Chapter 5
Emotions in Jamaican
African conceptualizations, emblematicity and multimodality in discourse and public spaces
This contribution deals with expressions and conceptualizations of emotions in Jamaican. By drawing on various examples and their performances in public and digital spaces, this paper argues that what we conceive as ‘emotion’ is indeed a complex and often culturally defined phenomenon which intertwines with a range of related concepts. The focus here lies on expressions of emotions which reflect African cultural conceptualizations. This also includes discussing a West African holistic and embodied conceptualization of ‘feeling’ as compared to the Western notion of ‘emotion’. Moreover, the chapter discusses the multimodality of emotional expressions by looking at examples in a few Jamaican movies, songs and social media. I argue that certain emotional expressions are culturally emblematic and that their performance serves as a marker of identity by drawing on the various functions of language according to Roman Jakobson.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Body parts and emotion
- 3.Multimodal expressions of emotions: The case of kiss-teeth
- Conclusion
-
Acknowledgements
-
Notes
-
References
References
Written
Ansah, G. N.
(
2011)
Emotion language in Akan: The case of anger. In
G. C. Batic (Ed.),
Encoding emotions in African languages (pp. 119–137). Munich: Lincom.
Batic, G. C.
(Eds.) (
2011)
Encoding emotions in African languages. Munich: Lincom.
Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C.
(
1987)
Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge: CUP.
Damasio, A.
(
1994)
Descartes’ error: Emotion, reason and the human brain. London: Putnam.
Enfield, N., & A. Wierzbicka
(Eds.) (
2002)
The body in description of emotion.
Pragmatics and Cognition, 10(1–2).
Geurts, K. L.
(
2005)
Consciousness as ‘feeling in the body’. A West African theory of embodiment, emotion and the making of mind. In
D. Howes (Ed.),
Empire of the senses. The sensual culture reader (pp. 164–178). Oxford: Berg.
Gyekye, K.
(
1995)
An essay on African philosophical thought: The Akan conceptual scheme. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Jakobson, R.
(
1960)
Closing statement: Linguistics and poetics. In
T. Sebeok (Ed.),
Style in language (pp. 350–377). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Kövecses, Z.
(
2006)
Language, mind and culture. Oxford: OUP.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M.
(
1980)
Metaphors we live by. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M.
(
1999)
Philosophy in the flesh. The embodied mind and its challenge to western thought. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Niemeier, S.
(
2008)
To be in control: Kind-hearted and cool-headed. The head-heart dichotomy in English. In
F. Sharifian,
R. Dirven,
N. Yu, &
S. Niemeier (Eds.),
Culture, body and language. Conceptualizations of internal body organs across languages and cultures (pp. 349–372). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Parish, J.
(
2000)
From the body to the wallet: Conceptualizing Akan witchcraft at home and abroad.
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 6(3), 487–500.
Patrick, P. L., & Figueroa, E.
(
2002a)
Kiss-teeth.
American Speech, 77(4), 383–397.
Patrick, P. L., & Figueroa, E.
(
2002b)
The meaning of kiss-teeth. Ms, to be published in Spears & DeJongh (forthcoming). Available at:
[URL]> (31 March, 2016)
Pearce, M.
(
2013)
Big steups: Social critique, performance and memory in the art of Richard Mark Rawlins.
ARC Magazine. Available at:
[URL]> (31 March, 2016)
Rickford, J. R., & Rickford, A. E.
(
1976)
Cut-eye and suck teeth. African words and gestures in New World Disguise.
The Journal of American Folklore, 89(353), 294–309.
Sharifian, F., Dirven, R., Yu, N., & Niemeier, S.
(Eds.) (
2008)
Culture, body, and language. Conceptualizations of internal body organs across cultures and languages. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Songs
Beenie Man
(
2014)
Badmind people.
Happy hour riddim. Jamaica: Chimney Records.
Chronixx
(
2012)
Ain’t no giving in.
Tropical escape riddim. Jamaica: Chimney Records.
Elephant Man
(
2004)
Bun bad mind.
Tabernacle riddim. Jamaica: Stone Love Music
Femi Kuti
(
2008)
Oyimbo.
Album: Day by day. Nigeria: Wrasse Records.
I-Octane featuring Bounty Killer
(
2013)
Badmind dem a pree. EP: Rough up road. Jamaica: Markus Records.
Macka, B.
(
1998)
Suspicious.
Album: Suspicious. United Kingdom: Ariwa Sounds.
Vybz Kartel
(
2015)
Seh feh riddim. Jamaica: T. J. Records.
Wizkid
(
2011)
No Lele.
Album: Superstar. Nigeria: Empire Mates Entertainment.
Movies
Browne, C. (Dir.)
(
1999)
Third world cop. Jamaica, 98 minutes.
Browne, C. (Dir.)
(
2011)
Ghett’a life. Jamaica, 103 minutes.
Silvera, C. (Dir.)
(
2002)
Shottas. Jamaica/Florida, 95 minutes.
Cited by
Cited by 2 other publications
Mensah, Eyo O. & Vivian Afi Dzokoto
2023.
Melting intestines, red hearts, and scattering eyes: exploring embodiment in the Efik feeling lexica.
Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 44:1
► pp. 49 ff.
Nassenstein, Nico, Alice Mitchell & Andrea Hollington
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.