[Sigia-l] emotions/categories in different languages (was Re: i18n effects in folksonomies)

[Billie Mandel]

In response to 

> I don't think that would be true for every category, language or
cultural group. I can understand French, Spanish and English crossing
over, but not say, Hindi and Cantonese. Once you get away from the
really obvious tags like 'family' 'house' 'work' how are the emotions
tags defined?

>>> Peter Van Dijck <peter at poorbuthappy.com> 1/17/2005 12:31:34 AM >>>
asked:

Why wouldn't people in Cantonese use the "family" or "butterfly" tag? 
You mention emotions, why do you think they're different in other
languages? (Not disagreeing with you, just curious why.)

I have a few thoughts on how emotions might be different in other
languages, mainly anecdotal: 

I studied Russian for a year or so at university, and what fascinated
me most about it was the manifold ways of expressing the English verb
"to go" - you can go once or multiple times, on foot or by vehicle, go
directly there/back or permit yourself to meander on the way, and
express all of this intent in one simple verb selection.  So when a
Russian speaker tells me "I'm going to the store," s/he has
comparatively given me much more information than the comparable English
speaker (native Russian speakers, please correct me if you disagree -
this was my impression as a non-native learner).  

I'm having a related thought now as a beginning German speaker - it's
interesting to me that feelings are communicated in German (and in
Russian as well, I suppose) with the dative case, as states that happen
to a person rather than as essential aspects of that person's being, as
in English - "there/it is cold to me" vs "I am/feel cold."  Related, as
well, to the proverbial "15 Eskimo words for snow" conversation (fun
link: http://www.princeton.edu/~browning/snow.html)

These issues seem quite relevant to taxonomies that are meant for
international audiences, or in a localization context. Usable structure
for information and the level at which a given category is perceived
could vary between languages, because of this kind of language-based
cognitive difference (though I did once have this conversation with a
linguist who thought this was absolute crap).  Interesting to think
about what it means in the context of bottom-up folksonomy - how this
kind of one-to-many/vice versa map will develop in the chaotic universe
of international web users. 

Thanks, Peter et al, for the day's brain candy.

- Billie