Je fais crise d’angoisse sur crise d’angoisse, de pire en pire : comment intensifier la peur dans le discours sur la « fin du monde »

This paper analyses the comments of internet users related to the news about the end of the world on the 21st of December, 2012. We consider which linguistic constructions allow fear to intensify. We indicate a semantic model of intensification which corresponds to the causative construction: Si Intens causes Si intens [very p (quality / condition)] causes [very q (act / new condition)], constituting the basis for the linguistic expression of fear. Because the end of the world is an unimaginable event, it causes fear – a primary and universal emotion. Surfers exploit various (formal, lexical, graphic, etc.) procedures which provide an opportunity for the feelings of fear to intensify. The intensification of the cause (approaching end of the world) provokes an intensification of the consequence (feeling of fear). The analysis is part of the work of the research group DiSEM (Discourse Semantics Inference) composed of researchers from the Pedagogical University of Cracow.This paper analyses the comments of internet users related to the news about the end of the world on the 21st of December, 2012. We consider which linguistic constructions allow fear to intensify. We indicate a semantic model of intensification which corresponds to the causative construction: Si Intens causes Si intens [very p (quality / condition)] causes [very q (act / new condition)], constituting the basis for the linguistic expression of fear. Because the end of the world is an unimaginable event, it causes fear – a primary and universal emotion. Surfers exploit various (formal, lexical, graphic, etc.) procedures which provide an opportunity for the feelings of fear to intensify. The intensification of the cause (approaching end of the world) provokes an intensification of the consequence (feeling of fear). The analysis is part of the work of the research group DiSEM (Discourse Semantics Inference) composed of researchers from the Pedagogical University of Cracow

RRL: A Rich Representation Language for the Description of Agent Behaviour in NECA

In this paper, we describe the Rich Representation Language (RRL) which is used in the NECA system. The NECA system generates interactions between two or more animated characters. The RRL is a formal framework for representing the information that is exchanged at the interfaces between the various NECA system modules

Language and emotive factors : the outline of problems involved

The cognitive framework seems to comply with the need of interdisciplinary outlook on the issue of emotions, as it itself draws upon findings of psychological, anthropological and philosophical research. Along with undertaking further studies on the conceptualization of emotions in different languages, from the detailed analysis of the repertoire of linguistic means used for talking about emotions to investigation into tendencies to use metaphors or metonymies to talk about emotions, some broader conclusions could be drawn. The greatest challenge seems to be establishing whether there are any cultural (social, economical, conventional, political, religious) conditions that may influence the relevant changes in conceptualizing emotions in different languages and whether it is possible to point to any laws or regularities that would govern these changes