Semantic Analysis of Chinese Adjectives: A New Approach to Mapping the Form-based Metaphors in Automobile Styling

Abstract/Summary

It could be argued that human experiences are full of conceptual and emotional metaphors. Metaphors are a significant part of language and play an important role in structuring human perception. Therefore it is ubiquity to find that people use different adjectives to express their emotional reactions toward an automobile styling. 3000 Chinese Adjectives in daily use were systematically analyzed in the methods of the Category Filters, and 119 Attribute Adjectives were selected as a result. Then a survey of three groups of subjects (designers, managers and users) using these 119 Adjectives was carried out by questionnaire based on one auto-company and its automobile styles.

As a result, 31 pairs of Core Chinese Adjectives (CCA) were proposed, and the corresponding Mood Boards were constructed to build an imaginative rationality, which could map the form-based metaphors of automobile styles. The statistical results from this exploratory analysis indicate that there are conceptual and emotional gaps among designers, managers and users in interpreting the metaphors of automobile forms and styles in terms of linguistics differences.

A descriptive model of the automobile style was built as an interpretation device that could bridge the manager, designer and user point of view based on the 31 pairs of CCA. On the basis of the model, a CAS (Computer Aid Styling) system with the interpretation device was developed and put into application to improve the ability and quality of automobile design of Chinese corporations.

(Source: IASDR 2009)

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