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The Referential Structure of the Affective Lexicon
Author(s) -
Ortony Andrew,
Clore Gerald L.,
Foss Mark A.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
cognitive science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.498
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1551-6709
pISSN - 0364-0213
DOI - 10.1207/s15516709cog1103_4
Subject(s) - lexicon , cognitive psychology , psychology , affect (linguistics) , mental lexicon , set (abstract data type) , taxonomy (biology) , cognition , isolation (microbiology) , focus (optics) , linguistics , emotion classification , cognitive science , computer science , communication , philosophy , botany , physics , optics , neuroscience , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , programming language
A set of approximately 500 words taken from the literature on emotion was examined. The overall goal was to develop a comprehensive taxonomy of the affective lexicon, with special attention being devoted to the isolation of terms that refer to emotions. Within the taxonomy we propose, the best examples of emotion terms appear to be those that (a) refer to internal, mental conditions as opposed to physical or external ones, (b) are clear cases of stares, and (c) have affect as opposed to behavior or cognition as a predominant (rather than incidental) referential focus. Relaxing one or another of these constraints yields poorer examples or nonexamples of emotions; however, this gradedness is not taken as evidence that emotions necessarily defy classical definition.