Jausmų raiška jaustukais mokinių kalboje

AGNĖ ALEKSAITĖ Institute of the Lithuanian Language EXPRESSION OF EMOTIONS THROUGH INTERJECTIONS IN STUDENTS’ LANGUAGE KEYWORDS: interjections, students’ language, loanwords, swearwords. Interjections are actively used in spoken language to express a wide variety of feelings. This invariable part of speech “consists of words that convey feelings, acts of will, and impulses directly and expressively, without naming them” (DLKG 2006: 462). Although emoticons are often used for this purpose in electronic communication, which nowadays frequently replaces spoken communication (see Wolf 2000: 827–833; Tossell 2012: 659–663), verbal expression of feelings is also common here, and interjections are particularly well suited to it. However, there has been almost no research into how interjections function in contemporary Lithuanian, or what changes and innovations have occurred (more research has been devoted to the phonosemantics of interjections; cf. Zabarskaitė 2009: 91–110). Students’ language is particularly well suited to research, as it may reveal various linguistic innovations or the beginnings of change. Since 2015, the School Lithuanian Studies Group (headed by Dr. Aurelija Tamulionienė) has been operating at the Centre for Standard Language Research of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, where it investigates students’ language and their linguistic attitudes. The association “Lituanistų sambūris,” in cooperation with researchers from the School Lithuanian Studies Group, conducted two surveys of students and teachers on Lithuanian vocabulary, its use, teaching, and assessment, as part of the project “Integration of Changes in the Lexicon of Modern Lithuanian into the Curriculum and Development of Teachers’ Subject Competencies,” supported by the Education Development Centre. In September 2015, students were given a 15-question questionnaire on the survey website apklausa.lt. It covered the use of international words, dialect forms, neologisms, and swearwords, as well as vocabulary richness (students had to explain the meanings of the words aukštielninkas and meldai, state which interjections they use to express their feelings in specified situations when they are with and communicating with friends, and so on). Students’ writing habits in electronic communication and their ability to use print or online dictionaries were also studied. The aim of the questionnaire was to assess students’ knowledge of various layers of vocabulary and to explore the possibilities for broader studies based on individual survey topics. The aim of the article is to examine the expression of feelings through interjections in students’ language and assess the ratio of Lithuanian to non-Lithuanian interjections, based on the results of the questionnaire administered to students. One of the 15 questions presented to students was: Which interjections would you use to express your feelings in the situations described when you are with and communicating with friends? The question was intended to investigate whether students understand what interjections are and to determine which ones they use most often. The hypothesis was that Lithuanian and English interjections compete strongly in usage, or that the latter may even predominate (see figure). The prestige of English has a considerable influence on the appearance of elements of this foreign language in the native language (for more, see Sauciuc BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AGNĖ ALEKSAITĖ. Jausmų raiška jaustukais mokinių kalboje | 2 2006: 269; Vaicekauskienė 2007: 34). “Contact between two cultures is probably rarely fully reciprocal; more often it is a relationship between a ‘giving’ and a ‘receiving’ side. The giving side is the prestigious culture, to which the receiving culture looks for guidance, and whose prestige also confers prestige on its language” (Vaicekauskienė 2007: 39). Thus, like other means of linguistic expression, interjections are first borrowed by students from the prestigious language, in an effort not only to make their own language prestigious, but also to avoid standing out among their peers. It should be emphasized that this means of emotional and expressive communication, once introduced from a foreign language, quickly takes hold in the native language and becomes established in the minds of language users (a long and close contact between the “receiving” and “giving” cultures is by no means necessary). For example, the vast majority of students from a Romanian higher education institution who came to Italy through a cultural exchange program and spent only 10 days in the country immediately borrowed and began using interjections such as bah and boh from Italian (Sauciuc 2006: 269). FIG. Excerpts from conversations among girls aged 8–11 on the website www.super.lt (2010) (Rita Miliūnaitė’s slide. Lithuanian and non-Lithuanian interjections are highlighted.) In his theory of basic emotions (feelings), American psychologist Robert Plutchik distinguished eight primary emotions (feelings): acceptance, disgust, anger, fear, joy, grief, surprise, and anticipation (curiosity) (Lekavičienė 2008: 383). The question about interjections in the survey covered five of the eight primary feelings that students understand better: anger, fear, joy, disgust, and surprise. To find out which interjections students use, they were presented with specific situations close to their everyday lives, in which they needed to express a feeling. It was assumed that most students answered the questions honestly. The survey included 532 students from different Lithuanian cities, and this number of respondents is sufficient to discern tendencies in how and through which interjections students tend to express their feelings when they are with and communicating with friends. Since the survey was anonymous, students (their age groups were not distinguished) were asked to indicate only the school they attended. As the responses show, the survey included students from schools and gymnasiums in Anykščiai, Elektrėnai, Kaunas, Kėdainiai, Kretinga, Mažeikiai, Palanga, Plungė, Raseiniai, Telšiai, Trakai, Ukmergė, Vilnius, and Zarasai. The first situation presented to students in the survey was: you are telling someone that while walking you tripped over something and hurt your leg. As can be seen from Table 1, the students’ responses are dominated by the English borrowing ouch, which is not used in standard language, and its closest Lithuanian equivalents—ai, oi (for more about BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AGNĖ ALEKSAITĖ. Jausmų raiška jaustukais mokinių kalboje | 3 the interjection auč and its usage; see Dictionary of Lithuanian Neologisms (ND)). In very rare cases, students choose ideophones instead of interjections (pyst, keberio kšt, pokšt, etc.), but it cannot be claimed that they fail to distinguish between the two different parts of speech—interjections and ideophones; most likely, some wanted to emphasize not the feelings they experienced but the sounds of a specific action—stumbling. Incidentally, “ideophones are considered a separate part of speech only in Lithuanian and in some other non-Indo-European languages. In the grammars of other languages, they are generally classified as interjections, and sometimes as verbs” (DLKG 2006: 469). TABLE 1. Interjections used by angry students and words used in their place1 Lithuanian interjections and ideophones Non-Lithuanian interjections (foreignisms) Words used in place of interjections (swear words, euphemisms) Ai, aj (72) Auč, au, auch, auuch, ouch, ouč, jauč, tauč (85) [Strong Russian swear word] Oi, oj, oooi (65) Ups (3) Blemba, bliamba, blmb (17) Ui, uj, uoj (18) For fuck sake, ffs (3) Devil, damn it (8) Bam, bum (15), bumt (1) The house goes (1) Pyst, pist (12) A hundred thunderbolts (1) Keberio kšt (3) A hundred whistles (1) Bang (3) The researcher of expressive lexicon Jolanta Zabarskaitė emphasizes in the article “Interjections in Language and Speech” that “swear words, peripheral lexical units that fluctuate in the system between interjections and phraseological units, perform the same emotional function as interjections” (Zabarskaitė 2009: 93–94); therefore, many students prefer swear words rather than interjections when expressing anger. Most often, the young people listed various Russian swear words, although they also mentioned Lithuanian curses (though it is doubtful whether they actually use them), e.g.: damn, a hundred thunderbolts, a hundred whistles. Lithuanian curses are accompanied by euphemisms for Russian swear words, such as bliamba and the house is going. When examining the responses, it was observed that many students did not give any interjections at all to express anger—either they did not understand the task or do not use them. Here and elsewhere in this article, authentic student language is presented: A little mishap happened today:D You won't believe what happened... I was going up the stairs, didn't notice one more step and fell... I felt so stupid:D; I badly scraped my leg, it hurts so much; Guess what, I was walking and tripped, banging my leg. The second situation: you are pleasantly surprised—you have received an unexpected gift. Lithuanian interjections predominate in students’ responses expressing pleasant surprise (see Table 2). To convey great surprise, students pronounce the vowel or consonant of an interjection with prolongation and reflect this in writing by extending it 1 In this and the other tables, the numbers in parentheses next to interjections and other emotionally connoted words indicate how often these expressive devices were used in students’ responses to the questionnaire items. Other spelling variants are also given alongside the main emotionally connoted word. BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AGNĖ ALEKSAITĖ. Jausmų raiška jaustukais mokinių kalboje | 4 is doubled, e.g., oo, avv, or tripled, e.g., ooo. When expressing anger, young people usually use primary, or non-derived, interjections, which “do not have a defined morphological form” (DLKG 2006: 462), but in the second situation secondary, or derived, interjections also occur—“derivatives of independent words that have lost their denotative function and often their morphological features as well” (DLKG 2006: 463), e.g., valio (cf. valioti). When expressing surprise, young people use not only words expressing linguistic etiquette, e.g., thank you, thank you very much, but also swearwords, since “[s]wearwords do not always express negative feelings toward reality; sometimes people swear simply to express strong, ‘overheated’ emotions (e.g., the unexpected, intense surprise, or even sudden good fortune, etc.)” (Zabarskaitė 2009: 101). TABLE 2. Interjections used by surprised students and words used in their place Lithuanian interjections Non-Lithuanian interjections (Englishisms) Words used in place of interjections (swearwords, slang) Oho (91) Wow (14); vau (42); wau (2) Geras (4); nu čia geras (1); kai geras (1) O, oo, ooo (47) Omg (21) Jėga (3) Thank you (30), thank you very much (4), thank you very much (5) Aww, aw (16); avv (2) py... [uncensored word] Ak (18) Valio (10) A few students express surprise mixed with gratitude not through interjections, but in longer sentences, for example: You’re so sweet, how cute of you; How lovely! This is the first time I’ve received such an unexpected gift; Dude, I got a great gift; I totally wasn’t expecting it. Another situation presented to the students was you were disgusted by an unpleasant smell. In the students’ responses, only Lithuanian interjections predominate; English borrowings occur only sporadically (see Table 3). The interjection most commonly used by students, fu, is not included in the Dictionary of Contemporary Lithuanian (DŽ), although it is included in the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language and the Dictionary of Standard Lithuanian (BŽ), which is currently being compiled. It is true that the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language (LKŽ) does not clearly distinguish between the interjections fu, fui and fe, but it is thought that these interjections, which express disgust, nevertheless differ in stylistic nuance: “fe – 1. to express disgust (emotional function): Fe, throw it away!; 2. to express revulsion (emotional function): Fe, what a pimply one. fi – used in an affected manner to express disgust (emotional function): Fi, how disgusting. fu – 1. to express disgust: Fu, what a filthy dog; 2. to express revulsion: Fu, what a horrible girl. yuck – 1. to express stronger disgust: Yuck, don’t eat those fruits; 2. to express greater revulsion: I don’t understand those new customs—yuck” (Zabarskaitė 2009: 93). BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AGNĖ ALEKSAITĖ. Jausmų raiška jaustukais mokinių kalboje | 5 TABLE 3. Interjections used by students to express disgust and words that substitute for them Lithuanian interjections Non-Lithuanian interjections (Anglicisms) Words substituting for interjections (swear words) Ugh, ugh (195); ugh, it stinks (8); ugh (12); yuck, yuck (88); bleh (22); blech (2); blech (1) Omg (1) [When I’m telling a story with a lot of feeling, Russian words may slip out] Ew (5); ew (12); yuck (1) Oops (1) [I usually say] for heaven’s sake.. Hmm (5) Oh dear (3); oh dear, what a smell (1) pff, pf, pfu (3); tfuuu, tfu (2) An examination of the students’ responses shows that most young people express their disgust at an unpleasant smell quite openly; nevertheless, some remain more restrained and do not show the feeling that arises: What an unpleasant smell!; It depends on what kind of friends I’m with; I probably talk that way accordingly. If it stank, I simply wouldn’t say anything; I say nothing. Another situation is being frightened. Lithuanian primary (non-derived) interjections predominate in students’ responses describing it, e.g., a, ai, oi, o (see Table 4). Lithuanian secondary (derived) interjections, such as o Dieve, o Viešpatie, o Jėzau, compete with the English abbreviation omg (English oh my God! “My God!”). TABLE 4. Interjections and words used in their place by students to express fright Lithuanian interjections Non-Lithuanian interjections (Anglicisms) Words used in place of interjections (swear words, old loanwords, euphemisms) A (93) Omg (25) Good grief! (1) Oh God (28); oh Lord; oh Jesus (10); oh Jesus, you Mary (1); oh Jesus Mary and all the saints with the holiest ones (1); dear little God (1). O bože (2) Oi (28); oj (8); uoj (3) O kurmi (1) O, ooo (23) Ai (17); aj (1) Ak (11) BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AGNĖ ALEKSAITĖ. Jausmų raiška jaustukais mokinių kalboje | 6 Occasionally, one or another Lithuanian or Russian swear word is used, as well as milder variants of them—euphemisms, e.g., o kurmi2. Admittedly, some students emphasize that various nonverbal elements, i.e., facial expressions and gestures, help them convey fright. Only a few students state that, when frightened, they use neither verbal nor nonverbal means of expression, but merely state the fact that they are frightened: Well, you scared me!; Don't scare me; You fool! The last situation presented to the students was you were very happy. Table 5 shows that the use of interjections (Lithuanian and non-Lithuanian) is roughly equal, although in this situation students give more and a wider variety of examples of non-Lithuanian interjections. It can be assumed that, when communicating with friends, young people are more inclined to express joy than anger, surprise, disgust, or fear, which is why interjection use is so varied in this particular situation. To show great joy and express satisfaction, students tend to prolong the interjection’s vowel or consonant, e.g.: jeeee, vuuuuuu, avvvv, etc. TABLE 5. Interjections and words used instead of interjections by students to express joy Lithuanian interjections Non-Lithuanian interjections (English borrowings) Words used instead of interjections (swear words, slang) Hooray (45) Yes (20); yey (12); yay (16); jay; jej; jejejejej (3); jes (3); yaaaaaaas (6) Awesome (15) Wow (22) Je, jeeee (23); jė (19); yea (2); yeee, jei (7); jės (2); jėėė (1) How nice (13) Oh (20) Wow (15); vauč; wow (5) Unreal (2) Aaa (8) Omg (10) Oh God (4); oh God, thank you! (1) Wuhu (2); vuhu (2); vūhū; woho, woohoo (4); wooo, woo woo, uhu (2); woho (2); vuuuuuu (1); yohoo (1) Oh (4) Aww (4); avvvv... (1) The responses revealed that only a few students would express their joy through body language rather than linguistic means: I express my joy through bodily actions—I will smile; I jumped for joy. The analyzed and summarized data on interjections in students’ speech are presented in Table 6. 2 This interjection is not accidental. Although infrequently, it is used in spoken language and electronic communication. BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AGNĖ ALEKSAITĖ. Jausmų raiška jaustukais mokinių kalboje | 7 TABLE 6. Ratio of Lithuanian and non-Lithuanian interjections in students’ speech No. Situations Ratio of Lithuanian and non-Lithuanian interjections (percentages) Lithuanian interjections Non-Lithuanian interjections 1. You are telling someone that, while walking, you tripped over something and hurt your foot 67,5 32,5 2. You were pleasantly surprised—you received an unexpected gift 67,9 32,1 3. You were disgusted by an unpleasant smell 99,4 0,6 4. You were frightened 90 10 5. You were very happy 38,7 61,3 Since the survey method was chosen for the study, it should be noted that these results provide only a subjective picture of how students themselves monitor their speech. The actual state of interjection use would become clearer if an experiment involving objective monitoring of students’ speech were conducted (recording students’ spontaneous speech). Nevertheless, the survey conducted also reveals certain tendencies in contemporary students’ expressive spoken language. CONCLUSIONS After examining students’ answers about the expression of feelings through linguistic means, several conclusions can be drawn: 1. In students’ private communication, Lithuanian and English interjections compete strongly. 2. Among Lithuanian interjections, students report most often using various primary (underived) interjections. 3. Students tend to use the same interjections to express quite different feelings—from anger to joy. 4. To express surprise, disgust, and fear, students report most often using Lithuanian interjections, whereas both Lithuanian and non-Lithuanian interjections are used extensively to express anger and joy. Nevertheless, when expressing joy, students report using more and a wider variety of non-Lithuanian interjections; therefore, it can be argued that this feeling is expressed most in English in the speech of the students surveyed. LITERATŪRA BŽ – Bendrinės lietuvių kalbos žodynas (rengiamas). Prieiga internete: http://bkz.lki.lt DLKG – Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos gramatika, red. V. Ambrazas. Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas, 2006. BENDRINĖ KALBA | 88 (2015) www.bendrinekalba.lt ISSN 2351-7204 AGNĖ ALEKSAITĖ, Jausmų raiška jaustukais mokinių kalboje | 8 DŽ – Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos žodynas (elektroninis variantas), red. S. Keinys, Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos institutas, 2006. Prieiga internete: http://www.dz.lt Lekavičienė R. ir kt. 2008: Psichologija šiandien. 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