A Typological Study of Colexification of Eating, Drinking and Smoking in Sinitic Languages

This paper investigates the lexification patterns (i.e., correspondences between forms and senses) of the concepts EAT, DRINK, and SMOKE across 160 Sinitic languages. Utilizing data sourced from reference grammars, online databases, dictionaries, and fieldwork, the study categorizes the languages into five distinct patterns of colexification and dislexification, revealing a notable north-south divide. The findings indicate that colexification occurs more frequently in Sinitic varieties located south of the Yangtze River, while dislexification is prevalent among the three concepts in Northern Chinese languages. This study also examines how cognitive, historical, sociocultural, and areal factors constrain the colexification among two or three of the concepts. While conceptual relatedness serves as an underlying reason connecting these three concepts, the colexification of EAT and DRINK is also attributed to the retention of archaic features of Old and Middle Chinese. The colexification of EAT and SMOKE is likely constrained by sociocultural factors, particularly the medicinal function of tobacco, which was promoted by Chinese merchants following its introduction from Luzon (Philippines) during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Furthermore, after comparing Sinitic varieties with 240 non-Sinitic languages from the Tibeto-Burman (116), Kra-Dai (78), and Hmong-Mien (46) families, the study concludes that the colexification of DRINK and SMOKE in Sinitic languages results from language contact with Hmong-Mien languages; this illustrates how multilingual environments influence the reconfiguration of sense clustering and lead to the adoption of shared semantic structures.