The study of language and emotion in a new key

Abstract

In this discussion note on Martina Wiltschko’s target article entitled ‘Emotions do not enter grammar because they are constructed (by grammar)’, I reflect on the following issues: (i) the absence of (basic) emotions in the structure of language, (ii) the usefulness of the notion of ‘basic emotion’ in the study of emotion, (iii) the structural organization of linguistic expressions and emotions, (iv) the way in which functional information (spinal properties) is realized in ex­pressive language (specifically, in Dutch). Finally, as a note from a more historical perspective, I draw the reader’s attention to Susanne K. Langer’s seminal study Philosophy in a New Key ([1942] 1957), which emphasizes the symbolic nature of both language and emotion.