The affective iconicity of segment and tone in Standard Chinese.

ABSTRACT: While both segmental and suprasegmental aspects of words have been recognised as potential factors influencing their iconic interpretations, how these components collectively drive the associations of form and affective meaning remains elusive. The current study addressed this issue in a lexical tonal language, Standard Chinese, where suprasegmental pitch information distinguishes word meanings. Specifically, we investigated how phonemic information at both the segmental level (i.e., vowels and consonants) and suprasegmental level (i.e., lexical tones) may influence native Standard Chinese listeners' rating of auditory stimuli's emotional arousal and valence in two-alternative forced-choice tasks. The results indicated a consistent correlation between tones and the perceived arousal and va

SUBMITTER: Zheng T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12913264 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature