Studying Emotive Effects in Poetry by Quantifying Open-Ended Impressions

Chen Gafni; Reuven Tsur

doi:10.1177/0276237420984718

Studying Emotive Effects in Poetry by Quantifying Open-Ended Impressions

Chen Gafni, Reuven Tsur

Department of Computer Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Poems, as aesthetic objects, generate a subjective experience, which can be different for different readers. In this paper, we propose a method to quantify these subjective experiences. We gave participants three parallel excerpts and asked them to describe, in free text, the perceived emotive qualities of these excerpts. The descriptions were analysed quantitatively according to the dimensions of the Valence-Arousal-Dominance model of emotion. With the help of additional rating tasks and a structural theory of phonetic symbolism, we attribute the perceived emotive qualities to an interaction between the meaning of words, patterns of alliteration, and metric deviation.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	216-242
Number of pages	27
Journal	Empirical Studies of the Arts
Volume	39
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0276237420984718
State	Published - Jul 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.

Keywords

Sound symbolism
aesthetics
cognitive poetics
dimensional models of emotion
reader’s response
sound iconicity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Visual Arts and Performing Arts
Music
Literature and Literary Theory

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10.1177/0276237420984718

Cite this

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abstract = "Poems, as aesthetic objects, generate a subjective experience, which can be different for different readers. In this paper, we propose a method to quantify these subjective experiences. We gave participants three parallel excerpts and asked them to describe, in free text, the perceived emotive qualities of these excerpts. The descriptions were analysed quantitatively according to the dimensions of the Valence-Arousal-Dominance model of emotion. With the help of additional rating tasks and a structural theory of phonetic symbolism, we attribute the perceived emotive qualities to an interaction between the meaning of words, patterns of alliteration, and metric deviation.",

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AB - Poems, as aesthetic objects, generate a subjective experience, which can be different for different readers. In this paper, we propose a method to quantify these subjective experiences. We gave participants three parallel excerpts and asked them to describe, in free text, the perceived emotive qualities of these excerpts. The descriptions were analysed quantitatively according to the dimensions of the Valence-Arousal-Dominance model of emotion. With the help of additional rating tasks and a structural theory of phonetic symbolism, we attribute the perceived emotive qualities to an interaction between the meaning of words, patterns of alliteration, and metric deviation.

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Studying Emotive Effects in Poetry by Quantifying Open-Ended Impressions

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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