The project consisted in documentation of the emotion lexicon in Maniq and Mlabri using a combination of experimental methods, linguistic elicitation, and participant observation. Experiments drew on previous cross-cultural methodology, which avoids the bias built into translation, and explores emotion terminology using emotionally evocative stimuli: facial expressions and emotional scenarios adjusted to both cultural settings. The understanding of emotion terminology was further deepened through linguistic and ethnographic interviews and spontaneous observations of language use in context.
Two main foci emerge from the results so far:
1) The general comparison of Maniq and Mlabri shows the two languages are similar in that they lack dedicated terms for certain emotion concepts, e.g. disgust, and participants in both groups to a large extent rely on bodily and situational descriptors when responding to facial expressions of emotion, e.g. nose-scrunching, stink, etc. Maniq and Mlabri nevertheless differ in their inventory of emotion terms, use of metaphor, and their speakers’ appraisals of some emotional scenarios, most notably those reflecting a differing attitude towards material objects. This is likely related to lifestyle differences caused by the adoption of sedentary life by the Mlabri. However, aspects of the emotional world linked to the Mlabri identity of egalitarian people seem resilient to change and—despite gradually emerging inequalities in Mlabri society—continue to reflect the egalitarian ethos placing restrictions on expressing emotions that could be perceived as claiming authority.
2) A specific case study of Mlabri metaphorical expressions reveals how different sociocultural contexts produce diversity in emotional meaning. The investigation reveals a previously unreported type of spatial metaphor of affect. Contrary to the suggestions in the literature that the conceptual metaphor HAPPY IS UP might be universal, Mlabri metaphors show a reverse mapping, as evident in the expressions klol jur ‘be happy, content (lit. heart going down)’ and klol khɯn/klol kɔbɔ jur ‘be unhappy, distressed (lit. heart going up/heart not going down’). Using data from language, gesture, and ethnography, this study component shows the Mlabri metaphors are not idiosyncratic, but reflect the specific sociocultural context of the Mlabri and ideal affect centered on contentment and tranquility. Thus, although humans share certain basic bodily experiences underlying conceptual metaphors of affect, different cultures create metaphorical meaning drawing on the available sensorimotor correlates of emotion in distinct ways.
