A Linguistic Exploration of the Complex Emotion ENVY:Comparing Mandarin XIANMU and English ENVY
Shu-pei Hsiao
National Taiwan University

Lily I-wen Su*National Taiwan University

ABSTRACT
Emotion has been widely studied interdisciplinarily. However, relatively few
studies have paid attention to the linguistically confounded (Cristiano & Maria, 2009)
complex emotions (Johnson-Laird, 1987/1989) of the loosely synonymous pair ofenvy and jealousy (Parrot & Smith 1993). ENVY and JEALOUSY are often
regarded as comparable complex emotions because they are sometimes usedinterchangeably and they both contain the shared basic emotion of disgust. In view ofthe claim that every culture has multiple, sometimes quite different, ways of nuancing
the same emotions or emotive words, the present study aims to investigate how theMandarin ‘equivalent’ of ENVY, XIANMU, is understood in the language.
Specifically, the present study aims to explore how one’s idea of the more
complex emotion, XIANMU, can be influenced by the resources available in one’slanguage, and to what extent, XIANMU is similar to or different from its Englishequivalent, ENVY. The present study is mainly devoted to the grammatical usages ofand the pragmatic functions associated with the two pairs of “near-synonyms”: they
are respectively XIANMU (admiration-envy) vs. JIDU (jealousy) and ENVY vs.
JEALOUSY.
Based on our pilot study, Mandarin XIANMU is found to be generally primed bywords containing the embodied attributes of mouth and eyes. Expressions used tosatisfy one’s desire of food define the original sense of XIANMU, a word typicallyused to express one’s longing for what one lacks. Furthermore, our data show thatXIANMU is different in its use from its English translation of ENVY: XIANMU can beinterpreted and understood either positively or negatively as two different emotions,depending on the perspectives of the cognitive subject. It could be used in a negative
sense commonly found in its English equivalent ENVY, especially when the negative
emotion of JIDU (jealousy) is implied. It can also positively emphasize the desired
outcome when one wishes to possess the much desired due to his lack of it.
Based on corpus data, our study further confirms that an overt cause is normallymentioned in the case of XIANMU (94%), whereas such overt cause is not usuallymentioned (only 26% does) in the case of JIDU. We suspect intersubjectivity(Traugott 2003) is at work here when describing one’s emotion of being envious.
Such is not the case as observed in the Enlgish ENVY/JEALOUSY pair. For ENVY
and JEALOUSY, an overt cause is usually mentioned, and they are usedinterchangably.
The close tie between emotions and linguistic expressions shows that different
connotations of emotion words can be triggered by cognitive and cultural factors. Forexample, XIANMU can either mean ENVY or ADMIRATION, depending on theperspective taken by the cognitive subject in the very context. XIANMU therefore
should not be treated as a linguistic equivalent of the English ENVY.

Keywords: Complex emotion; XIANMU (admiration/envy); perspectival subjectivity

REFERENCES
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Parrott, W.Gerrod & Richard H. Smith. 1993. Distinguishing the experiences of envy
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Traugott, Elizabeth Closs. 2003. From subjectification to intersubjectification. In
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