Re: Concerning trolls - a translation excercise

--- On Fri, 2/20/09, David J. Peterson <dedalvs@...> wrote:

> (and this is exact Elbert
> and Pukui definition): "affectionate grief,
> pity."  What a fantastic
> English definition of pity!  Affectionate grief.  I think
> that really
> captures it.
That's an interesting approach. It inspired me to try to define emotional states (and
words for those states) in terms of certain "dimensions" in a multi-dimensional
matrix.

One dimension, for example, might be whether a referenced event or experience
happened in the past, is happening now, or will happen in the future or might
happen in the future. ("past" would include states like "regret", "nostalgia",
... ; "present" would include things like "envy", "pity", "compassion", ...
"future" would include things like "hope", "fear", "anticipation",
"impatience",...)

Another dimension might be whether the event or experience was positive or negative
(the difference between "excitement" and "dread").

Another dimension might be whether the event or experience happens to the self or to
another (the difference between "satisfaction" and "envy", or between
"suffering" and "pity").

Another dimension might be the difference between whether the event or experience
actually takes place or not, (the difference between "nostalgia" over a past
event vs. "regret" over having missed out on the experience or event.)

Another dimension would indicate whether the emotional state was positive or negative,
(the difference between "sympathetic joy" over another's good fortune or "envy"
over that same good fortune).

So each emotional state could be defined in terms of the value of each dimension or parameter. Thus

"envy" = negative reaction to past or present positive event for another

"compassion" = positive reaction to past or present negative event for another

"anticipation" = positive reaction to probable future positive event for self.

"regret" = negative reaction to missed past opportunity for positive event for self.

...and so on

Now with a syllable to represent each value of each parameter, the pieces could be
strung together to form the word for that emotional state.

This might also result in words for emotional states for which there are no English
equivalents, such as "positive reaction to missed opportunity for positive
event for another." such as feeling good because George didn't get a promotion.

--gary

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