Words are not just a series of sounds or letters; they are a window into the deepest areas of human emotion. Researchers in Japan have now explored this complex relationship between language and emotion, uncovering insights that could change our understanding of communication and perhaps even how we communicate with each other. The results of the new study were published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Through an innovative analysis of various languages, researchers found that specific emotions such as “GOOD,” “WANT,” “BAD,” and “LOVE” act as central nodes in a complex network of emotional expressions. This marks an important departure from traditional theories that treat emotions as separate entities. Instead, the words we use to describe emotions are inextricably linked and intersect in previously unimaginable ways.

In the 1970s, psychologist Paul Ekman introduced six basic emotions: happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, surprise, and anger. Ekman later expanded this basic emotional range to include pride, shame, embarrassment, and excitement. Just like mixing colors to create new tones, emotions can mix to create complex feelings. For example, the combination of basic emotions such as joy and trust can give rise to love.

A 2017 study found 27 different categories of emotions; This suggests a richer and more diverse emotional landscape than previously thought. There seems to be a tendency to expand the palette of human emotions. However, Japanese researchers went the opposite route and simplified and purified the human emotions reflected through language down to their essence.

The new research is based on a key concept in linguistics known as aggregation. It sounds complicated but it’s pretty simple. Collexification occurs when a word in a language encompasses many semantically related concepts. For example, consider the Spanish word “malo,” which can mean “bad” or “hard” depending on the context. It is the same as the French word mauvais. In the Ukrainian language, the word “bad” is combined with the word “fierce” or “ugly”. And in Italian, the word “ciao” can mean both “hello” and “goodbye”.

Researchers from the University of Tokyo analyzed many languages ​​and created a collection network that carefully combines language concepts.

Rather than discrete and discrete emotions, researchers suggest that the way we use words in emotional language can be divided into “hubs,” each forming a network of semantically closely related secondary emotions. There are four such centers: “GOOD”, “WANT”, “BAD” and “LOVE”.

The senior author of the study, Dr. “In this paper, by focusing on the collection, we were able to identify central emotions that have semantic commonality with many other emotions,” explains Ikeguti. Source