To feel, to say, to do: expressive variety and emotion prototypes in the youth vocabulary

Abstract

Our investigation approaches the language of emotions in a group of young university students, since it seems to us they are a segment in which it is perceived a greater expressive profusion and dynamism. We aimed at exploring the lexical variety comprising such expressiveness as well as prototypically describing some of the most relevant concepts/expressions.From a first test we compiled a wide range of expressions of emotion, 220 of which were selected and classified according to the proposal by Kövecses, Palmer and Dirven (1999). Then, we explored the construal mechanisms: image schemata, metaphors and metonymies (Lakoff y Johnson, 1995 [1980]; Johnson, 1991 [1987]; Krzeszowski, 1989) in relation to the conceptualization of emotion in figurative and expressive terms. Finally, by means of a second test, we suggested a prototype (according to an adjustment of the analyses by Páez and Vergara, 1990) for 12 out of the 220 terms, which were selected due to the higher number of occurrences in the first test.