Visualization of the emotional vocabulary of the Chinese language as exemplified in the associative experiment
Irina A. Аrsenyeva – Natalia A. Аntonova – Anna S. Ivanova – Vladimir V. Yakushev – Larisa V. Timashova
DOI: 10.18355/XL.2018.11.01.21
Abstract
This scientific research is aimed at describing of semantic connotations of the emotional words joy, sadness, happiness, sorrow, anger, love, hatred, fear, envy, jealousy, conscience, hope in the Chinese language. To achieve the stated objective, the authors used the method of the associative experiment as the most convenient way to visualise the linguistic consciousness of native speakers. With its help, one can judge about the features of the human linguistic consciousness functioning and the ways of constructing speech utterances, which are usually not recognised by native speakers and are not identified by other methods of investigation. Associations in this aspect are considered as one of the means of access to the human linguistic consciousness and the construction of the fundamental values of man and the ethos as a whole on their basis. A large number of Chinese students in the People’s Friendship University of Russia made it possible to conduct an associative experiment in a computer class where one hundred Chinese respondents aged 17-25, most of whom are atheists and do not represent any confessions, were asked to fill out a questionnaire translated into Chinese. According to the research ethics, the principle of anonymity was respected during the experiment. The questionnaires completed in Chinese were translated into Russian and thoroughly analysed.
Key words: psycholinguistics, linguistic consciousness, associative field, associative experiment, semantic connotation