Stage #1: Word Collections

At this stage we took seven words for basic emotions in Polish and English (złość-anger, wstręt-disgust, strach-fear, radość-joy, szczęście-happiness, smutek-sadness, zaskoczenie-surprise). These were in their noun forms, so we derived adjective and verb from them as well. We then turned to monolingual dictionaries and thesauri of Polish and English respectively and logged all the synonyms of those basic emotion terms. Once we had those logged (817 for Polish, 1,759 for English) we also added word frequency data. This gave us the basic understanding of how basic emotions are lexicalized and how the words are used, and what all that means for our understanding of human emotions.

Stage #1: Translation-backtranslation Study

The translation-backtranslation study engaged 4 professional Polish-English translators who translated Polish terms into English and then back again, and English terms into Polish and back again. This gave us insight into the extent to which the terms for universal basic emotions are equivalent in translations between the two languages.

Stage #2: Valence, Arousal, and Dominance data collection.

Valence is the basic evaluation how subjectively positive or negative an emotion is. Arousal is the basic evaluation how subjectively intensive the emotion is. Dominance is the basic evaluation how subjectively in control we feel when overtaken by emotion. These are fundamental measures in emotion language research reflecting the basic affective feel of every emotion word.

Stage #2: Concreteness, Imageability, and Context Availability data collection.

Concreteness is the basic evaluation how subjectively concrete or abstract an emotion is. Imageability is the basic evaluation how subjectively easy it is to visualize or picture an emotion in one’s mind. Context Availability is the basic evaluation how subjectively easy it is to imagine a situation in which an emotion can occur. These measures helped to show that emotion concepts are distinct from both abstract and concrete concepts.

Stage #2: Verb Causality data collection.

Emotion verbs can carry the meaning of an emotion felt in the self, inflicted on another, or both. In this study we collected emotion verb classifications into those felt/inflicted/both categories.

Stage #2: Free Associations.

We took our lists of words denoting emotions and read them out loud to our participants asking them to respond with the first word that came to mind in associations. The responses were written down and analyzed to determine what, if any, patterns in associations were present.

Stage #2: Categorizations.

Here each word denoting each emotion was printed on individual pieces of paper. Participants were asked to sort those emotion words into any categories that made sense to them and then to label the categories they had created. This helped us understand how strong the conceptual connections between the synonyms for individual emotions were.

Research Grant SONATA 13, Ref. No. 2017/26/D/HS6/00035, Basic Emotion Terms Catalogue – Polish & English