The nature of emotion concepts and whether there are any that are universally “basic” remains controversial, as acknowledged in the article “Language and Emotion.” The suggestion that some emotions are embodied through a process of association between neural networks for bodily sensations and neural circuitry dedicated to linguistic metaphor is interesting, but speculative. However, it is a hypothesis that risks relegating speakers of languages that lack sophisticated metaphors to a lower level on some scale of linguistic evolution.

ABSTRACTThis study investigated the relationship of emotional intelligence and age to adolescents’ free labelling responses to proposed facial expressions and situations for disgust. Emotional intelligence continues to develop throughout adolescence and may provide needed cognitive support for linking the disgust face to the disgust script. Emotional intelligence, specifically, regulating one’s own and others emotions, and age predicted adolescents’ labelling of disgust facial expressions as disgusted. Older adolescents were more likely to label disgust faces as disgusted than were younger adolescents – (...) an effect not found for disgust situations. Labelling the disgust face as disgusted continues to increase until late adolescence. The addition of the disgust face to the disgust script occurs in late adolescence and it is related to the cognitive abilities associated with emotional intelligence. (shrink)