A Quantitative Analysis of the Moral Implications within Chinese Society: Based on the Vocabulary Measurement of 70-year People's Daily

Hongrui Wang, Dong Yu, Liying Zeng, Pengyuan Liu

Abstract: Morality plays an important role in the development of society, but people’s moral perception is unstable and changes over time. Moral words serve as a mirror reflecting societal values, and their usage patterns provide insights into moral progression. However, current large-scale diachronic corpora lack notable observations regarding moral change. In this paper, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of 15,371 moral terms sourced from the Chinese Moral Dictionary. We conducted an exhaustive study of the People’s Daily corpus spanning the years 1946 to 2015. Our findings reveal a historical trajectory of moral evolution characterized by a progression towards universality and pluralism, accompanied by intricate internal disparities and imbalances. Furthermore, we observe that moral words are inherently influenced by temporal and societal factors, resulting in varying connotations and foci. This dynamism reflects a profound deepening and expansion of moral understanding. The results of this research offer a fresh perspective on the evolving connotations of Chinese moral words.

External IDs:dblp:conf/clsw/WangYZL24