Meng Yingying, Wan Yuwei, Kit Chunyu
Department of Linguistics and Translation, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.
PLoS One. 2025 May 14;20(5):e0322044. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0322044. eCollection 2025.
Contrary to the widespread notion that linguistic signs are arbitrary, researchers have consistently demonstrated the existence of sound symbolism in language, providing evidence for non-arbitrariness in sound-meaning associations. However, much evidence of this kind is based on a limited subset of vocabulary and falls short of systematically demonstrating the pervasive nature of sound symbolism and, especially, its central, rather than marginal, role in language. Furthermore, a historical perspective is lacking to determine whether sound symbolism is merely a feature of archaic languages or has remained a significant element throughout the evolution of languages. This research pioneers a diachronic analysis of sound symbolism in Chinese using historical rhyme books to trace its presence on the vocabulary scale. Employing natural language processing techniques along with statistical methods, it investigates whether phonologically related Chinese characters, as documented in rhyme books, also demonstrate semantic congruence, which would suggest that the phonological aspects of characters are inherently meaningful and hence indicate a systematic, rather than random or purely arbitrary relationship between sounds and meanings. Statistically significant results from our analysis of all four analyzed rhyme books confirm the robustness of sound symbolism over a large span of the Chinese language continuum, and a granular analysis of a representative one of them further reveals that sound symbolism is manifest across various levels of phonological organization, including initials, finals, etc. This study initiates an innovative combination of traditional materials with novel techniques to enrich and expand existing knowledge about sound symbolism, providing both methodological advancement and empirical insights.
与语言符号是任意的这一普遍观念相反，研究人员一直证明语言中存在语音象征，为语音与意义关联中的非任意性提供了证据。然而，这类证据大多基于有限的词汇子集，未能系统地证明语音象征的普遍性质，尤其是其在语言中核心而非边缘的作用。此外，缺乏历史视角来确定语音象征仅仅是古代语言的一个特征，还是在语言演变过程中一直是一个重要元素。本研究开创了对汉语语音象征的历时分析，利用历史韵书在词汇层面追溯其存在。运用自然语言处理技术和统计方法，研究韵书中记录的语音相关的汉字是否也表现出语义一致性，这将表明汉字的语音方面具有内在意义，从而表明语音与意义之间存在系统的而非随机或纯粹任意的关系。我们对所有四本分析的韵书的分析得出的具有统计学意义的结果证实了语音象征在汉语连续体的很大范围内的稳健性，对其中一本具有代表性的韵书的细致分析进一步表明，语音象征在语音组织的各个层面都有体现，包括声母、韵母等。本研究开创了传统材料与新技术的创新结合，以丰富和扩展关于语音象征的现有知识，既提供了方法上的进步，也提供了实证见解。
