A Note on Emotion Words Translation

in Different Cultures

Wahyu Widhiarso
Faculty Of Psychology Gadjah Mada University
wahyu_psy@ugm.ac.id

The study of the psychology of emotion covers a large area. Problems then
emerge when people translate emotion word from one culture to another culture,
based on what they perceive about emotions by their own culture. Many scholars
try to investigate emotion of other cultures using language perspective of other
cultures. For example, they investigate anger of their culture but employ a concept
of emotion of anger based other cultures. They cited references of emotion
terminology and definition from another culture to define emotion of another
culture in the arbitrary way. The study based of fundamental research on the
semantic meaning of the concept of emotion is rarely conducted.
Language that embedded in the words is reality representation. To
symbolize reality into words, people usually cut and classify the world of reality
into different categories. The method that is used to cut and classify of wholeness
reality is in an arbitrary way. Like cutting a cake, this phenomenon is known as the
cookie cutter effect (Albrecht, 1980). Every culture has its own way to choose
which area of the whole pictures of reality to be represented in the word. In fact,
they are incorporated into quite specific individual relationships to all other words
of a language. People define reality as the way a dictionary or thesaurus defined.
People do not lose the indexical associations of words despite a lack of correlation
with physical referents, because the possibility of this link is maintained implicitly
in the stable associations between words.
The word table for example, even circular or square shapes, Indonesian
people stated that those tables have the same based on its essence as serving the
same function. This phenomenon is different with non-Indo-Europeans. They not
cut things based on its function, but based on the basic shapes: round, square,
solid, or liquid. Therefore, non Indo-Europeans have their own word for each table
is based on its shape (Izutsu, 1993). Non Indo-European saw that the shape and
form to determine whether an object belongs to one category or another category.
For example, Cohen (1986) gives an example the dangerous in translation
the Greek word, arte with the word in English, virtue. The word arte is not only
contains element virtue of meaning just like the word virtue, but also includes
elements of excellence and great admiration. An arbitrary equating one word in
certain culture to another culture will never be able to provide a reliable basis to
illustrate the psychological attribute of individual between both cultures. Thus, if
the word arte is interpreted by direct translation will provide a much different
meaning with the original meaning.
Authors often pointed out that some research investigating a cross-cultural
similarities of emotion words often matching the semantic meanings of emotion

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1505307

terms using arbitrary methods, such as back-translation or similarity judgments.
This procedure is problematic, since there are uniqueness and variation across
culture. It may be the case that for individuals from other cultural, similar emotion
words are less likely to motivate action, or likely to motivate different kinds of
action, and so on (Boster, 2005).

Emotion Meaning Across Culture

Through his studies in Indonesia, Heider (1991) found a difference between
cinta in Indonesian and love in English. He concluded that for Indonesia, the
word cinta contain more sadness nuance when it describes love. Van Loon (1927)
also saw that the word amok and rusuh in Indonesian culture also does not have
an equivalent word in English. The same results were also found by Doi (1995)
who found that the word amae, a Japanese word that describes the feeling of
sadness mingled with shame, cannot be translated in any language.
The existence of cultural specificity in labeling emotional experience were
also found by Wierzbicka (1995) who gives an example that the word anger
(English) and rabbia (Italian) is often seen as the same word, even though those
have different meaning. Levi through his studies in Tahiti found no similarity
between feeling bad in Tahiti compared with the English words. English sees that
feeling sad as denoted by the word sad while in the Tahitian, language is denoted
by a word mo'emo'e. Although both words based on nearly the same feelings of
negative feelings (bad feeling), but sad and mo'emo'e cannot be paired in simply a
way because those have different meanings. For example mo'emo'e is more
emphasis on feelings of loneliness and solitude while the sad represent bad
feeling in more general context. This means that British (or people who speak
English) cannot feel mo'emo'e or vice versa, but it indicates that the two words
that describe the state of the different emotions that cannot be paralleled.
Researches on emotion vocabulary that is used semantic analysis to specific
language of a culture has been conducted by several authors. For example, Boster
investigates emotional vocabulary language in Ecuador (Boster, 2005), Ye of sad
emotion vocabulary in Chinese (e.g. bei, ai and chou) and the vocabulary zalizniak
emotion words in Russian, who emphasizes the positive and negative feelings (e.g.
toska, obida) and a feeling of togetherness (e.g. zhalost and rodnoj). Wierzbicka
(1995) concluded that the emotion word is not free culture as closely linked to the
language and cognitive scenario of the society. The word anger, for example, is the
result of the English interpretation of an emotional experience (raw emotion
experience) while the other languages also have different interpretations of the
results.
Another research on cross-cultural context is also conducted by Wierzbicka
(1999) who found that the word schadenfreude (German), which has a sense
enjoyment due to the misfortune of others, do not have the equivalent word in
English vocabulary. The word Leff and Hiat also present similar way. Leff found
that in several African languages in the two emotions anger and sadness that are
symbolized by one word, whereas Hiat found that the five words in English, the
terror, horror, dread, apprehension, and timidity can be represented in one-word

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1505307

gurakadi (Gregg & Matsumoto, 2005). Lutz suggests based on his studies on the
Ifaluk culture, found the discrepancy between words that describe anger: metagu
(Ifaluk) and anger (English). Lutz concluded that the emotional experience
associated with the process of labeling, explanation and persuasion are influenced
by culture. Lutz explains that social constructionists view the emotions as unique
state which cannot be defined without the use social context, which is culture
specific. His concept is supported by Harr (1986) who describes the idea of
emotionology, which denote that emotions are influenced by how individuals in
the use of emotion vocabulary in the culture. Lazarus (1991) also supports the
important role of emotion words to shape the peoples world view about their
emotion. Emotion has a central meaning of the network (core theme relations)
which indicates emotion specificity. Network center is the meaning of semantic
description of emotion experience is the emotion specificity.
Investigating emotion word is rarely studied by researchers in the study of
emotion, which causes Harre has notified that some psychologists usually deal
with too abstract concepts in dissecting the phenomenon of emotion (Strongman,
1996). According to Harre (Harr, 1986), psychologists who study emotions only
deal with the illusion of a permanent one (permanent illusion) about the existence
of emotions in which psychologists often ignore the problems that the process also
comprises the emotional process of the use of emotional words. According to
researches conducted, we can infer in advance can be concluded that emotional
vocabulary that is used by a culture is to be specific, one cannot be translated with
emotion vocabulary of different cultures in simply manner. According to
Wierzbicka (1995), the classification of emotional words in one culture cannot also
be reflected in the classification or category of different cultures. Based on these
descriptions we can infer that understanding a word of emotion need an analysis
that based on the specificity and uniqueness of the culture.

Culture Specific Consideration

Emotion words not merely represent the universal phenomenon of internal
feeling states. However, they reflect of social relations and interactions (Hupka,
Lenton, & Hutchison, 1999). Therefore, emotion words may differ across cultures
because of cultural regulations and the relationship between a person and others.
For example, in certain cultures that orient to individualism, emotion words are
more likely to be individual because individual preferences prevail over group
goals, thoughts, and feelings. On the contrary, in a socio-centered culture, emotion
terms would be more prominent as relationship-markers since the thoughts,
feelings, and goals of the group are valued more highly than those of the individual
(Semin, Gorts, Nandram, & Semin-Goossens, 2002).
A new perspective was presented to reveal the meaning of emotions
through understanding of a culture constellation. Research on the verbal aspects of
emotion should be conducted. The emotion vocabulary will be a complement
research that already been done before. For example, studies in non-verbal
emotions that have been done by Prawitasari (Prawitasari, 1998, 2000) in
Indonesia, researchers saw that the study of emotion still ignores the role of
cultural specific in the form of individual knowledge systems. As expressed by Lutz

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(Lutz, 1985), culture not only affects the formation of systems of knowledge in the
activities of thinking and speaking, but more than that, culture form the substance
of the individual consciousness. Thus, awareness of emotion is associated with the
structure of language through semantic elements represented in each word that
describes the experience of emotion. An understanding of an emotion can be done
by analyzing the emotion words that come from the language in community.
Overall, efforts to understand emotions are stuck on employing references
that based on different culture. Scholars often identify the meaning of emotion
words based on a concept that define in another culture. They interpret this
meaning without distinguish characteristics of emotion words in practical
interests. For example, researchers that study the dynamics of the emotion of
anger and sad in Asian were feel sufficient only study the process of emotion that
come from West references (i.e. English literatures). Sometimes they use English
dictionary as a reference to translate an emotion word, in particular, culture to
other cultures. As request, dictionary will explain the emotion words and
synonymous in clearly a definition. However, this description only explains general
description that has less information about the emotional context. For example, the
intensity of emotion context and semantic elements as well as a comparison
between one emotion word and other emotion word are not explained detailed by
the dictionary. Even though the dictionary that focused on emotional words had
been published. Therefore, understanding the emotional words require
investigating semantic elements and comparison between an emotion word with
any other emotion words.
Inequality of translation of emotional words is a problem that must be
solved because an understanding of the emotions provides a high benefit for the
development of psychological science and psychology of emotion in the practical
sphere. In the field of psychiatry for example, understanding of the depression
depend on how the culture of translating emotions, therefore understanding of the
meaning of a word emotion is important (Lutz, 1985). The emotion is a
phenomenon that is constructed by culture (Schimmack, Radhakrishnan, Oishi,
Dzokoto, & Ahadi, 2002), the issue concerned to some researchers who interest in
emotional problems are linked to the elements of cultural specificity and a greater
emphasis on language as a medium in the sense of individuals. To implement these
ideas to more applied level, the study of emotions across cultural and language
issues can be focused to the analysis of emotion words.
Emotions accommodate individuals to connect with the world, but the
relationship is not complete until the emotions associated with cognitive status of
individuals who give a label for their experiences (Strongman, 1996). Thoits
explained that emotion is a sign of individual responses to complex situations,
which consists of physiological changes, expressive movement, and label emotions.
Emotion labels and the structure can dictate how individuals view of the situation
and how to evaluate that.

CONCLUSION

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 Studies of emotion remain the problems since we try to translate from one
emotion word from one language to another. Translating emotion words using a
dictionary have to understand what the term indicates in the basic language and
then considers how to it is expressed. The emotion concepts that are considered as
the cultural basis might be different from one language to another. Without
comparing the basis of underlying assumptions that each language ascribes to its
emotion words, researchers will miss the key elements of the translation (Silzer,
2001). Translation emotion words in one language into another should respect on
word meaning, which can be achieved if the researcher takes some considerations.
Russell (1983) has compared the circular ordering for English emotion words to
that of four other languages, He suggests that emotion words are organized in a
similar pattern across cultures. Therefore, it is possible that equal meaning from
the translation emotion word from one language to other languages can be
achieved if researchers consider some notification that proposed in this article.

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