[Ads-l] choke up =? emotional

[Barretts Mail]

Here is Naomi Osaka saying “Your question making me emotional” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiHP603v4qo <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiHP603v4qo>, 8:50) after which she has to pause in her response several times to stifle tears. 

Looking back over this thread (not all emails quoted below), it seems that “emotional” is used primarily to refer to situations where you are choked up (“verklempt" as Ben Zimmer pointed out in this thread), but not overcome with other emotions such as awe, gratitude, horror, resentment, shyness or surprise, to name a few from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion>. 

M-W meaning three with “emotional sermon” might go beyond the scope of verklempt, but it seems unlikely that “emotional” can refer to simply any emotion. 

Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA

> On 10 Sep 2017, at 12:56, Chris Waigl <chris at LASCRIBE.NET> wrote:
> 
> If you want adjectives, I use words like weepy or teary (usually with a
> qualifier like "all"), informally; though more often I'd use the
> corresponding verb.
> 
> On the original question, I do think that the adjective emotional has
> different senses in the examples. I'm actually quite fine with how the
> online version of M-W breaks it down in four senses:
> 
> ===
> 
> 1:  of or relating to emotion -- an emotional disorder
> 2:  dominated by or prone to emotion -- an emotional person
> 3:  appealing to or arousing emotion -- an emotional sermon
> 4:  markedly aroused or agitated in feeling or sensibilities -- gets
> emotional at weddings
> 
> https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/emotional
> 
> ===
> 
> Chris
> 
> 
> On 9/10/17 6:48 AM, Margaret Winters wrote:
>> overcome?
>> 
>> 
>> ----------------------------
>> MARGARET E WINTERS
>> Former Provost
>> Professor Emerita - French and Linguistics
>> Wayne State University
>> Detroit, MI  48202
>> 
>> mewinters at wayne.edu
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ________________________________
>> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
>> Sent: Saturday, September 9, 2017 6:15 PM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: choke up =? emotional
>> 
>> On Sat, Sep 9, 2017 at 2:50 PM, Barretts Mail wrote:
>>> 
>>> Is there an English adjective other than “emotional” to describe the
>>> emotion when you are overwhelmed by, err, emotion?
>> 
>> Verklempt?
>> 
>> --bgz


On 9 Sep 2017, at 17:49, Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

She's not dispassionately writing a paper. She is overwhelmed by emotion,
and maybe "emotional" is all the description she could manage at the time.
Ask her later and you might get a very different and more descriptive and
conventional answer.

And man, that performance is stunning! If you didn't listen to it, play the
video from the beginning, or from 1:15 when she comes on stage before the
judges, or from 2:00 when she starts singing.

Mark
Music is my drug of choice


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