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| Semester | fall semester 2017 |
| Course frequency | Irregular |
| Lecturers | Andreas Langlotz (andreas.langlotz@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | Emotions and feelings such as happiness, disgust, anger, sadness, or surprise constitute salient and subjectively perceptible dimensions of our complex psychic states. Providing an embodied evaluation system, they play a quintessential role for the purposeful and meaningful interaction with our world(s) of experience. Paradoxically, however, the verbal and non-verbal forms of expressing emotional reactions as well as the diverse functions of evaluative or affective meaning in communication have received fairly little attention in linguistic analysis. This is the direct consequence of the heritage of rationalist thinking in approaches to mind and sense-making. Descartes’ strict separation between mind and body correlates with a separation of objective thinking vs. subjective feeling and rationality vs. irrationality, respectively. In cognitive psychology, the strong research interest in modeling high-level rational thinking in opposition to lower-level bodily functions has led to the exclusion of emotion research. This trend was paralleled and reflected in linguistics and psycholinguistics, which have focused on the cognitive architecture of the language faculty to the exclusion of any emotional substrate. Only recently have linguists - anthropological linguists, conversation analysts and cognitive linguists in particular - started to chart this research domain. This lecture follows this new strand of research. The interface between emotions and language will be explored with regard to the following questions: • What is the specific role for emotions for sense-making? • How can emotional states be expressed, described, or alluded to through linguistic and non-verbal cues, linguistic actions, and practices? • What are the functions of emotional signals in human communication? • Are there linguistic conventions of emotional display in different interactional practices? To engage with these questions, we will anchor our investigations in psychological and neuro-psychological and sociological emotion research. Adopting a broad perspective on language and communication, we will then scrutinize the repertoire of alternative forms of emotional signalling including facial expressions and gestures. Finally, we will scrutinize different linguistic practices (conflict talk, humour, computer-mediated communication, TV programmes, movies, and literary fiction) to analyse alternative forms of emotional displays in actual discursive data. |
| Learning objectives | • Students understand the role of emotions for (social) meaning and sense-making in communication. • They are shown how linguists can explore the different ways emotions are signalled through language and non-verbal signs. • They are prepared to analyse alternative emotional displays in different discursive practices. |
| Bibliography | will be made available on ADAM |
| Comments | Open to MA students and advanced BA students |
| Weblink | ADAM |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | Online, mandatory |
| Course auditors welcome |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
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No dates available. Please contact the lecturer.
| Modules |
Interphilologische Lehrveranstaltungen für die Slavistik (Master's degree subject: Slavic Studies (Start of studies before 01.08.2013)) Modul Advanced English Linguistics (Bachelor's degree subject: English) Modul English Linguistics (Master's degree subject: English) Modul English Sociolinguistics & Cognitive Linguistics (Master's degree subject: English (Start of studies before 01.08.2013)) Modul Extending the View (Linguistics) (Bachelor's degree subject: English (Start of studies before 01.08.2013)) Modul Focusing on the Discipline (Linguistics) (Bachelor's degree subject: English (Start of studies before 01.08.2013)) Modul Forschungspraxis und Vertiefung (Master's degree program: Language and Communication) Modul Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft BA (Bachelor's degree subject: Italian Language and Literature) Modul Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft BA (Bachelor's degree subject: Spanish Language and Literature) Modul Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft BA (Bachelor's degree subject: Nordic Philology) Modul Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft BA (Bachelor's degree subject: German Language and Literature) Modul Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft BA (Bachelor's degree subject: English) Modul Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft BA (Bachelor's degree subject: French Language and Literature) Modul Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: Slavic Studies) Modul Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: French Language and Literature) Modul Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: Spanish Language and Literature) Modul Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: Nordic Philology) Modul Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: Italian Language and Literature) Modul Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: German Language and Literature) Modul Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: Latin Philology) Modul Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: English) Modul Refining Skills in Linguistics (Bachelor's degree subject: English (Start of studies before 01.08.2013)) Modul Research Skills in English Linguistics or Literature (Master's degree subject: English (Start of studies before 01.08.2013)) Modul Sprache als Prozess (Master's degree program: Language and Communication) Modul Sprache und Kognition (Master's degree program: Language and Communication (Start of studies before 01.08.2013)) |
| Assessment format | record of achievement |
| Assessment details | Written test in the last week of the lecture |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | one repetition, repetition counts |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | as often as necessary |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Englische Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft |