ACADEMIA Letters

Exploring Emotional Intelligence from a Linguistic

Perspective
Amer Hamad Issa Abukhalaf, Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience,
M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management, College of design
construction and planning, University of Florida
Amani Darwish, Geforss GmbH, Neukamperfehn, Germany

1. Introduction
Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is one of the terms that have become widely popularized in the
millennial era. It stands for having the capacity to express emotions, make optimal decisions,
and handle human interaction wisely and empathetically by finding the balance between think-
ing and feeling [2]. Our feelings are deeply embedded in our chemical structure as human
beings, making them an inseparable part of our brains [12 & 7]. For example, if you usually
feel angry when you are hungry, that is a straightforward interpretation of how our thoughts,
emotions, and eventually actions are blended, where Hunger is a feeling that triggers Anger.
Being aware that the Hunger is causing you to be angry means that once you are hungry, you
are aware that you might become more sensitive and be triggered more quickly. Consequently,
you either eat a snack or avoid intense confrontations until your hunger need is met.
As humans, our brains build reactions as habits because it takes less cognitive effort. We
call this in psychology ‘Autopilot’ [4 & 15]. For example, suppose you see a cat on a dark stair
and get scared, and then run away (Reaction). Every time you go on a dark stair, your mind
will anticipate a cat (Trigger), realizing that this only happens once and might not happen
again (Thought), breathing deep and setting the expectation next time you go on a dark stair
(Building Awareness), helps your brain identify that this is not a trigger, and the dark stair is

Academia Letters, September 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Amer Hamad Issa Abukhalaf, eng.amer_hamad@live.com

Citation: Abukhalaf, A.H.I., Darwish, A. (2021). Exploring Emotional Intelligence from a Linguistic
Perspective. Academia Letters, Article 3574. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3574.

1
not connected to the cat. However, the cycle of feeling, thinking, and acting varies greatly
from one person to another [5 & 17]. Some people think about an idea or have a thought,
which triggers an emotion such as happiness, sadness, anger, or any other emotion, and this
emotion usually leads to an action of some kind. Other people’s cycle might start with a
feeling, and some may jump into action and then think about it and realize that they should
have taken a minute to think before acting.
The main domains that fall under EQ are self-awareness, social skills, and motivation
[10]. And under social skills, there are two sub-domains; Empathy and Noble goal. Empathy
is bidirectional; being empathized with, and empathizing with others [13 & 18]. Empathy
helps us develop better relations and communicate more effectively. On the other hand, a
noble goal is a life purpose, the trace we want to leave behind, what drives us and gives us the
motive to get out of bed every day, it is what we want to work on endlessly and find joy in and
look forward to sharing with others [14]. A noble goal is an inward goal that has a positive
effect on others, serving not only you, but also the society around you. A noble goal does not
have to be complicated; it can be as simple as dedicating time to teach others or helping them
reach their goals.

2. The role of Language in Emotional Intelligence

EQ came into existence in 1940, when David Wechsler introduced the concept of “non-
collective aspects of general intelligence” [9]. Forty-three years later, the domain of interper-
sonal skills, management philosophy, and leadership was developed by Gardner [1]. Build-
ing on that, Salovey and Mayer identified cognitive abilities as measurable and introduced
the frame of EQ by describing its unique interfaces, and highlighting the different brain areas
crucial for cognitive, emotional, and social intelligence [9]. However, the clear distinction
between cognitive abilities and EQ capacities such as drive, persistence, motivation, and in-
terpersonal chemistry came only into existence in the 2000s by Goleman [1]. As the concept
of EQ has been evolving, many factors are found to play significant roles in shaping our EQ
[4], including genetics, cultural differences, personal life experiences, but most interestingly,
language complexity.
The vocabulary size is the most important measure for language complexity, and the hard-
est one to measure [21]. The English language, for example, has a rich vocabulary, with more
than a million words in total, more than 160,000 words in current use, including 3,000 words
used specifically for describing emotions [23]. So why, with all of these words, we still hear
people saying, “I love it, but I don’t love it love it!”, as they seem unable to identify how they
feel about something? What possibly could be missing? In a recently published research, the

Academia Letters, September 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Amer Hamad Issa Abukhalaf, eng.amer_hamad@live.com

Citation: Abukhalaf, A.H.I., Darwish, A. (2021). Exploring Emotional Intelligence from a Linguistic
Perspective. Academia Letters, Article 3574. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3574.

2
psychological dominion behind ten different languages was studied, in an attempt to under-
stand how language affects EQ, and the data spotted considerable variations in people’s EQ
based on their mother languages [6].

2.1 Emotions vary across languages

Cultures develop a richer vocabulary for things they care about the most [8]; in Scots, for
example, there are 400 words for ‘Snow’, and in Arabic, there are 200 words for ‘Camel’, and
300 words for ‘Lion’ [6]. And the same concept applies to emotions. The Feeling of touching
the sunlight while walking between trees, people can describe that as warmth or peace, but
these are approximate feelings, because there is no specific word to describe that in English,
but in Japanese there is; ‘Komorebi’. When you see someone for the first time, and you feel
the potential of falling in love soon, there is also a word for that in Japanese; ‘Koi-No-Yokan’
[22]. In German, there is a word for feeling the pleasure from people’s misfortunes; ‘Schaden-
freude’, and there is a word for feeling the sadness out of people’s happiness; ‘Freudenschade’
[22].
In Arabic, there are 14 words describing different stages of Falling-in-Love. The word
’Hawa’ describes the inclining of the heart towards someone, while the word ’Ishq’ means
the blind desire, followed by ’Huyam’, which describes a complete loss of logic and reason
[6]. However, many people think of ‘love’, as a Yes/No question; Exists or Does not Exist.
If the different stages of falling in love existed in all languages, to what extent would it help
people express how they really feel, and based on that, take important decisions in life, like
marriage proposals? And if we cannot agree on such a basic feeling like love, how do we
assume that we have the same complex emotions, such as sense of urgency [3], and sense of
security [16]?

2.2 The power of language

Language is more than a communication tool that we use to vocally express our thoughts and
emotions; in fact, we think using language [24]. This makes our EQ, to some point, limited by
the language we speak. Our emotions and overall thinking process cannot be more sophisti-
cated and precise than our language. Even if we assume that our brains are more precise, that
additional precision will be lost when we communicate our emotions and thoughts to others.
The role of language in shaping people’s reality has been seen in different studies. People
from Namibia speaking the Otjihimba language are literally unable to see Blue, because they
do not have a word for the color in their language [20].

Academia Letters, September 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Amer Hamad Issa Abukhalaf, eng.amer_hamad@live.com

Citation: Abukhalaf, A.H.I., Darwish, A. (2021). Exploring Emotional Intelligence from a Linguistic
Perspective. Academia Letters, Article 3574. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3574.

3
 Similarly, people from Brazil speaking the Múra-Pirahã language face difficulties distin-
guishing between numbers like 10 and 15, because they have no words for these numbers in
their language [19]. So, if you do not have a word for a certain emotion, not only you will not
be able to express it in words, but it is possible that you will not be able to feel it. EQ is a skill
that can be worked on and improved, but your language can give you an advantage or limit
you and be the reason why your EQ is not developed as it should be.

3. Developing Emotional Intelligence

Our EQ allows us to build stronger relationships and achieve personal as well as career goals.
Recent studies show that 90 percent of those considered top performers in their jobs have a
high EQ, compared to only 20 percent of bottom performers with a high EQ [11]. Considering
the development of EQ and its competencies, we can develop our EQ one way or another by
focusing on the competencies that serve us the most in our life endeavors [10]. In order to
develop EQ, we can start by learning what emotions mean and how they affect us. Previous
studies show that people who have higher emotional clarity, which is the ability to identify
their emotion and express it as a mood, are able to recover more quickly from upsetting situ-
ations [1].
To activate our EQ, we need to ask ourselves three important questions; First, How am
I feeling? By asking yourself this question, you’re developing self-awareness, and you are
starting to identify your general life patterns, which allows you to reflect and take corrective
actions or make behavioral changes to reach the optimal behavior that better fits your situation.
Second, What options do I have? After naming your emotions, and realizing your pattern
in certain situations, you start to identify what options you have, by reflecting on different
reactions to the situations and evaluating them. Thirds, What do I really want? Knowing what
the optimal action is to get you where you want to be in each situation and working towards
it. These three questions can be applied to any life situation, and with practice, you will find
that you can navigate through the question lightly, and the results will be more optimal every
time and more of what you want them to be.

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Academia Letters, September 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Amer Hamad Issa Abukhalaf, eng.amer_hamad@live.com

Citation: Abukhalaf, A.H.I., Darwish, A. (2021). Exploring Emotional Intelligence from a Linguistic
Perspective. Academia Letters, Article 3574. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3574.

4
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Corresponding Author: Amer Hamad Issa Abukhalaf, eng.amer_hamad@live.com

Citation: Abukhalaf, A.H.I., Darwish, A. (2021). Exploring Emotional Intelligence from a Linguistic
Perspective. Academia Letters, Article 3574. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3574.

5
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Academia Letters, September 2021 ©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: Amer Hamad Issa Abukhalaf, eng.amer_hamad@live.com

Citation: Abukhalaf, A.H.I., Darwish, A. (2021). Exploring Emotional Intelligence from a Linguistic
Perspective. Academia Letters, Article 3574. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3574.