Emotional effects of figurative language: The case of song lyrics
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2023-04-07
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en
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In this thesis, the well-established relationship between figurative language and emotion was studied in a novel way. It was investigated whether figurative expressions of emotion in song lyrics affect the perceived emotional intensity of these lyrics. The method consisted of two parts: annotation of lyrics of 60 Dutch songs by the researcher, and rating of these lyrics’ emotional intensity on several scales by 64 participants in an online survey. These ratings were measured using both dimensional and categorical frameworks of emotion. The results show that the overall emotional intensity of lyrics is not predicted by the proportion of figurative emotion expressions in the text, but the positive and negative emotional intensity are. Furthermore, the proportion of figurative expressions of emotion in lyrics predicted the perceived intensity of two emotions (frustration and suffering) but not of the other six (joy, longing, love, pride, remorse, sadness).
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