Abstract
This study investigates the use of tone and tonal combination in naming. Focusing on tones in Chinese company names, two research questions are raised as to (i) if there is a preference for particular tones in Chinese company names and (ii) if there is a preference for compatible tonal combinations (e.g., HL.LH) over conflicting tonal combinations (e.g., LH.LH). An examination of a corpus containing 122,480 disyllabic Chinese company names indicated (i) a preference for H tone to start a company name and (ii) a preference for compatible tonal combinations across the two syllables, as well as (iii) a tendency to avoid Tone 3 (LH/LLH) as the first or second syllable in a disyllabic company name.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 49-54 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Experimental Linguistics |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2023 |