在語言學家尚未以科學方法追溯詞源之前，一般民眾已大肆發揮聯想力與創造力，依照自己認為合理的方式，將陌生難解而不知所以然的詞語加以同化、類推，改換成自己熟悉的、發音近似的、或意義相關的詞，以此種主觀比附、想當然爾的方式所推求出來的詞源大多數是不可靠的、禁不起驗證，德國語言學家佛爾斯特曼（Förstemann）稱之為Volksetymologie（英譯為folk etymology），即所謂的「流俗詞源」、「俚俗詞源」或「民間詞源」。本文以流俗詞源作為主要觀察對象，一方面著眼於語言符號內部因素，參照耗散結構（dissipative structure）的自組織過程（self-organization），分析語素義與詞義之間的非線性互動，試著發掘導致誤釋詞源的各種可能因素；一方面則以「認知語義學」（cognitive semantics）作為理論基礎，著力於語言系統與心理認知、身體經驗、社會文化等外部系統的互動，探究建構流俗詞源的心理機制及其動態歷程。

Before linguists traced back to the etymology with the scientific method, the general public had created and associated unknown words to familiar, assimilated, analogical ones rationally. This kind of etymology certainly is unreliable after precisely proving. Förstemann, a Germany linguist, entitled this phenomena “Volksetymologie” (Folk etymology). This research is based on folk etymology, exploring the inner factors within the language symbols with the self-organization of cognitive semantics and investigating the outer ones, says inner cognition, personal experiences, cultural influence, within cognitive semantics and pragmatic perspective. Along with those findings, the researcher tries to picture the dynamic course and psychological mechanism of folk etymology.