The relationship between affective word ratings and lexico-semantic properties in Cantonese actions and objects

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to develop a set of Cantonese nouns and verbs with ratings for various affective and lexico-semantic features identified in previous studies in English and other languages. The majority of stimuli were found to be neutral in rated valence and low in arousal. Significant correlations were found among affective features, among lexico-semantic features and between each of the two feature types. This pattern of correlations differs from a prior study using adjectives as stimuli. Moreover, arousal was minimal in neutral words, but was higher in negative and positive words. Multiple regression analyses identified different predictors for the affective features when ratings from all participants were analyzed together, and when noun and verb ratings from the young and old participants were analyzed separately. The results show that although monosyllabic object and action terms in Cantonese are not likely to be confounded with emotional characteristics in research studies, multicollinearity between lexical-semantic variables demands careful control over correlated factors when selecting stimuli for research into category specific effects in aphasia with Cantonese speakers.