汉语话题回指如何受动词语义关系约束——来自脑电研究的证据

How is pronoun resolution modulated by topic structures and verb-based implicit causality in Mandarin Chinese?An ERP investigation

句法结构和词汇语义是影响代词回指的两个重要因素,然而目前有关两者如何互动以最终决定代词解读并不清楚。为了考察话题结构对代词回指的影响如何受动词语义偏向的制约,本研究选用了语义偏向于宾语的动词,并借助于时间分辨率较高的事件相关电位技术(ERPs),对比了话题回指与宾语回指以及主语回指所诱发的脑电信号的变化。结果显示,相对于话题回指,无论是宾语回指还是主语回指均诱发了更大的P600,且即便同为宾语回指,话题结构中的宾语回指也要比非话题结构中的宾语回指引发更大的P600。与此不同,在非话题结构中,宾语回指和主语回指所诱发的P600没有明显差别。这一结果表明,1)相对于话题回指,加工宾语回指和主语回指需要消耗更多的认知资源,表明回指话题是语篇连贯的重要策略;2)汉语中的这种话题优先回指效应并不受动词语义偏向的制约—无论是主语偏向型动词还是宾语偏向型动词,话题均是代词的优先回指对象。此外,汉语中的代词回指出现了P600,并没有出现左前负波(LAN),说明汉语指代关系的认知过程和神经机制有别于印欧语。

Syntactic structure and verb-based semantics are two important factors impacting on pronoun resolution. This study explores how the influence of topic structures on pronoun interpretation is modulated by verb-based implicit causality. Specifically, using the high time resolution ERP technique, the study compared the ERP responses evoked by topic referring pronouns with those evoked by object referring pronouns and subject referring pronouns. The results show both object and subject referring pronouns evoked larger P600 responses than topic referring pronouns and that object referring pronouns in topic structure evoked larger P600 than those in non-topic structure. Furthermore, in non-topic structures there was no significant difference in the P600 indices evoked by object and subject referring pronouns. These findings suggest that processing topic referring relation is cognitively less demanding than processing object or subject referring relation, rendering topic referring as an important discourse processing strategy in Chinese. More importantly, the dominant influence of topic prominence on pronoun interpretation was not affected by verb-based implicit causality. The fact that LAN was absent in Chinese pronoun resolution may well point to different cognitive mechanisms at work in processing anaphora in Chinese and Indo-European languages.