Emotions in the English Lexicon: A Historical Study of a Lexical Field

Author / Editor
Diller, Hans-Jurgen.

Title
Emotions in the English Lexicon: A Historical Study of a Lexical Field

Published
Francisco Fernandez, Miguel Fuster, and Juan Jose Calvo, eds. English Historical Linguistics, 1992 (Amsterdam and Philadelphia: Benjamins, 1994), pp. 219-34.

Description
Studying four families of emotion words (wrath, anger, annoyance, grief) in the Chaucer canon, Diller draws several conclusions: the introduction of emotion words from French and their rivalry with native English words deserve close scrutiny; semantic study of emotion words is inextricably intertwined with their stylistic and cultural study; and such study may bring a new perspective to the question of whether emotions are universal or culture-specific.

Alternative Title
English Historical Linguistics, 1992.

Chaucer Subjects
Language and Word Studies.