The problem of «inaccurate words» (on the example of mixed emotions)

The article deals with the problem of «inaccurate words» using the example of the language categorization of mixed emotions, which is understood as a means of expressing emotions, in which two or more categories of emotional experiences are combined into a single whole. This term proposed by K. A. Dolinin correlates with the semantic phenomena of desemantization and deverbalization, which simultaneously represent the simplification and complication of the codified language system, the «loosening» of conventional semantic content of words, and the introduction of additional semantic components into semantics. The article postulates that the emotional and semantic component of any word is limitless, which determines the constant semantic development of the word depending on the communicative situation, the goals of communication, the communicative intention of the speaker, etc. The fundamental inexpressibility of emotional experiences represents the potency of the system development. The summative concept of a mixed emotion, in which the sum is greater than its parts, is a pronounced inexpressibility, when, with a linearly constructed enumeration of the components of a mixed emotion, its emotional and semantic component remains undefined, since there are no means of conventional expression of this type of emotion in the language. The author establishes an interparadigmal connection of mixed emotions with alexithymia, i.e. the impossibility or difficulty of verbal explication of emotional experiences, which is supported by observations of the artistic representation of alexithymic persons' specific behavior. At the linguistic level, this phenomenon is explained by the fact that the speaker does not find the appropriate means to express their emotions in the linguistic system of emotion categorization and, as a result, resorts to creating new descriptions of his emotional experiences.