Negativity bias in language

2. Negativity bias in language A cognitive-affective model of emotive intensifiers

3. Basic assumptions • Language is not an autonomous mental faculty independent of our general cognitive ability; • Language is an integral part of cognition; a system of signs shared by a large group of people for the purpose of communication. • Cognition and emotion are inseparable processes.

4. Methodology—frommindtolanguage Employing a cognitive-affective principle to explain a linguistic phenomenon

5. The psycho-semantics of three proverbs • Lahu: If you’ve been stung by a bee, you fear even a fly’s coming. • Yiddish: If you’re scolded by the hot, you blow even on the cold. • Chinese: One day bitten by a snake, for ten years you fear the well-rope. Matisoff (1979/2000)

6. The negativity bias Selective attention in information processing

11. The anger superiority effect Hansen & Hansen 1988 Öhman et al 2001

12. Process-based experiments ERPs: observations of attention allocation at neural level Time: within 100 ms Location: extrastriate area of visual cortex Amount of attention: P1 amplitude Smith et al. (2003, 2006)

13. defining negativity bias • Evaluation bias: differential emphasis on negative stimuli • Obligatory attention bias: automatic (default) attention allocation to negative stimuli Smith et al. (2003; 2006)

14. Self-concept; Emotion; Impression formation; Learning; Memory; Information processing; Neurological processes; Reactions to social events; Close relationships; Social interactions in general; Child development; Social support; Media Baumeister et al. (2001) Negativity bias is pervasive

15. Explanations of negativity bias Baumeister et al. (2001):NB as “fitness enhancer”Rozin and Royzman (2001):NB as “contagion avoidance”Pratto and John (1991):NB as “automatic vigilance strategy”

16. The role of emotion in selective attention What’s an emotion? “a superordinate program that orchestrates all the subordinate programs of our mental processes and the related physical reactions.” (Cosmides & Tooby 2000)

17. The power of survival pressures Threat related emotions activate fight-or-flight response Fear is a central component of the system of defensive behavior

18. “When it comes to detecting and responding to danger, the brain just hasn’t changed much. In some ways, we are emotional lizards.”—LeDoux (1998)

19. Threat-relevant negative emotions as motivation of NB • Fear >>> >> flight • Disgust >>> flight • Anger >>> > fight

20. Negativity bias in languagethe case of emotive intensification

22. What‘s the meaning ofbloodyhere? • * Lit. COVERED IN BLOOD • HIGH ILLOCUTIONARY INTENSITY

23. What isbloodymeant todo in discourse? • Getting attention from hearer • Enhancing expressiveness in speech • (Establishing rapport)

24. 死了 si-le, die-ASP認識她真是美死了!Renshi ta zhenshi mei si-le!‘To know her was wonderful to death!’ 回家的感覺好死了!Huijia de ganjue hao si-le!‘The feeling of going home is good to death!’(www. ynet.com/archiver)(www.spaces.live.com/blog.cns)

25. 要死 yao-si lit.‘will die’ 遇到老朋友, 開心得要死. Yudao lao pengyou, kaixin deyao-si. I ran into an old friend and was happyto death. www.spaces.live.com/blog

26. 要命 yaoming‘murderously’, lit. ‘demanding life’ 買樓的時候對我們好得要命, 可住進來處處是陷阱! Mai lou shi dui women hao deyaoming, ke zhu jinlai chuchu shi xianjing! (www.junjing.net/forum)

27. 帥呆了shuaidaile ‘shockingly good-looking’酷呆了kudaile ‘shockingly cool’ • 你今天這身穿得帥呆了! You look shockingly good in this outfit! • 帥呆了的室內裝修 shockingly good interior furnishing (www.baidu.com)

28. 酷斃了kubi(le) ‘cool to death’ • 超科技靴子酷斃了, 穿上它可邊走邊上網. Ultra-techno-boot is cool to death, wearing it you can go on-line while walking. • 最新酷斃造型 the newest cool-to-death styling (www.baidu.com)

29. schrecklichDas Essen muss heiß sein. Und wenn meine Latte nicht genug Milchschaum hat, bin ich persönlich beleidigt. Aber ansonsten bin eigentlich die meiste Zeit überschrecklichgut gelaunt. Vor kurzem fragte mich mein Freund, ob etwas nicht stimme. Ich sei so normal ... (Teleschau, der Mediendienst)

30. stink-Ich binstinksauerüber Werbemails!Der Film war stinklangweilig!

31. damn(ed) / darn(ed) It was a heady, exciting time in Washington. The days had the tang of high adventure, and the men around him found the President's enthusiasm contagious. He had learned how to take it and catch on quickly, explained Jack Kennedy, for two reasons: "Going through that campaign and being in the Senate." For the young President it was the best of times."This," he said, "is a damned good job." (www.time.com/time/magazine)

32. sündhaft Sündhaftlecker, aber keines Wegssündhaft teuer ist unser Torten- und Kuchensortiment.(www.dahlback.de)‘Sinfully delicious, but in no way sinfully expensive is our offer of cakes and pies.’

33. Defining“emotive intensifiers” • Nonliteral reading • Subjectively evaluative, irrespective of truth-conditional degree • Signalling high illocutionary force • Enacting speaker‘s attitude and emotion

34. Chinese -si-le ‘sterben-ASP’ -kepa EXT ‘furchterregend’, -yaoming EXT ‘das Leben auffordernd’ -yaosi EXT ‘will-sterben’ -huai-le ‘kaputt-ASP’ Vgl. Mordskerl

35. English damn(ed)/darn(ed) bloody awful(ly) sinfully terribly dreadfully horribly tremendously (stupendously) hell insanely

36. German verdammt sau- furchtbar schrecklich erschreckend tierisch irre wahnsinnig stink- sündhaft / sünd-

37. Degree wordswords describing measurement of degree (very, quite, pretty, etc.) • Viable literal reading • Non-emotive evaluation • Accountable and informative

38. Emotive intensifiers versus Common degree words • Nonliteral vs. literal • Lower vs. higher accountability • Higher vs. lower illocutionary force • Performative/expressive vs. descriptive • Attention-getter vs. evaluator • Register bound vs. register-unbound

39. sehr ‘very’: Alle diejenigen, die nur wenig abspecken möchten und sich halbwegs gesund ernähren, können das mit Hilfe solcher Eiweißdrinks sehr gut erreichen.(www.apotheke2u.de)

40. The diachrony of sehr ‘very’ OHG n. sēr ‘Schmerz’ cf. OE sār ‘sore’ • pain as conceptual source • semantic bleaching: painfully >> very (a) frequent uses (b) obscurity of lexical origin

41. Diachronic continuum emotive intensifier >>> degree word

42. How to explain EI as the“thrillers”in our mental lexicon? • What are the lexical sources of EI? • What are the conceptual sources of EI?

43. Conceptual sources of emotive intensifiers 1. Concepts of negative emotions 2. Concepts of triggers of negative emotions 3. Concepts of impacts of negative emotions

44. Emotion concepts Fear: terror, horror, awe, dread… E.: terribly, horribly, awful(ly), dreadful(ly) G.:schrecklich, furchtbar, erschreckend C.: xiaren, kepa

45. Trigger/cause/impact of negative emotions • Fear: blood, sin (Sünde), beast (Tier), hell (Hölle), insanity (Wahnsinn, Irrsinn), death (si,Tod), giant (Riese), strangeness (e.g. unheimlich) …… • Disgust: stench, dirty pig • Anger: damnation

46. Typological differenceinFrequency-based prominence

50. Typological differences • English and German: anger (damnation) as prominent source; B. Chinese: unavailability of anger (damnation/sin) as lexical source: gaisi ‘deserving death’; C. Chinese: death as prominent lexical source; D. German: trigger of disgust as source.