On the Semantics of jnd. A Lexical-Semantic Analysis of the ‘Sadness’ Lexeme jnd

Abstract

This article presents a lexical-semantic analysis of the lexeme jnd (Wb 1, 102.16–18) “betrübt sein, traurig sein”, “die Trauer, das Trauern”, “der Betrübte”; it contends that the current understanding of jnd requires some revision. Considering theoretical developments in the field of emotion research, namely that the conceptualisation and lexicalisation of emotions is strongly influenced by cultural attitudes, values and beliefs, and that emotion lexemes seldom have cross-cultural equivalents, it can no longer be presumed that jnd is a direct equivalent of the modern Western emotion of ‘sadness’. Based on the close contextual analysis of the surviving verbal and nominal attestations of jnd in the textual record, this article identifies and describes the senses of the lexeme and offers a diachronic analysis of how the identified senses evolved over jnd’s lifespan of use. To conclude, this article briefly considers the extent to which the revised meaning of jnd generated in this research overlaps with the anglophone semantic field of ‘sadness’.