
What are common Chinese expressions used to convey feelings in daily conversation
Common Chinese expressions used to convey feelings in daily conversation include phrases that express happiness, sadness, surprise, and frustration, among others. For example:
- 高兴 (gāoxìng) means “happy.”
- 哀愁 (āichóu) means “sad.”
- The interjection 哎呀 (āiyā) expresses surprise or discontent.
- Mood summary expressions like 合着 (hézhe), 敢情 (gǎnqíng), and 闹了半天 (nàole bàntiān) are used to sum up or emphasize feelings in conversation.
These expressions are often used in everyday talk to communicate emotions succinctly and are embedded in the social and cultural context of Chinese communication. Additionally, Chinese speakers may use particles or idiomatic phrases to modulate the emotional tone subtly in discourse. 3, 4, 6
Thus, in daily Chinese conversation, emotions are communicated through a combination of direct emotion words, interjections, idiomatic expressions, and mood particles reflecting a rich cultural emphasis on the regulation and expression of feelings.
References
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DualCoTs: Dual Chain-of-Thoughts Prompting for Sentiment Lexicon Expansion of Idioms
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How interaction molds semantics: The mood functions of Chinese “sum-up” adverbs
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Construction of a Chinese Corpus for the Analysis of the Emotionality of Metaphorical Expressions
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A Cognitive Study of “Happiness” Metaphors in English and Chinese Idioms
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A Cognitive Study of “Anger” Metaphors in English and Chinese Idioms
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Emotional Labor: Scale Development and Validation in the Chinese Context
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Articulation, Acoustics and Perception of Mandarin Chinese Emotional Speech
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Emotional Valence, Arousal, and Threat Ratings of 160 Chinese Words among Adolescents