# The Multidimensional Nature of Semantic Transparency in a Cross‐Linguistic Perspective: Evidence From Human Intuitions, Computational Estimates, and Processing Data for Chinese Compounds

## TL;DR

This study explores how semantic transparency in Chinese compounds can be understood through multiple dimensions using human ratings and computational models.

## Contribution

The study validates the multidimensionality of semantic transparency in Mandarin Chinese compounds using a novel dataset and factor analysis.

## Key findings

- Semantic transparency in Chinese compounds is multidimensional, with distinct factors for constituent contribution and compound predictability.
- The second constituent's semantic contribution significantly affects lexical decision performance.
- The findings extend the multidimensionality hypothesis of semantic transparency to Chinese compounds.

## Abstract

Semantic transparency is a key construct for understanding how complex words are represented and processed, yet it has been conceptualized and operationalized in diverse ways across studies. In this study, we validate whether semantic transparency exhibits multidimensional properties across different measures in Mandarin Chinese. We first construct a novel dataset consisting of 2675 nominal compounds, with a rich set of measures from human ratings, traditional distributional semantic models, and recent large language models. To investigate whether they inform the same aspects of this construct, we then examine the latent structure among these measures through exploratory factor analysis. Our factor analysis reveals that this construct is fundamentally multidimensional, with measures assessing the semantic contribution of each constituent and the semantic predictability of overall compounds representing distinct factors in the latent structure. These derived composite factors also predict lexical decision performance, with the factor representing second constituent contribution showing significant facilitatory effects. Our work extends the cross‐linguistic validity of the multidimensionality hypothesis of this theoretical construct previously established in English and German to Chinese compounds. Additionally, we provide a valuable resource for future research on the representation and processing of compounds, together with methodological insights into using computational estimates to augment psycholinguistic datasets across dimensions of semantic transparency.