Abstract
Although shame is not listed in Ekman’s (1999) basic emotions, it is recognized by many psychologists as one of the universal human emotions observed across different cultures throughout the world as a secondary self-conscious emotion (self-critical awareness of one’s social reputation) (Tangney et al., in Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 345–372, 2007). However, there are culturally specific forms and words of shame that can pose a serious challenge to cross-linguistic communication. I will categorize different forms of shame and discuss if there exist any incomparable or incompatible notions of shame in Korean and Japanese cultures. I will argue that there are at least three semantic categories in Korean and Japanese words of shame. However, one of the semantic categories of Korean shame words represents a unique notion of shame (an inner sense or disposition of morality) which is not fully or properly translated into the Japanese words of shame. Therefore, shame provides an intriguing case of culturally en-formed emotions, emotions that are developed in particular cultural environments. This type of culturally embedded semantic difference seems to be persistent or perhaps pervasive even between closely related cultures such as Korean and Japanese cultures with many comparable social practices and linguistic characteristics. The current study shows that cultural variance and semantic incomparability (although they do not necessarily demonstrate fundamental cultural relativity or radical incommensurability between different linguistic or conceptual systems) can affect cross-linguistic communication and cause, in certain contexts, cross-linguistic disagreement.
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I do not analyze or generate any datasets, because my work proceeds within a theoretical approach.
Notes
Unless stated otherwise, I use the term “meaning” in the sense of reference (what a word refers to) in this paper. For example, when I analyze the meaning of bukkeureoum (shame), I discuss bukkeureoum’s reference, i.e., a psychological state or disposition that bukkeureoum refers to.
It is, of course, possible to use brief descriptions (such as empty openness or socially constituted territories) to explain different meanings of Raum in English but whether this type of descriptions can successfully capture the whole semantic field of Raum is not clear, because space and Raum presuppose different conceptual schemes to carve the spatial reality.
The Dugum Dani, a hunter-gather tribe in Papua New Guinea, have little contact with Western culture.
Santangelo (1992, p. 40–41) reports that early Confucian philosophy discusses the notion of inner moral shame and describes it as guilt-like feelings of shame. He states that “Scholars generally agree that in Confucian morality shame dominated guilt insofar as the sanction imposed, to the extent that it was internalized, affected the inner being, the person’s image of himself or herself as belonging to a morally elevated category… it makes clear the development of an internal conception of moral worth and of conscience” (p. 40).
Regarding the difference between shame and guilt, Seok (2017, p. 10) states that “the self is paralyzed and the other is condemning in shame, but the self is able and the other is hurt in guilt. So, guilt is a ‘more articulated experience than shame, and a more dignified one’ [Lewis, 1971, p. 42]. In one’s experience of shame, one tries to get away from shame and to cover up one’s transgressions, but, in one’s experience of guilt, one tries to accept guilt and to correct one’s wrongdoings.”.
Jealousy is a culturally conspicuous and pronounced emotion in Micronesia, revenge in the civilization of the Kwakiutle of North America and honor is a cultural tradition of Homeric Greece, but, according to the universality approach, they can be understood as cultural modifications or variations coming out from the underlying common (innate and cross-cultural) affective foundations.
A strong universalist viewpoint is evidenced, for example, in Ekman et al. (1969) and Sznycer et al. (2018). However, a constructive view is carefully developed in Averill’s (1980) study of culture and emotions. The current paper seeks to maintain a balance between the two contrast viewpoints to explain how shame is understood by Japanese and Korean speakers.
Furukawa, Tangney, and Higashibara’s (2012) cross-cultural study is one of those cross-cultural studies that compare the experience of shame in Japanese and Korean cultures. They compare Japanese, the USA, and Korean children’s experience of shame, guilt, and pride.
In Japanese, however, harenchijai (破廉恥罪) means infamous crime or offense according to Jisho Dictionary (Jisho, 2022) (http://jisho.org). According to the Standard Korean Dictionary by the National Institute of Korean language (국립 국어원 표준 국어 대사전, https://stdict.korean.go.kr/), paryeomchibeom (破廉恥犯) means crime committed by immoral motives or intentions. In the Korean language, the word paryeomchi is clearly associated with fundamental lack of morality or moral sense, but that is less so in harenchi in the Japanese language.
For example, Velleman (2005, pp. 45–69) develops this interpretation of shame.
This paper provides a semantic analysis of shame words. A word of shame can take semantic elements and can mean different aspects of shame in different contexts. For example, bukkeureoum, has several meanings (dishonor, shyness, embarrassment, etc.) that cover different semantic categories of shame, but the paper focuses on bukkeureoum’s moral psychological meaning under the semantic category of inner moral sense to show that this meaning of bukkeureoum can cause cross-linguistic disagreement. For general psychological characteristics of shame, please see Seok (2015, pp. 41–43). In psychology, shame is defined as a self-critical emotion with intentional content (whole person), input (vulnerable, disgraced self), output (hide, escape), valence (negative), and arousal (high) (Seok, 2017, pp. 33–34).
For example, by discussing Keii’chi’s view, Kent (1992, p. 103) summarizes the critical reaction to Benedict’s analysis of shame in Japanese culture in the following way. “Sakuta does not disagree with Benedict’s concept of “social shame” in principle (in fact he very much agrees with it), but rather his point of contention is that Japanese behavior depends more on the sanctions of personal shame or embarrassment (hajirai, shuchi) than social shame.” “Needless to say, Sakuta, like most others who criticize Benedict’s definition of shame, disputes the argument that shame is an external sanction, as opposed to guilt, which was described as an internal sanction. He stresses the sensitivity of the Japanese to the exposure of the self as a result of an acute awareness of self which is due to the ever-present attention or gaze of others. As personal shame is most concerned with self-image and identity, it becomes the medium through which social shame is translated into guilt and as such, it is considered a more internal sanction of behavior than the sanction of social shame.” Lebra (1983, p. 193) also notes that “Benedict (1946), while wrong in characterizing Japan as a shame culture in contrast to a guilt culture, was nonetheless right in capturing the pervasiveness of shame in Japanese culture.”.
It is not simply the existence or awareness of the gap in itself but the pressure or unrealistic/deceptive nature of the gap that can cause inner shame.
In Chinese culture, cankui (慙愧) is a deep personal sense of one’s ideal self (Bedford & Hwang, 2003, p. 137).
For example, Fessler (2004, pp. 218–220) used five different types of scenarios (events) in his comparative study of shame in Benkulu (Indonesian) culture and California (American) culture. (1) “Classical shame events: focus on concern with others’ actual or imagined negative evaluations; often stem from violation of a relatively important social standard; characterized by feeling small, wishing to avoid being seen by others…” (2) “Guilt-like events: emphasis on remorse or regret; often stem from inflicting harm on another…; little or no emphasis on public nature of failure,…” (3) “Embarrassment-like events: often stem from violations of conventions rather than moral rules, particularly with regard to questions of decorum, modesty, etc.….” (4) “Shyness events: reticence to interact with strangers, reticence to engage in a variety of relaxed or intimate behaviors (eating, laughing, etc.) in front of unfamiliar others….” (5) “Subordinance events: elicited by interaction with an individual acknowledged to be superior in the social hierarchy….” These different types or situations of shame are related to the types of shame observed in Korean and Japanese cultures. In comparison, Sznycer and colleagues focus on one’s concern of social reputation (i.e., Fessler’s classical shame events) as the common, cross-cultural foundation of shame experience (Sznycer et al., 2018).
Comparative philosophers argue that inner moral orientation of shame is one of the distinctive features of Confucian philosophy (Ng, 1981; Roetz, 1993; Seok, 2017). Santangelo (1992) also argues that shame in Confucian philosophy includes guilt-like feelings. Early Confucian texts such as the Mencius discuss this kind of inner moral shame. Mencius, for example, describes shame in relation to Heaven (moral authority) and talks about it like a moral virtue. He states that “when looking up, he [a morally ideal person, the Confucian gentleman] has no occasion for shame before Heaven, and, below, he has no occasion to blush before men; this is a second delight” (Mencius, 7A20; Legge, 1960, p. 459). For the full discussion of the moral psychological relation between guilt and shame, please see the following studies of shame (Seok, 2015, pp. 41–43; Seok, 2017). Seok argues (2017, pp. 132–134, 140–146), from the viewpoint of moral psychological evolution, that inner moral shame is homologous to (i.e., sharing the same origin but having different moral psychological properties with) social shame but analogous to (i.e., having different origins but sharing similar moral psychological properties with) guilt. Regarding the differentiating features of shame and guilt, see Seok (2015, pp. 41–43).
The usage is listed in the following webpage: https://ko.dict.naver.com/#/search?range=example&page=4&query=%EB%B6%80%EB%81%84%EB%9F%AC%EC%9B%80&autoConvert =
The usage is listed in the following webpage: https://ko.dict.naver.com/#/search?range=example&page=2&query=%EB%B6%80%EB%81%84%EB%9F%AC%EC%9B%80&autoConvert =
Also listed in the Urimalsaem Dictionary (National Institute of Korean Language, 2016).
In their quantitative analysis, Kim and Kim (2018, p. 432) report that bukkeureoum is used in the context of moral norms.
Although there are different opinions on the necessary existence of audience, shame, generally comes with human observer or spectator (actual, possible, or imaginary audience) but guilt does not necessarily come with audience. In this context, Heaven is not a human observer but a standard of goodness or a feeling of conscience internalized in the mind of bukkeureoum.
Lewis (1971, p. 30) states that “The experience of shame is directly about the self, which is the focus of evaluation. In guilt, the self is not the central object of negative evaluation, but rather the thing done or undone is the focus. In guilt, the self is negatively evaluated in connection with something but is not itself the focus of the experience.” Tangney (2001, p. 135) states that “The shamed person is less likely to be concerned with the hurt that was caused and more likely to be consumed with thoughts and concerns about the self.”.
Tangney and Dearing (2002, p. 71) state that feelings of shame “involve fairly global negative evaluations of the self.”.
Regarding the relation between shame and guilt, see notes 14, 19, and Seok (2017, pp. 132–134, 140–146).
Japanese translations of bukkeureoum are discussed in the following paragraphs.
Perhaps, the same type of translational issues can be observed in giri (義理 ぎり). It is generally expected in Japanese culture that one should fulfill one’s giri (social obligation, duty of reciprocity) that one should pay back another’s on (恩 おん benevolence, favor) (Davies & Ikeno 2002, pp. 95–101). However, the Korean word of euri (義理 의리), with the same Chinese character as the Japanese word giri, has a slightly different meaning. Euri includes social propriety or reciprocity (specifically to others’ favor in interpersonal relations) but it also means fulfilling broad social and moral norms, not just social norms of propriety and reciprocity (Jung 2006, pp. 85–87). In Korean language, a person with euri is not just a person who fulfills interpersonal duties or obligations and follows rules of a group one belongs to but also serves broad moral norms of righteousness and justice that can go beyond the duties or obligations of reciprocity.
According to Kim and Kim’s (2018) quantitative analysis of Korean words of shame, bukkeureoum is one of the most frequently and broadly used Korean words of shame (p. 414): it is associated with different meanings and contexts of shame (p. 431). They also point out that it is used with nouns of moral standards (p. 432).
This usage of bukkeureoum is listed in The Grand Dictionary of the Korean Language (Research Institute of Korean Studies, 2009). https://ko.dict.naver.com/#/search?range=example&page=1&query=%EB%B6%80%EB%81%84%EB%9F%AC%EC%9B%80&autoConvert
The second usage of bukkeureoum is listed in The Urimalsaem Dictionary (National Institute of Korean Language, 2016). https://opendict.korean.go.kr/dictionary/view?sense_no=460205&viewType=confirm
The definition of haji is posted in the following webpage: https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%81%A5%E3%83%BB%E7%BE%9E%E3%83%BB%E8%BE%B1-2074170
The usages of haji (sentences that include haji) are listed in the following site of Jisho Dictionary (Jisho, 2022): https://jisho.org/search/%E6%81%A5%20%23sentences
The sentence is listed in Jisho Dictionary (Jisho, 2022) https://jisho.org/search/%E6%81%A5%20%23sentences?page=3
Sapir (1929, p. 209) states that “No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached.”.
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Seok, B. Cross-linguistic disagreement among different cultures of shame: comparative analysis of Korean and Japanese notions of shame. Asian J. Philos. 4, 5 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44204-024-00225-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s44204-024-00225-z