TY - JOUR
T1 - The meaning of "happiness" (xingfu) and "emotional pain" (tongku) in Chinese
AU - Ye, Zhengdao
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© John Benjamins Publishing Company.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - This paper undertakes detailed meaning analyses of xingfu, a concept central to contemporary Chinese discourse on "happiness, " and its opposite tongku ('emotional anguish/suffering/pain'). Drawing data from five Chinese corpora and applying the semantic techniques developed by Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) researchers, the present study reveals a conceptualization of happiness that is markedly different from that encoded in the English concept of happiness. Particularly, the analysis shows that the Chinese conception of xingfu is relational in nature, being firmly anchored in interpersonal relationships. Loosely translatable as 'a belief that one is loved and cared for', xingfu reflects the Chinese idea of love, which places emphasis on actions over words and is intrinsically related to other core cultural values, such as xiao ('filial piety'). The paper relates semantic discussion directly to recent research on happiness and subjective well-being involving Chinese subjects, highlighting and problematizing the role of language in the emergent and fast-growing field of happiness research and stressing the important role of culture in global "happiness research".
AB - This paper undertakes detailed meaning analyses of xingfu, a concept central to contemporary Chinese discourse on "happiness, " and its opposite tongku ('emotional anguish/suffering/pain'). Drawing data from five Chinese corpora and applying the semantic techniques developed by Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) researchers, the present study reveals a conceptualization of happiness that is markedly different from that encoded in the English concept of happiness. Particularly, the analysis shows that the Chinese conception of xingfu is relational in nature, being firmly anchored in interpersonal relationships. Loosely translatable as 'a belief that one is loved and cared for', xingfu reflects the Chinese idea of love, which places emphasis on actions over words and is intrinsically related to other core cultural values, such as xiao ('filial piety'). The paper relates semantic discussion directly to recent research on happiness and subjective well-being involving Chinese subjects, highlighting and problematizing the role of language in the emergent and fast-growing field of happiness research and stressing the important role of culture in global "happiness research".
KW - Chinese corpora
KW - Chinese emotion
KW - Happiness studies
KW - Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM)
KW - Pain
KW - Subjective well-being
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85028567489&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1075/ijolc.1.2.04ye
DO - 10.1075/ijolc.1.2.04ye
M3 - Article
SN - 2214-3157
VL - 1
SP - 194
EP - 215
JO - International Journal of Language and Culture
JF - International Journal of Language and Culture
IS - 2
ER -