Emotional Analysis

• Grammar
• Semantics
  • Semantics/Lexical Semantics
  • Phrase-Level Semantics
  • Verbal Semantics
  • Semantics/Story behind the Psalm
• Exegetical Issues
• Discourse
  • Participant Analysis
  • Macrosyntax
  • Speech Act Analysis
  • Emotional Analysis
• Poetics
  • Poetic Structure
  • Poetic Features
• Synthesis
  • Verse-by-Verse Notes
  • Translation and Performance Notes
• Close-but-Clear
• Videos
  • Overview
  • Top 3 Exegetical Issues
  • Top 3 Poetic Features
• Post to wiki

Version: 1.0
Overseer: Ryan Sikes

Introduction

Humans feel emotions. This observation, admittedly somewhat banal, contains an idea that proves to be crucial for an emotional analysis of a piece of discourse. Namely, emotions are not something that is out there in the world. They arise in people who bring their experiences and concepts to bear on their interaction with that world. For the purposes of analyzing language this amounts to the heuristic that emotions, if they are to be found language, will be found in the "personal touches" of utterances. This vague notion of "personal touch" will be fleshed out below in the steps.

The goal of this layer is to chart out the basic emotional tone and/or progression of the psalm. To be sure, this is a descriptive endeavour. The point is to try to determine with some level of precision the emotions of the psalmist. How and for what this description is used will vary according to the norms and needs of the culture served.

Theoretically, we view emotions as componential. The field of emotional research is vast, and somewhat confusing, because it is not exactly clear what an emotion is, essentially. A number of scholars, however, have recognised that all of the many theories can be grouped in three categories that reflect something undeniably true about emotions. (1) Emotions involve cognitive processes such as evaluating, categorising and judging. (2) Emotions, obviously, involve many kinds of feelings, whether they be physical such as a fast heart-beat, or more abstract such as excitement or depression. (3) Emotions often lead to the motivation to act or even an action itself. We designate these three components as the think component, the feel component and the do component. All of this corresponds to the basic intuition that no part of our life is left untouched by our emotions, from how we think to how we act.

To sum up the essential theoretical points in this short introduction. Emotions are human and componential.

Steps

1. Format the emotional analysis table

We will be using the Discourse spreadsheet created in Close-but-Clear. If you have already completed this step in the Speech Act analysis layer, please skip ahead to Step 2.

Without modifying the clausal division of the other sections of the Think-Feel-Do spreadsheet, this is how to demarcate the utterance units for our Speech Act and Emotional analyses:

• Identify all dependent (non-fragment) clauses.
• Merge each dependent clause with its main clause:
  • Select all Speech Act and Emotional Analysis cells that belong to a single utterance (i.e., the dependent clause with its main clause).
  • On the Google Sheets toolbar, click the "Select merge type" arrow and select "Merge vertically."

• Repeat the above steps for all dependent clauses.

Proceed to complete the Emotional Analysis portion of the table using the following guidelines.

2. Strip the CBC down into "bare propositions"

Earlier in the introduction it was said that if emotions are to be detected in language, they will be reflected in the "personal" touches of the utterance. The Proposition (Emotional Analysis) column is where we strip away all of these "personal touches" so that we can account for them later. This is similar to the Proposition (Story Behind) column, but taken a few steps further. Using the Story Behind proposition as a base, the following (Hebrew) linguistic features are to be stripped away.

• Verbal semantics (tense, aspect, mood/modality)
• Adverbs and/or adverbials (this includes all prepositional phrases serving as adjuncts, negators, etc); adjectives.
• Figurative language
• Any kind of demonstrative reference (mainly the pronouns this, that, I, you, he, she, it, they ,them)
• Vocatives
• All subordinating particles and conjunctions (e.g., כִּי).
• Quantifiers (such as כל).

In terms of clause presentation, convert all verbs into present-tense and third person, as was the case in unit-level semantics.

Study the following examples from Psalm 9:

• V. 2
  • I will praise YHWH >> David praises YHWH (removal of verbal semantics)
  • with all my heart >> ø (removal of adverbial prepositional phrase)
  • all your wonderful works >> YHWH's wonderful works (removal of quantifier and reference to 'you'/'your')
  • Notice, however, that 'wonderful works' was carried over, since this is part of the semantics of נפלאות.

• V.3
  • because of you >> ø (removal of adverbial prepositional phrase)
  • Most High >> to Yahweh (removal of the vocative, replaced with the intended verbal complement)

• V. 4
  • When my enemies turn back, may they stumble and perish >> David's enemies perish (removal of figurative language "turn back" and "stumble" and removal of subordination)
  • because of your presence >> ø

• V. 6
  • You blotted out their name forever and ever >> the wicked are forgotten (removal of the 'blotting out' metaphor and the adverbs 'forever and ever'

3. Identify explicitly expressed emotions

In this layer, we are primarily concerned with emotions being expressed by the psalmist. Emotional content related to other participants (e.g., God, the nations, etc.) should be captured in the Story Behind layer. Intended emotional responses (on the part of the addressee) should be captured in the Intended perlocution (Feel) section of the Speech Act layer.

In some cases, emotional components are contained in the proposition itself, such as "David rejoices" in Ps 3:3a. In these instances, the emotion can simply be recorded in the Psalmist Feels column:

However, in addition to the propositional content, v. 3a also contains a non-propositional modifier, "because of you," which helps to explicate this emotion. This will be analyzed in the next step.

4. Account for differences between the CBC and propositions

Herein lies the heart of this analysis, and for this reason we will spend a little more time on this step. The big-picture methodological task here is to explain the differences between the CBC and the bare proposition, and then to identify differences that could be motivated by emotional expression. What this step is theoretically accomplishing is accounting for all of the linguistic features through which emotional affect could potentially be expressed. Didactically stated, we are comparing what is being said to how it is being said.

Note that some components may be lexically expressed (such as "wonderful works" below) or contained in the proposition itself (such as "David rejoices" above).

Process Overview

The process of accounting for differences between the CBC and propositions is as follows:

1. Identify elements in the CBC that were stripped out of the propositional content.
2. Categorize the non-propositional content according to their relevance to Think, Feel, or Do categories.
   1. Non-propositional content related to what the Psalmist Thinks should be entered into the appropriate assumptions column of the Story Behind table (see the example in Ps 9:3 below).
   2. Non-propositional (and non-Speech Act) content related to what the Psalmist Does should be entered into the appropriate assumptions column of the Story Behind table. Non-propositional content related to speech acts should have already been captured in the Speech Act layer; if not, consider revising your Speech Act analysis in light of this data.
   3. Non-propositional content related to what the Psalmist Feels should be analyzed in the Psalmist Feels column in the Emotional Analysis table.

The formatting when populating the columns is as follows:

• Words restored from the CBC are in bold.
• For Emotional Analysis, the emotional key term of each column is in italics.

The italics will help you in the next step when you list out all the components under the headings in the next visual. The bold will help a user immediately see the subjective element you are trying to explain.

As a reminder, we are here primarily concerned with emotions being expressed by the psalmist. Emotional content related to other participants should be captured in Story Behind, while intended emotional responses should be captured in Speech Act.

Let us walk through Ps 9:2–4.

Psalm 9:2

Let's start with the main differences between the CBC and bare propositions (not all differences will be relevant to the analysis).

• The verbal semantics are a good candidate for expressing a "personal touch." Why does the psalmist add it? In verbal semantics it was noted that these verbs express the firm resolve of the psalmist. In effect, David is certain that he will praise YHWH. In other words, the morphology encodes this resolve—this "personal touch." This certainty is reinforced by the next difference.
• Notice the words "all" and "my heart" are omitted from the bare propositions. Why would the Psalmist say "all my heart," and claim that he will tell of "all" of YHWH's wonderful work? He most certainly will not do these things literally. It would be physically impossible to tell about all of YHWH's works, and whatever the meaning of heart, to calculate whether or not one is using all of it is impossible. What is the Psalmist trying to communicate? These are instances of hyperbole, used for the purpose of expressing the fact that nothing can prevent the Psalmist from doing these things. This speaks to the psalmist's feeling of determined resolve.

As previously noted, some emotionally relevant components may be lexically expressed, such as "wonderful works" in the second clause of v. 2. As a result, astonished has also been recorded as an expressed emotion.

Psalm 9:3

• The figurative language of שמך was stripped away in the bare proposition. Why does David say this? He will not literally sing to a name. A name, of course, stands for the entity named. But it also signifies how that entity is known. In the context of the Psalm , YHWH is known by his wonderful works. This also explains why the psalmist rejoices because of YHWH.
  • Since the explication of YHWH's "name" relies on assumptions drawn from biblical context, the non-propositional content should be analyzed in the Common Ground column of Story Behind.
  • The identification of YHWH as the "most high" is not explicit, but the presupposition is required in order to render a true statement. Therefore, this identification is recorded in the Local Ground column of Story Behind. On the other hand, the significance of being the most high relies on background information to be explicated in the Common Ground column.
    
    

• The association between YHWH's name and the experience of praise and joy can be recorded in the Psalmist Feels column in Emotional Analysis.
• Verb morphology points to feeling certain once more; this morphology is reflected by the restoration of "will" from the CBC in bold. The previous Common Ground observations concerning the "most high" informs David's feeling of being secure. This association can be noted in the Notes column.

Psalm 9:4

As you can see, the CBC and bare proposition are vastly different here.

• The Think component seems the most likely place to account for the CBC's because of your presence. This "presence" results in the turning away and stumbling of the enemies. Whatever this "presence" is (e.g., a theophany, or a particular act), the presence induces terror in the enemies, and is therefore terrifying. So we include the restored presence in bold in Story Behind's Common Ground column, and make note of its terrifying character.
  • While God's presence triggers an emotional response of terror, since this emotion is experienced by enemies—and not expressed by the psalmist himself—we will not include it in our Emotional Analysis table.

• The restored CBC element When reflects, once again, David's certainty about his enemies turning back.
• Probably the most striking difference between the bare proposition and the CBC is the omission of the verbs turn back and stumble. The reason for this is that they are most likely figurative language. The main clue here is that the two seem to go together, yet they are a far cry from the ensuing event—perishing. In other words, literally stumbling after one retreats by no means results in "perishing." Why say it then? The purpose, most likely, is to prolong the event of perishing. This prolonging is certainly a technique used for affect, since the Psalmist is inviting the reader to "be there" and experience something. What is that something? It is the terrifying presence of God, as made clear in the next verse. Thus, the psalmist, by drawing out this process, exposes just how terrifying God's presence really is, but with a positive valence (since it is the psalmist's feeling).
  • Therefore, instead of the negative valence of terror, we may describe the psalmist's emotional expression using the positive valence of awe.

Repeat

This tutorial illustrated step 4 with these three verses. Complete this process for every verse, keeping in mind that you do not need to account for every single difference between the CBC and bare propositions. Be realistic and try to choose those differences which seem to contribute to the emotional profile of the Psalm. This tutorial was detailed for the sake of illustration. In many cases, the affective tone will be intuitively obvious; the purpose of the method is to enable you to explain this intuition.

5. Identify Attitudes and Associations

Emotions are often reflections of one's appraisal of a situation, in light of cultural expectations and value systems. For example, the experience of suffering, viewed through the lens of covenant curse and discipline, would elicit a different emotional response than if it were processed through a non-theistic worldview. In the interest of identifying emotional expressions appropriate to a psalm's Ancient Near Eastern context (as opposed to importing those of our own cultural context), we will turn to ANE background to identify the attitudes and associations that would most likely influence the psalmist's expressions.

Potential sources for identifying ANE attitudes and associations:

• Lexical Semantics: Were there any emotionally relevant associations identified in this layer? SDBH and theological dictionaries can be helpful in this regard.
• Story Behind: Were there any emotionally relevant associations identified in Common ground assumptions? In addition to cultural values that would inform the psalmist's emotional response to a situation, it is important to identify elements of God's character and values that would impact the psalmist's appraisal.
• Cross-referencing: Where else does the psalmist utter similar speech acts? Were there emotional associations explicitly expressed in those situations?

Emotional expressions arising from these attitudes and associations will be recorded in the Psalmist Feels column in the Emotional Analysis table. Cite sources in the Emotional Analysis Notes column.

6. Embedded Speech

For embedded (quoted) speech, analyse the the psalmist's think/feel/do first (per the preceding steps), then analyze the quoted speaker's think/feel/do.

To indicate embedded speech: Insert a line within the table cell, and indicating the embedded speech in quotes and italics. The following example is from the Speech Act layer of Ps 13:5a:

7. Summary visual

Steps 1-6 present a method for the verse-by-verse analysis of emotions in a psalm. This sixth step involves the creation of a new visual, the purpose of which is to summarize the detailed verse-by-verse emotional analysis.

First, copy the "THINK-FEEL-DO" headings from the template onto your Miro board, which looks like this:

Second, identify the most prominent emotions expressed in the psalm, and place them in the FEEL column o the visual:

• Take all of italicized words in the "Psalmist Feels" column of the chart and list them under the "FEEL" heading of the summary visual. List each word one time, regardless of how many times it occurs in the chart.
• For any emotions that are sufficiently similar, combine them under a single term. For example, the emotions "afraid" and "alarmed" could likely be combined under the heading of "fear."
• If a particular feeling is clearly more prominent than others, include it in bold (such as confidence below).

Third, drawing from the Discourse spreadsheet, identify the most prominent components related to THINK (from Story Behind) and DO (from Speech Act). Copy and paste these onto the Miro template in its proper column, and connect each one to the appropriate item in the "FEEL" list.

• For speech acts in the "DO" column, cite the verse in which the speech act occurs.
• Because this is a summary visual, you will want to be as concise as possible. Choose to include only those thoughts and actions which are most necessary for explaining the various "feelings" listed under "FEEL."

The following example is taken from Psalm 110:

8. Locating Emotions/Feelings on the Affective Circumplex

• Wherever possible, choose emotions/feelings from the affect circumplex:

Just as SDBH glosses ease translation across languages, using the affect circumplex will ease translation of emotions across languages and cultures.

• Add an image of the circumplex on your Miro board with the actual emotions highlighted. Note any groups of emotions that emerge within the structure of the psalm. Include as many versions of the circumplex as are necessary.

9. Color Code the Speech Act Summary Visual

• Based on the emotions identified on the Affective Circumplex, color code your Speech Act Summary Visual according to the dominant emotion in each Speech Act section.
  • Colors will be chosen according to emotional valence: Positive emotions will be colored blue, while negative emotions will be colored red.
  • The opacity of the colored Speech Act boxes will be determined by the level of emotional activation: High activation (100%), neutral activation (70%), and low activation (30%).

• • Use your best judgment for how best to categorize each cluster of emotions. If a particular Speech Act box covers a broad range of emotions, color code it according to the overall tenor of the Macro Speech Act.

• The following example is from Psalm 44. The circumplexes to the right have only been included to illustrate the correlation between emotional labels and the colors. They are not required for your visual.

Appendix

Your best sources for determining emotion analysis are:

1. lexical definitions (especially SDBH, which notes associations)
2. Story Behind (most of your THINK should be able to come directly from here)
3. other passages in the Hebrew where the same words occur together

Help

Common Mistakes

• Over-reliance on emotional labels: Often, we can become absorbed with finding the precise term to describe an identified emotion. However, keep in mind that emotional associations are not always consistent cross-culturally. If your chosen emotional label contains layers of nuance or complexity, please explicate its meaning in the Notes. This is especially true if choosing an emotional term not found on the Affective Circumplex.
• Including unexpressed emotions: There are often "background" emotions that could potentially be identified in a psalm. For example, a declaration that God is a deliverer implies a need for deliverance, thus implying an underlying sense of fear or anxiety. However, the goal of this analysis is emotional expression. If the psalmist is expressing confidence or hope in spite of fear and anxiety, then that confidence or hope should be the primary focus of our analysis. This will assist our end users in preparation of performed and musical renderings.

Additional Resources

• Video showing how emotional analysis fits into overall interpretation
• SBL presentation on a scholarly background for this analysis

Rubric

Dimension	Description
Completeness	Every element required by the Creator Guidelines has been included Complete Emotional Analysis chart Complete summary visual Annotated Circumplex
Quality of analysis	The items in the "THINK" column of the summary visual are consistent with the analysis in the Story Behind chart. The items in the "DO" column of the summary visual are consistent with the Speech Act Analysis layer. The selection of items for the "Psalmist Feels" column of the Discourse chart are well grounded in evidence (cf. the larger Discourse chart).
Engagement with secondary literature	An effort was made to engage with secondary sources in any difficult cases. SDBH is cited where relevant.
Clarity of language	The emotional labels used in the "feel" column of the summary visual are drawn (insofar as it is appropriate) from the labels in the affective circumplex. The summary visual is as concise as possible; thoughts, feelings, and actions which are sufficiently similar to other thoughts, feelings, and actions have been combined. Prose notes are clear and concise. Language is not too technical so as to be inaccessible to Sarah.
Formatting/Style	The fonts, sizes, and colours used in the summary visual correspond to those in the guidelines. In the summary visual, prominent emotions are bolded. In the summary visual, items in the "do" column which correspond to specific points in the psalm have parenthetical citations noting the verse number, e.g., "(v. 4a)." In the summary visual, no item in any of the three columns is unconnected to another item in another column.

Submitting your draft

Copy the text below into your forum submission post, entitled Emotional Analysis - Psalm ###. After posting, change your post into a wiki post so the reviewers can check the boxes. To change your forum post into a wiki post, click on the three dot menu at the end of the text.

Click on the wrench.

Select "make wiki."

[Emotional Analysis Layer Rubric](https://psalms.scriptura.org/w/Emotional_Analysis#Rubric)

|Guardian Review|Overseer Review|Final Checks|Description|
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
||||**Completeness**
|[ ]||| Every element required by the Creator Guidelines has been included
|[ ]||| Complete Emotional Analysis chart
|[ ]||| Complete summary visual
|[ ]||| Annotated Circumplex 
||||**Quality of analysis**
|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]| The items in the "THINK" column of the summary visual are consistent with the analysis in the Story Behind chart.
|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]| The items in the "DO" column of the summary visual are consistent with the Speech Act Analysis layer.
|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]| The selection of items for the "Psalmist Feels" column of the Discourse chart are well grounded in evidence (cf. the larger Discourse chart).
||||**Engagement with secondary literature** 
|[ ]|[ ]|| An effort was made to engage with secondary sources in any difficult cases.
|[ ]|[ ]|| SDBH is cited where relevant.
||||**Clarity of language** 
|[ ]|[ ]|| The emotional labels used in the "feel" column of the summary visual are drawn (insofar as it is appropriate) from the labels in the affective circumplex.
|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]| The summary visual is as concise as possible; thoughts, feelings, and actions which are sufficiently similar to other thoughts, feelings, and actions have been combined.
|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]| Prose notes are clear and concise.
|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]| Language is not too technical so as to be inaccessible to [Sarah](https://psalms.scriptura.org/w/Personas).
||||**Formatting/Style** 
|[ ]||| The fonts, sizes, and colours used in the summary visual correspond to those in the guidelines.
|[ ]|[ ]|[ ]| In the summary visual, prominent emotions are bolded.
|[ ]||| In the summary visual, items in the "do" column which correspond to specific points in the psalm have parenthetical citations noting the verse number, e.g., "(v. 4a)."
|[ ]||| In the summary visual, no item in any of the three columns is unconnected to another item in another column.