Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China.
PLoS One. 2019 Feb 20;14(2):e0211336. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0211336. eCollection 2019.
Modality exclusivity norms have been developed in different languages for research on the relationship between perceptual and conceptual systems. This paper sets up the first modality exclusivity norms for Chinese, a Sino-Tibetan language with semantics as its orthographically relevant level. The norms are collected through two studies based on Chinese sensory words. The experimental designs take into consideration the morpho-lexical and orthographic structures of Chinese. Study 1 provides a set of norms for Mandarin Chinese single-morpheme words in mean ratings of the extent to which a word is experienced through the five sense modalities. The degrees of modality exclusivity are also provided. The collected norms are further analyzed to examine how sub-lexical orthographic representations of sense modalities in Chinese characters affect speakers' interpretation of the sensory words. In particular, we found higher modality exclusivity rating for the sense modality explicitly represented by a semantic radical component, as well as higher auditory dominant modality rating for characters with transparent phonetic symbol components. Study 2 presents the mean ratings and modality exclusivity of coordinate disyllabic compounds involving multiple sense modalities. These studies open new perspectives in the study of modality exclusivity. First, links between modality exclusivity and writing systems have been established which has strengthened previous accounts of the influence of orthography in the processing of visual information in reading. Second, a new set of modality exclusivity norms of compounds is proposed to show the competition of influence on modality exclusivity from different linguistic factors and potentially allow such norms to be linked to studies on synesthesia and semantic transparency.
模态排他性规范已在不同语言中为研究感知和概念系统之间的关系而制定。本文为汉藏语系的中文建立了第一个模态排他性规范，中文的语义与其书写形式相关。这些规范是通过两项基于中文感官词的研究收集的。实验设计考虑了中文的形态和书写结构。研究 1 提供了一套用于普通话单语素词的规范，用于评估一个词通过五种感觉方式体验的程度。同时还提供了模态排他性的程度。收集的规范进一步分析了中文字符中感觉模态的子词汇书写形式如何影响说话者对感官词的解释。特别是，我们发现语义偏旁成分明确表示的感觉模态的模态排他性评价更高，以及具有透明音标成分的字符的听觉主导模态评价更高。研究 2 展示了涉及多种感觉模态的并列双音节复合词的平均评价和模态排他性。这些研究为模态排他性研究开辟了新的视角。首先，建立了模态排他性与书写系统之间的联系，这加强了以前关于书写形式对阅读中视觉信息处理影响的说法。其次，提出了一套新的复合词模态排他性规范，以展示不同语言因素对模态排他性的影响的竞争，并可能允许将这些规范与联觉和语义透明度研究联系起来。
