Grammar of the Romantic Experience among Quebec Adolescents: A Sociosemantic Analysis of the Romantic Ideal
This study describes the sociosemantic forms of love as well as the romantic expectations and paradoxes as they are reflected by the themes evoked by Quebec youth to describe their ideal romantic experience. A total of 6,961 young Quebecers aged 14 to 19 enrolled in schools described their ideal love experience, either one they have experienced or one they wish for. A lexical and semantic analysis, performed with Sémato software, has identified six dominant semantic forms of ideal love : 1) the centrality of fidelity, respect and authenticity ; 2) sensuality (kissing and embracing) ; 3) finding ideal love in each other’s company and concrete activities ; 4) the importance of passion, the magic (for both genders), and especially for boys, pleasure ; 5) establishing ideal love in the future through shared plans such as union and children ; and 6) consolidating the couple in specific places, in everyday life or creating tangible memories. These semantic forms are hypothesized to have solved problems and paradoxes throughout the history of love and to reflect new, emerging problems in contemporary love relationships. Gender differences in the expression of the sociosemantic forms are also discussed.