Words shape characters: a case study of correspondence analysis on characters’ words in <i>The Tale of Genji</i>

Abstract The words produced by characters play a pivotal role in the narrative. They serve not only to elucidate the thoughts and feelings of characters but also to help understand gender ideology and social norms. This article examines emotive adjectives produced by the characters in The Tale of Genji, the oldest extant Japanese novel, exploring how they are used among the characters, particularly between genders as well as different social groups. In this study, we employ a quantitative method known as correspondence analysis, which is enabled by the recent release of the speaker information for the tale by the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics. The resulting correspondence plot that we obtain from analysis indicates that gender, as well as social groups, influence the linguistic choices made in expressing emotions and feelings. In addition, we find that the differences in the use of the emotive adjectives correspond to gender norms embodied in the short poems included in The Kokin Wakashuu, the first imperial anthology of poetry. This article thus presents a case study that illustrates how quantitative analysis can contribute to not only gaining insights into understanding the language in that time but also how word choices contribute to creating characters.