Lexical networks between sounds and meanings in Taiwan Mandarin: Evidence from psycholinguistics

The present study aims to provide an outline of lexical networks between sounds and meanings in Taiwan Mandarin. Both the phonological and semantic relations are explored by a free word association task. Previous research has demonstrated a significant influence of phonology on Indo-European networks and suggested the influence of semantics on languages with lexicography such as Mandarin. With a new methodology in which word frequency, syllable type, syllable structure, tone structure, imageability, and parts of speech are carefully considered for the experimental stimuli, a total of 248 responses were collected from six Taiwan Mandarin native speakers. The results of lexical associations suggest that: 1) semantic relations show a stronger connection than phonological ones in Taiwan Mandarin networks; 2) rhymes present a stronger influence on associations than initial segments. 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