Switching Codes, Switching Code: Bilinguals' Emotional Responses in English and Greek

This paper investigates the verbal construction of emotions in a bilingual/bicultural setting, the target languages and cultures being American English and Cypriot Greek. To examine whether bilingual speakers express different emotions in their respective languages, a study was carried out with 10 bilingual/bicultural professionals. A scenario was presented to them first in English and a month later in Greek and their verbal reactions were recorded. The participants' responses were then analysed through three questions: (1) whether they translate from one language to the other; (2) whether and when codeswitching occurs; (3) whether there is a pattern in the use of emotion words. The analysis of the results shows that respondents displayed different reactions to the same story depending on the language it was read to them in. The paper argues that participants changed their social code, i.e. sociocultural expectations, with the change in linguistic code. These findings raise interesting questions about the relationship between language, emotions and cognition, and the formation of the bilingual self.