An exploratory study of expression of emotions in Japanese : towards a semantic interpretation

Abstract

The present study explores the emotional world of Japanese people. Using the framework of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage theory, this thesis attempts to explicate the conceptual organisation of aspects of Modern Standard Japanese, with a special focus on the lexicon. This thesis also aims to explicate the cultural norms which are related to the emotion words/expressions with the use of culture-independent, universal Natural Semantic Metalanguage. A great amount of data is taken from various sources; TV or radio broadcasting, actual conversation, published literature both in Japanese and English, film scripts, dialogues in magazines, newspaper/magazine articles, comic books, advertisements, letters, dictionaries, and popular songs. The present work is organized in the following way. Chapter 1 is the introduction. Chapter 2 consists of a review of the literature on emotions and includes philosophical, anthropological, and psychological approaches. Chapter 3 demonstrates the importance of linguistic study for the research on emotions, and suggests the Natural Semantic Metalanguage as the most appropriate method for achieving the main goals of this thesis. Chapter 4 discusses the grammatical features of emotion expression sentences. Chapter 5 deals with those body parts terms which are related to emotions in Japanese. Chapters 6 to 11 explicate the meanings of various Japanese emotion words and expressions. Chapter 12 focuses on communication of nonverbal emotion in Japanese culture. Chapter 13 examines characteristic Japanese speakers' attitudes towards emotions. Chapter 14 is the conclusion. Wherever possible, the thesis seeks to probe into culturally-based aspects of the conceptual structure of emotion words/expressions, by drawing on a variety of anthropological, psychological, and sociological studies of Japanese society.