Replication Data for: Sound symbolism in Chinese children's literature

Dataset abstract: This dataset contains Chinese name data (N = 163) and character feature data collected from 87 local Chinese storybooks, including character nature (N = 163), character gender (N = 67), character size (N = 85), and character personality (N = 53). The data was used to examine the association between name sounds and character features. Article abstract: Iconicity is a fundamental property of spoken and signed languages. However, quantitative analysis of sound-meaning association in Chinese has not been extensively developed, and little is known about the impact of sound symbolism in children’s literature. As sound symbolism is supposed to be a universal cognitive phenomenon, this research seeks to investigate whether iconic structures of Mandarin are embodied in native Chinese speakers’ language experience. The paper describes a case study of Chinese storybooks with the goal of testing whether phonosemantic association is prominent between name sounds and character features. A quantitative method was used to investigate the distribution of different phonological units in character denomination depending on their physical and emotional traits. The results show that phonemes and syllable combination patterns are closely related to perceivable character features. By comparing schematic mapping in Chinese with other languages, the study illuminates a cross-linguistic tendency in addition to a Chinese-specific iconic relation between sound and meaning.数据集摘要：本数据集包含样本量N=163的中文姓名数据，以及从87部中国本土儿童绘本中采集的角色特征数据，具体涵盖角色属性（N=163）、角色性别（N=67）、角色体型（N=85）与角色性格（N=53）。该数据集被用于探究姓名读音与角色特征之间的关联。论文摘要：象似性（Iconicity）是口语与手语的核心属性之一。然而，当前针对汉语语音-语义关联的量化分析尚未得到充分发展，学界对语音象征在儿童文学中的影响尚缺乏深入认知。鉴于语音象征本应属于普适性认知现象，本研究旨在探究普通话的象似结构是否体现在母语为汉语者的语言经验之中。本文以中国本土儿童绘本为个案研究对象，旨在检验姓名读音与角色特征之间是否存在显著的语音语义关联。本研究采用量化方法，依据角色的物理与情感特质，探究其命名所用各类语音单元的分布规律。研究结果表明，音素与音节组合模式与可感知的角色特征密切相关。通过对比汉语与其他语言的图式映射关系，本研究不仅揭示了汉语特有的语音-语义象似关联，同时阐明了跨语言的通用倾向。