Variation in the association of pain with physical and psychological features: a cross-linguistic comparison of meanings colexifying with pain
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2024-07-11
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en
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The semantic conceptualisation of the sensation of pain is expected to differ cross-linguistically. Literature shows examples of cross-linguistic variation of the association of the sensation of pain with physical and/or psychological features. The current study aims to answer the research question “How do meanings colexifying with the sensation denoted by the word “pain”, associate with physical and/or psychological features across language families?”. The way the sensation of pain is associated with physical and/or psychological features is explored by studying colexification patterns across a sample of 84 languages representing the six largest languages families and is compared to seven other sensations. Constructed networks of the colexification patterns, show that the sensations pain and hurt, and tired and fatigue tend to cluster, whereas appetite, hunger, thirst and itch do not. Mixed effects logistic regression models show unsystematic variation in the association of sensations with physical and/or psychological features. In the Indo-European languages the sensation of pain is likely to be conceptualised as a psychological construct and less likely as physical construct, compared to the other language families.
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