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Directionality of Atmospheric Water in Chinese: A Lexical Semantic Study Based on Linguistic Ontology

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  • Sicong Dong
  • Yike Yang
  • He Ren
  • Chu-Ren Huang

Abstract

Why are fog, dew, and frost said to “fall†in some languages when they don’t in the physical world? We explore this seeming infelicity to study the nature of linguistic conceptualization. We focus on variations and changes of the morphosemantic behaviors of weather words in Mandarin and other Sinitic languages with an interdisciplinary approach to establish links between linguistic expressions and scientific facts. We propose that this use of directionality is the result of conventionalization of Chinese people’s inference from shared daily experience, and is well motivated in terms of a linguistic ontology that reflects a scientific account of natural phenomena. We further demonstrate that the semantically relevant orthography shared by Chinese speakers can be directly mapped to Hantology, a formal linguistic ontology based on Suggested Upper Merged Ontology (SUMO). In this mapping, the radical 雨 yǔ “rain,†derived from the ideograph of “rain†to represent atmospheric water, provides crucial clues to the use of directional verbs and the parts of speech of weather words. Our findings also lend support to language-based reconstruction of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and lay foundation for TEK research in the Sinosphere.

Suggested Citation

  • Sicong Dong & Yike Yang & He Ren & Chu-Ren Huang, 2021. "Directionality of Atmospheric Water in Chinese: A Lexical Semantic Study Based on Linguistic Ontology," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(1), pages 21582440209, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:11:y:2021:i:1:p:2158244020988293
    DOI: 10.1177/2158244020988293
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Chu-Ren Huang & Sicong Dong & Yike Yang & He Ren, 2021. "From language to meteorology: kinesis in weather events and weather verbs across Sinitic languages," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. A. Nyong & F. Adesina & B. Osman Elasha, 2007. "The value of indigenous knowledge in climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies in the African Sahel," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 12(5), pages 787-797, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Hongdi Ding & Sicong Dong, 2023. "Elevation and fog-cloud similarity in Tibeto-Burman languages," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Renkui Hou & Chu-Ren Huang & Kathleen Ahrens, 2022. "Regional varieties and diachronic changes in Chinese political discourse," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-18, December.

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