CONCEPTUAL FEATURES OF EMOTION SADNESS IN THE ENGLISH PICTURE OF THE WORLD

Abstract

This article deals with the conceptual features of emotion SADNESS in the English picture of the world, its etymological characteristics are highlighted, the name of emotion is determined, the generic and specific features of emotion SADNESS are indicated. The main etymological feature of the emotion is the negative evaluation that covers the physical and moral spheres of the human life and defines the internal form of a lexical unit – the name of emotion. The name of emotion SADNESS is the adjective sad, the meaning of the emotion is revealed through six meanings, most of which are represented by the adjective sad, which is the primary lexical unit for a number of derivatives, along with the high frequency of its use and etymologically the initial appearance in the language. Generic and specific characteristics of emotion SADNESS are singled out, accordingly sadness is treated as a negative emotional state, caused by the subject’s assessment of the situation or event as malefactive, which contributes to the emergence of the feeling of misfortune, loneliness, and mournfulness. In the article the lexical-semantic field of emotion SADNESS is built, which allows to select the hierarchical structure of lexical units united by the integral sem. The semantic space of emotion SADNESS is structured by the lexical-semantic field with a dominant, represented by the name of the emotion – a polysemantic lexeme sad with semantic extensions, formed by the meanings of the adjective sad and organized into three groups: 1) a group united by the hypersemic “unhappy” including the meaning of “experiencing or showing sadness, misfortune; tragic”; 2) a group united by the hypersemic “tragic” including the meaning of “causing or transmitting great sorrow, grief”; 3) a group, united by the hypersemic “deplorable” including the meaning of “one that causes pity; unlucky, poor”. Accordingly, three radial-chain microfields with the appropriate extensions are distinguished: microfield “Unhappy” with extensions of “Unfortunate” and “Displeased”, microfield “Sorrowful” with extensions “Distressing” and “Dreadful”, microfield “Deplorable” with extension “Disgraceful”.