Deciphering cross-genre dynamics: Testing the Law of Abbreviation and the Meaning-Frequency Law in Chinese across genres

The study examined the applicability of two linguistic laws, i.e., the Law of Abbreviation and the Meaning-Frequency Law, in Chinese across four text genres. Linear mixed-effects models were employed to explore the genre-mediated effects on the two laws. The results confirmed the validity of both laws at the character level in Chinese while also demonstrating significant genre-specific variations. The effect of genre on the relationships among character length, polysemy, and frequency was particularly pronounced in less formal genres. Additionally, across all genres, character polysemy consistently exhibited a stronger effect on character frequency than character length. The results were discussed from several perspectives, including the underlying mechanisms of the two laws (i.e., the principle of least effort and the lexical synergetic system theory), trade-offs between communication accuracy versus efficiency across genres, and the differing impacts on communication costs of character polysemy and character length. Implications of the study are also discussed for researchers interested in Zipfian laws across languages.