Organizing the germans’ emotional world through the prism of the opposition ORDNUNG vs. CHAOS: Ambivalent emotion concepts

Abstract

The authors prove the assumption that the linguo-cultural opposition ORDNUNG vs. CHAOS has a certain influence on the formation of such ethno-specific ambivalent emotion concepts (EC) SEHNSUCHT, FERNWEH AND HEIMWEH in the German linguo-culture. Due to the applied methodology (definitional and contextual analyses of EC names) it was established that the German chaos and metaphysical fear (ANGST) oppose a kind of "safety-cosiness quartet", which is represented by concepts SICHERHEIT, GEBORGENHEIT, GEMÜTLICHKEIT and ZUVERLÄSSIGKEIT. It was revealed that the universal principle of perception of the objective world ONE’S OWN vs. ALIEN serves as the basis for the opposition ORDNUNG vs. CHAOS and its derivative ANGST vs. SICHERHEIT & GEBORGENHEIT & GEMÜTLICHKEIT & ZUVERLÄSSIGKEIT. This principle caused "disruption" of the inner world of the German linguo-culture representatives because, on the one hand, they strive for a sense of safety, security, comfort, and stability, which generates "their own" world, but, on the other hand, they constantly try to go beyond the latter, since the "alien" world is associated not only with chaos and danger but also with new sensations and experience. Such an emotional "disruption" of the German people between metaphysical fear and a "safety-cosiness quartet", to some extent, gave rise to the ambivalence of the EC SEHNSUCHT, FERNWEH and HEIMWEH.