焦点对比项和对比命题加工的眼动研究

An Eye-Tracking Study of Online Processing of Focus Alternatives and Alternative Propositions

在自然语篇中,焦点用来表达最重要的信息;能否正确理解焦点决定了能否理解语篇内容。按照理论语义学的焦点选项理论,焦点的功能即在于引出一个与焦点相关的对比语义项(简称对比项)和对比语义命题(简称对比命题)。那么,焦点对比项的理论假设有没有认知心理的基础?本研究采用眼动研究范式,考察焦点敏感算子"只"和"连"修饰的焦点加工对在线句子理解的影响。研究证实,焦点加工能够自动激活焦点对比项和对比命题,二者在不同的时间进程中起作用;同时,语言处理器能够敏锐地区分不同算子所规定的语义差别。

In a natural discourse, focus expresses the most important, salient information. According to the alternative semantics theory, the focus is to indicate the presence of a focus alternative set. This paper explored whether the presence of focus alternative sets/propositions has, any psychological reality. Adopting an eye-movement paradigm, it examined the online processinl of sentences marked by exclusive focus sensitive particle ＂zhi＂ and scalar one ＂lian＂. The result suggest that the processing of focus can automatically activate focus alternatives and alternativ propositions, which exert their influence upon sentence comprehension in different time windows The results also demonstrate that the Chinese language parser is sensitive to the semantic differences associated with different particles and responds differently in the online sentence comprehension.