Lexico-semantic construction of fear in Maya Angelou’s autobiography of girlhood
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17561/rilex.9.2.9849Keywords:
emotion, fear, lexicology, semantic frame, Maya Angelou, Black girlhoodAbstract
This article focuses on the lexico-semantic construction of fear in Maya Angelou’s first autobiographical piece, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969). Through a lexicographic analysis and the application of the FrameNet framework, this study explores the emotion talk and semantic framing of fear. The analysis reveals that fear emerges as the most frequent emotion in the text, with a high degree of lexical variation and semantic nuance. Even though some general profile verbs, nouns and adjectives are used -namely, fear, to fear, afraid, and scared-, in Angelou’s text a medium and high degree of fear intensity comes up frequently through elements such as terror, dread or panic. It is suggested that fear is rarely framed as a momentary, instinctive reaction; rather, it is constructed as a pervasive emotional condition shaped by gender, race, and social contexts. Results show that the core elements composing the semantic frame of fear in Angelou’s narrative must be present to verbalize the expression of fear and at least three of these are present in all instances of this text: [Experiencer], [state] and [Stimulus]/[Topic]. By integrating linguistic, cognitive, and socio-cultural perspectives, this study contributes to the expansion of the area of lexicology and cognitive lexicography of emotion, and foregrounds the complexity and cultural specificity of fear in Black autobiographical discourse of girlhood.
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