Analysing Nostalgia in Cross-Linguistic Perspective

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents a contrastive semantic analysis of the English nostalgia, the Italian nostalgìa and the Japanese natsukashii adopting the methodology of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage. It is argued that: (i) emotion terms of different languages reflect different and culture-specific conceptualisations of human feelings; (ii) the Anglo conceptualisation of feelings is not valid for all cultures; (iii) linguistic analysis is central to the analysis of human feelings. The paper challenges the claim made by some psychologists that the English word nostalgia expresses a feeling which is “pancultural” and criticizes the use of English emotion terms as the basis for discussions on human feelings.