Multilingual Emotions: The Perception of Affective Information in Spanish and English

Abstract

The communication of emotions through verbal and non-verbal channels is a natural human process and a vital part of sociopragmatic compe- tence in language. Learning to perceive and express them may pose an enormous challenge to bi-multilingual individuals due to, among other reasons, major cross-linguistic and cross-cultural differences in the under- standing of emotion and its conceptualisation. The present book focuses on and explores the perception of emotion by bi/multilinguals with Spanish and English in their linguistic repertoire. It examines the complex vari- ation that exists in this perceptual ability across bi-multilingual populations as a result of individual differences in their sociobiographical, linguistic, and acculturation-based profiles.