An exploration of the comparability of semantic adjectives in three languages

Explores the interval nature of semantic scale adjectives across three languages: English, Putonghua Chinese, and Japanese. Reports on a pilot study conducted among native speakers of each language using the techniques of magnitude scaling. Respondents rated an assortment of common adjectives by comparing the magnitude of the word to a given modulus. The results indicate that the traditional translation/back‐translation technique may not provide response intervals that are comparable cross‐culturally. Further, between languages the results indicate that the meaning attached to the adjectives by native speakers varies substantially. Discusses implications for market research, as well as future areas of research.