The volume investigates the syntagmatic relations of certain Finnish emotion verbs that are formed by the derivational suffix -ua/-yä (e.g. suuttua get angry, pelästyä get frightened). Prototypically, the suffix expresses reflexivity, but in the case of the inchoative emotion verbs, it indicates a change of state on behalf of the experiencer, from a non-emotional state to an emotional state. The starting point of the investigation is a discussion of different psychological theories of emotion. The discussion shows that constructivist theories particularly emphasize the role of language and offer several links to the cognitive, usage-based model of language that constitutes the theoretical framework guiding the thesis. With regard to the usage-based model, special focus will be put on argument structures and stimulus nouns. The empirical part makes use of different forms of co-occurrence analysis in order to shed light the syntagmatic relations of the inchoative emotion verbs.weiterlesen