The problem analysed is how the phenomenology of feelings is linguistically expressed as opposed to simply reported. Three kinds of felt experience are distinguished: emotion and evaluation, which are classed as affect, and intuition, which is the compulsive sense of a non-propositional ‘meaning’. It is argued that these are extra-linguistic semiotic or cognitive systems. Emotions are construals of bodily arousal; evaluations are construals of experiences on scales from positive to negative; and intuitions are construals of properties of language itself. These are said to be sociohistorical. Higher level discourse and lexical resources for expressing affect are presented. Then, drawing from Halliday, Labov, Martin and Lemke, it is suggested that felt experiences are expressed iconically, but either concretely or abstractly. The iconicity is on the dimensions of intensity and prosody, and also intertwines different types of experience. Any linguistic feature that can express this iconicity can be deployed; for example, gradability. Five classes of linguistic realization are discussed. These are exemplified through the analysis of a passage of religious writing, Julian of Norwich’s Showings. The importance of analysing texts as linguistic expressions of complex felt experiences is suggested.
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