The Ways in Which Language Shapes Emotions

Language is used by all people in many different ways. Whether it be spoken language or actions and gestures, language is an effective way to convey people’s thoughts and feelings. Oftentimes, language is used to form feelings of emotion between individuals. Emotions in people are constantly changing and language plays a huge role in that. In Love 2.0: How Our Supreme Emotion Affects Everything We Feel, Think, Do, and Become, Barbara Fredrickson touches on the idea of language helping to shape emotions through the neural coupling and positivity resonance that can occur when two people interact with one another. In addition, in “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan,” Ethan Watters discusses how pharmaceutical companies such as GlaxoSmithKline used language to redefine the meaning of depression in order to market the disease in Japan and sell antidepressants to people living in Japan. Both authors focus on the importance of language and the affect it can have on people’s emotions.

Language and its factors can serve as a vessel with which people can perceive, control, and understand their emotions. One reason that language shapes the experience of emotion is that language alters how the emotions we feel are perceived. Different forms of communication trigger various emotions within people and affect how they feel. For example, someone speaking negatively and making rude and disrespectful remarks will cause feelings of sadness and hurt within the person. On the other hand, according to Barbara Fredrickson, a feeling of love can occur even when having a brief conversation with a complete stranger (111).

The neural coupling that occurs between the two people allows them to form a bond, and it can only be made possible by the language and communication used in the conversation. Without language, the emotion of love would not be possible. In addition, it is believed that “communication—a true meeting of the minds—is a single act, performed by two brains” (Fredrickson 112). When two people communicate, their brains sync together and the emotions they feel are shared with each other. They both understand each other and truly capture the emotion through the language spoken within the conversation. The way emotions are perceived is also vital when dealing with language as a means of translation. The languages spoken can often translate slightly differently, which in turn alters the perceived emotions about the words or phrases.

In Japan, the medical term for depression was for a long time referred to as “utsubyo … an incurable and inborn depression of psychotic proportions” (Watters 524). In the United States, taking antidepressants in hopes of alleviating the effects of depression is extremely common, particularly because the word depression has no truly negative connotation to it. However, in Japan, people would refuse to accept that they had depression and think extremely negatively about the condition. This thinking was due in large part to the language difference, as people did not want to be diagnosed with a condition that seemed so severe to them.

In order to combat this language barrier, pharmaceutical companies marketed depression as “a cold of the soul” (Watters 524). By adjusting the language associated with depression, the pharmaceutical companies were able to change the Japanese people’s emotions about depression, making them more likely to then go out and purchase antidepressants to help cure them of their condition. The idea that depression was like a cold altered the predetermined emotions that the Japanese had about the disease. Because language can alter the way in which people perceive their emotions, it shapes the experience of it as well.

While language can alter how people perceive emotions, the words and actions of people also play a large part in controlling a person’s feelings and emotions. Emotions are not something that are generally expressed when people are by themselves, but rather influenced heavily on the environment and things going on around them. Fredrickson states that “under the influence of oxytocin … your skills for forging connections sharpen, which increases your ability to cultivate positivity resonance” (120). Because a person’s ability to communicate and bond with another is improved, they can feel a sense of love and positivity resonance for the other person.

This could not be possible if the words of others did not play an integral role in the formation of a person’s feelings. The positivity resonance felt between two individuals is an emotion that is controlled by the language the two people are speaking. In addition, as Fredrickson makes evident with the airport scenario, when in an intriguing conversation with another person, “you hung on her every word … you both enjoyed the chance to connect, rather than read, while you waited for your plane together” (111). During this encounter, the emotions felt were connected with those of the college student involved in the conversation.

However, it was her words and her story that controlled the emotions and the direction of the dialogue. In the case of the pharmaceutical companies in Japan, at first the Japanese people who had been introduced to a new word for depression were still hesitant to take antidepressants. This was the case because it was equated to a cold by pharmaceutical companies; oftentimes when a person has a cold, he or she simply waits it out until it goes away, which is what the Japanese were doing with depression. In response to the lack of care given to the disease, pharmaceutical companies countered that by pointing to increased suicide rates among those who suffered from depression in order to convince the people of Japan that the medicine for depression was necessary (Watters 526).

Because of the actions taken by the drug companies, the perception of depression was once again altered in the eyes of the Japanese. They no longer saw it as the cold it was originally compared to, but as something that needed to be treated for it go away. The way people communicate through their language and their actions plays a major role in controlling the emotions of others. In addition to altering the perception of emotions as well as controlling the emotions of others, language can be shown to shape the experience of emotion because it allows people to truly understand and comprehend the emotions they are feeling.

Without some form of language, people would likely either fail to show any emotion altogether or be unaware of why they are experiencing certain emotions. This can be seen when two people actively engaged in a conversation begin to experience positivity resonance along with a sense of neural coupling. Usually, “when you and another truly connect, love reverberates between you. In the very moment that you experience positivity resonance, your brain syncs up with the other person’s brain” (Fredrickson 110). Through the language and communication shared with others, people can understand the emotion of love that they feel within themselves.

Not only do they simply feel the emotion, they also can truly comprehend through the language shared how and why they feel the way they do. Fredrickson also claims that “by sharing a smile, a laugh, a common passion, or an engaging story-you become attuned, with genuine care and concern for the other” (113). Even something as simple as a shared smile can lead to neural coupling within the brain and positive emotions of love. This unspoken language helps see emotion in a new light, as the happiness and care felt towards another can be realized by a simple shared smile or laugh, and it can thus lead to a plethora of new emotions within the body.

These new emotions can only be understood through the language spoken and used within conversation. In addition, as Watters writes, the original definition of depression in Japan was described as “a mental illness that was as chronic and devastating as schizophrenia” (516). Because of the difference in language translation, the emotions the Japanese felt about depression were far different from what people in the United States thought about it. They understood the disease differently based on the language and as a result had much more negative emotions towards depression. Additionally, when both Americans and Japanese people were asked about the words they connected with depression, the results were extremely contrasting. Native Japanese people looked outward and away from their bodies to describe it, while Americans used words that corresponded to internal feelings (Watters 521-22). The differences in translation from Japanese to English lead to different perspectives on the same word or phrase.