主、宾关系从句加工不对称性效应及其神经机制

句子加工领域内, 主、宾关系从句加工不对称性效应是诸多语种内普遍存在的一种语言现象。本文对主、宾关系从句加工不对称性效应从如下几个方面进行了分析和论述：①从成人语言、儿童语言和失语症患者三个领域并结合印欧语系和非印欧语系的语言特征, 详细分析了该效应及其普遍性和特殊性; ②主、宾关系从句加工不对称性效应的理论解释：句法角色理论、“填充语-空位”依附理论、积极填充策略、名词短语可及性层级理论和干扰相似性理论; ③与主、宾关系从句加工不对称性效应有关的脑电成分及相应的脑区激活模式的分析。最后, 在对已有理论评价分析的基础上, 提出“标记浮动”句子加工理论模型, 并指出该领域未来的研究方向。     

汉语学龄前儿童主、宾关系从句认知特点及语义因素效应的研究

关系从句是人类语言领域句法结构较为复杂的句式,汉语3～5岁儿童是否具有加工关系从句的认知能力,以及该能力是否受句法结构和语义因素的影响,成为该领域当前研究的热点。本研究选取120名3～6岁学龄前儿童,以汉语主、宾关系从句为研究材料,通过操纵从句中核心名词的生命性格局对上述问题进行了考察。结果显示：(1)汉语领域内,3～4岁儿童基本上具备了理解句式较为简单的关系从句的能力;(2)5～6岁左右的儿童基本上具备了利用语义因素辅助关系从句加工的能力。总之,汉语学龄前儿童具备了加工关系从句的认知能力,且高年级儿童可以利用语义因素辅助从句加工。     

汉语主语和宾语关系从句加工难度的比较

采用自定步速的阅读任务,考察了汉语主语和宾语关系从句的加工难度。实验操纵了汉语关系从句修饰的中心词在主句中的句子成分和从句类型,记录被试每个词的阅读时间。结果表明,汉语主语关系从句的加工在一定程度上难于宾语关系从句的加工,特别是当关系从句修饰的中心词做主句的宾语时,这种困难较为明显。本文从工作记忆负担和句子成分整合的难易程度方面分析了结果产生的原因。     

句子加工中核心名词动物性效应及其认知机制

动物性核心名词在语言认知中有着重要的作用.基于句子产生和句子理解两方面的研究表明,句式选择、语态运用、词序排列、论元建构、格标记使用及从句加工等诸多方面都显著的受到句中核心名词动物性的影响.就该效应的来源及其作用机制,生命性名词表征特异性理论、词汇概念通达可及性层级理论、动物性名词句法突出性特征理论、基于频率分布的语言经验理论从不同的方面进行了分析.最后,就名词动物性效应的存在本质、作用机理以及文化和语境的影响等方面展开了评价和展望.     

生命性信息在语言加工中的作用

生命性的范畴化从多个方面影响了语言的加工.名词的生命性信息不仅影响了句法形态标记和句法位置等句法线索的使用,而且在题元角色的分配中发挥一定的作用.较早的研究主要采用反应时和眼动技术,发现生命性信息促进了歧义句和句法复杂句的加工.近年来,随着认知神经科学技术的发展,研究者进一步探讨了生命性信息在题元角色分配中的神经机制.对于生命性作用机制的深入研究,促使新的语言加工模型的出现,这些模型对语言加工中句法和语义的关系,进行了越来越详尽的阐释.未来该领域的研究应重点关注生命性的即时性加工、题元角色分配中生命性信息与句法信息的交互作用以及汉语和其他语言的跨语言比较研究等,以进一步揭示语言加工的认知机制.     

“名词-名词”概念组合的关系启动效应

采用"词汇-图片"启动实验范式,考察概念组合加工过程中的关系启动效应,探讨了关系竞争理论与图式取向理论之间的争论。结果:实验1发现,在目标组合概念与启动组合概念的主名词或修饰词相同的条件下,都会产生关系启动效应;实验2表明二者之间没有相同的子概念(修饰词或主名词),也会产生关系启动效应。实验3在排除视觉特征因素条件下,再次证实本研究中出现的是关系启动。结论:支持图式取向理论,即概念组合中的关系信息不受修饰词和主名词的限制,是独立表征的。     

任务难度与老化对大脑激活的影响——以线索记忆编码为例

以汉语名词双字词对为材料,采用了两种性质、三种难度水平的线索回忆任务对12名老年被试和15名年轻被试的项目记忆编码过程进行fMRI扫描,考察在编码阶段大脑激活受任务难度变化和老化的影响。行为研究结果发现:年龄的主效应、难度的主效应以及难度与年龄交互作用均显著,即,随着任务难度的增加,老年人的成绩更加明显地低于年轻人。神经成像研究结果发现:(1)当词对的相关性降低时,大脑激活的增强主要表现为面积的增加,而当词对的频率降低时,主要表现在激活强度的增加上。(2)任务难度和大脑激活面积、强度之间均不存在对应的递增变化关系。(3)仅当词对的相关性降低时,老年人比年轻人调用了更多的额叶脑区。     

汉字项目再认和位置来源提取神经机制的分离

采用事件相关电位(ERP)方法,比较了大学生汉语名词项目再认和位置来源提取的头皮时空分布。学习屏幕左侧(或右侧)呈现名词后在屏幕中央呈现新、旧名词,对受试者进行两类测验:其一是判断名词是否已学过;其二是将从某侧学得的名词判断为目标,而将其他名词判断为非目标的来源测验。结果发现:(1)汉字位置来源提取与项目再认新/旧效应的持续时程相同,但前者较后者在600~1000ms的头皮分布更广,该结果支持描述项目记忆与来源记忆关系的双重加工模型,且两种记忆的新/旧效应并非总以序列方式发生;(2)汉字与前人西文单词、图形的位置来源提取效应的头皮分布相似,都集中于前额区,表明来源特性对来源信息提取具有调节作用;(3)非目标-旧名词与目标名词新/旧效应的头皮分布特征不同,表明来源信息提取受任务定向影响。     

情绪效价及强度对词汇加工的影响

以46名大学生为被试,以不同词性（名词&动词）的汉语双字正性情绪词、负性情绪词、中性词作为刺激材料,考察情绪效价强度（极端、中等、中性）对词性判断加工的影响。结果表明：（1）动词的词性判断比名词难,且该难度会受到高强度情绪信息的影响而扩大。（2）情绪效价及强度对名词加工的影响表现在两个方面：极端正性情绪易化对名词的加工,增强名词加工的优势效应;而中等和极端负性情绪干扰对名词的词性判断,削弱名词加工的优势效应。（3）除了受到性别、性格等因素的影响外,情绪效价强度效应的具体表现还受刺激类型的调制。     

非熟练的韩国汉语学习者合成词加工中词优效应的特点

词优效应是语言学习中的一个普遍现象。关于英语母语者和汉语母语者的研究都发现了词优效应。本研究关注非熟练的韩国汉语学习者的中文词汇加工中的词优效应,共两个实验:实验1考察汉字的频率对非熟练的韩国汉语学习者中文词汇加工中词优效应的影响;实验2考察汉字和词之间的语义关系(词汇的结构)对非熟练的韩国汉语学习者中文词汇加工中词优效应的影响。实验1的结果发现,字频并未对非熟练的韩国汉语学习者中文词汇加工中的词优效应产生影响,非熟练的韩国汉语学习者在高频字和低频字的识别中都出现了词优效应,且词优效应的大小没有显著差异。这说明非熟练的韩国汉语学习者在高、低频字的识别中都依赖于自上而下的词汇水平的激活。实验2的结果发现,汉字和词之间的语义关系(词汇结构)影响词优效应,相对于并列结构的词汇加工,在偏正结构的词语加工中更容易出现词优效应。这个结果表明词汇的结构通过影响词水平和字水平之间的交互激活,进而影响中文词汇加工中的词优效应。     

The Role of Animacy in Children's Interpretation of Relative Clauses in English: Evidence From Sentence–Picture Matching and Eye Movements

Subject relative clauses (SRCs) are typically processed more easily than object relative clauses (ORCs), but this difference is diminished by an inanimate head-noun in semantically non-reversible ORCs (“The book that the boy is reading”). In two eye-tracking experiments, we investigated the influence of animacy on online processing of semantically reversible SRCs and ORCs using lexically inanimate items that were perceptually animate due to motion (e.g., “Where is the tractor that the cow is chasing”). In Experiment 1, 48 children (aged 4;5–6;4) and 32 adults listened to sentences that varied in the lexical animacy of the NP1 head-noun (Animate/Inanimate) and relative clause (RC) type (SRC/ORC) with an animate NP2 while viewing two images depicting opposite actions. As expected, inanimate head-nouns facilitated the correct interpretation of ORCs in children; however, online data revealed children were more likely to anticipate an SRC as the RC unfolded when an inanimate head-noun was used, suggesting processing was sensitive to perceptual animacy. In Experiment 2, we repeated our design with inanimate (rather than animate) NP2s (e.g., “where is the tractor that the car is following”) to investigate whether our online findings were due to increased visual surprisal at an inanimate as agent, or to similarity-based interference. We again found greater anticipation for an SRC in the inanimate condition, supporting our surprisal hypothesis. Across the experiments, offline measures show that lexical animacy influenced children's interpretation of ORCs, whereas online measures reveal that as RCs unfolded, children were sensitive to the perceptual animacy of lexically inanimate NPs, which was not reflected in the offline data. Overall measures of syntactic comprehension, inhibitory control, and verbal short-term memory and working memory were not predictive of children's accuracy in RC interpretation, with the exception of a positive correlation with a standardized measure of syntactic comprehension in Experiment 1.     

Use of Memory-Load Interference in Processing Spoken Chinese Relative Clauses

The processing advantage of Subject-gapped relative clause (SRC) versus Object-gapped relative clause (ORC) has been advocated by competing processing accounts. Using a self-paced listening paradigm, this study investigates what Chinese RC online processing asymmetry looks like under concurrent memory load manipulation. Both On-line listening times and Post-online measures of Chinese SRCs and ORCs are estimated and compared. The on-line results show that ORCs and SRCs demonstrate no differential processing patterns under the interfering conditions. At the relativizer-DE marker region, under 0-digt-load, SRCs show processing advantage, while under 5-digit-load condition, SRCs display greater listening times than ORCs. Furthermore, the Post-online RTs and accuracy of post-sentence comprehension and digit recalls show that processing of SRCs had worse performance. These results lead to the conjecture that there may be no intrinsic processing asymmetry in Chinese RCs, and underscore the necessity that future studies in exploring the processing metrics of sentence complexity should consider the working memory involvement.     

Relative Clause Effects at the Matrix Verb Depend on Type of Intervening Material

Although a large literature demonstrates that object-extracted relative clauses (ORCs) are harder to process than subject-extracted relative clauses (SRCs), there is less agreement regarding where during processing this difficulty emerges, as well as how best to explain these effects. An eye-tracking study by Staub, Dillon, and Clifton (2017) demonstrated that readers experience more processing difficulty at the matrix verb for ORCs than for SRCs when the matrix verb immediately follows the relative clause (RC), but the difficulty is eliminated if a prepositional phrase (PP) intervenes. A careful examination of Staub et al.’s materials reveals that the types of PPs used in the experiment were a mixture of locative and temporal PPs. This is important in that locative PPs can modify either a noun phrase or a verb phrase (VP), whereas temporal PPs typically modify VPs, resulting in systematic differences in PP attachment across ORCs versus SRCs. In the current eye-tracking experiment, we systematically manipulated RC type and PP type in the same sentences used by Staub et al. The manipulation of PP type resulted in a crossover pattern at the matrix verb such that there was a trend for reading times to be longer for ORCs than SRCs when the PP was locative, but reading times were longer for SRCs than ORCs when the PP was temporal. These results provide important information regarding the locus of RC-processing effects and highlight the importance of carefully considering how intervening material might unintentionally alter the structure or the meaning of a sentence.     

Concept Abstractness and the Representation of Noun–Noun Combinations

Research on noun–noun combinations has been largely focusing on concrete concepts. Three experiments examined the role of concept abstractness in the representation of noun–noun combinations. In Experiment 1, participants provided written interpretations for phrases constituted by nouns of varying degrees of abstractness. Interpretive focus (the modifier, the head noun, or both) for each noun–noun phrase was evaluated. In Experiment 2, a different group of participants directly indicated which noun, the modifier or the head noun, was the focus of the meaning of each noun–noun phrase. Finally, participants in Experiment 3 assessed similarity of noun–noun phrases with overlapping modifiers. If abstractness of constituent nouns affects information distribution between modifier and head noun, it would accordingly affect similarity ratings for noun–noun phrases with overlapping modifiers. Results showed that the pattern of information distribution within a noun–noun phrase differed between phrases with abstract head nouns and phrases with concrete head nouns. Specifically, the center of representation was more on the head noun side for phrases with concrete head nouns, whereas the center seemed to shift to the direction of the modifier for phrases with abstract head nouns. Some issues related to effects of concept abstractness on noun–noun combinations are discussed.     

The recovery of thematic role structure during noun-noun interpretation

We examined how people use their knowledge of events to recover thematic role structure during the interpretation of noun-noun phrases. All phrases included one noun that was a good-agent/poor-patient (prosecutor) in a particular event (accuse), and the other noun was a good-patient/poor-agent (defendant) for the same event. If people interpret the noun-noun phrases by inverting the nouns and applying a thematic relation (see Downing, 1977; Levi, 1978), phrases should be interpreted more easily when the head nouns typically are good agents and the modifiers are good patients for specific events. Two experiments supported these predictions. Furthermore, the results indicated that in the less preferred thematic order (agent-patient), people often generated interpretations in which the modifiers became the focus of the interpretations. This finding suggests that violating thematic role preferences is one constraint on when the inversion process occurs during noun-noun interpretation.     

Resolving Conflicts in Natural and Grammatical Gender Agreement: Evidence from Eye Movements

The present research investigated the attraction phenomenon, which commonly occurs in the domain of production but is also apparent in comprehension. It particularly focused on its accessibility to conceptual influence, in analogy to previous findings in production in Hebrew (Deutsch and Dank, J Mem Lang, 60:112–143, 2009). The experiments made use of the contrast between grammatical and natural gender in Hebrew, using complex subject noun phrases containing head nouns and prepositional phrases with local nouns. Noun phrases were manipulated to produce (a) matches and mismatches in grammatical gender between heads and local nouns; and (b) inanimate nouns and animate nouns with natural gender that served either as head or as local nouns. These noun phrases were the subjects of sentences that ended with predicates agreeing in gender with the head noun, with the local noun, or both. The ungrammatical sentences were those in which the gender of the predicate and the head noun did not match. To assess the impact of conflicts in grammatical and natural gender on the time course of reading, participants’ eye movements were monitored. The results revealed clear disruptions in reading the predicate due to grammatical-gender mismatches with head and local nouns, in analogy to attraction in production. When the head nouns conveyed natural gender these effects were amplified, but variations in the natural gender of local nouns had negligible consequences. The results imply that comprehension and production are similarly sensitive to the control of grammatical agreement by grammatical and natural gender in subject noun phrases.     

Broken agreement

The subjects and verbs of English sentences agree in number. This superficially simple syntactic operation is regularly implemented by speakers, but occasionally derails in sentences such as The cost of the improvements have not yet been estimated. We examined whether the incidence of such errors was related to the presence of subject-like semantic features in the immediate preverbal nouns, in light of current questions about the semantic versus syntactic nature of sentence subjects and the interactivity of language processing. In three experiments, speakers completed sentence fragments designed to elicit erroneous agreement. We varied the number and animacy of the head noun and the immediate preverbal (local) noun, as well as the amount of material separating the head noun from the verb. The plurality of the local noun phrase had a large and reliable effect on the incidence of agreement errors, but neither its animacy nor its length affected their occurrence. The latter findings suggest, respectively, that the semantic features of sentence subjects are of minimal relevance to the syntactic and morphological processes that implement agreement, and that agreement features are specified at a point in processing where the eventual length of sentential constituents has little effect on syntactic planning. Both results follow naturally from explanations of language production that emphasize the segregation of sentence formulation processes into relatively autonomous components.     

The processing of subject and object relative clauses in Spanish: An eye-tracking study

A normative study and an eye-tracking experiment investigated the influence of animacy on the processing of subject and object relative clauses in Spanish. The results showed that object relative clauses caused more difficulty than subject relative clauses, but that animacy modulated this preference. The overall pattern was similar to findings in other languages. However, because of the syntactic characteristics of Spanish relative clauses, the results give novel insights into the processing mechanisms that underlie relative clause processing.     

Differences in Noun and Verb Processing in Lexical Decision Cannot be Attributed to Word Form and Morphological Complexity Alone

It has been suggested that the effect of word category in noun and verb processing reflects typical word class properties, which can be characterized in terms of semantic as well as syntactic and morphological features. The present study is aimed at differentiating and discussing the relative contribution of these aspects with a main focus on syntactic and morphological processing. Experiment 1 established a processing advantage for nouns in German visual lexical decision, using nouns denoting biological and man-made objects as compared to transitive and intransitive verbs. Experiment 2 showed that the noun advantage persisted even when the morphological differences between word categories were reduced by using identical suffixes in nouns and verbs. Overall results suggest that the processing differences cannot be reduced to variables such as frequency, word form, or morphological complexity. Reaction time differences between transitive and intransitive verbs strengthen the role of syntactic information. In line with previous accounts the observed effects are discussed in terms of a category-specific combination of linguistic parameters.