Waddling, wandering and waving: Literary Chinese ideophones and the motion semantic grid

This study uses the motion semantic grid (Ibarretxe-Antuñano 2019) to analyze the semantics of literary Chinese ideophones that depict motion (N = 313). We offer strategies for handling missing values in the Grid and enhancements specific to Chinese data, such as the inclusion of semantic radicals. Utilizing multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), we identify the most salient elements and distances between items. Our findings reveal that (1) all first-level components in the Grid play a role, e.g. FIGURE, GROUND, MOTION, PATH, MANNER, CAUSE, EVENT EXTENSION; (2) of second-level components Animacy, Quanta, Basic level, Motor-pattern, Semantic radical, Motion, Direction, and Aspect contribute most to the first three latent dimensions; (3) motion ideophones cluster in salient groups. This study confirms the motion semantic grid's utility for studying motion ideophones but highlights the need for language-specific adaptations and strategies for handling missing values absent from the original proposal.