it depends on Emotinal experiences. but as whole, L1 (mother language) evokes greater emotional response than Second language. however it is not ture in all situations, If a bilingual person married with woman who is the native speaker of man's second language or talks wiht his children in secondlanguage and etc ,the emotional responses may be stronger in second language.
It seems that there is an automatic activation of emotional components in words in both languages, but this could be modulated by age of acquisition and cultural aspects. I invite you to read work of Stutton et al. (2007) attached.
From personal experience (an Ethio-Italian) speaking 3 languages since early childhood (Amharic, English, and Italian) I would say that it depends on who you are talking to. Every word, in whichever language it may be, is an abstraction of something sensed or perceived within or externally. The more we are attuned at associating certain words (abstractions) with the sensations or experiences that they point to, the more we feel them. I would even say that of a person that only knows a word of a foreign language, if it resonates then I would say they're feeling it (what the abstraction points to).
If we link emotional content with prosody (i mean rhythm and intonation when speaking, for example), the activation of emotional components could be quiet different in our respective languages even if the original message is more and less the same at the semantic level.
We can see perhaps this effect when listening the same song (with the same music soundtrack) in different languages.
This Paper might be of your interest:
Ramírez-Esparza, N., Gosling, S. D., Benet-Martínez, V., Potter, J. P., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2006). Do bilinguals have two personalities? A special case of cultural frame switching. Journal of Research in Personality, 40(2), 99-120. as well as this one
Ramírez-Esparza, N., Chung, K. C., Sierra-Otero, G., & Pennebaker J. W. (in press). Cross-cultural constructions of self-schemas: Americans and Mexicans. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology.
see Nairan's webpage http://ilabs.washington.edu/postdoctoral-fellows/bio/i-labs-nairan-ramirez-esparza-phd
it depends on Emotinal experiences. but as whole, L1 (mother language) evokes greater emotional response than Second language. however it is not ture in all situations, If a bilingual person married with woman who is the native speaker of man's second language or talks wiht his children in secondlanguage and etc ,the emotional responses may be stronger in second language.
I think it will depend on the dominance and the ability and frequency of use of his/her L2, L3... And , probably, there are also differences between expressing and comprehending emotions.
Yes, when an individual become angry, he certainly tends to express his emotion with L1 words (dominant language) even in an appropriate environnement (L2 or L3 context) because he can't inhibit his first language and control the other ones.
With other emotions (positive, for example) i really don't know.
Such a fascinating topic. My two principal languages are Serbian and English but I had part of my education in French. I live in a Dutch environment but invariably tend to swear in French when driving.
Oh yes, after a traffic accident, i have seen people swearing in their native language (totally unknown by the other people). After a few minutes, they can recuperate the appropriate language and communicate with others in the shared language.
The expression of emotion is conveyed in language at different levels: lexical choice, rethorical structure, and suprasegmental aspects of speech (rhythm, intonation, ...) among others. The latter is the less prone to be under the cognitive control of the native subject, so if that level is investigated I would expect that L1 can convey the emotional state of the native subject more than L2, L3, ...
In such instance bilinguals, like myself (Yoruba and English), moves from one language to another during a speech for a number of reasons - switching from one language to another either do to the situation or topic of conversation. It is could be conscious or unconscious process employed simply to evoke or change interpersonal relations (Gal 1988).
Yes, i agree that there are many reasons to switch from one language to another.
Among these reasons, our emotional state can lead us to use one language more than another if the situation is appropriate and allow the use of different languages.
Interesting paper on the subject. From APA Science, How multilingualism influence emotional development (children) ?
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/speaking-multiple-languages-can-influence-childrens-emotional-development.html
At times of surprise or excitment I revert to my mother's tongue, even though she died when I was six years old. Our first language was Gaelgie. (Irish)
In Malaysia, we tend to express our anger (swear) in English, not in our native language, Malay. Swearing in Malay sounds really bad.
This is interesting, Rabihah. Does that preference occur for bilingual, or nearly bilingual subjects?
Yes, and for Donal, the use of Gaelgie seems to be more automatic or at least, not totally under control in an intense emotional state.
My mother's tongue would be Swedish, however I've used predominantly Finnish since my teens, and English at work. I feel that different languages provide access to different themes and also emotions, yes, but I don't think its about primary languages but more related to the personal relationships and life events that get associated to different languages. For example, I have never dated anyone "in Swedish", and that is probably why I feel much more comfortable expressing romantic feelings in other languages. Then again, if I'm really stressed, tired, or suddenly woken up, I will typically spontaneously use Swedish. I can also relate to what Rabihah describes :) Personally, I feel that Finnish is so much better suited to cursing than Swedish, if simply for choice of words and their onomatopoesis (the properly trilled 'r' in "perkele", for example, is just really potent).
My first language is roumainien,but i learned france,and I saw in my experience (I worked in Paris)that,same word are very different emotions for my.
These are some papers on the subject. I wish you find them interesting.
http://astro.temple.edu/~apavlenk/pdf/Pavlenko_IJP_2012.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2788822/
http://www.uni-saarland.de/fak5/excops/download/DegDoyWenInPress.pdf
Usually, in a moment of shock or susprise one tends to return to their mother language because of the familiarity and closeness we have with it. It's an automatic reaction, similar to the phenomenon that multilinguals also exhibit when doing math. It's very difficult to perform mathematical operations in a language which is not the native one
Most people approach the issue regarding the emotional relationship between language and individual from a personal perspective, which very often is tied to their earliest experiences of language use. I agree with Inger that language use depends rather on situations and personal relationships, in addition, of course, on the knowledge of vocabulary - than primary on languages. Regarding mathematical operations, as suggested by Brenda, well, for some people it is easier than for others to switch the language (although there are no studies on that). Even when in the middle of doing a calculation I happily hop from one language to another, it does not affect my calculation per se - although I cannot guarantee for the correct result, but that has more to do with my math abilities as such :-) I have also noticed that my stay in certain countries will affect my choice or use of words - also when it comes to spontaneous outburst. Pardon my language, but for instance, when in Germany, I cannot help escaping from "Scheiße!" which I already used in school times, in Sweden I automatically use "(jävla) fan!" and the like, in English-speaking surroundings I revert to "bloody hell!" (if not worse) and in Estonia I hear myself cursing "kurat!" or "pagan!" when something unexpected happens or when a situation simply invites swearing. It is true that, although hearing it rather regularly, I cannot bring myself to voice "putain" in French (I consider myself being too much of an outsider for that) but I prefer "merde" which my parents occasionally used (who had been studying in France in the 1950s), and in my father's mother tongue Lithuanian I am looking rather pained than saying anything - but that has much to do with my childhood experiences of others swearing in similar situations: When I was child I heard my adolescent and young adult brother do a lot of Swedish swearing in any possible situation, my Estonian mother occasionally couldn't help but use some Estonian and French, my father never used any curses in his mother tongue (except for a really 'soft' one which I quickly dismissed for not being powerful enough) but if needed he would turn to French. Thus, in any country related to my language and personal "biography" I seem to adjust my expressions. On the other hand, I am from a multilingual family and I became exposed to 5-6 languages on a regular basis before I was 5 years old. I agree that my experience may be just an individual one. But lately I have met a few (multilingual) people who seem to share the experience of "emotional switching" from one language to another - depending on situation, personal relationship and current stay, and still having the feeling of expressing themselves as powerful as in the other languages. Discussing my feelings is simply only possible in those languages in which I have the experience of doing it - in the other ones I simply feel more clumpsy, starting with a lack of words and expressions that sound truly genuine to my ears.
Great post Viktorija. I agree that we all have personal stories in this area and that they are all tied to the context of the use of language. I gave birth twice, once in English and once in Dutch and to this day I would not be able to tell you what happened with the right terminology in other languages. Yet, I feel physically unable speak to pets or small children in any other language but my own native language, Serbian. Context is everything and context is personal which is why I think this is a complex area to explore scientifically, not for the lack of material, but for the lack of comparable material. I would be interested to hear from others how this can truly be studied comprehensively without it becoming completely anecdotal. On the other hand anecdotal narrative approach might make more sense.
I am a multilingual educator who did not learn German till I was in my 20s. By my mid-20s, bilingual Germans who had known me in America during my undergraduate days only in English stated consistently that they understood me better in German. the key was my inflection and emotion conveyed in a more German manner. So, conveying more or less emotion is needed to be understood well in the L3 or other language. However, one can master emotional intonation in the target language perhaps more precisely in the second or third language because it is more essential to do so, i.e. in order to fit in.
When one is learning the L1, a child is not so much aware of the balance of emotion. One learns this in the L1 over decades.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236340179_Could_a_better_focus_on_TONE_improve_our_(U.S.A.)_international_relations_with_Asian_states?ev=prf_pub
here is a bit more on the importance of learning tone of East Asians, especially in interpreting their ideas or emotions while speaking English.
Article Could a better focus on TONE improve our (U.S.A.) internatio...
Here are some empirical findings that might be relevant to the original question:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22573670
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22707225
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