P. Shaver, I. Schwartz, D. Kirson, and C. O'Connor(1987) found that English
emotion words fall into 25 categories of synonyms. To find emotion nomencl
ature universals, the authors used P. Shaver et aL's taxonomy in a sample o
f the world's languages and found that emotion categories were added in mos
t languages in a relatively similar generalized sequence. Labeled first wer
e the categories of anger and guilt; followed in Stage 2 by adoration, alar
m, amusement, and depression; in Stage 3 by alienation, arousal, and agony;
and ending with eagerness in Stage 4. The remaining 5 stages were derivati
ves of. Stages 1-4. Thus, in the folk taxonomy, Stages 1-4 are basic lingui
stic emotion categories. Motives for labeling emotions were driven possibly
by the need to maintain social control, the identification of prototypical
emotions elicited in interpersonal relationships, and the need for terms t
o identify intrapersonal emotions. Features of markedness theory were corro
borated for English emotion terms.