主语优先现象及其认知机制

主语优先是言语加工中的一种语序效应, 它具体表现为三个方面：论元歧义句的理解过程中, 首论元倾向于被解释为主语; 非歧义句的理解过程中, 首论元为宾语时的加工难于首论元为主语时的加工; 关系从句的理解过程中, 主语的提取比宾语的提取更容易。本文对主语优先现象主要进行了以下方面的论述：① 结合印欧语系和非印欧语系中的各种类型的语言, 详细分析了主语优先现象及其普遍性与特殊性; ② 主语优先现象的理论解释：基于工作记忆的理论、句法关联理论、突出性特征理论和基于频率的理论; ③ 与主语优先现象有关的脑电成分及其所体现的认知加工过程。最后, 结合已有的研究, 指出了主语优先现象未来的研究方向。

Subject Preference Effect and Its Cognitive Mechanism

Subject preference is a kind of word-order effect during sentence comprehension, which refers to the following three processing tendency: (a) Ambiguous initial arguments tend to be analyzed as subjects; (b) Initial subjects are easier to process than initial object in unambiguous sentences; (c) Subjects are easier to extract than objects in relative clauses. In the present paper, we mainly discussed three aspect of this preference effect: 1) by analyzing various Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages, we talked about this effect’s particularity and universality; 2) different models of subject preference were discussed, which included the working memory principle, the syntax dependency theory, the prominence principle and the influence of frequent; Third, we also summarized several subject preference-related ERP (Event-related potential) components, and discussed the underlying cognitive processes of each component in the first part; Finally, we pointed out the future directions of subject preference study.