People are poorly equipped to name precise bodily emotional states.

Evidence

Yet neurobiologists assure us that this is what emotion is: a sensory response within the body to sensory input from the outside world, often in the presence of a basic need—food, sex, fight-or-flight. Unfortunately we are completely untrained in specifying these bodily reactions, and there are far too few ways of saying them. The Hawaiians may have seventy words for “pink,” but when the doctor asks us to describe a pain, it’s on a scale of one to ten, sharp or ache or throbbing? — Janet Burroway; Elizabeth Stuckey-French; Ned Stuckey-French, Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition, 124

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: is there research on vocabulary limits for interoceptive bodily sensations and how that constrains emotional articulation?
• XREF: Connects to Whorfian claims about language and perception from earlier reading. — connects to: Humans face ignorance of facts and indeterminacy of aim when regulating conduct — HLA Hart, The Concept of Law (Clarendon Law…, 368

Broader Connections

• Humans face ignorance of facts and indeterminacy of aim when regulating conduct #expands (0.60) — HLA Hart, The Concept of Law (Clarendon Law…, 368