The cross-cultural equivalence of the American emotion concept SURPRISE and the German ÜBERRASCHUNG: corpora data

Abstract

The article tests a corpus-based methodology that identifies the particularities of cross-cultural equivalence of the emotion concepts (ECs) representing the emotion of surprise in American and German cultures – SURPRISE and ÜBERRASCHUNG. The developed methodology involves three procedures, which make it possible to compare the conceptual structures of these ECs by the following indicators: (1) relevance of conceptual metaphors (dominant conceptual connections), (2) relevance of emotional conceptual proximates (dominant meanings), and (3) valence and arousal. By means of qualitative and quantitative analysis of the study samples, the article identifies similar and different characteristics of the metaphorical conceptualisation of the ECs SURPRISE and ÜBERRASCHUNG, and reveals the originality of the emotion of surprise against the background of other basic emotions. The coincidence of the dominant conceptual relations of these ECs shows the similarity of their conceptual structures. Based on the identification of the most relevant emotional conceptual proximates of the ECs SURPRISE and ÜBERRASCHUNG, a similarity 77.5% was established, i.e. these ECs demonstrate a high level of equivalence. In addition, the study of these proximates reveals that the ECs SURPRISE and ÜBERRASCHUNG are characterised by certain neutrality based on the balance of positive and negative semantics. The verification of the results of the first two procedures of the study by comparing the conceptual structures of the ECs SURPRISE and ÜBERRASCHUNG by the indicators of valence and arousal of their emotional conceptual proximates confirms the conclusions about a rather high level of equivalence of the compared ECs, since the average value of the mentioned indicators is almost the same. The ECs SURPRISE and ÜBERRASCHUNG display the abovementioned characteristics, but the emotion itself is positive and intensive.