Emotion-Aware Knowledge Acquisition, Perception and Presentation: An Empirical Study Across Pragmatics, Cognitive Linguistics and Human-Machine Communicative Interaction

Human beings are composed of very many multifaceted internal factors that overlap in the process of knowledge creation, information generation, and information sharing, all of which are apparent in interpersonal communicative interactions. The internal worlds of the humans are depicted in their speech, when they pronounce utterances containing emotional and rational junk in their speech. Moreover, in the process of communication, a two-fold coding and decoding process happens, which entails both emotional and rational elements, since the human brain is not only of rational nature, but also consists of two domains, namely the emotional and rational parts of the brain, which form the basis of our cognition [1], [2].

The reason for this is that pragmatics reveals the valency and significance of emotions in the communicative speech acts, in particular through expressives, which show what the speaker feels at the moment of speech production in terms of the emotive impact on the audience, whereas cognitive linguistics sheds a light on the very different interrelated brain functions involved in the process of linguistic interaction. Besides, it is also noteworthy that according to modern research [3], [4], emotions are no longer viewed as merely sensations, but more as phenomena closely related to our higher cognitive processes. In a way, our cognition consists of two closely interconnected “brains”, namely the rational and emotional minds, which are in continuous cooperation with one another. Therefore, the present paper focuses on the functions of both of them in the process of human verbal and non-verbal communication [2].

One of the main contemporary questions of cognitive linguistics, hence, is the analysis of the linguo-cognitive concept of emotions. In the linguo-cognitive theory of emotions, the interrelation of rational and emotional elements is being discussed, and the role of cognition in the human inner world is being thoroughly illustrated [5], [6], [7], [8]. Since the highest form of the person’s conscious expression is speech, the way, the means through which the thought is being expressed, therefore linguists have also begun to deal with rational activity, founding a new branch of linguistics, namely cognitive linguistics [9], [10], [11], [12]. It is worth mentioning that while in cognitive linguistics numerous investigations have been done connected with the rational-consciousness field, the emotional thinking field is rather unrevealed and has not yet received proper attention, and consequently the role of emotional thinking in speech has not been thoroughly analysed.

Traditionally cognitive sciences took under consideration the following fields and processes related to higher cognitive processes, namely language, brain, thinking, understanding, perception and interpretation [13]. Yet, since during the last years the unique and irreplaceable role and place of emotions in the field of cognitive linguistics and language perception has been truly valued and emphasized, there is a certain need to more deeply analyse the interrelation of emotion and linguo-cognitive structures. Therefore, while engaging in communicative interaction, we voluntarily engage into the spontaneous processes of manifestations of human emotions, which is done based on the formerly formed formulae stamped in our higher cognitive processes, which guide us in our lives. Thus, present paper looks for ways to illustrate the predominance and relevance of the use of pragmatic speech acts depicting human emotions, as well as their interconnection with our higher cognitive processes, by means of discussing extracts from fiction and films through the lenses of both cognitive linguistics and pragmatics.

Thus, the main hypothesis of the present paper is that in order to have a better and more enhanced emotional influence on the audience, both the features of pragmatics and cognitive linguistics should be taken into account. Furthermore, it has been proven that in case emotions are used in expressive speech acts, the speaker gains a better chance to have an emotional influence on the listeners. This viewpoint is supported by various examples representing extracts from modern English literature by means of adducing a sufficient discourse analysis, illustrating the role emotions play in the coding and decoding processes, which can be successfully applied in the pragmatics and cognitive linguistics studies, as well as in AI through emotion AI to enhance a more enjoyable and successful human-machine interaction.

As Dale Carnegie truly stated, we humans are not only rational but also emotional beings, who are governed by these two parts of the brain in the process of communicative interaction. Cognitive processes are realized through emotional and rational thinking, the result of which is cognitive knowledge. The very first stage of cognition is surely the emotional knowledge, but our thinking is not limited merely by it [14]. Thus, one of the main reasons for separating the human being from all the other species of the animalistic world is that the latter’s inner world is gradually being enriched with manifestations of higher cognitive processes, and he/she eventually creates his/her inner mental image of the objective reality [2]. The term emotion knowledge is often used to describe the capacity to understand emotion in facial expressions, verbal and non-verbal markers of emotions displayed in speech production, behavioral cues, and other extralinguistic factors related to various social contexts. Basic features of emotion knowledge develop early in life and increase throughout childhood, bringing about later advances in emotion understanding and the ability to manage and adaptively utilize emotions [15].

It is noteworthy here that due to the investigations on the cognitive system of speech production in cognitive linguistics [7], [8], [13], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23]speech has begun to be viewed as a systematic process of social activity, which is based on certain structures of knowledge embodied in rational consciousness. Thereinafter, it becomes clear from the discussion of linguo-cognitive problems that cognition is an inner mental process, which is expressed in verbal activity, and mental knowledge is expressed through speech only when it finds its place in the highest cognitive level, that is, when it is realized by the speaker [24].

It should also be mentioned that works have been productive in cognitive sciences in this line. Hence, due to the investigation on the role and place of cognition in the emotional inner world of the person, it is revealed that in the process of interpreting the outward world stimuli, the emotional and rational fields incorporate, based on the result of which a qualitative newly shaped scope of knowledge is formed, namely emotional judgement based on background emotional assumptions in accordance with the emotional background memory [14], [25].

The linguo-cognitive evaluation of emotions indicates that the examination of the emotivity of speech is a very important subject for both cognitive linguistics and pragmalinguistics. Therefore, to better examine and more deeply illustrate the characteristic features of speech usage, it is of utmost importance to combine the pragmalinguistic and linguo-cognitive, as well as psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic and neurolinguistic perspectives, viewing the problem of emotivity in speech from an interdisciplinary angle to ensure the accuracy of results.

According to J. Searle [26] language has special functions depending on a number of extra-linguistic factors and the outward situation at hand, the speaker’s intentions and goals. According to the theses of pragmalinguistics, one of the most important features of the speech act is the illocutionary act, the encoding and decoding processes of the semantic value of which have an important role in the process of speech development. Thus, each speaker formulates his thoughts according to his/her communicative intentions, expressing his/her illocutionary act required for that very moment, i.e., request, order, question, complaint, etc. [27]. The interlocutor in his/her turn has to accordingly grasp and interpret the intended illocutionary meaning of the speaker. The coding-decoding process of the illocutionary meaning is a complex linguo-cognitive phenomenon and has put forward various problems for the pragmalinguists. It should be mentioned that up till now there is no concrete viewpoint regarding this question. In cognitive linguistics and applied linguistics, the understanding and correct interpretation of the illocutionary act is usually called pragmatic competence in pragmalinguistics, in contrast to the understanding of the meaning of the illocutionary act, which is called semantic competence [9], [28]. Therefore, it becomes obvious that the encoding and decoding process of emotions in speech also acquires pragmalinguistic relevance and pragmatic competence, since the implicature of the illocutionary act is understood based on the latter, which gains its influence on the further formulation of speech, speech articulation, and interpretation processes through our higher cognitive processes.

As we know, pragmalinguistics deals with the characteristic features of speech activity, which are conditioned by the speaking individual’s activity being a part of human society [27], [28], [29], [30], [31], [32], [33], [34], [35]. Within the frames of pragmalinguistics in the theory of speech acts, the utterance of the illocutionary meaning and its interpretation initially were considered the result of linguistic and extra-linguistic means, the result of the so-called illocutionary force (performative verbs, syntax, intonation, stress, modal verbs, and context) [27], [32]. This question did not get a sufficient answer in the speech act theory, since it became clear that it is highly impossible to learn the speaker’s meaning of the speech act apart from the context. Continuing the discussion of the problem in the theory of discourse, pragmalinguists came to the conclusion that the decoding of the illocutionary force is carried out by the thinking abilities of each individual [24] and/or due to the evaluation of the implicature of the social inter-influence depending on their stored background emotional assumptions [25].

Thus, the limits of pragmalinguistic analyses gradually broadened, including the analysis of numerous extra-linguistic factors, which applied to the cognitive activities of the speaking partners, especially the field of their background knowledge (physical world, mental world, social environment) [14]. Hence, it became clear that to elucidate the problem more clearly, we should dwell upon the extensional (outer of the text) logic accepted by cognitive linguistics, which forms the basis of the context and the co-text [24], [36]. The pragamlinguistic study of human speech has also shown that there are a number of features that guide us in the process of communication on which speech is based. For the study of emotions in speech, especially the notion of speech acts, is very relevant, since by means of uttering them properly, we have the ultimate chance of changing this world into a better place [27].

In fact, when expressing emotions, the speakers not only put forward pure informative data, but also emotionally coloured pieces of information, and presumably linguistic thinking is a two-fold process of accordingly encoding and decoding different types of knowledge. This is especially highly important in knowledge creation and knowledge dissemination, since in these processes too emotions intermingle with the generation and storage of information that later on shape the coding and decoding processes of information, especially emotionally charged ones [14]. Henceforward, it becomes obvious that in the field of linguo-cognitive analysis, the verbal and non-verbal expressions of emotions, as well as analysing the social and psychological factors, are highly relevant [25]. Thence, during speech production and communicative activity, the rational and emotional mind elements continuously overlap and interact [1]. When coding and decoding information in their speech, the speaking partners greatly rely on their background knowledge, especially cognitive mental images depicted in their emotional inner world. We regard emotions as constituent elements of the background knowledge, an inner emotive world, alongside the mental world [1], [2]. Background knowledge elements of the mental world are not only connected with the cognitive aspect, but also with personality psychology, with the inner world of the speakers, their emotions, expectations, intentions, desires, dispositions, etc. [14]. Consequently, their role in the speech production and speech perception processes is of paramount importance. In this connection, we believe that the predisposition of the speaking partners is of great prominence too, which is expressed in speech via communicative units expressing positive or negative emotive attitude [25].

According to A. Damasio [7], emotion is a result of perception, which has an influence on the inner world of the individual. Nonetheless, emotion by itself is not the perception of the internal state or its change, but the result of the perception of its sensation. It should by all means be mentioned that emotion is first and foremost a psychological category and has undergone thorough investigation and study in psychology. A. Damasio categorizes emotions according to the degree of their importance: primary and secondary. Primary emotions are inborn and are related to self-preservation and reproduction. They are born on the subconscious level: during the perception of definite images a certain stimulus is generated, as the result of which a certain response is born, influencing the body. Secondary emotions, which a person feels in his/her everyday life, can be both conscious and subconscious. A. Damasio claims that this phenomenon occurs because secondary emotions are evoked based on primary emotions and are governed by the same mechanism as the latter, yet secondary emotions are rationally recognized when they are stimulated by a certain stimulus, which is the result of the rational cogitation [8].

Recently scientists have begun to pay more attention to the cognitive aspect of emotions when analyzing the latter, and resultantly a very interesting debate has been generated on how much emotions and higher cognitive processes are linked to one another [37], [38], [39]. According to the cognitive theory of emotions, there is always a rational component present in every emotion, which can also function on the subconscious level without being uttered [40]. Therefore, cognitive linguistics has also approached the analysis of emotions when studying the cognitive system of communication activity [20], [22]. As a result, speech is viewed as a systematized activity of social behavour, which is based on chunks of knowledge stored in the rational mind. Thus, cognition is to be viewed as an inner mental process, which is reflected on the surface level of rational thinking through verbal activity. In the same way, mental knowledge acquires verbal expression only when it reaches its highest degree, that is, the cognitive surface level [5]. As we see, if it is an undeniable fact that there is a need to manage rational thinking on the conscious and/or subconscious levels in the processes of speech production and interpretation, the role of the emotional mind still remains open and requires further investigation and study.

As we know, in cognitive linguistics language is considered to be a cognitive activity, which is being articulated in the human mind, in the latter’s memory, and in the stored inner lexicon, which forms the “inner thought” [23]. The emotional and rational elements continuously influence one another, and it is obvious that this interconnection is only possible due to the highest quality of consciousness, namely the memory, which is the unique “storage” of the stimuli received from the outward world and the individual’s experience gained during his/her life that are stored in our background memory and guide us throughout our lives [1], [2], [25]. Therefore, the factor of memory is being emphasized in cognitive science and especially cognitive linguistics as the most important component of the linguo-cognitive process, based on which the information coding and decoding processes (including stances of expressing emotions) become possible.

In their book “The Cognitive Structure of Emotions” of the cognitive nature of emotions, A. Ortony, G. Clore, and A. Collins [41] assert that the emotions that the human being feels mostly depend on what they mainly concentrate their attention on. It follows that emotions are positive or negative responses to the received outward stimuli, which depend on the attitude and disposition of the individual towards the present situation. In fact, every object, person, situation and phenomenon requires a certain attitude from us towards the latter, which is acquired based on the analysis of the latter by means of our rational thinking and giving them positive or negative evaluation. That very rational evaluation is our response to the outward reality, which also includes emotions. The argument of this viewpoint is that humans, when feeling emotions, simultaneously consciously or subconsciously make judgements about their felt emotions and the stimulators and motivators therein, sometimes changing the direction of the emotion by means of attaching new quality to them or preserving previously collected emotional memories, which shows that emotions are not mere sensations, but are closely connected with rationality [2].

The interrelation of emotions and rationality has been the subject matter in emotive neurology, as well as cognitive psychology and the psychology of emotions, making an attempt to understand the linguistic mechanism governing the implicit meaning of emotions expressed through verbal tokens. The factual material enables us to claim that the human emotions, both conscious and subconscious, are evaluated as negative and positive and become constituent parts of the background knowledge of the rational mind. As a result, any piece of information, which can be elaborated in the human mind, evokes certain emotions, which can accordingly greatly influence the behaviour of the human [1]. Consequently, under certain circumstances, the verbal activity of the human can depend on the evaluation made at that very moment due to concrete standards of the speech event. Moreover, emotions can sometimes be controlled by the rational mind due to the background knowledge storage, which involves cultural, social, national, personal and other information, which is stored in the memory of the person [14].

To prove that cognition consists of two interrelated processes, namely emotional and rational minds, we can quote McTaggart, who writes, “We have to acknowledge that the recognition of the phenomenon to which emotion is directed and the emotions felt across it are the same mental state, which at the same time involves the recognition of the latter’s quality and the quality of the emotion directed towards it” [42]. Furthermore, according to Yeo and Ong [3], the core premise of cognitive appraisal theories of emotion is that emotions are produced from our interpretation of what we experience, while compared to other major theoretical frameworks in emotion, the appraisal perspective emphasizes the centrality of these cognitive interpretations in giving rise to emotions. The same authors state that as compared to other theoretical frameworks in emotion, the appraisal perspective emphasizes the centrality of the cognitive component (i.e., appraisals) of emotions and how these cognitive interpretations of one’s actual, imagined, or remembered situations give rise to emotions. The authors further explain that differences in appraisal can explain both inter- and intra-individual differences in emotional responses [43]. Moreover, the emotional responses of individuals reacting to the same event could differ based on their individual subjective evaluation of the situations, made in the context of their own personal goals, needs, motives, and wants. Thus, according to the cognitive theory of emotions, there is almost always a judgment immanent in emotions, which is sometimes propositional, but may well be non-propositional, non-articulated, unconscious, and can even be kinesthetic, and emotions are seen as bearing the essence of active engagement in the world [40].

The interconnection of emotions and rationality can be depicted in the following way (Figure 1).

Above we can see that both the emotive and rational minds make up our cognition. Yet, we absolutely have to state that this is the image of a harmonious interaction of the two and that under certain circumstances the balance between the emotional and rational minds gets lost, emotions prevail, and, resultantly, the human being loses the ability to make accurate cognitive judgements about the outward situation at hand. In fact, at this or that very moment, being under the influence of very strong emotions, the human being loses the ability to control his/her thoughts rationally, as a result of which he/she can take injudicious steps and irrational actions. Resultantly, the very strong positive and/or negative emotions of the person find their verbal and non-verbal manifestations. This is the very reason why, when undergoing very strong emotions, people say, “Just can’t think straight”. This very situation of being under the influence of very strong positive/negative emotions can highly influence the knowledge creation and dissemination processes, where the communicative interactants can be under the influence of those very emotions that can blur the exact image of the outward reality. Hence, it becomes obvious that only in case of a balance and close cooperation of emotions and rationality can we correctly orient ourselves and avoid speech conflicts, where we will be guided mostly by pure rationality. Nonetheless, it is also highly essential to note that emotions are not something to get rid of and that they too can provide the speaking agents with very important pieces of information that, alongside the rational pieces of information, can stimulate the creation and dissemination of exact knowledge, since emotions also entail vital pieces of information sometimes unknown to rationality. Therefore, when shaping and sharing knowledge in various contexts (including our private and professional lives in organizational and educational settings), it is highly relevant to rely on the interplay of both rationality and emotionality to efficiently share and perceive various chunks of knowledge. Furthermore, Rohr and Wenture [44] state that within the area of affective or emotion processing, evaluation, namely the assessment of the valence associated with a stimulus or event (i.e., its positivity and/or negativity), is considered a fundamental process, representing an early and crucial stage in constructivist emotion theories. Here, valence evaluation is assumed to occur automatically when encountering a certain external or internal stimulus.

If we take the position that emotions have an impact on rationality and rationality in its turn reciprocally on emotions, we can come to the conclusion that these two elements constantly overlap, creating a complete system consisting of elements of diverse nature, which guides the human and directs in interpreting and manifesting verbal and non-verbal expressions in various communication settings, where knowledge is shaped and shared. The correlation of these two concepts relates to the examination of emotions in a number of other related theories, such as the theory explaining the combination of the emotional and relational elements in consciousness [45], which can be very relevant in educational settings, as well as the self-management theory [46], which can be very essential in organizational settings, taking into account the specifics of organizational psychology. Taking into account the fact that in our everyday life we often try to manage our emotions and the verbal and non-verbal expressions of thereof [2], it becomes obvious that it is the rational elements that influence the emotions and sometimes even manage to have control over their verbal and non-verbal manifestations in speech that are very apparent in applied knowledge systems as well.

Research has shown that emotions are not mere sensations, but are tightly interrelated with our rational mind and, hence, are a component of our cognition. As we know, emotions are stimuli to take an action and handle life: they are momentary projects that evolution has instilled in us [6]. Experiencing a certain emotion or feeling, the human intends to separate himself/herself from the emotion and as a means for it chooses verbal and non-verbal expressions of emotions, which are very relevant in shaping and sharing information that is stored in our background knowledge [14], [25].

In psychology, there are different opinions and viewpoints regarding the nature of emotions, as the problem at hand is a very multifaceted and deep one. Since emotions are regarded as responses to the outward world’s stimuli, there arises the problem of their connection with motivators. Here, there are also different opposing viewpoints: emotions are either put against motivators or seen in unison with them [5], [6].

In this connection, it is noteworthy that emotionality is often linked to the emotional behaviour of the speaking partners, and emotions are regarded as strong feelings [47]. According to D. Goleman [6], emotions are the physical and psychological responses of the body, which influence the perception, education, and performance processes. Yet, our analysis has shown that emotions do comprise rational elements, and therefore, they sometimes overlap with reason [2].

Till the 19th century psychologists thought that the relationship of the conscious emotions and the bodily movements was rather simple: according to them, first we recognize the emotion, and only then do bodily movements follow [5]. Words containing emotional connotations give information about the emotion, the listener, hearing that word, willingly or unwillingly decodes and interprets the speaker’s expressed emotion based on background knowledge on that very emotion due to the corresponding brain centers. This or that emotion is expressed by means of words, intonation, pronunciation, gestures, bodily movements, facial expressions, as well as other linguistic and extra-linguistic means and the listener is provided with information about the inner world of the speaker [2]. As for the listener, he/she, having background assumptions on verbal and non-verbal means of expressing emotions, is able to receive and analyze the provided information. Consequently, for instance, seeing the tense gestures of the speaker, the hearer can guess the latter’s internal worry, nervous emotional state and the presence of other related negative emotions [1].

Another opposite view to this theory was put forward by a group of scientists accepting the role of rational elements in emotionality. According to the so-called James-Lange theory, the momentary response precedes the feeling of this or that emotion of the person regarding the outward reality. In his book “Basics of Psychology”, W. James claims that “bodily changes immediately follow the receipt of a factor and that emotion is the generated feeling of those very changes” [48]. In the process of communicative interaction (both human-human and human-machine), the bodily changes follow the perceived information, which can also encompass emotional colouring, whereas according to this theory, the emotion in the listener follows the perceived information. Moreover, with the advancement of science, and the widespread use of AI and the introduction of emotion AI (otherwise referred to as Affective Computing), we no longer speak of only purely human-human interactions, but also of human-machine cooperation, where now, with the help of emotion AI, machines can perceive, process, analyze, decode and also encode human emotions [49].

The philosopher A. Jaggar finds that emotions are primarily socially formulated “structures”, which differently put into force the biological potential. Jaggar mainly asserts that “if emotions definitely include rationality, they also require ideas that can be regarded as directions accepted by the society to form an opinion on them and shape their personal lives” [50]. At the same time, he mentions that “emotions provide bases for the creation of new values” [50]; thence, the aforementioned two factors reciprocally stimulate and complement one another. It follows that, according to A. Jaggar, cognitive knowledge is tightly connected with emotions.

The position of the feminist theorist S. Ahmed [51] is also worth mentioning, who formulates the question not in the traditional way, that is, what kind of states emotions are, but rather in the following way: what emotions do. Her viewpoint is the following: emotions are generated as a result of the outward world and the impressions and individual approach of the people about their surroundings; hence, emotions create those very relations and dispositions. Yet, this theory may leave the impression that emotions are merely tools that are consciously used by the subject.

We strongly believe that though emotions are not fully devoid of rational elements and include background knowledge (positive and/or negative) of a cognitive nature about interpersonal relations, they can also be generated automatically irrespective of various extralinguistic factors [1], [2], [14], [52]. For instance, being well aware of the negative characteristic features of this or that person, we can dearly love that very person. Therefore, positive and negative emotions are stimuli, which form the basis of the creation of interpersonal relations [25]. All this comes to prove that the two intertwined parts of the brain do not function separately from one another but subsist in a tight cooperation with each other, which guides us throughout our whole lives in various settings of human activity.

Ferdinade de Saussure was one of the first linguists who challenged the role and place of the hearer in speech, identifying communication as a chain process, where the answer of the hearer to the transmitted information is valued. He compares the receiver of the information with a mirror, who reflects the uttered meaning of the speaker [53]. In the theory of de Saussure, the application of linguistic codes by the speaker is highlighted; at the same time, he points out the fact that for the success of the communication, both the speaker and the hearer have to be equipped with mutually shared background knowledge on those signs [53].

It is noteworthy that in contemporary semantics, to describe the functions of the brain in receiving and interpreting pieces of information, nowadays preference is given to the terms “coding” and “decoding”, stressing out the fact that when transmitting information, we deal with the interpretation of special semantic codes [54]. The thing is that in the process of decoding information, we not only perceive different semantic meanings and understand them, but also interpret and evaluate them accordingly; thus, we should differentiate between the understanding and interpretation of the transmitted information, as what the speaker means implies a wider horizon than merely what is being said in the speech event [55].

The British sociologist Stuart Hall, in his “Coding and Decoding” essay, explains the essence of interpersonal relations in a novel way, claiming that the decoding process cannot interpret the transmitted information by the encoder absolutely correctly [56]. In contrast to the previous structures of the receiving and interpreting processes of chunks of information, Hall highlights the role of both the encoder and decoder of the information, since when receiving, understanding, analyzing and interpreting information, he or she is always governed by the components of his/her inner world [56]. We adhere to this viewpoint since when communicating with each other, the background knowledge elements, which also involve emotive elements, greatly influence the coding and decoding processes [14]. Hence, the linguistic structures become more important than speech structures. In this context, cognitive linguists began to compare the human mind more to an analyzing system, which codes and decodes numerous speech structures based on linguistic structures, which form the communication basis. Therefore, when analyzing emotions, it is necessary to carry out a multifaceted linguo-cognitive analysis to penetrate deeper into the issue at hand.

Turning to the problems of cognition, J. Verschueren especially highlights four components working in the mental world in the communication process, namely perception and presentation, planning and memory [24]. In communication activity, he mainly emphasizes the role of the memory, considering it as a linguistic behaviour, a retrospective presentation, or a limiting factor of information elaboration, and then as a functional means, which either carries out the function of identification or a reminder. Everyday speech is actually based on the recognition of ready-made samples stored in the memory storage [24].

As a matter of fact, being humans, we are almost always experiencing some sort of emotion or feeling (positive or negative), which, based on the nature of the emotion, is reflected in our interpersonal relations. Yet, it is noteworthy that besides the emotion felt at a definite moment, people have memories of past positive or negative emotions. Here, the role of emotional memory is of great importance: the greater the degree of the felt emotion in the past, the better it is stored in the emotional memory of the person, and later, finding themselves in a similar situation, the person consciously or subconsciously begins to feel the previous emotions, which, as a result, find their outward verbal and non-verbal manifestations [25].

It was E. Murray [5] who first introduced the term “emotional memory” into cognitive linguistics. This term indicates that two concepts of the human mind, namely the emotions and the memory, are tightly interrelated. Our studies devoted to the linguo-cognitive and pragmalinguistic analysis of the emotions of the speaking partners [57], we have proven that memory is one of the main components of the situational context.

Since emotions are a part of our consciousness alongside our rationality, their cognitive value is expressed through emotional judgement. The emotional judgement is mostly linked with the complex phenomenon of background knowledge, as well as the ideas of the person of prosperous and comfortable conditions. Making judgements about our felt emotions and doing a cognitive analysis of them, we gain a better idea about the nature of the latter [58]. All this comes to prove that emotions, which can be undergone analysis on the part of the cognitive mechanisms, are not mere sensations, but include rational elements as well: this is the main reason why we cannot regard emotions as separate from cognition. Moreover, we strongly believe that by approaching the problem from the cognitive angle, we stand a better chance of analyzing the emotions more minutely, acquiring the possibility to explain their multifaceted nature and characteristic features in a novel light of thought. In this connection it is noteworthy that in the process of communication the roles of the encoders and decoders are interchangeable and they continually change their roles in the communicative speech acts in the process of interpersonal communication.

As we know, when communicating with each other, people do not always express their thoughts, emotions, motivations, and desires openly and overtly. In fact, a great deal of information remains unsaid in the speech production process, yet its decoding remains on the part of the hearer, carried out based on the shared mutual knowledge of the interlocutors and is conveyed implicitly. Studies devoted to implicature [24], [28], [30], [31], [32], [34], [35] have proven that when decoding received information, the speaking partners rely on their background knowledge, due to which it is possible to guess the implied meaning, which would be impossible if not for the shared ground otherwise referred to as background assumptions or mutual knowledge, and here the knowledge of the principles of pragmalinguistics is of high vitality in helping us navigate through interpersonal communication smoothly and efficiently.

Nonetheless, it is important to stress that in all the aforementioned examinations, the rational information being a part of the background knowledge was considered. Whereas, we do believe that the role of emotions in this process is not less important, since our judgments on the outward world are carried out based on the interrelation and penetration of the emotional and rational elements, which do not exist in isolation, and therefore, should be examined together.

The experience of emotion is a form of meaning-making: it mostly reveals one’s relationship to the circumstances, where often, the emphasis is on the emotions explicitly named or subjective feelings conveyed. Experiences of emotion are multidimensional and inherently situated. These very experiences are typically described in terms of subjective feelings, yet they also encompass a wide array of contextual features, namely thoughts and desires, sensations and movements, beliefs and expectations, surroundings and interactions, past and future events, all of which play a role in the meaning-making process [4].

As a matter of fact, when uttering a sentence, as already mentioned, the speaker is simultaneously performing three speech acts: locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary, which are the basis of pragmatic analysis. The locutionary level is what one says (e.g., I feel cold); the illocutionary level is what one implies by saying that (e.g., Please, light the fire or give me a blanket); the perlocutionary level is the illocutionary effect on the interlocutor (e.g., you, being the interlocutor, are urged to do something for the sake of the person who says that he/she is cold) [27], [28]. The illocutionary component of a speech act lies in what the utterance does rather than what it says. There are different illocutionary force-indicating devices, for example, word order, stress, and intonation (punctuation), the mood of the verb, context, etc. Speech acts may be classified into six groups: declarations, representatives, expressives, directives, commissives, and questions. Illocutionary acts are valid only in case their felicity conditions are met. Moreover, in case we use pragmatic emotive speech acts in the process of interpersonal communication, we gain a better chance of having an emotional influence on the cognition of the hearer. Let us go through the pragmatic speech acts one by one according to G. Yule [27]:

- Declarations are those kinds of speech acts that refer to utterances that directly change a situation once it has been uttered. Declarations can be divided into verdictives (judgements made within institutions) and effectives (situations brought about because of an utterance). E.g.: I hereby declare you husband and wife. He is declared innocent.

- Representatives are those kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker believes to be the case or not. E.g.: The Earth is flat. The Moon goes round the Earth. The Earth goes round the Sun.

- Expressives are those kinds of speech acts that state what the speaker feels. They express psychological states and can be statements of pleasure, pain, likes, dislikes, joy, or sorrow. E.g.: I’m awfully sorry! Congratulations! I feel very lucky! Thank you very much! My deepest thanks to you!

- Directives are those kinds of speech acts that speakers use to get someone else to do something. E.g.: Give me a cup of tea, please. Make it black! Put a lemon in it! Do your homework!

- Commissives are those kinds of speech acts that speakers use to commit themselves to some future action. They express what the speaker intends. E.g.: I’ll be back. I promise to be back at 5 o’clock.

- Questions are those kinds of speech acts with the help of which one may get the other to do something by asking politely or asking for permission to do something. E.g.: Can you pass the salt, please? May I open the window, please?

In this case, we can observe direct and indirect speech acts: we can perform a directive speech act by means of a question, which in case will be understood as an indirect request. As we know through indirect speech acts, the speaker may say something but mean something else, where the semantic meaning and speaker meaning differ from one another [31], [32], [59].

To reveal the participation of emotions in the coding and decoding processes of information, we have observed multiple extracts taken from contemporary English fiction. Below are examples from modern English fiction that also have their illustrations in their corresponding movies, which exhibit verbal and non-verbal manifestations of positive emotions in the process of information sharing between the speaking agents.

Example 2.4.1: “It’s so good to see you guys! Thank you so much for coming in!” Annalise says.

“You both look amazing. Amazing. You get more stylish every time you come home!” [60]

As we can see from the extract above, the communicators are on good terms, and the uttered exclamation and the expressive speech act of thanking show the positive emotions of the speaker, who expresses those very positive emotions overtly on the outside, even intensifying her speech by means of the intensifying adverbs “so” and “much”, which amplify the positive emotional content of the expressed speech acts that have the potential of having an influence on the hearer’s emotions and cognition. As we may guess, on the rational cognitive level, the speakers are both experiencing emotions belonging to the positive scale, which is reflected in their speech. This very factor makes the information generation and sharing more plausible and makes the knowledge generation easier because of the factor of displaying positive emotions that are pleasant to hear and grasp. The same emotionally charged information has been passed through the main characters in the corresponding 2011 movie entitled “Something Borrowed”.

In the next example, we again witness a similar case of transmission of positive emotions:

Example 2.4.2: “It’s so good to see you! Here. Give me your bag,” he says.

“You too.” I grin back at him. “I like your glasses.”

“Do they make me look smarter?” He pushes the frames on his nose and strikes a scholarly pose, stroking a nonexistent beard.

“Much.” I giggle.

“I’m so glad you are here!”

“I’m so glad to be here.” [60]

The speakers again express their happiness by means of coding and decoding information on equally positive evaluations: “It’s so good to see you”, “I’m so glad you are here!”, and “I’m so glad to be here”, in which both of them use the same intensifying adverb “so”, which attaches extra emotive emphasis to the positive evaluative adjectives “good” and “glad” and, thus, amplifies the overall emotive positive meaning of the expressive speech acts. Turning to the suprasegmental level of the utterance, we can state that the expressions of positive emotions of the speakers are sincere and honest, since both of them have positive memories with one another stored in their emotional background memory. This comes to suggest that the cognitive valency of the positive predisposition between the speaking partners, alongside their positive emotions, prevails in the stance of communicative interaction. It follows that both the cognitive linguistic data and the pragmatic competence assist in showing emotions between the interlocutors. The same emotionally charged information has been passed through the main characters in the corresponding 2011 movie entitled “Something Borrowed”.

Now let us observe examples where the speakers express their happiness (being a universally recognized positive emotion) through non-verbal means of communication:

Example 2.4.3: “What’re you smiling about?” Carla interrupted.

“Nothing.”

“Sure. You’re thinking about the trial, and the cameras, the reporters, the acquittal, and walking out of the courtroom, arm around Carl Lee, reporters chasing you with the cameras rolling, people slapping you on the back, congratulations everywhere. I know exactly what you’re thinking about.” [61]

Generally, the most applied non-verbal means of expressing happiness is the smile. Carla, one of the speaking partners, notices that Jake is smiling all the time; therefore, she assumes that what Jake is thinking about causes and arouses positive emotions in him. Truly, according to Carla’s description, Jake imagines how he frees Carl Lee, arms him around and goes, people “slapping on his back” for his victory, which is also a non-verbal indicator of praising and transmitting positive emotions. On the cognitive level, the state of satisfaction endows the speaker with positive emotions, which, intermingling with the rational elements are manifested through the non-verbal gesture of arming around, which is a non-verbal transmitter of positive emotions. These very subtle non-verbal markers are cases of the generation of positive knowledge between the interactants entailing a positive disposition between the latter.

After the psychological analysis of emotions, it becomes clear that when experiencing emotions, people also undergo physiological changes [5]. In the next example below, the author describes what physiological changes the character undergoes while experiencing strong emotions and what changes the body experiences when feeling very strong emotions:

Example 2.4.4: Tiny produced a wad of cash, and Cat peeled off nine one-hundred-dollar bills and stuffed them in Carl Lee’s shirt pocket. “Here’s something for the kids,” he said as he unraveled a one-thousand-dollar bill and stuffed it with the rest.

Carl Lee’s pulse jumped as he thought of the cash covering his heart [61].

Carl Lee’s “pulse jumped” when his interlocutor put cash into his pocket. As we know, in fiction it is mostly difficult to describe the physiological changes of the character’s body, yet in English there are a number of phrases, that describe the internal changes of the body, as for instance “to have butterflies in one’s stomach”. Though this phrase does not give a description of the physiological state of the body, initially it is generated from that very meaning and later the separate parts of the phrase have lost their initial semantic meaning and acquired one single meaning, that of a phrase, that points out the feeling of very strong emotions, since the stomach is considered to be the “reign” of emotions. It is obvious that in this case the jumping of the heart is a result of positive emotions, since the character is happy for the acquired money. It should also be mentioned that the author used the phrase “covering his heart” in a metaphoric sense, indicating that putting the money in the left pocket is close to the heart and causes extreme joy. As we can deduce, here emotions prevail over the rational part of the brain and are manifested through the internal bodily change experiences.

In the next example, the precondition of happiness between the speaking partners is their positive emotional predisposition:

Example 2.4.5: ‘Happy birthday, Rachel,’ Dex says, after a stretch of comfortable silence. He smiles, his whole face warm and luminous.

‘Thanks, Dex.’ I smile back at him [60].

In the aforementioned speech event, the speakers transmit and interpret positive emotions through expressive speech acts, i.e., acts of congratulating and thanking, which truly illustrate the positive internal states of the speakers towards one another. The vocatives, in this case, play the role of intensifying particles. As we know, a vocative is often pronounced with additional stress, and before or after it there is usually a short pause. This very change in intonation raises the expression of emotion, in this case happiness in speech. In this present stretch of discourse, there is also a non-verbal marker of transmitting emotions, namely the act of smiling: the speakers exchange smiles, and the facial expression of Dex turns luminous because of this, since his emotions are reciprocal: “He smiles, his whole face warm and luminous”. Here, we can guess that by means of encoding and decoding similar emotions, the speakers on the rational level realize the reciprocity of mutual positive emotions, which is being processed through the higher cognitive processes. This comes to prove that the internal psychological states of the speaker are not only manifested in the speech of the latter, but are also depicted on his face, since, as we know, our facial expressions are tightly connected with our higher cognitive processes, which, as we have already stated, comprise both rational and emotional elements that are very important in knowledge generation and dissemination. The same emotionally charged information has been properly passed through the main characters in the corresponding 2011 movie entitled “Something Borrowed”. In the following example, the cause for joy is the most probable future meeting of the speaking partners. The speakers are close friends, and when departing, the promise to come to visit makes the other happy:

Example 2.4.6: “I will visit. I promise. Maybe in September.”

“Okay … But the fourth would have been fun.”

“It’s not a holiday there,” I say.

“Yeah. It’s funny the way the Brits don’t celebrate our independence from them … But it’s a holiday in my heart, Rachel.”

I laugh and tell him that I’ll look into flights for the fall.

“All right. I’ll email you my free weekends — all my deets.”

He knows I hate the word ‘deets’. Just as I hate people who make a ‘rez’ for dinner. Or ask you to get back to them ‘ASAP’. And Ethan’s favorite, designed especially to annoy me — ‘YOYO’, i.e., ‘you’re on your own’.

I smile. “Sounds fab.”

“Super then.” [60]

In the aforementioned extract, the speakers do not employ conventional expressive-emotive linguistic devices, although their speech acts include the use of intensifiers. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that the present stretch of discourse also represents cooperative speech acts, such as promising, agreeing, and praising, which indicate the peaceful atmosphere of the speech event and the positive emotional predisposition between the speaking partners. Besides, it is also noteworthy that though Rachel gets annoyed with people using abbreviations in their speech, she does not display a negative disposition towards Ethan, who uses such an abbreviation and also creates his own one, namely “YOYO”, meaning you are on your own to irritate her. Moreover, Rachel herself uses an abbreviation in her speech, namely “fab”, instead of saying “fabulous” to match the style of her friend. In this way, she wants to express that she accepts him and experiences positive emotions towards him. It is also worth mentioning that one of the speakers, nonetheless, expresses his happiness via words as well: when addressing Rachel Ethan states, “But it’s a holiday in my heart, Rachel”, showing his truly felt positive emotions, to which Rachel responds via a non-verbal means of communicating emotions, namely a laugh, and adds an act of promise, stating that she would look for flights for the fall. She also exhibits a smile, which is also a non-verbal transmitter of positive emotions that supports the knowledge generation and dissemination; thence, it becomes obvious that she shares the happiness of Ethan for their meeting. It is truly obvious that on the cognitive level, the speaking partners anticipate the existence of mutually shared positive emotions, which are reciprocally displayed in the process of communicative interaction through verbal and non-verbal behaviour on both ends. The same emotionally charged information has been passed through the main characters in the corresponding 2011 movie entitled “Something Borrowed”.

As we have seen from the examples above, emotions in speech are not only expressed through verbal, but also through non-verbal expressions of emotions, which have to be decoded on the part of the listener(s). On their turn, after cognitively analyzing the overtly expressed emotions, the speaking partners express their very own felt emotions, which reciprocally are to be encoded and decoded by both of the parties, gaining the utmost potential of having an influence both on the rational and emotional parts of the brain and becoming involved in the higher cognitive processes.

Moreover, the author of the present article firmly believes that in case we program AI tools and machines to be able to decode and encode messages containing emotional elements as discussed through our provided and analyzed examples, the human-machine interactions will become much more enjoyable, efficient, and productive. Furthermore, even though cognitive linguistics originates in the study of human cognition, its principles are now actively being extended to machines through NLP, computational linguistics, and machine learning. Thus, we can come to think that both the principles of cognitive linguistics, in terms of coding and decoding messages in communicative interactions, and pragmalinguistics, in terms of grasping the intended meaning and emotionally colouring our speech in the process of communicative interaction, are both relevant in human-human and human-machine communicative cooperations.

To reveal the impact of emotions in the process of knowledge generation and dissemination, we have interviewed 50 people from various cultural backgrounds aged between 20 and 70 during the years 2020-2025. The survey has been conducted through qualitative and quantitative analyses collected through in person interviewing, both through a hybrid estimation of both probability and non-probability sampling to optimize sample selection of the interviewed people and the data collection process. The results of the quantitative analysis come to suggest that people are more inclined towards perceiving information that is emotionally charged better than neutral pieces of information.

Figure 2 above comes to suggest that people are more likely to better decode emotionally charged pieces of information as opposed to neutral information. This comes to suggest that in case we want to have a better influence on the audience and to get the encoded information stamped in the memory of the listeners better, we’d rather use emotionally coloured speech that has the potential to make the knowledge generation and dissemination processes easier.

Figure 3 above comes to suggest that people find it better to perceive positive emotions embedded in the coded information since with the display and dissemination of positive emotions in speech, the speaker creates a more positive atmosphere, which stimulates the better perception of the provided information that is resultantly better grasped by the targeted party. As for the negative information, according to the qualitative research, the respondents mainly in the organizational settings explained that they also enjoy the dissemination of negative emotions to perceive constructive feedback.

To further reveal the societal impact and practical value of Emotion AI and the engagement of humans with artificial intelligence tools, the following picture has been detected (Figure 4).

The results come to suggest that people find it far more enjoyable to interact with emotionally aware AI technologies that are adept at recognizing, analyzing, and displaying human emotions. As for qualitative research results, the respondents expressed that they feel soothed in interacting with AI technologies that are more human-like.

In a nutshell, it has been found through the present research that people (both in human-human and human-machine interactions) are more inclined to interact with their counterparts in case emotions are efficiently and effectively transmitted and displayed in the process of interactions.

It follows from the discussion above that emotions do not exist in isolation from cognition, but sometimes comprise rational elements as well, such as background assumptions, which are stored in our memory. This proves that in the coding and decoding processes we are almost always governed by our former experiences, which are there to guide us in the communicative process. Although generally there should be a balance between the so-called emotional and rational minds, sometimes the balance is lost and the experienced emotions are expressed in speech. Thence, to be able to understand the expressed verbal and non-verbal emotions accordingly, one should have an understanding of the interrelation of the emotional and rational minds. In this case, the communicator(s) will be able to realize their impact on the process of communicative interaction, which will give them the chance to understand one another much better and respond accordingly. This will truly help us build better societies.

The practical societal value of the present paper is that it sheds a light on the relevance of emotions in human communicative interactions, where sharing and strong emotions can be of great importance. The research supported this assumption in the way of finding that people feel more inclined to interact with humans and machines that are expressing and digesting human emotions accordingly in the process of communicative interactions. Moreover, in case we display emotions in the process of interpersonal communicative interaction, we will stand a better chance of reaching our desired impact on the audience, as well as avoid possible speech clashes. Furthermore, it has been found that in case AI technologies are equipped with proper Emotion AI capacities, the human-machine interactions will become far more efficient, where, on the one hand, human will not fear machines, and on the other hand, machines will have the ability to understand humans better, which will make the knowledge generation and dissemination better.

This research explores the intersection of cognitive linguistics, pragmalinguistics, and emotion AI in the conceptualization, expression, and interpretation of emotions in both human–human and human–machine communication. Our analyses on human emotions come to prove that by means of a linguo-cognitive and pragmalinguistic analysis, we may have a better chance of understanding the coding and decoding processes in discourse, which will help us understand their verbal and non-verbal expressions in emotional speech better. The factual material enables us to claim that in the process of speech production there is no separate line between emotional and rational thinking, since the emotional and rational minds are almost always incorporating, and, therefore, in the flow of communicative interaction, they are being explicitly and implicitly expressed in speech. Therefore, in case we manage to have a deeper understanding of the on-going cognitive processes, we will be better apt at understanding uttered speech and, moreover, become much more proficient communicators, considering the truly felt emotions and rational thinking of our communicative partners, which will result in our avoiding speech conflicts, which will undoubtedly lead towards building stronger bonds between the interactants within the societies. Furthermore, if we program machines with emotional chunks of knowledge, the human-machine interactions will become much more enjoyable and far more productive, giving the machines the ultimate chance to have better insights into human emotions and giving humans the chance to have emotion-tailored information from machines. Thus, in human–machine communication, these linguistic theories inform the development of emotion AI, which applies cognitive and pragmatic principles to enable machines to simulate human-like emotional intelligence. This involves both the encoding and decoding of emotional intent, allowing machines to process emotional language in context and engage in affect-sensitive interactions.