‘I have a gut feeling.’ Evaluation of emotion prototypicality in a second language

Abstract

The emotion triggered by emotion words is usually reduced in a second language (L2) compared with a first language (L1). In L1, several features contribute to the representation of affective meaning in highly emotion prototypical words (e.g., valence, arousal), particularly feelings and interoception (internal bodily sensations). We had English-Spanish L2 users to rate Spanish words on various features to examine whether the prototypicality of emotion words is determined by the same features in L1 and L2. Prototypicality obtained higher ratings in L2 than in L1, in contrast, all the other features had lower ratings in L2. Interoception predicted prototypicality significantly less in L2 than in L1, suggesting that L2 users do not rely on body sensation as much as L1 users when evaluating emotional prototypicality and supporting the theory of disembodied emotion in L2. The ratings provide a database of emotion words in L2 Spanish with new features like prototypicality, feelings and interoception.