for the linguist is what he calls the “cognitive definition”: According to
Bartmiński, a cognitive definition aims at representing socio-culturally
established and linguistically entrenched knowledge, its categorization and
valuation.
Recently, much research has been conducted in the
field of cognitive linguistics in order to raise the understanding of how words
change, transform their meanings, in particular with the application of
prototype theory (Geeraerts 1997; Fernández Jaén 2007). According to this
theory words are defined as lexical categories, which have a prototype
structure comprised of all of its senses (Geeraerts 1997). The major, core meaning of a lexeme is
identified as prototypical and constitutes the epicenter of the structure while
its other senses are located in the periphery (Carpenter, 2013). From this
point of view, a semantic change occurs when one of the peripheral meanings
becomes the prototypical one.
Cognitive semantics deals with investigating the
relationships between experience, the conceptual system and the semantic
structure encoded in a language. There is a number of theories in cognitive
semantics such as Blending Theory, Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Frame Semantics,
Mental Space Theory, Theory of Lexical Concepts and
Cognitive Models (LCCM Theory), Principled
Polysemy and approaches to linguistic semantics such as cognitive lexical
semantics and encyclopaedic semantics. The guiding principles of cognitive
sematics are as follows: 1) Conceptual structure is embodied (the “embodied cognition thesis”; 2)
Semantic structure is conceptual structure; 3) Meaning representation is encyclopedic; 4) Meaning
construction is conceptualisation
(Evans, Green: 157-164).
Zoltán Kövecses, Professor of Linguistics in
the Department of American Studies at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, suggests that the
conceptual structure of joy / happiness
can be usefully described in terms of four cognitive components: conceptual
metaphors, conceptual metonymies, related concepts and cognitive/cultural
models.
A set of correspondences between a more physical sourse domain and a more
abstract target domain is meant by conceptual
metaphor (Kövecses 132). Conceptual
metonymies can be of two general types: CAUSE OF EMOTION FOR THE
EMOTION and EFFECT OF EMOTION FOR THE EMOTION, with the latter being much more
common than the former. Related concepts
are emotions or attitudes that the subject of emotion has in relation
to the object or cause of emotion. They include: feeling of satisfaction;
feeling of pleasure; feeling of harmony (Kövecses 133).
Moreover, a collective wisdom and experience of any
culture is laid down in knowledge structures, variously called as cognitive
models, cultural models or folk models. Emotions are conceptually represented as cognitive models (Lakoff 1987). A particular emotion
can be represented by means of one or several cognitive models that are
prototypical of that emotion. This emerges from the Roschean idea that
categories have a large number of members, one or some being prototypical and
many of which being nonprototypical (Rosch 1978).
Prototypical cognitive models can be thought of as folk theories of
particular emotions (Kövecses 134). The most schematic folk theory of emotions
in general can be given as follows:
Cause of emotion →
emotion → (controlling emotion →) response
This general folk theory of emotions derives from the application of the
generic-level conceptual metaphor CAUSES ARE FORCES. The metaphor applies to
both the first part and the second part of the model. In the model, whatever
leads to an emotion is conceptualised as a cause that has enough force to effect
a change of state, and the emotion itself is also seen as a cause that has a
force to effect some kind of response (physiological, behavioural, and/or
expressive). As a matter of fact, it is the presence and double application of
this generic-level metaphor that enables a force-dynamic interpretation of
emotional experience (Kövecses 135).
According
to Kövecses, the general concept of JOY is best
described as having three prototypical cognitive models and many
nonprototypical ones clustering around the three prototypes. Thus, the three
prototypes of JOY are: 1) JOY as an immediate
response; 2) JOY as a value; 3) JOY as being glad (Kövecses 137-138).
In JOY / HAPPINESS as an immediate
response a person responds with a form of happiness to a desired outcome. The
form of happiness that is involved is commonly referred to as joy. The
immediate response model is dominated by highly noticeable behavioural,
physiological, and expressive responses and also by conceptual content that is
provided by conceptual metaphors suggesting intensity and control, leading to a
loss of control. JOY/HAPPINESS as a value
is characterized by a quiet state with hardly any noticeable responses or
even a clearly identifiable specific cause. JOY
as being glad most commonly occurs as a mild positive emotional
response to a state of affairs that is either not very important to somebody or
whose positive outcome can be taken to be a matter of course. In such a
situation, people do not produce highly visible responses and do not have to
control themselves (Kövecses 139-140).
Anna Wierzbicka, Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the
Australian National University in Canberra, in her book “Emotions Across
Languages and Cultures: Diversity and Universals” brings psychological,
anthropological and linguistic insights to bear on understanding of the way
emotions are expressed and experienced in different cultures, languages and
culturally shaped social relations. In particular, she analyzes some common
English words which are linked with thoughts about “good things” and which
imply “good feelings” such as joy, happy
(happiness), contented, pleased and some others.
Wierzbicka states that joy is
not a very common everyday word in modern English, and its frequency is much
lower than that of the adjective happy.
One could say that the concept of being happy
has expanded in the history of English emotions, at the expense of joy. The reason for this is the overall
process of the “dampening of the emotions”, the trend against emotional
intensity, characteristic of modern Anglo emotional culture (cf. P. Stearns,
1994). At the same time, the remarkable expansion of the concept happy is consistent with the spread of
the emotional culture of “positive thinking”, “optimism”, “cheerfulness”, “fun”
etc. (Wierzbicka: 50).
Wierzbicka argues that the cognitive scenario of joy is much simpler than that of happy or happiness and
the joy scenario consists of two crucial cognitive components – an evaluative one: “something very
good is happening”, and a volitive one: “I want this to be happening”.
A full explication of joy follows:
Joy (X felt joy)
(a) X felt something because X thought something
(b) sometimes a person thinks:
(c) “something very good is happening
(d) I want this to be happening”
(e) when this person thinks this the person feels something very good
(f) X felt something like this
(g) because X thought something like this
Thus, Wierzbicka points out one clear difference between happy and joy – it has to do with the personal character of the former (highlighted
by expressions such as a pursuit of
happiness, personal happiness), and the non-personal, “selfless” character
of joy. Unlike being happy, joy can be shared with other people and
can be seen as open to everyone (expressions like the joy of Christmas, the joy of knowledge). If joy implies that “something very good is
happening”, happy implies that “some
good things happened to me”. There is also the temporal dimention and the
quantitative one. Unlike joy, being happy can be understood as a long-term
state (as well as an emotion), and as an emotion, it can be seen as a more
“settled” one than joy. In some ways,
joy can be seen as more intense, more
thrilling than being happy and more
likely to be a short-term emotion (Wierzbicka: 50-54).
The origin and etymology of JOY are described as Middle English, from
Anglo-French joie, from Latin gaudia, plural of gaudium,
from gaudēre to rejoice; probably akin to Greek gēthein to
rejoice.
According to the Oxford Dictionary of English
Etymology the ethymological layer of
JOY is formed by the meanings such as «feeling of pleasure
and delight» (c. 1200), «source of pleasure or happiness» (c. 1300), from Old French joie «pleasure, delight, erotic pleasure, bliss,
joyfulness» (11c.), from Latin gaudia «expressions of pleasure; sensual
delight», plural of gaudium
«joy, inward joy, gladness, delight; source of pleasure or delight,» from
gaudere «rejoice,» from PIE root *gau- «to rejoice» (cognates: Greek gaio «I
rejoice,» Middle Irish guaire «noble»). As a term of endearment it dates back to 1580s according to the Online
Etymology Dictionary. Thus, we can observe that the word JOY has undergone a
substantial change in meaning in the English language since the early 13th century, when the word entered English for the
first time.
The definitions of JOY have been compared and
analyzed from 5 various dictionaries: 1) Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
(OALD); 2) New Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus of the English Language
(NWDTEL); 3) Cambridge Advanced
Learner’s Dictionary and Thesaurus (CALDT); 4) Longman Dictionary of
Contemporary English (LDCE); 5) Collins English Dictionary (Collins Thesaurus)
(CEDT).
All of the analysed dictionaries suggest the
meaning of JOY as a feeling of great happiness and rank it first implying that this is the most
frequently used meaning. In this
meaning JOY is used as an uncountable noun.
The second definition of JOY also coincides in all the dictionaries: something or someone that gives/ causes joy / happiness. In this
meaning JOY is a countable noun.
However, NWDTEL suggests the more extensive definition: that which gives rise to this emotion, or on which the emotion centers.
The third meaning of JOY specified as British
informal (usually with negative and taking –ing form of the verb) is listed by
all the studied dictionaries except NWDTEL, and is discribed as success or satisfaction. The only
difference is that CEDT ranks this meaning fourth, not the third and CALDT
apart from the meaning success, also
adds action or help.
Thus, these three meanings of JOY are stated in all
the studied dictionaries and are the only ones in OALD, CALDT and LDCE, while
there is one more meaning of JOY as the outward
expression of the emotion / outward show of pleasure or delight suggested
by NWDTEL and CEDT respectively. We can argue that most dictionaries do not
provide this latter meaning only because it is de facto incorporated in the
first core meaning “a feeling of great happiness”.
Moreover, one more definition of JOY is found in
WNUUD and MWOD: a state of happiness or felicity.
The meaning of JOY as an intransitive verb is given by OALD, LDCE and CEDT: to rejoice / to be happy because of
something / to feel joy. Finally, only CEDT suggests the obsolete, archaic
meaning of JOY as a transitive verb:
to make joyful; gladden.
It is important to emphasize that according to LDCE
joy is used especially in
literature. In everyday English, rather than say they did something with joy, people usually say that they were (really) pleased / happy / glad to do it.
According to EW the
derivatives of JOY include 6 adjectives: joyless, joyful, joyant, joyous,
unjoyous, joysome;
3 adverbs: joylessly, joyfully, joyously; 12 nouns: joylessness, joyfulness, enjoyment,
joyance, joyancy, joydom, joyment, joyousness, joyhood, joygasm, killjoy,
joystick; 3 verbs: enjoy,
overjoy, rejoice.
The common synonyms of JOY listed by all the dictionaries are: pleasure, happiness, delight. Moreover, all the dictionaries apart
from LDCE suggest such synonyms as bliss,
felicity and exultation and apart
from CALDT ─ elation.
In addition, the synonyms listed in the three out
of five dictionaries are: euphoria,
ecstasy, glee, gaiety, gladness, transport, rapture. Only two out of five
dictionaries (OALD and CEDT) list the following synonyms: exhilaration, enjoyment, ebullience,
gladness, exuberance, joyfulness, jubilation, radiance, triumph. CALDT and NWDTEL have one more common synonym
not mentioned in the others such as mirth. Finally, synonyms suggested only
by a single dictionary or thesaurus are: delirium,
gratification, satisfaction, rejoicing, savour, merriment, cheer, contentment,
festivity, exhilaration, hilarity, ravishment.
Thus, the greatest number of synonyms of JOY is given by CEDT (total number is 27).
On the second place goes OALD with 23 synonyms, on the third place ─ NWDTEL
with 16 synonyms, and finally, CALDT with 9 synonyms. The least number of synonyms (6) is
listed by LDCE.
As antonyms are concerned, NWDTEL lists 5 antonyms
of JOY: affliction, depression, despair,
grief, wretchedness. The other four
dictionaries do not provide any antonyms. According to MWOD, the antonyms of
joy iclude calamity, ill-being, sadness,
unhappiness, and wretchendness. Also,
the antonyms of JOY include infelicity, joylessness, sorrow, misery, melancholy, discouragement,
mourning, woe according to RT.
OALD suggests the following idioms with JOY: full of the joys of spring (very
cheerful); somebody’s pride and joy (a person or thing that causes somebody to feel great pleasure or satisfaction); dance / jump / shout for
joy (ie because of feeling
great joy).
NWDTEL does not provide any idioms. But MWOD gives the three idioms: jump for joy; pride and joy; shout for joy.
CALDT gives the four idioms with JOY: bundle of joy (meaning a baby); jump for joy (to be extremely happy); someone’s pride and joy (American
English, a person or thing that gives someone great joy and satisfaction), be your pride and joy (to be something or someone that is very important to you and that gives you a lot of pleasure).
CEDT suggests the two idioms: to jump for joy; one’s pride and joy.
LDCE lists the idioms: jump for joy; somebody’s pride and joy; be transported with delight /
joy or be in a transport of joy (to feel very strong emotions of pleasure, happiness etc); glow with joy (to look very happy because you feel joyful); hug yourself with joy (British English to feel very pleased with yourself).
MGHDAIPV suggests some more idioms with JOY not
mentioned above: burst with joy (to be full to the bursting point with happiness); leap for joy (jump for
joy); weep for joy (to cry out of
happiness), and a proverb: A thing of
beauty is a joy forever (implying that beautiful things give
pleasure that lasts even longer than the beautiful things themselves. This is a
line from John Keats's poem "Endymion." Also, a thing of beauty
and a joy forever, is used to describe something beautiful in lofty terms, often ironically. For example, Jill: “I don't understand why someone
would pay millions of dollars to have some old painting”. Jane: “Because a thing of beauty is a joy forever”.
While analysing the idioms with JOY, it is obvious that most of them deal
with the expression of the emotion of joy and correlate with the most common
meaning of joy as a feeling of great happiness actually
implying the outward expression of the
emotion. The following idioms can
serve a vivid example: dance for joy;
jump for joy; shout for joy; glow with joy; be in a transport of joy; hug yourself with
joy. Thus, since emotions are triggered by an event (stimulus), they are expressed as a
recognisable signature consisting of behavioral and physiological outputs that
are coordinated in time and correlated in intensity (feeling, facial muscle
movements, vocal acoustics, peripheral nervous system, behaviour). Presumably,
these patterns allow people to know an emotion when they see it by merely
looking at the structural features of the emoter’s face.
At the same time, the idioms pride and joy; bundle of joy (informal) illustrate the second basic meaning of joy as something or someone
that gives/ causes joy / happiness, or on which the emotion centers. For
example: Three days after the birth,
Sandra took home her little bundle of
joy.
Thus, in this paper the
concept of JOY has been investigated in the English language and culture by
analysing the language system on the basis of etymological, explanatory and
idiomatic dictionaries and thesauri. The focus is made on the semantic
peculiarities and specific features of the functioning of the lexeme JOY in the
English linguaculture.
The definitions of JOY have been compared and
analyzed from 5 the most authoritative dictionaries and thesauri of the English
language. Thus, the meanings of JOY are as follows: 1) a feeling of great happiness; 2) something or
someone that gives / causes joy / happiness; that which gives rise to this
emotion, or on which the emotion centers; 3) success or satisfaction /
action / help (British informal; usually with negative); 4) the outward
expression of the emotion / outward show of pleasure or delight; 5) state of happiness or felicity. It is
important to point out that JOY is used more often in literature than in modern spoken language. In everyday English, rather than say they did something with joy, people usually say that they were (really) pleased / happy / glad to do it.
In this paper we also provide and thoroughly
analyze the derivatives, synonyms, antonyms and idioms of JOY.
To sum up, the lexeme JOY denotes the basic
positive emotion that has rather non-personal,
“selfless” character that means it can
be shared with other people; JOY is
seen as more intense feeling and more thrilling than happy, glad and more
likely to be a short-term emotion. The general concept of JOY is best described
as having three prototypical cognitive models and many nonprototypical ones
clustering around the three prototypes: 1) JOY as an immediate response; 2) JOY
as a value; 3) JOY as being glad.
Finally, having analyzed the lexicographical
sources, it should be emphasized that the core of the concept JOY in the
English languaculture is formed by the lexeme joy with its semantic features such as positive feeling / emotion, emotional state, cause of emotion,
intensity, expression / outward show of emotion, success. The peripheral
zone of the concept JOY includes the most frequently used synonyms and derivatives
like pleasure, happiness, delight, enjoy,
enjoyment, joyful, joyous. The
research is not complete in the framework of the method of
cognitive definition. Further prospects of the research include getting and
analyzing the results of free word association experiment as well as collecting
and analyzing the data explicated from various textual discourses.
References.
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List of
Abbreviations
EW − English
Wiktionary
CALDT −
Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary and Thesaurus
CEDT −
Collins English Dictionary (and Thesaurus)
OALDCE − Hornby, Albert Sydney,
Jonathan Crowther. Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English
LDCE −
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
MGHDAIPV −
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs
MWOD −
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
NWDTEL− New
Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus of the English Language
RT − Roget’s 21st Century Thesaurus
WNUUD −
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary
Надійшла до редакції 18 жовтня 2017 року.
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