Vicarious shame in a cross-cultural perspective: emotion concepts a.-s. Spanish shame and ger. Fremdschamen/Fremdscham

The preceding is consistent with the data presented in Table 4. Here, SHAME reveals the most established associations with EMBARRASSMENT and such self-reflective emotion concepts as SELF-HATRED, SELF-LOATHING (see also SELF-CONSCiOUSNESS and SELF-DOUBT), which, firstly, serves as another argument in favour of semantic approximation of the meaning of SHAME to the one of GUILT (see subsection 2), and secondly, emphasizes the privacy of shame in the English-speaking environment, e.g.:

He felt disgusted with shame, overcome with an undignified embarrassment that crawled into his skin and rose like bile [Davies, 2024];

Fighting feelings of being a failure, overcoming feelings of embarrassment and shame [Davies, 2024];

The word diet is filled with isolation, perfection, and shame and self-loathing [Davies, 2024];

94% teen females have felt shame or self-conscious over some aspect of their body [Davies, 2024].

This is especially noticeable given the fact that in the German linguo-society the concept of scham evokes, first of all, associations with dishonour (schande) and repentance (reue), e.g.:

Denn wenn sie das Richtige tun, sollten sie auch keine Scham oder Reue empfinden [Geyken, 2024]

`For if they do what is right, they shall not feel shame or remorse'.

Statt Scham oder Reue zeigt er Stolz, auch seine Gefahrten von damals brusten sich mit ihren Taten [Geyken, 2024]

`Instead of shame or remorse, he shows pride; his companions from back then also boast about their deeds'.

Um ein erwachsener Schauspieler zu werden, muss man andererseits auch mal drei Stunden Scham und Schande aushalten [Geyken, 2024]

`On the other hand, to become a mature actor, you have to endure three hours of shame and disgrace'.

Consequently, the data of the language corpora (Table 3 and Table 4) indicate a distinctive external sanctioning of shame among the Germans and an indistinctive one among the Anglo- Saxons (cf. Table 1). For the latter, the outstanding level of privacy of this emotion and its close connection with guilt led to the transformation of “shameful” experiences into an internal burden that cannot be relieved by atonement. The recognition of one's own guilt for shameful actions or deeds entails a certain internal “isolation” of shame, which does not authorize the shifting of this burden onto others. Obviously, this was one of the reasons why the Anglo-Saxon concept of vicarious shame, to some extent, does not comply with the “individualistic” nature of Anglo-Saxon shame. Therefore, the association of “foreign” (vicarious) shame with the Spaniards was probably consolidated in the English-speaking environment. As a result, the emotion concept of Spanish shame was formed.

Unlike the Anglo-Saxons, among the Germans, shame can transform not only into guilt but also into dishonour (Schande) and repentance (Reue), which makes it possible to transfer the focus of “shameful” experiences from an individual to another person. Therefore, in the German linguo-society, there were no ethnic- or socio-cultural restrictions regarding the “domestication” of the Spanish concept VERGUENZA AjENA, which resulted in the formation of the concept FREMD- schamen/fremdscham. Considering the example of the latter, the external sanctioning of shame is most fully traced, allowing the Germans to get rid of “shameful” experiences, e.g.:

Der Zuschauer wird im besten Fall ubers Fremdschamen von eigener Scham und Peinlichkeit befreit [Geyken, 2024]

`In the best-case scenario, the viewer is relieved of their own shame and embarrassment through vicarious shame'.

Conclusions

The article focuses on the study of features of the emotion of vicarious shame perception in related German and Anglo-Saxon linguo-societies. For this purpose, the linguistic and cultural specificity of the emotion concepts of Ger. fremdschamen/fremdscham and A.-S. Spanish shame, which represent vicarious shame in these linguo-societies, was revealed. It was done through the prism of the criteria for culture classification that closely correlate with the concepts. Such criteria are “cultures of shame - cultures of guilt” and “individualism - collectivism”.

To meet this objective, a three-stage methodology has been developed. It is based on the use of interdisciplinary research tools (traditional linguistics, cognitive and corpus linguistics), as well as the involvement of data from psychology, anthropology, and sociology. Strengthening the cross-cultural analysis with the empirical data of language corpora made it possible to reveal divergences in the conceptual structures of the concepts of A.-S. shame and Ger. scham, which are the base for such derivatives as Spanish shame and fremdschamen/fremdscham. It is established that these divergences led to different approaches to the cross-cultural transfer of the Spanish “foreign” (vicarious) shame, represented by the emotional concept of VERGUENZA AjENA, to German and Anglo-Saxon culture.

It has been revealed that the level of individualism has a significant influence on the formation of the concepts of A.-S. shame and Ger. scham. The latter is higher among the Anglo-Saxons and lower among the Germans, which to a certain extent adjusts the internal sanctioning for guilt and external for shame in these linguo-societies. Thus, in the Anglo-Saxon culture, a high index of individualism determined the greater privacy of shame, which brought the concept of shame closer in terms of sanctioning to GUILT. Therefore, in the English-speaking environment, the connection between the concepts of shame and GUILT is of significant relevance, which emphasises that the Anglo-Saxons belong to the “guilt culture”. However, the shame that an individual empathically experiences in a situation of shameful acts or the shameful behaviour of a stranger is not private, since it is based solely on external sanctioning. Therefore, “foreign” (vicarious) shame, to some extent, does not agree with the “individualistic” nature of Anglo- Saxon shame. This divergence between shame and vicarious shame led to the establishment of the association of “foreign” (vicarious) shame with the Spaniards in the English-speaking environment. As a result, the emotion concept of SPANISH shame was formed. This collocation is functioning in different discourse types and is now even registered in the Urban dictionary.

But among the Germans, who also belong to the “guilt culture”, shame is not private but public, i.e., it has a distinctive external sanctioning. This means that, unlike shame and SPANISH shame, German concepts of scham and fremdschamen/fremdscham are entirely consistent in terms of sanctioning. Therefore, in the German linguo-society, ethnic and sociocultural restrictions did not arise when the Spanish concept VERGUENZA AjENA was transferred.

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