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Article published In: Issues in Humour Cognition
Edited by Marta Dynel
[Review of Cognitive Linguistics 16:1] 2018
► pp. 191–228

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Regular articles

Emotions in motion

Towards a corpus-based description of the diachronic evolution of anger words

 | Universitat Jaume I
Published online: 31 May 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.00008.ost
Abstract
This paper outlines some of the challenges and possibilities of a corpus-based approach to the diachronic description of the semantics of emotion words. It analyses three German anger words (Wut, Zorn and Ärger) in two corpora: DTA (Deutsches Textarchiv, covering the period 1600–1899) and DWDS (Digitales Wörterbuch der Deutschen Sprache, which covers twentieth-century German). The study is based on two complementary approaches: a semantic and pragmatic analysis of co-occurrences ( (2012). “Angst” and “fear” in contrast: A corpus-based analysis of emotion concepts. In M. Brdar, I. Raffaell, & M. Žic Fuchs (Eds.), Cognitive Linguistics between universality and variation (pp. 327–355). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar); and the use of semantic foci (Ogarkova, A., & Soriano, C. (2014). Variation within universals: The “metaphorical profile” approach to the study of anger concepts in English, Russian and Spanish. In A. Musolff, F. MacArthur, & G. Pagani (Eds.), About metaphor and intercultural communication (pp. 93–116). London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). This allows for a detailed description of the semantic evolution of the three anger words for four aspects of emotion – Control, Lack of Control, Visibility and Internalization – while exploring the advantages of a combined quantitative and qualitative corpus analysis.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Results quantification and data interpretation in diachronic corpus studies
    • 2.1Quantification and visualization of results
    • 2.2Data interpretation
  • 3.Object of study: The German anger words Wut, Zorn and Ärger
  • 4.Method and resources
    • 4.1Step 1: Tracing the regulation and expression of Wut, Zorn and Ärger
    • 4.2Step 2: A quantitative diachronic analysis of Wut, Zorn and Ärger (1700–2000)
    • 4.3Step 3: A qualitative case study
  • 5.Framework: Tracing the regulation and expression of Wut, Zorn and Ärger
    • 5.1Classification of co-occurrences according to the semantic foci
      • 5.1.1Regulation: Control
      • 5.1.2Regulation: Lack of Control
      • 5.1.3Expression: Visibility
      • 5.1.4Expression: Internalization
    • 5.2Characterization of Wut, Zorn and Ärger in terms of Regulation and Expression
    • 5.3Productivity and creative use of the four semantic foci
  • 6.Quantitative study: A diachronic analysis of Wut, Zorn and Ärger
    • 6.1Incidence of Wut, Zorn and Ärger from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries
    • 6.2Evolution of the presence of the semantic foci
  • 7.Qualitative study: Exploring the background to the changes
    • 7.1Data-driven periodization
    • 7.2Qualitative contrast between selected time segments
      • 7.2.1Procedure
      • 7.2.2Results
        • 7.2.2.1Question a
        • 7.2.2.2Question b
        • 7.2.2.3Question c
  • 8.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (47)
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