Emotive Tonality of the "Youth-Old Age" Dichotomy in Russian and Chinese Media Discourses: The Stage of Psychosemantic Expertise

J Psycholinguist Res. 2023 Apr;52(2):525-553. doi: 10.1007/s10936-022-09899-z. Epub 2022 Jul 4.

Abstract

The issue of attitude to age has the character of social stigma at different stages of human civilization, therefore, the identification of the general and particular in the assessments of the "youth-old age" dichotomy in different structural languages seems relevant. The results are based on the materials of an in-depth interview among 510 respondents belonging to different age groups: young, middle, and elderly; and 1257 respondents' responses. The in-depth interview covered 128 characteristics of interpersonal interaction. This made it possible to compile descriptor tables. The 54 characteristics identified were 27 bipolar scales. The objects of evaluation are characterized by 8 pole positions. A comparison was also made with data extracted from 368 articles in Russian and Chinese media. This work contributes to the understanding of the psycholinguistic processes of emotional perception of age in Russian and Chinese linguistic cultures.

Keywords: Classification of emotions; Old age; Sentiment analysis; Youth.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Age Factors
  • Aged
  • Ageism
  • Emotions*
  • Humans
  • Interpersonal Relations
  • Language
  • Middle Aged
  • Psycholinguistics