Research Article

Diachronic Semantic Evolution Detection and Attribution Analysis Based on Large Language Models: Taking Chinese Emotional Words as an Example

Xuejiao WangShanxi Normal University*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

The diachronic semantic evolution of Chinese emotional words is an important mirror image of language and social and cultural changes. Traditional methods have limitations such as high corpus dependence and insufficient mechanism interpretation. This research proposes a detection and attribution framework based on large language models, constructs a diachronic corpus covering multiple sources such as newspapers, periodicals, and online texts from 1995 to 2025, and uses large language models to quantify the semantic evolution of emotional words precisely. And by incorporating external attributions such as social events, media discourse, and cultural trends, the research reveals how multiple factors jointly drive semantic evolution. The results show that over the past 30 years, the evolution of Chinese emotional words has presented significant stages, and their core meanings and practical contexts have changed dynamically. The research breaks through the bottleneck of traditional methodology, providing an innovative computational paradigm for diachronic semantic research, enriching the theory of language and social interaction, and also offering practical technical support for the construction of Chinese diachronic language resources and the exploration of historical culture.

Keywords: Large language model; Diachronic semantic evolution; Chinese emotional words; Attribution analysis
Published: February 10, 2026
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/2026.HT31719
Volume: CHR Vol.102
pp. 187-197
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