“Body language” in depicting the emotional state of joy in Russian and Serbian languages

Abstract

The author argues that the problem of studying the emotional state of joy in the linguistic aspect is relevant in connection with the development of sciences devoted to the study of the phenomenon “man” in its direct connection and interaction with language, as well as the widespread dissemination of research in the field of emotionality and emotivity in the works of V. I. Shakhovsky, L. Yu. Buyanova, etc. The key component of the study is a comparative analysis of emotive constructions of the image and expression of joy in the Russian and Serbian languages. The relevance of the research is explained by the need to consider the emotion of joy based on the specific linguistic and literary and artistic practices of two languages. Main research methods: continuous sampling method, descriptive, comparative analysis method. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the collection and classification of constructs that describe the nonverbal symptoms of the manifestation of the emotion of joy based on the material of distantly related Slavic languages; in conducting a comparative analysis of linguistic means of depicting joy in the Russian and Serbian languages; in the implementation of a complex semantic-functional description of linguistic constructions with the meaning of the emotional state of joy from the point of view of their nominative properties and the means of their creation. The achieved results of the study boil down to the following: at present, science has developed an incomplete, but quite specific definition of joy; in general, the definition of this emotion is based on the psychological side, and in linguistics joy is defined as the pleasure received by a person; the object/event that caused the experience; the nomination of a specific subject. The characterizing properties of joy are universality, dominance, adaptation, contagiousness, transference, etc.; in the texts, the state of joy is indicated by word forms of different parts of speech with the root -rad-. Action verbs that nominate manifestations of joy and appear in combination with somatisms, as well as verbs of emotional state, are of particular importance in this case. Both languages widely use metaphorical combinations expressing physiological changes associated with the manifestation of joy.

Keywords:

emotional condition, symptoms of emotional state, somatisms, verbs of the emotional state of joy, nonverbal ways of expressing emotional state