Analysis of the Structure and Function of Phono-semantic Compounds Based on Complex Networks

摘要

Complex network has been used in phono-semantic compounds in this paper, especially the degree correlation, hierarchical structure, diversity of the function of nodes and their relationships has been studied. We found that high degree nodes tend to be connected to low degree nodes, displaying a disassortative mixing property in the whole; some nodes can act both as phonetic radical and semantic radical, leading to a more complicated structure; and the hierarchical structure makes the disassortative mixing property more obvious. This paper reveals that phono-semantic compounds are optimal combination of phonetic radicals with semantic radicals, and they bear the merits of easy remembering, easy spreading and easy understanding. The phono-semantic compounds follow the principle of least effort [1] and characteristics of human cognitive mechanism.