THE PHENOMENON OF MORAL COERCION IN THE CONTEXT OF ETHICAL NORMS IN CHINESE SOCIETY: A LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The article examines the contemporary Chinese neologism 道德绑架 (“moral coercion”) as an evaluative lexical unit. The main objective of the study is to identify the lexico-semantic characteristics of this expression and to determine the range of moral qualities that motivate its use in modern Chinese discourse. Based on data drawn from Chinese language corpora and media texts, the paper describes the typical contexts in which the neologism functions. The analysis shows that 道德绑架 is predominantly associated with family-role and social-role moral qualities, which are frequently reinterpreted as forms of moral pressure. The study demonstrates that this neologism reflects a shift in attitudes toward traditional moral values and highlights the increasing importance of individual choice in contemporary Chinese society. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the linguistic analysis of the evaluative mechanism through which moral qualities are reinterpreted in contemporary Chinese, allowing the expression 道德绑架 to be interpreted as a reflection of changes in moral-evaluative discourse. The findings may contribute to linguocultural research on evaluative vocabulary and moral assessment in language.