Towards a dynamic behavioral profile of the Mandarin Chinese temperature term <i>re</i>: a diachronic semasiological approach

Abstract This study adopts a corpus-based behavioral profile approach, combining multifactorial usage-feature analysis with frequency-based quantitative analysis, to investigate the diachronic semasiological variation of Mandarin Chinese temperature term 热 re ‘hot’. The result shows dynamic profile, i.e., both usage patterns and structural weight senses have been constantly shifting. semasiology has becoming more diversified over time. Methodologically, this extends traditional approach—hierarchical agglomerative cluster by applying multiple correspondence corroborating its validity in accounting for visualizing nature change lexical items. Theoretically, present not only corroborates basic assumptions usage-based cognitive semantics (e.g., non-discreteness, non-equality senses, bodily experience) but also complements it demonstrating that sociocultural factors play an important role boundary item.