Expressions for emotions - and inner feelings - in Kilivila, the language of the Trobriand Islanders: A descriptive and methodological critical essay
This paper reports on the results of my research on the lexical means
Kilivila offers its speakers to refer to emotions and inner feelings. Data were
elicited with 18 “Ekman’s faces” in which photos of the faces of one woman
and two men illustrate the allegedly universal basic emotions (anger, disgust,
fear, happiness, sadness, surprise) and with film stimuli staging standard
emotions. The data are discussed on the basis of the following research
questions:
* How “effable” are they or do we observe ineffability – the difficulty of
putting experiences into words – within the domain of emotions?
* Do consultants agree with one another in how they name emotions?
* Are facial expressions or situations better cues for labeling?
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