Human beings do not live in the objective word alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society.
Edward Sapir
In the search of purpose and happiness, it is important to be able to recognise the way you feel in order to identify enjoyable moments and take even more pleasure in them. Similarly, being able to label an event, a moment, or just a feeling as unpleasant can help take a step back and put things into perspectives. This is the first criteria used to categorise emotional state: is it something positive or negative? It is what is called the valence of an emotion. The second classification criteria is called arousal, or the state of awakeness an emotion provokes. This bi-dimensional space valence-arousal is the most basic classification system used by psychologist to define emotional state. Something everybody can use to describe a specific emotion, even without thinking about how to call said emotion. For example, two people living on opposite side of the world (say, Japan and Persia) might both report being in a state of low arousal/negative valence. However, does this mean they both feel sadness, defined in Western countries as the emotion of low arousal/negative valence? Well, that might not be the case…
If Babylon and its garden were still standing and if the Tower of Babel had been completed, the concept of linguistic relativity would not exist. And if wishes were horses, then beggars would ride. The hypothesis of linguistic relativity, also known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, is the idea that our brain, the way it works (cognition) and perceive and processes the environment (world view), is affected by the language one speaks. Language is said to shape, or at least influence our thoughts, decisions, and perception of felt emotions. Linguists assume that it has to do with the structure of a every language, which can be linked to a specific way of thinking. Some languages are more conservative than others, using specific words instead of descriptions. Some languages have more words than other. Those characteristics will be reflected in people’s cognition.
The diversity in vocabulary between languages and cultures has fascinated linguists and psychologists alike, especially when it comes to the study of emotional words and perception of emotions. From a biologic point of view, what we define as ‘emotion’ is a physiological response happening inside the body, in response to an event occurring outside the body, and associated with behavioural and cognitive processes. So, something happens around you, your brain registers it and start secreting a hormone or another (physiology – that’s the emotion), you make the decision to act in a certain way (cognition) and you display specific actions (behaviour). All 3 reactions tend to happen concomitantly, making it ever so slightly harder to study one independently from the other 2. Looking at the link between linguistic and emotion, the main question researchers are still trying to answer is: do you need to know the word to be able to know how you feel? Going back to the example at the end of the first paragraph; “sadness” as we understand it in English might be known under a different name in Japan and Persia. What is also possible is that depending on the reason why you feel sad, different words might be used. Whether you have one word to define the feeling of sadness associated with the realisation that a good moment is over, or you need the full description, does this impact your ability to know how you feel?
We’re not quite sure. What could be possible is that because an emotional word does not exist in English, for example, people speaking English might not think about that emotion as “a thing”. Knowing that “gokotta” (the Swedish for waking up early to listen to bird song) is “a thing” does not mean that people outside of Sweden don’t do it; they might just not conceptualise it as an emotion but as an action. Similarly, the fact that Koreans might have a word to express the wish to be with someone until death (“sarang”) does not mean they have the monopole over feeling it. If there are hundreds of words across the world for concepts and emotional states that do not exist in English, a recent study showed that the bi-dimensional space valence-arousal differentiated between the different emotional families similarly across the globe. Emotional experiences seem thus to be defined by a universal core associated with a cultural specificity.
If it’s impossible to know exactly how we feel, and even more so to express it in a way everybody would understand, experiencing positive emotions has been shown to have a positive impact on our health. More specifically, regularly experiencing a broad range of positive emotions (positive emodiversity) has been shown to be associated with a boosted immune system. The immune system is the defender of your body, the knight in shining armour that fight to protect you from pathogen, like viruses. When you get a cold, it is your immune system that fights for you to get better. A boosted immune system is a well-working one. And one thing that seems associated with a well-working immune system is the experience of many positive emotions. Once again, it is not all about happiness! Whether you know the exact word to describe the positive state you are in or not, make sure to seek those feel-good moments above all. It can be the serenity that comes with being surrounded by friends or loved ones, or from leisurely walking down the streets.
It doesn’t matter what it is, or whether you have a specific word for it, but experiencing positive emotions will do you good. On the long term. Just like finding purpose…
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