Startseite Processing Relative Clauses in Chinese: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials
Artikel
Lizenziert
Nicht lizenziert Erfordert eine Authentifizierung

Processing Relative Clauses in Chinese: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials

  • Sun Xiaoxia

    Dr. Sun Xiaoxia is an associate Professor at School of Foreign Languages and Cultures of Nanjing Normal University. She is studying at Systematic Musicology Department of University of Cologne for a double Ph.D. Her research efforts have focused on psycholinguistics and the comparison between language and music. Email: sunlightxiaoxia@hotmail.com.

         , Roeland Hancock

    Roeland Hancock was a PhD candidate at Psychology Department, the University of Arizona. He is a post doc at Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco. His research efforts have focused on psycholinguistics and familial handedness. Email: rhancock@gmail.com.

         , Thomas G. Bever

    Dr. Thomas G. Bever is a Regents’ Professor at Linguistics Department, the University of Arizona. His research efforts have mainly focused on psycholinguistics. Email: tgb@email.arizona.edu.

         , Cheng Xiaoguang

    Dr. Cheng Xiaoguang is a professor of English at the School of Foreign Languages, Northeast Normal University. His research efforts have focused on applied linguistics and language philosophy. Email: xiaoguangcheng@hotmail.com.

         , Lüder Schmidt

    Lüder Schmidt is working at the Institute of Musicology, University of Cologne. Research interests focus on the cognitive science and embodiment. Email: alm30@uni-koeln.de

         und Uwe Seifert

    Uwe Seifert is professor of Musicology at the University of Cologne. He is involved in cognitive science. Email: u.seifert@uni-koeln.de
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 19. März 2016
Veröffentlichen auch Sie bei De Gruyter Brill
Informationen für Autor*innen
Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics
Aus der Zeitschrift Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics Band 39 Heft 1

Abstract

The Interpretation of Chinese relative clauses has become of significant interest in sentence processing research, since some studies found that Chinese comprehension patterns violate the well-known universal subject relatives preference proposed by NAPH theory and proved by cross-linguistic studies. The current study uses the neuropsychological measure of ERP. It supports such a language-specific phenomenon, with the results showing that both subject-and object-modifying subject relatives eliciting larger ERP components than object relatives. The results suggest that object relatives are easier to process than subject relatives at both modifying positions, challenging the claim of universal subject preference for all languages. In addition, this study casts doubts on CWO and working memory-based DLT models despite results being compatible with them, and concludes that none of the current models are comprehensive enough to account for the data. Finally, this study offers a piece of evidence for the garden path effect caused by the surface NVN word order in the Chinese relative clause. All in all, this study adds to the evidence that processing preference is not universal. It contributes to a comprehensive model of how complex structures are processed.

Keywords: relative clause; universal subject relative preference; event-related potentials (ERPs)

  1. The research reported here is based on the project of “The Processing of Chinese Relative Clauses” at the University of Arizona with No.10-0363-02. It is supported in part by the project of Superiority Subject in Jiangsu Province (20110101). We thank the EGI Corporation for its Support of this research. We thank Professor Chen Baoguo for allowing us to use his experimental items from Chen and Ning (2008) (some of them are revised), and Professor Lu Jianming for reviewing all the experimental Stimuli. The statistical and graphical Output was generated using the R language. Special thanks go to Henrik Niemann (M.A.) of Cologne University for developing better plots.

About the authors

Sun Xiaoxia

Dr. Sun Xiaoxia is an associate Professor at School of Foreign Languages and Cultures of Nanjing Normal University. She is studying at Systematic Musicology Department of University of Cologne for a double Ph.D. Her research efforts have focused on psycholinguistics and the comparison between language and music. Email: sunlightxiaoxia@hotmail.com.

Roeland Hancock

Roeland Hancock was a PhD candidate at Psychology Department, the University of Arizona. He is a post doc at Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco. His research efforts have focused on psycholinguistics and familial handedness. Email: rhancock@gmail.com.

Thomas G. Bever

Dr. Thomas G. Bever is a Regents’ Professor at Linguistics Department, the University of Arizona. His research efforts have mainly focused on psycholinguistics. Email: tgb@email.arizona.edu.

Cheng Xiaoguang

Dr. Cheng Xiaoguang is a professor of English at the School of Foreign Languages, Northeast Normal University. His research efforts have focused on applied linguistics and language philosophy. Email: xiaoguangcheng@hotmail.com.

Lüder Schmidt

Lüder Schmidt is working at the Institute of Musicology, University of Cologne. Research interests focus on the cognitive science and embodiment. Email: alm30@uni-koeln.de

Uwe Seifert

Uwe Seifert is professor of Musicology at the University of Cologne. He is involved in cognitive science. Email: u.seifert@uni-koeln.de

References

Bever, T. G. (1970). Cognitive basis for linguistic structures. In J. R Hayes (Ed.), Cognition and the development of language (pp.279-362). New York: Wiley.Suche in Google Scholar

Caplan, D. (2001). Functional neuroimaging studies of syntactic processing. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 30, 297-320.10.1023/A:1010495018484Suche in Google Scholar

Chen, B., Ning, A., Bi, H., & Dunlap, S. (2008). Chinese subject-relative clauses are more difficult to process than the object-relative clauses. Acta Psychol, 129(1), 61-65.10.1016/j.actpsy.2008.04.005Suche in Google Scholar

Cohen, L., & Mehler, J. (1996). Click monitoring revisited: An on-line study of sentence comprehension. Memory and Cognition, 24, 94-102.10.3758/BF03197275Suche in Google Scholar

Dryer, M.S.(1991). “SVO” languages and the OV:VO typology. FL, 27, 443-82.Suche in Google Scholar

Fodor, J. D., & Inoue, A. (1994). The diagnosis and cure of garden paths. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 23(5), 407-434.10.1007/BF02143947Suche in Google Scholar

Frauenfelder, U., Segui, J., & Mehler, J. (1980). Monitoring around the relative clause. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 19, 328-337.10.1016/S0022-5371(80)90257-1Suche in Google Scholar

Frazier, L. (1987). Syntactic processing; Evidence from Dutch. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. 5, 519-559.10.1007/BF00138988Suche in Google Scholar

Frisch, S., & Schlesewsky, M. (2001). The N400 reflects problems of thematic hierarchizing. Neurophysiology, Basic and Clinic, 12(15), 3391-3394.10.1097/00001756-200110290-00048Suche in Google Scholar

Geisser, S., & Greenhouse, S. (1959). On methods in the analysis of profile data. Psychometrika, 24, 95-112.10.1007/BF02289823Suche in Google Scholar

Gibson, E. (1998). Linguistic complexity: Locality of syntactic dependencies. Cognition, 68, 1-76.10.1016/S0010-0277(98)00034-1Suche in Google Scholar

Gibson, E. (2000). The dependency locality theory: A distance-based theory of linguistic complexity. In A. Marantz, Y. Miyashita, & W. O’Neil (Eds.), Image, language, brain: Papers from the first mind articulation project symposium (pp. 95-126). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Gibson, E., & Wu, H.-H. I. (2011). Processing Chinese relative clauses in context. Language and Cognitive Processes, 1, 1-31.10.1080/01690965.2010.536656Suche in Google Scholar

Gratton, G., Coles, M. G. H., & Donchin, E. (1983). A new method for off-line removal of ocular artifact. Electroencephalogrphy and Clinical Neurophysiology, 55, 468-484.10.1016/0013-4694(83)90135-9Suche in Google Scholar

Greenberg, J. H. (1963). Some universals of language with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements. In Universals of language (pp. 73-113). Cambridge: MA: MIT Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Hawkins, J. A. (1994). A performance theory of order and constituency. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Hsiao, F., & Gibson, E. (2003). Processing relative clauses in Chinese. Cognition, 90, 3-27.10.1016/S0010-0277(03)00124-0Suche in Google Scholar

Jäger, L., Vasishth, S., Chen, Z., & Lin, C (2013). Eye-tracking evidence for the subject relative advantage in Mandarin. In Annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference.Suche in Google Scholar

Just, M., Carpenter, P., Keller, T., Eddy, W., & Thulborn, K. (1996). Brian activation modulated by sentence comprehension. Science, 274(5284), 114.10.1126/science.274.5284.114Suche in Google Scholar

Keenan, E., & Comrie, B. (1977). Noun phrase accessibility and universal grammar. Linguistic Inquiry, 8, 63-99.10.4324/9781315880259-11Suche in Google Scholar

King, J. W., & Just, M.A. (1991). Individual differences in syntactic processing: The role of working memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 30, 580-602.10.1016/0749-596X(91)90027-HSuche in Google Scholar

King, J. W., & Kutas, M. (1995). Who did what to when? Using word- and clause-level ERPs to monitor working memory usage in reading. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 7, 376-395.10.1162/jocn.1995.7.3.376Suche in Google Scholar

Kovács, N. & Vasishth, S. (2013). The processing of relative clauses in Hungarian. In C. Frenck­ Mestre, F.X. Alario, N. Nguyen, P. Blache, & C. Meunier (Eds.), Proceedings of the Conference on Architectures and Mechanismsfar Language Processing. Marseille: Aix Marseille UniversitéSuche in Google Scholar

Kuo, K., & Vasishth, S. (2006). Processing relative clauses: Evidence from Chinese [manuscript]. Retrieved on January 10, 2007, from http://www.ling.uni-potsdam.de/~vasishth/vasishth2.htmlSuche in Google Scholar

Kwon, N., Polinsky, M., & Kluender, R. (2006). Subject preference in Korean. In D. Baumer, D. Montero, & M. Scanlon (Eds.), Proceedings of the 25th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (pp. 254-260). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Suche in Google Scholar

Lin, C.-J. C. (2010). Comprehending Chinese relative clauses in context: Thematic patterns and grammatical functions. In L. E. Clemens & C. M. L. Liu (Eds.), Proceedings of the 22nd North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (pp. 413-428). Harvard University. MA: Cambridge.Suche in Google Scholar

Lin, C.-J. C., & Bever, T. G. (2006). Subject preference in the processing of relative clauses in Chinese. In D. Baumer, D. Montero, & M. Scanlon (Eds.), Proceedings of the 25th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (pp. 254-260). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Suche in Google Scholar

Lin, C.-J. C., & Bever, T. G. (2011). Garden path and the comprehension of head-final relative clauses. In H. Yamashita, Y. Hirose, & J. L. Packard (Eds.), Processing and producing head-final structures (pp. 277-297). Springer.Suche in Google Scholar

Lin, Y., & Garnsey, S. M. (2009). The contribution of classifiers and pronouns to Mandarin relative clause comprehension. Presented at the 22th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. Davis, CASuche in Google Scholar

Lin, Y., & Garnsey, S. M. (2011). Animacy and the resolution of temporary ambiguity in relative clause comprehension in Mandarin. In H. Yamashita, Y. Hirose, & J. L. Packard (Eds.), Processing and producing head-final structures (pp. 241-75). Springer.Suche in Google Scholar

MacDonald, M. C., & Christiansen, M. H. (2002). Reassessing working memory: A comment on Just & Carpenter (1992) and Waters & Caplan (1996). Psychological Review, 109, 35-54.10.1037/0033-295X.109.1.35Suche in Google Scholar

MacWhinney, B., & Pleh, C. (1988). The processing of restrictive relative clauses in Hungarian. Cognition, 29, 95-141.10.1016/0010-0277(88)90034-0Suche in Google Scholar

Mak, W. M., Vonk, W., & Schriefers, H. (2002). The influence of animacy on relative clause processing. Journal of Memory and Language, 47, 50-68.10.1006/jmla.2001.2837Suche in Google Scholar

Mecklinger, A., Schriefers, H., Steinhauer, K., & Friederici, A.D. (1995). Processing relative clauses varying on syntactic and semantic dimensions: An analysis with event-related potentials. Memory and Cognition, 23, 477-94.10.3758/BF03197249Suche in Google Scholar

Packard, J., Ye, Z., & Zhou, X. (2011). Filler-gap processing in Mandarin relative clauses: Evidence from Event-related potentials. In H. Yamashita, Y. Hirose, & J. Packard (Eds.), Processing and producing head-final structures (pp. 219-40). Amsterdam: Springer.10.1007/978-90-481-9213-7Suche in Google Scholar

Pu, M. M. (2007). The distribution of relative clauses in Chinese discourse. Discourse Processes, 43(1), 25-53.10.1080/01638530709336892Suche in Google Scholar

Qiao, X., Shen, L., & Forster, K. (2012). Relative clause processing in Mandarin: Evidence from the maze task. Language and Cognitive Processes, 27, 611-30.10.1080/01690965.2011.578394Suche in Google Scholar

Reali, F., & Christiansen, M. H. (2007). Processing of relative clauses is made easier by frequency of occurrence. Journal of Memory & Language, 53, 1-23.10.1016/j.jml.2006.08.014Suche in Google Scholar

Schlesewsky, I. B., & Schlesewsky, M. (2009). Processing syntax and morphology: A neurocognitive perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Schriefers, H., Friederici, A. D., & Kühn, K. (1995). The processing of locally ambiguous relative clauses in German. Journal of Memory and Language, 34, 499-520.10.1006/jmla.1995.1023Suche in Google Scholar

Slobin, D. I., & Bever, T.G. (1982). Children use canonical sentence schemas: a crosslinguistic study of word order and inflections. Cognition, 12, 229-65.10.1016/0010-0277(82)90033-6Suche in Google Scholar

Stromswold. K., Caplan, D., Alpert, N., & Rauch, S. (1996). Localization of syntactic comprehension by positron emission tomography. Brain and Language, 52, 452-73.10.1006/brln.1996.0024Suche in Google Scholar

Su, Y., Lee, S., & Chung, Y. (2007). Asyntactic thematic role assignment by Mandarin aphasics: A test of the trace-deletion hypothesis and the double dependency hypothesis. Brain and Language, 101(1), 1-18.10.1016/j.bandl.2006.12.001Suche in Google Scholar

Traxler, M. J., Morris, R. K., & Seely, R. E. (2002). Processing subject and object relative clauses; Evidence from eye movements. Journal of Memory and Language. 47, 69-90.10.1006/jmla.2001.2836Suche in Google Scholar

Ueno, M., & Garnsey, S. (2008). An ERP study of the processing of subject and object relative clauses in Japanese. Language & Cognitive Processes, 23, 646-688.10.1080/01690960701653501Suche in Google Scholar

Vasishth, S., Chen, Z., Li, Q., & Guo, G. (2013). Processing Chinese relative clauses: Evidence for the subject-relative advantage. Available at: www.plosone.org/article/info [accessed Nov.6, 2013]10.1371/journal.pone.0077006Suche in Google Scholar

Wu, F. (2009). Factors affecting relative clause processing in Mandarin. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Southern California.Suche in Google Scholar

Wu, F., Kaiser, E., & Anderson, E. (2011}. Animacy effects in Chinese relative clause processing. Language and Cognitive Processes, 27(10), 1489-1524.10.1080/01690965.2011.614423Suche in Google Scholar

Yang, C. L, & Perfetti, C. A. (2006). Contextual constraints on the comprehension of relative clause sentences in Chinese: ERPs evidence. Language and Linguistics, 7(3). 697-730.Suche in Google Scholar

Yang, C. L., Perfetti, C. A., & Liu. Y. (2010). Sentence integration processes: An ERP study of Chinese sentence comprehension with relative clauses. Brain & Language, 112, 85-100.10.1016/j.bandl.2009.10.005Suche in Google Scholar

Zhang, Q., & Jiang, H. (2010). [The superiority of processing Chinese relative clause and the explanation of local grammar’s complex]. Foreign Languages Research, 6, 19-26.Suche in Google Scholar

Zhang, Q., & Yang, Y. M. (2010). [Object preference in the processing of relative clause in Chinese: ERP evidence]. Linguistic Sciences, 4, 337-353.Suche in Google Scholar

Zhou. T. Q., Zheng, W., Shu. H., & Yang. Y. M. (2010) [The superiority of processing Chinese object-extracted relative clause: Evidence from aphasic studies]. Linguistic Sciences, 3, 225-243.Suche in Google Scholar

(Copyeclited by Duncan SIDWELL and DING Yanren)

Published Online: 2016-3-19
Published in Print: 2016-3-1

© FLTRP, Walter de Gmyter, Cultural and Education Section British Embassy

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Second Language Acquisition
  3. The Effects of Recasts and Working Memory on the Development of Implicit and Explicit Knowledge
  4. Second Language Acquisition
  5. Study on Chinese College EFL Learners' Comprehension and Production of English Relative Clauses: Testing Three Hypotheses
  6. English as a Lingua Franca
  7. “Nativeness” and Intelligibility: Impacts of Intercultural Experience Through English as a Lingua Franca on Chinese Speakers’ Language Attitudes
  8. Language Teaching
  9. English Vocabulary Acquisition Through Songs in Chinese Kindergarten Students
  10. Second Language Writing
  11. Patterns of Peer Review in an EFL Writing Course in China
  12. Language and Cognition
  13. Processing Relative Clauses in Chinese: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials
  14. Language and Cognition
  15. Language-Switch of a Parity Judgment Task in Multilinguals
https://doi.org/10.1515/cjal-2016-0006
Schlagwörter für diesen Artikel
relative clause; universal subject relative preference; event-related potentials (ERPs)

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Second Language Acquisition
  3. The Effects of Recasts and Working Memory on the Development of Implicit and Explicit Knowledge
  4. Second Language Acquisition
  5. Study on Chinese College EFL Learners' Comprehension and Production of English Relative Clauses: Testing Three Hypotheses
  6. English as a Lingua Franca
  7. “Nativeness” and Intelligibility: Impacts of Intercultural Experience Through English as a Lingua Franca on Chinese Speakers’ Language Attitudes
  8. Language Teaching
  9. English Vocabulary Acquisition Through Songs in Chinese Kindergarten Students
  10. Second Language Writing
  11. Patterns of Peer Review in an EFL Writing Course in China
  12. Language and Cognition
  13. Processing Relative Clauses in Chinese: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials
  14. Language and Cognition
  15. Language-Switch of a Parity Judgment Task in Multilinguals
Jetzt anmelden und 20% sparen
Institutioneller Zugang
Wie funktioniert Authentifizierung?
Haben Sie eine Idee, wie wir unsere Website verbessern können?
Bitte schreiben Sie uns.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Heruntergeladen am 20.11.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/cjal-2016-0006/html?lang=de
Button zum nach oben scrollen