Studying emotion in the field

1. Studying emotion in the field Tyler Schnoebelen Berkeley Fieldwork Forum Oct 19, 2011

2. Goals for this presentation • Emotion + language = fun • Understanding how language is used by speakers is what gives life to our documentation work • It pushes theory into more “human linguistics” • Besides, you can’t really ignore it even if you want to • A few things about Shabo (isolate, Ethiopia) • Techniques for studying emotion • Brainstorming questions and methods

3. Shabo

4. Shabo

7. Malefactives gɪrmakowaji-k ati-eGirma ball-ACC kick-PAST "Girma kicked the ball ' gɪrma-k kowaji-k atiʃeGirma-ACC ball-ACC kick MAL‘Girma kicked the ball (although someone else wanted it) '

9. Dutch • tet • “Underscores the polarity of the clause and expresses either irritation or surprise, as if he or she had expected the opposite state of affairs” (Craenenbroeck & Haegeman, 2007, p. 175)

10. Czech Diphthongs Prague-like, can also intensify affection Or pejoration

11. Cantonese -k at the end of particles “An emotion intensifier” (Sybesma & Li, 2007)

12. Tongan • si’iand si’a • Different determiners express sympathy to the DP they head (Hendrick, 2005)

13. Thai thîi Complementizer for verbs of emotion/evaluation (Singhapreecha, 2010)

14. Navajo =go Emotional evaluation in narrative (Mithun 2008)

15. Korean • Evidentials and psych predicates • Non-evidential sentences are more assertive/informational, evidential sentences about the speaker are more “expressive” and “spontaneous” (Chung 2010)

16. East Caucasian lgs Case for emotion experiencers ≠ perception experiencers Van den Berg (2005)

17. Manambu • Dative-purposive case can be a “frustrative”, something done in vain • (Aikhenvald, 2008)

18. Zapotec • Voice quality • * Falsetto: Respect to godparents, God • * Whisper: Important messages • * Breathy: Scolding, demanding • * Creaky: Commiserating • (Sicoli 2009)

19. What else? • Diminutives • Word order • Intonation melodies • (The list goes on) • In Shabo: • 18 pronouns—can they be used for familiarity/insult (like tu/vous?) • subu is the word for ‘hot’—can it be used emotionally (and for what? Anger? Sex?) • ɓaɓuis the word for ‘liver’, is it the seat of any of the passions?

20. A linguistic/cultural project • Describe the emotional categories that Shabos themselves use. • Emotions are ideologically structured: there are good and bad times to express feelings. • Feelings and expressions associated with them differ in the types of socio-linguistic categories (men and women, to take a simple example). • What is “common sense”? • We’ll find feeling rules and display rules for emotions by looking at how people discuss emotions—whether those of fictional characters, neighbors, or their own.

21. Methods • Elicitation • Cultural narratives (e.g., myths) • Personal stories (think ‘danger of death’) • Dialog/interaction • Natural…acted, too? (“make a radio drama”) • Participant observation

22. Elicitation • Elicitation • Vocabulary • Faces • Stories • Mapping faces to stories

23. 2 minutes, go! • List all the emotions you can in two minutes • As Wilce (2010) points out, not all languages have a cover term like “emotion” • But “feelings” probably works • You probably do have to give examples, which is a little problematic, methodologically

24. Get the basic vocab • Big debate about small set of basic emotions • And whether these exist or not, people are interested in culture-specific concepts • Liget, the intense emotion of headhunting (Ilongot) • Amae, love in displays of dependence (Japanese)

25. Ekman photos

28. Types of situations • There are several main situations that give rise to emotions. • Negative situations • Danger • Threats of loss • Violations of cultural codes (by other or by self) • “Positive problems” • What to do when you get something • How do you maintain positive bonds with others? • Politeness and emotion go hand-in-hand

29. Scenarios • X is in Y situation: • What would he/she be thinking • What would onlookers think/feel • What would people do • Is there a name for this kind of event • Why do people feel and act as they do in this situation

30. Examples • Pilatos accidentally broke his favorite machete which he had had for a long time. • Dagim is at a wedding and everyone is having a good time. • Israel is alone in the bush and suddenly confronted by a dangerous animal, he has no weapon to defend himself with. • Babylon’s boss offers her a ride to Tepi, even though it is out of his way

31. Follow-up questions • In situation X, what would you feel/do? • What would your wife/sister/husband/father/etc feel/do? • What kind of face would you make? • What kind of sound would you make? (trying for sounds, not words)

32. Davitz (1969) • 50 emotions (anger, fear, happiness, sadness, disgust) • EACH rated for compatibility with 556 sensations: • “An inner warm glow, a radiant sensation” • “My blood pressure goes up; blood seems to rush through my body” • N=1,200, though not a good representation of America (subjects took 30 minutes per emotion and did all 50 emotions) • I redo this, cutting down first to 269 sensations, then to 88. • Run on Mechanical Turk (less onerous methodology), n=119

35. Cultural narratives • Myths give us emotions in the context of language, culture, and history • They can become scenarios for consideration • Among the Shabo, only elders get to tell myths/legends • Ask them to comment on stories • Individually, ask community members which stories they like best and why • Discuss morals, characters, and emotions

36. Personal narratives • Ethnographic and sociolinguistic interviews • Ask community members to tell special and quotidian stories • Danger of death • How do they perceive themselves and others? • In Yeri, I have good luck • Dagim • Not emotional (actually, he’s rather quiet) • But he’s the official village mediator (marital conflicts, neighbor conflicts, etc) • He can describe types of expressions people use when they are feeling strong emotions • Not necessarily the same notions of privacy as we have, but still best to move carefully

37. Some things to watch for • “Display rules” • Do people have control over their emotions? • Multilingual data

39. Outcomes • Myths and personal narratives, translated and annotated • "A close reading of two Shabo myths" • “The emotional life of the Shabo” • “Emotion terms and expressions" • “Expressions of joy and solidarity" • "How to fight in Shabo" • Stimuli and notes on the their effectiveness • “An emotional grammar of Shabo” • "The syntax and pragmatics of the malefactive in Shabo" • “Affection, insult, and the use of 18 pronouns”

40. Resources • Fieldwork and emotions: • Le Guen, Olivier. 2009. The ethnography of emotions: a field worker's guide. In AsifaMajid (ed.), Field Manual Volume 12, 31-34. Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. • http://fieldmanuals.mpi.nl/volumes/2009/ethnography-of-emotions/ • Sauter, Disa. 2009. Emotion concepts. In AsifaMajid (ed.), Field Manual Volume 12, 20-30. Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. • http://fieldmanuals.mpi.nl/volumes/2009/emotion-concepts/ • Excellent, example-filled overviews of language and emotion: • Besnier, N. (1990). Language and affect. Annual Review of Anthropology, 19(1), 419–451. • My notes: http://www.stanford.edu/~tylers/notes/emotion/Besnier_1990_reading_notes_Schnoebelen.pdf • Ochs, E., & Schieffelin, B. (1989). Language has a heart. Text-Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Discourse, 9(1), 7–26. • My notes: http://www.stanford.edu/~tylers/notes/emotion/Ochs_Schieffelin_1989_reading_notes_Schnoebelen.pdf • Stankiewicz, E. (1964). Problems of emotive language. In T. Sebeok, A. Hayes, & M. Bateson (Eds.), Approaches to Semiotics (pp. 239-264). The Hague: Mouton.

41. Appendix

43. Us-ness • Examples: • Breathiness in Japanese (Campbell 2004) • Palatalization in Yiddish and Basque

44. Palatalization • The unusual calls attention to itself. In Basque, there is compulsory palatalization in some contexts. People write oilo but say oillo ('chicken'), they write baina but say baigna('but'), they write ilargia but say illargia('moon'). • But there is also expressive palatalization, which as in many languages, can serve as a marker of intimacy or pejoration. The normal word for 'man' is gizona--but gixona means something like 'a little man with no force', by contrast aita is 'father', but one uses atta to be more affectionate. • The strongest consequences come when 'man' would've done but 'little man with no force' is used. Expressive palatalization probably does tend to call attention to itself, but its absence can too--if you call your father atta but in one interaction call him aita, that calls attention to a possible shift in the relationship or how it is viewed, at least momentarily. • To borrow Bruno Latour's phrasing for my own purposes, the unusual is how matters of fact (the name you call someone) turn into matters of concern. "The speaker could have said X, but instead they said Y."

45. teasing, begging, apologizing, oaths, praises, insults, compliments, assessments, complaints, accusations, blessings, joking, shaming, ridiculing, hortatives, laments, placations

46. Korean examples

47. Cantonese: gaa3-k

48. Cantonese: laa3-k

49. Cantonese: lo3-k