Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine dimensions of affectional expressions in Japanese proverbs. Seven thousand and ninety six proverbs were collected, of which 412 were selected as frequently used in everyday life. Fifty-five students rated the relevance of these proverbs to 13 categories of affectional words. The categories were “pessimism”, “optimism”, “coldhearted”, “warm-hearted”, “tension”, “relaxation”, “hesitation”, “daring”, “anger”, “fear”, “surprise”, “dislike”, and “like”. Based on Matsuyama, Hama, Kawamura, and Mine (1978), three to four affectional words were assigned to each category in order to define it more clearly. The data were analyzed by Q-mode factor analysis. Four bipolar factors (“cruelness-kindness”, “hesitation-daringness”, “fortunateness-unfortunateness”, and “laziness-perseverance”) and two monopolar factors (“surprise” and “hostility”) were extracted.
