双语抑制控制对跨语言同形异义词语义理解加工的影响——来自脑电的证据

The effect of bilingual inhibitory control on semantic comprehension of inter-lingual Chinese-Japanese homonyms:Evidence from ERP

本研究通过脑电实验来考察晚期双语者(汉日)在语义相关性判断任务中对跨语言同形异义词的理解加工,旨在验证跨语言同形异义词的理解和加工中存在对语义的抑制控制。研究结果发现:1)行为和脑电数据均显示双语者在理解跨语言同形异义词语义时,其两种语言(汉语和日语)的语义都有激活;2)脑电N200和N400对跨语言同形异义词语义加工中的抑制控制敏感,在判断跨同形异义词和控制词语义相关性实验条件下,同形异义词激发的N400波幅明显比控制词更负;在判断同形异义词汉语翻译对等词和控制词相关性实验条件下激发的N200和N400波幅较之控制条件更大;3)N200在左前额叶,中央和顶叶更加明显,而N400在中央和顶叶脑区则更负。上述结果表明抑制控制在汉日跨语言同形异义词理解加工中扮演重要角色,双语者需要抑制来自二语激活产生的干扰,进而通达母语(汉语)词汇语义,抑制控制可以直接作用于双语者语言理解的语义层面。

This study aims to test whether semantic inhibition could be found in inter-lingual homonym comprehension and pro-cessing by testing Chinese-Japanese bilinguals’EEG in semantic relatedness judgment task.The results show:1)lexical meaning in bilinguals’two languages are both activated in inter-lingual homonym semantic relatedness judgment;2)N200 and N400 are sensitive to inhibitory control in the processing of inter-lingual homonymy,compared with control words,the inter-lingual homonyms in the first experimental condition(homonym+unrelated word)produce a more negative N400,and com-pared with the control condition,the second experimental condition produces(Chinese translation counterpart word+related word)more negative N200 and N400;and 3)N200 is more negative in left frontal,central and parietal lobe while N400 is more negative in central and parietal lobe.Based on the aforementioned findings,it is assumed that inhibitory control plays an important role in the comprehension of Chinese-Japanese inter-lingual homonyms in that inhibition is needed to suppress the in-terference caused by activation of Japanese when assessing Chinese meaning.Hence,it is proposed that inhibitory control might work directly on the semantic level of bilingual language comprehension.