Language and Emotion: An Integrative Review of Psychological and Linguistic Perspectives

Abstract

Integrative review of research on language-emotion connection This paper presents an integrative review of the complex link between language and emotion based on the data of psychology and linguistics to offer the overview of how language regulates the experience of emotions. The review starts with the focus on the aspect of the structure and differentiation of the list of emotions in different languages as well as the relation between the language used and the perception and representation of emotions. Another aspect discussed in the paper is nonverbal communication and paralinguistics including tone and gesture that reflects emotional states as the paper argues that they are essentially important features that make up for verbal communication. Further, the study examines the realization of metaphors as well as the employment of figures of speech in the observation of how painful and multifaceted emotions can be put into words. This paper also extends the idea of linguistic relativity from perception to behavior, especially as it has to do with emotion. Last, some recommendations regarding cross cultural communication as well as future therapeutic interventions for people of different language and cultural background are provided.