梅·萨藤日记中的语言使用与衰老的相关性研究

A Study of the Relevance between Aging and Language Use in May Sarton's Journals

人类的衰老与语言使用密切相关,通过纵向跟踪一个人语言使用中的变化规律,可以在一定程度上为我们从语言的角度提供依据来诊断衰老变化与质量,为老龄化时代的健康衰老模式提供理论参照。文章以美国著名作家梅·萨藤在57-82岁期间撰写出版的8本日记为历时性语料,利用LIWC词频统计软件,统计8本日记中7个文本参数的词频数量及其变化趋势,通过定性分析与语料解读,考察作者的语言使用是否或如何随着年龄而变化以及变化的原因。结果显示:年龄对于自我参照、社交词汇、消极情感词汇、冠词和大词的使用影响较大,而对于积极情感词汇和认知词汇的使用影响不明显。主要是因为随着人的变老,其自我关注程度、社交和情感需求、其他生活关注以及类别化思维程度等发生了变化。

People＇s aging is closely related to their use of language.Based on the statistical results of LIWC software, this paper analyzes 7 dimensions of language use in the eight journals by May Sarton from age 57 to 82, exploring whether or how her language use varies with age and the underlying reasons.The results suggest that age has greater influence on Sarton＇s use of self-reference, social words,negative affect words,articles and words of more than 6 letters, but no obvious influence is found on her use of positive affect words and cognitive words.The reasons for her change of language use may be that the extent of her self-focus, the demand for social in- teraction, her emotional needs, her other life focuses and the extent of her categorical thinking have changed with age.