This study examines how homophony-based numerical expressions acquire meaning in Mandarin internet slang in videos posted by the Douyin account @致豪街访. It employed a descriptive qualitative design and qualitative content analysis with phonological, semantic, and contextual perspectives. Thirty-two videos uploaded from February to April 2026 were screened; 20 contained candidate expressions, yielding 50 tokens. Twelve tokens were selected using three criteria: non-weak phonological correspondence, spontaneous interpretation by Mandarin-speaking participants in the videos, and recurrent occurrence in the corpus. The selected forms were analyzed along three dimensions: degree of phonological correspondence, reinforcing formation patterns, and communicative meaning in context. Correspondence was operationalized at the syllable level as strong, partial, or weak on the basis of onset and rime, while tone was treated as a supporting cue. Three expressions showed high overall correspondence and nine showed moderate correspondence. Their meanings comprised love and affection (9), negative emotion (1), hope/prosperity (1), and agreement/affirmation (1). Phonological substitution underlay all expressions, while formal repetition, cultural association, formulaic patterning, and contextual support reinforced interpretation. The findings indicate that exact homophony is not required in this corpus: moderate sound correspondence can remain interpreTabel when supported by structural and contextual cues. The proposed three-dimensional framework is limited to the account and period investigated and does not by itself establish community-wide conventionalization.
Copyrights © 2026