摘要
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.
"名词短语可及性层次理论"认为主语关系从句加工具有优先性,并假设这种优先性在类型学各异的语言中存在普遍性,这种普遍性已经在多种语言研究中得到证实,而汉语的一些研究成果违反了此普遍性假说,这使汉语关系从句在句子加工领域中的地位举足轻重。本研究采用事件相关电位技术,其研究结果显示修饰主语和宾语的关系从句均表现出主语关系从句加工难度大于宾语关系从句,不支持主语关系从句优先加工的普遍性假说。此外,尽管实验结论与"规范语序"和以工作记忆理论为基础的"局部依存"模型相符合,但研究数据却对模型细节提出了质疑。同时,研究结果证明了汉语中修饰宾语的宾语关系从句产生了"花园小径"现象。本研究在实证上提供了主语关系从句优先加工不具有普遍性的例证,在理论上对于未来建立一个解释类型学各异的广泛的语言加工理论具有参考价值。
基金
the project of"The Processing of Chinese Relative Clauses"at the University of Arizona with No.10-0363-02
supported in part by the project of Superiority Subject in Jiangsu Province(20110101)
the EGI corporation for its support of this research
