In Russian Love Is Expressed by 740 Synonyms

11:02, June 8, 2022

University philologist has published a dictionary that contains more than 11,000 words of emotion

Lyudmila Babenko, professor at the Ural Federal University, has published "The Alphabet of Emotions: A Dictionary-Thesaurus of Emotional Vocabulary". This is the first dictionary with 11210 words devoted to and describing human emotions, and the first ideographic dictionary where the vocabulary is divided into thematic groups naming basic emotions. The creation of the dictionary was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (Project No. 16-18-02005).

Thus, in the same group with the word "in love" are included the words "passionate", "fiery", "indifferent", "pathetic" and "philanthropic". The formation of the emotion of love can be described by the "fall in love," or one can use "crash into" or "addicted," which demonstrates the degree to which one is in love. The same thematic group describing the vocabulary of love also includes the words "to enchant" and "to bewitch", although without the emotional coloring these are completely different processes, unrelated to love. The author notes that it is possible to love not only a person, but also, for example, books or the homeland, so a person experiencing love can be called a "book eater", a "hunter" and a "patriot". A total of 740 synonyms express love.

"25% of the synonymic picture of the world is a reflection of emotions. A description of a single emotion can have several interpretations. Through the set of these words we can also tell about national priorities - in our Russian consciousness there is such a variety of evaluations, and this evaluation is not always positive. Love and hate go side by side even by the number of words in the group," says Lyudmila Babenko.

Dislike, hatred is reflected in more than 570 words. The feeling can be expressed as towards others in the form of "antipathy", "condemnation", "persecution", and can be reflected in the words "self-judgment", "self-denunciation". All these words make it possible to identify the emotive dominant in a person: not just the emotion itself, but its main quality, to describe its character and internal experiences. As an example, the author gives the word "nausea," which describes a physiological condition. Sometimes it is used in the context of "nauseated by this person or activity".

"The Alphabet of Emotions will be useful not only to linguists, but also to specialists in the psychology of emotions. By understanding that each word expresses a certain emotion, we can understand what emotions a person is experiencing. This is what psychologists do: they work with examples, identify types of emotions, studying the inner world of a person. According to the words used in speech we can determine the emotional state or attitude of a person to something, the process of formation of emotions, their external expression and impact on others, to understand the basic features of a person's character," adds Lyudmila Babenko.

The news article was translated by UrFU International Marketing Office
info.international@urfu.ru, +7 (343) 375-45-19