This study aims to analyze the use of emotional vocabulary in Han Kang’s novel The Vegetarian by conducting sentiment analysis on its Chinese edition using the R programming language. Sentiment analysis was performed from three perspectives, and the research findings are summarized as follows:
First, an emotion analysis was conducted on 2,524 emotional vocabulary items obtained through text generation and preprocessing. The results indicated that the emotional tendencies in The Vegetarian were generally balanced between positive and negative sentiments, with a slight predominance of positive sentiment, which exceeded negative sentiment by 1.72 percentage points. The findings regarding emotion types were presented in bar charts, providing intuitive insights and strong visual impact.
Second, polarity analysis involved labeling polarity types for the 2,524 emotional vocabulary items and summing their occurrence frequencies. The results revealed that neutral sentiment accounted for the highest proportion, at 44.01%, while positive and negative sentiments were relatively balanced. However, positive sentiment showed a slight predominance, exceeding negative sentiment by 9.83 percentage points. The analysis results of sentiment polarity were visualized through pie charts, which offered clear and intuitive visual representation.
Third, frequency analysis was performed to visualize the co-occurrence network and word cloud based on the frequency of emotional vocabulary items categorized by emotion and polarity types. Through the co-occurrence network, the study identified keywords and core themes in The Vegetarian, while the word cloud visualization highlighted high-frequency words, demonstrating R’s robust capabilities in data visualization.
The sentiment analysis conducted using R provides an objective framework for examining the use of emotional vocabulary in the novel. This approach contributes to a deeper understanding of Han Kang’s The Vegetarian and showcases a digital methodology for linguistic research. This study is significant in that it bridges traditional Chinese Language and Literature research with the tools and methodologies of the digital age, contributing to the growth of digital Chinese studies. It is hoped that this research will further expand methodological frameworks in Chinese Language and Literature studies and support the ongoing advancement of digital Chinese scholarship.