Grammar of Human Emotion

A periodic table of feeling: every emotion below is a coordinate in the same 8-axis space (valence, arousal, tension, brightness, weight, motion vector, breadth, texture), so a song, an image, and a motion clip built from the same entry are designed to feel like the same emotion across senses — not three separate creative choices.
28 entries total (not 27) — 25 named feelings + 3 novel coordinates we authored ourselves. Corrected count, verified against art/emotional-grammar/grammar.json.

The 8 shared axes

Valenceaversive ↔ appetitive — does it feel bad or good
Arousalstill/calm ↔ activated — how much energy is in it
Tensionresolved ↔ loaded/unresolved — is anything left hanging
Brightnessveiled/dark ↔ luminous/open — the emotional "lighting"
Weightheavy/sinking ↔ light/rising — gravity of the feeling
Motion vectorbackward ↔ still ↔ forward — which way it's reaching in time
Breadthintimate/enclosed ↔ vast/expansive — how much space it fills
Texturesmooth/legato ↔ rough/agitated — the grain of it

Map: valence × arousal

The two most legible axes, plotted like a classic emotion wheel. Position is an honest but approximate read of each entry's authored trajectory (not all entries give exact numbers) — treat this as illustrative placement, not lab-measured coordinates. Point size ≈ breadth (bigger = more vast/expansive). Ring = has a real rendered audio+visual+motion artifact.
positive valence negative valence neutral / mixed valence novel authored coordinate (no existing word) ◎ ring = rendered (7 of 28)

All 28 entries

EntryDominant axesOne line