Emotional Ratings Of English Words

Emotional ratings of words refer to the perception of words along valence,arousal and dominance dimensions.The ratings can be used to judge whether emotional dimensions have any influences on word processing.To date,a large number of empirical studies on emotional ratings have been conducted in the domains of linguistics,psychology and cognitive science.These studies provided support for emotional effect on word processing.However,the focus of the related studies was merely on native languages,and the studies about emotional ratings for second languages were relatively fewer.Therefore,this study aims to employ Chinese EFL learners to rate the English words compiled from the vocabulary syllabus of CET-4 and will conduct a comparison of emotional ratings between Chinese EFL learners and English native speakers.To be specific,this study aims to address three research questions:(1)What are the differences and similarities of emotional ratings between Chinese EFL learners and English native speakers along valence dimension?(2)What are the differences and similarities of emotional ratings between Chinese EFL learners and English native speakers along arousal dimension?(3)What are the differences of emotional ratings between Chinese EFL learners and English native speakers along dominance dimension?This study conducts the emotional ratings for English words among 2000 non-English majors in China by means of paper-pencil method.And an L2 database of emotional ratings for English words along valence,arousal and dominance dimensions is built.Based on the comparison of emotional ratings between Chinese EFL learners and English native speakers,this study finds that:(1)In terms of valence dimension,the ratings made by Chinese EFL learners and those made by English native speakers present positive correlations,but English native speakers rate a number of words as more pleasant or more unpleasant,while Chinese EFL learners rate as moderately pleasant or unpleasant.(2)The ratings of arousal also show that ratings provided by Chinese EFL learners and ratings provided by English native speakers are positively correlated.But the former is higher than the latter on the whole.Specifically speaking,the ratings made by Chinese EFL learners present higher arousal while ratings made by English native speakers present lower arousal.(3)The ratings of dominance also show a positive correlation between Chinese EFL learners and English native speakers,but no significant differences in dominance's ratings of words are found along dominance dimension.