"Without language, everything is chaos and confusion ..."
-
Brigitta Busch
Abstract
The connection between language and trauma has so far been mainly discussed with regards to the difficulty of narrating traumatic experience. The issue of multilingualism and traumatic experience has mainly been raised in studies on language loss or change. This contribution takes an approach based on the concepts of bodily and emotional language experience and of linguistic repertoire as the totality of linguistic and communicative resources speakers can draw on. Referring to Aharon Appelfeld’s autobiographical text “The Story of a Life,” the chapter focuses on how traumatic experience affects the linguistic repertoire and how on the other hand linguistic resources can help to strengthen resilience.
Abstract
The connection between language and trauma has so far been mainly discussed with regards to the difficulty of narrating traumatic experience. The issue of multilingualism and traumatic experience has mainly been raised in studies on language loss or change. This contribution takes an approach based on the concepts of bodily and emotional language experience and of linguistic repertoire as the totality of linguistic and communicative resources speakers can draw on. Referring to Aharon Appelfeld’s autobiographical text “The Story of a Life,” the chapter focuses on how traumatic experience affects the linguistic repertoire and how on the other hand linguistic resources can help to strengthen resilience.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
-
Theory
- The developmental psychology and neuropsychology of emotion in language 3
- Primal emotions and cultural evolution of language: 27
- Emotion on board 49
- The origins of emotion and language from the perspective of developmental neuropsychology 69
- Language and emotion in Merleau-Ponty 99
- Enkinaesthetic polyphony: 113
- Emotion in language 135
- Language and emotion 157
- Prosodic clustering in speech: From emotional to semantic processes 175
- Embodied language and the process of language learning and teaching 191
-
Research
- Research on the relationship between language and emotion - A descriptive overview 211
- Word valence and its effects 241
- The occurrence of idioms in the emotion lexicon of children 257
- "Without language, everything is chaos and confusion ..." 273
- Giving horror a name 289
- Mediated emotions 305
- Silences as a linguistic strategy Remarks on the role of the unsaid in romantic relationships on the internet 325
-
Application
- Gradients of plasticity 343
- Mood, aphasia, and affective language comprehension 367
- What words can’t tell: 399
- Affective and internal state language in high-functioning autism 421
- Epilogue 445
- Index 453
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
-
Theory
- The developmental psychology and neuropsychology of emotion in language 3
- Primal emotions and cultural evolution of language: 27
- Emotion on board 49
- The origins of emotion and language from the perspective of developmental neuropsychology 69
- Language and emotion in Merleau-Ponty 99
- Enkinaesthetic polyphony: 113
- Emotion in language 135
- Language and emotion 157
- Prosodic clustering in speech: From emotional to semantic processes 175
- Embodied language and the process of language learning and teaching 191
-
Research
- Research on the relationship between language and emotion - A descriptive overview 211
- Word valence and its effects 241
- The occurrence of idioms in the emotion lexicon of children 257
- "Without language, everything is chaos and confusion ..." 273
- Giving horror a name 289
- Mediated emotions 305
- Silences as a linguistic strategy Remarks on the role of the unsaid in romantic relationships on the internet 325
-
Application
- Gradients of plasticity 343
- Mood, aphasia, and affective language comprehension 367
- What words can’t tell: 399
- Affective and internal state language in high-functioning autism 421
- Epilogue 445
- Index 453
