A Sense of Duty (义 / 义务) in the Chinese Linguistic World View: Tradition and Modernity
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24866/2542-1611/2021-3/85-95Keywords:
Chinese culture, duty, value system, Chinese language, modern Chinese society, globalization, corpus linguistics.Abstract
The article aims at showing the shifts in the perception of the
sense of duty (义 /义务) in the Chinese linguistic world view
as the result of the changing socio-cultural circumstances
brought by the processes of globalization between the 20th
and 21st centuries. First, the author states the traditional view
upon the subject, reflected in the dictionaries, including the
etymological one. Then, the up-to-date materials obtained
with the help of definitional, quantitative, and interpretation
methods, accompanied with the context analysis of more
than 800 examples, are thoroughly analyzed. The table of the
most frequent collocations from the Balanced Corpora of the
Contemporary Chinese Language is given. In conclusion, the
author claims that responsibilities towards the person’s parents
are taking a back seat, giving way to civil and social duty. The
paper may be of great interest for the reader who studies Chinese
philology and culture, as well as cross-cultural communication.
