Syntax and Emotion in Theatre Performance Dialogue: A Cognitive-Linguistic Analysis

Authors

  • Xiaoyu Liu

    Faculty of Creative Arts, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
  • Marlenny Bt Deenerwan

    Faculty of Creative Arts, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
  • Shahnaz Binti Mohd Baldev Shah

    Faculty of Creative Arts, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i5.9468
Received: 12 April 2025 | Revised: 16 April 2025 | Accepted: 19 April 2025 | Published Online: 25 April 2025

Abstract

The way emotion is expressed in Chinese opera is through detailed sentence structures, but grammar has not been studied much in this context. The researcher examines how emotions in Peking and Kunqu operas are influenced by interrogatives, exclamatives, ellipses and modal particles using 200 annotated scripts. The framework uses syntactic parsing (with spaCy), lexicons (NRC and LIWC) that have been adapted for opera, gesture-syntax mapping (from 150 scenes) and conceptual metaphor theory. The analysis shows that how complex the syntax is in a sentence is the most important indicator of emotional strength (β = 0.58, p < 0.001), with modal particles being the second most important (β = 0.34, p< 0.01). Peking Opera often uses questions (28.7%), connected with anger (φ = 0.72), but Kunqu mostly leaves out certain words (32.1%) which is connected to sadness (φ = 0.65). It is found that in 68.7% of anger scenes, the interrogative is accompanied by finger-pointing. In comparing with Shakespeare, we find that Peking uses exclamative-surprise much more often, with a residual of 4.81. Conceptual metaphors (for example, “ANGER IS VERTICALITY”) join the way we talk with how our body experiences the world. It offers a way to scale up the project, advancing digital heritage, cultural linguistics and emotion-aware NLP, so that Chinese opera becomes a key focus of research connecting language, culture and emotion.

Keywords:

Syntax; Emotion; Chinese Opera; Cognitive Linguistics; Corpus Analysis; Sentiment Analysis; Performance Semiotics

References

[1] Murphy, M., 2021. From liveness to ‘lifeness’: Autopoiesis and an enactive view of performance. Constructivist Foundations. 17(1), 70–81.

[2] McConachie, B., Hart, F.E., 2006. Performance and cognition: Theatre studies and the cognitive turn. Routledge: London, UK. Available from: https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9781135989477_A24665670/preview-9781135989477_A24665670.pdf

[3] Goldstein, T.R., Wu, K., Winner, E., 2009. Actors are Skilled in Theory of Mind but Not Empathy. Imagination, Cognition and Personality. 29(2), 115–133. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2190/ic.29.2.c

[4] Oatley, K., 2022. Character and emotion in fiction. In The Routledge companion to literature and emotion. Routledge: London, UK. pp. 272-282. Available from: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780367809843-28/character-emotion-fiction-keith-oatley

[5] Lutterbie, J.E., 2020. The actor’s body in cognition: Stanislavski’s legacy through a cognitive lens. Stanislavski Studies. 8(2), 109–121.

[6] Kövecses, Z., 2020. Metaphor, emotion, and literature: a cognitive linguistic perspective. Poetics Today. 41(2), 225–243.

[7] McIntyre, D., 2008. Integrating multimodal analysis and the stylistics of drama: a cognitive perspective on Shakespeare’s Richard III. Language and Literature. 17(4), 309–324. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0963947008095961

[8] Blair, R., Cook, A. (eds.), 2016. Theatre, Performance and Cognition: Languages, Bodies and Ecologies. Bloomsbury Methuen Drama: London, UK.

[9] Falletti, C., Sofia, G., Jacono, V. (eds.), 2016. Theatre and Cognitive Neuroscience. Bloomsbury Methuen Drama: London, UK.

[10] Schöch, C., 2016. Topic modeling genre: an exploration of French classical and Enlightenment drama [in French]. Digital Humanities Quarterly. 10(2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.166356

[11] Booth, M., 2017. Shakespeare and Conceptual Blending: Cognition, Creativity, Criticism. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham, Switzerland. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62187-6

[12] Hogan, P.C., 2018. Literature and Emotion. Routledge: New York, USA.

[13] Cook, A., 2019. Cognitive contagion: thinking with and through theatre. Gestalt Theory. 41(2), 129–140.

[14] Schmidt, T., Burghardt, M., 2018. An evaluation of lexicon-based sentiment analysis techniques for the plays of Gotthold E. Lessing. Proceedings of the 2nd Joint SIGHUM Workshop on Computational Linguistics for Cultural Heritage, Social Sciences, and Literature; 25 August 2018; Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. pp. 139–149.

[15] Poria, S., Zhong, G., Cambria, E., et al., 2019. Emotion recognition in conversation: research challenges, datasets, and recent advances. IEEE Access. 7, 100943–100953. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2929050

[16] Brown, S., Cockett, P., Yuan, Y., 2019. The neuroscience of Romeo and Juliet: an fMRI study of acting. Royal Society Open Science. 6(3), 181908. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.181908

[17] Olenina, A.H., Amazeen, E.L., Eckard, B., et al., 2019. Embodied cognition in performance: the impact of Michael Chekhov’s acting exercises on affect and height perception. Frontiers in Psychology. 10, 2277. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02277

[18] Berceanu, A.I., Matu, S., Macavei, B.I., 2020. Emotional and cognitive responses to theatrical representations of aggressive behavior. Frontiers in Psychology. 11, 1785. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01785

[19] Out, C., Goudbeek, M., Krahmer, E., 2020. Do speaker’s emotions influence their language production? Studying the influence of disgust and amusement on alignment in interactive reference. Language Sciences. 78, 101255. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2019.101255

[20] McDonald, B., Goldstein, T.R., Kanske, P., 2020. Could acting training improve social cognition and emotional control? Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 14, 523627. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2020.00348

[21] Hipson, W.E., Mohammad, S.M., 2021. Emotion dynamics in movie dialogues. PLoS ONE. 16(9), e0256153. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256153

[22] Gan, C., Zheng, J., Zhu, Q., et al., 2024. A survey of dialogic emotion analysis: developments, approaches and perspectives. Pattern Recognition. 156, 110794. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patcog.2024.110794

[23] Zhuo, L., 2024. Theory of affective pragmatics under biolinguistics. Frontiers in Psychology. 15, 1404067. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1404067

[24] Jola, C., Hansen, P., 2021. Editorial: Performance in theatre and everyday life – cognitive, neuronal, and applied aspects of acting. Frontiers in Psychology. 12, 732233. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.732233

[25] Greaves, D.A., Pinti, P., Din, S., et al., 2022. Exploring theater neuroscience: using wearable functional near-infrared spectroscopy to measure the sense of self and interpersonal coordination in professional actors. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 34(12), 2215–2236. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01912

[26] Schmidt, I., Rutanen, T., Luciani, R.S., et al., 2021. Feeling for the other with ease: prospective actors show high levels of emotion recognition and report above average empathic concern, but do not experience strong distress. Frontiers in Psychology. 12, 543846. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.543846

[27] Blair, R., 2024. Linguistic bodies: cognitive science and Stanislavsky’s last words. Theatre, Dance and Performance Training. 15(1), 114–127. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/19443927.2024.2295737

[28] Expósito Ropero, N., Soares da Silva, A., 2024. Phenomenology and cognitive linguistics in dialogue: a review of Ortega y Gasset’s theory of emotive gesture as metaphor. The Southern Journal of Philosophy. 62(3), 374–390. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/sjp.12555

[29] Pritzker, S.E., Fenigsen, J., Wilce, J.M. (eds.), 2020. The Routledge Handbook of Language and Emotion. Routledge: New York, USA.

[30] Mackenzie, J.L., Alba-Juez, L. (eds.), 2019. Emotion in Discourse. John Benjamins: Amsterdam, Netherlands. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.302

[31] Burke, M., Troscianko, E.T. (eds.), 2020. Cognitive Literary Science: Dialogues between Literature and Cognition. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK.

[32] Hogan, P.C., Irish, B., Hogan, L.P. (eds.), 2022. The Routledge Companion to Literature and Emotion. Routledge: New York, NY, USA.

[33] Paster, G.K., 2022. Drama: feeling out loud in Shakespearean apostrophe and the history of emotions. In: Hogan, P.C., Irish, B., Hogan, L.P. (eds.). The Routledge Companion to Literature and Emotion. Routledge: New York, NY, USA. pp. 343–353.

Downloads

How to Cite

Liu, X., Bt Deenerwan, M., & Binti Mohd Baldev Shah, S. (2025). Syntax and Emotion in Theatre Performance Dialogue: A Cognitive-Linguistic Analysis. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 7(5), 255–270. https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i5.9468

Issue

Vol. 7 , Iss. 5 (May 2025): In progress

Article Type

Article

License

Copyright © 2025 Xiaoyu Liu, Marlenny Bt Deenerwan, Shahnaz Binti Mohd Baldev Shah

Creative Commons License

This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.