世界汉语教学

A study of the temporal processing and influencing factors of semantic radicals’ syntactic activation in Chinese heritage language learners

Semantic radicals, as important building blocks of pictophonetic characters, play significant roles in Chinese character cognition. In addition to their semantic functions, semantic radicals also fulfill syntactic functions. The radical priming paradigm is used in this study to examine the temporal processing and influencing factors of the syntactic activation of semantic radicals in high-frequency Chinese characters for advanced Chinese heritage language learners. Experiment 1 revealed that the activation of the semantic radical's syntax occurred primarily in the mid and late processing stages. Experiments 2 and 3 identified two factors influencing the temporal processing of semantic radicals' syntactic activation: the semantic radical's neighborhood effect and the syntactic preference effect. The former effect manifests as delayed syntactic activation for radicals with larger semantic neighborhoods; the latter is reflected in the fact that radicals with high syntactic preference activate in mid-to-late stages, while those with low syntactic preference activate only in the late stage. These findings confirm that the neighborhood size and syntactic preference of semantic radicals critically shape the temporal dynamics of their syntactic activation. Pedagogical strategies are then proposed to help learners of Chinese heritage languages develop the strategy of ‘Seeing Characters, Knowing Categories'.

On the form-function correspondence between gege and yige(yi)ge

The underlying logical semantics of the periphrastic constituent gege(个个) includes three aspects: [denotation], [scope], and [continuity], which makes it realized as a syntactic-semantic-functional hybrid: syntactically, it is both topical and pronominal, and semantically, it is both denotative and descriptive. Based on the multiple functions inherent in gege and the need for linguistic refinement, yige(yi)ge(一个(一)个) divides the functions of gege: yige(yi)ge_1, which occurs before gege, shares the denotative function of gege; yige(yi)ge_2, which follows gege, shares its descriptive function. This hypothesis can be confirmed by both synchronic evidence and diachronic evolution. The functional and syntactic distribution of gege, yige(yi)ge_1, and yige(yi)ge_2 is actually a manifestation of form-function correspondence. The hypothesis proposed in this paper can explain the syntactic-semantic difference and connection between gege and yige(yi)ge in a relatively clear and systematic way.

The polarity behaviors of model words in Modern Chinese and their functional motivations

The semantic(logical) classification and pragmatic(intensity) classification of modal words should be distinguished, as different languages have different coding preferences. It is difficult to distinguish Chinese modal verbs and modal adverbs on the basis on formal standards, and such a distinction is not conducive to the systematic study of modality. This article combines them into a single group, modal words. In Chinese, modal words expressing strong volitional dynamic modality, strong moral necessity, and all those that express epistemic modalities cannot be negated by bu/mei(不/没); modal words expressing epistemic modalities cannot enter negative contexts such as polarity questions and the antecedents of conditional sentences while others are not subject to this constraint. Any single factor, modal intensity included, cannot explain the cause of the positive polarity items(PPIs), because the use of modal words is affected by multiple factors such as modal intensity, the speaker's perspective, and language encoding preferences.

Sentence-in-noise comprehension and its associations with lexical tone processing skills among Chinese-as-a-second-language children and native Chinese-speaking children with lexical tone agnosia

The current study examines sentence-in-noise comprehension and its associations with lexical tone processing skills among Chinese-as-a-second-language children and native Chinese-speaking children with or without lexical tone agnosia. The results show that the presence of noise deteriorated sentence comprehension in general, although the deleterious effects of different types of noise differed among the three groups of children. Furthermore, some lexical tone processing skills, working memory in particular, were significantly correlated with sentence-in-noise comprehension in all the three groups. This study thus reveals the effects of background noise on children's sentence comprehension and clarifies the cross-group similarities and differences in the relations between sentence-in-noise comprehension and specific lexical tone processing skills. It is then proposed that cognitive training aimed to improve working memory for lexical tones might be useful for improving sentence-in-noise comprehension by Chinese-as-a-second-language children and native Chinese-speaking children with lexical tone agnosia.

The selection restrictions and motivations for the embedding of unconditional concessive sentences in interrogative clauses in Chinese

The interrogative sentence in Chinese has the dual function of asking questions and providing alternative options, and its specific function is determined by the syntax, semantics and pragmatics of the overall structure. Unconditional concessive sentences in Chinese can be embedded in positive-negative questions, alternative questions and wh-questions, but not in polar questions, because their embedding requires a set of alternative options. Positive-negative questions, alternative questions and wh-questions all conform to this feature. Specifically, positive-negative questions and alternative questions show the feature of free choice when embedded by unconditional concessive sentences, and wh-questions show the feature of free reference. The options of unconditional sentences can also be encoded in other forms, such as yeba…yeba…(‘whether…or…'), conjunctive connectives he(‘and') and yu(‘and'), disjunctive connectives huo(zhe)(‘or') and degree-indicating duomo(‘how'). Polar questions need to be separate sentences to achieve the interrogating function and provide alternative options, and thus cannot be embedded by unconditional concessive sentences. The interrogating function of polar questions requires the addressee to respond. Rhetorical questions composed of polar questions, however, do not have this requirement, but they cannot provide multiple options. Thus, rhetorical questions cannot be embedded by unconditional concessive sentences. Polar questions are biased in the options they provide, unable to provide equal choices for conditional clauses. Rhetorical questions represent an extreme case of option bias, in that the option is completely biased towards the negative form of the proposition, which, therefore, does not meet the requirements of unconditional concessive sentences.

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Distinguishing running utterances from complex sentences: An empirical study based on semantic relations between clauses

Whether running utterances in Chinese constitute a type of complex sentence remains a subject of debate. Although the majority of existing studies endorse the “complex sentence hypothesis, ” the supporting arguments often contain inconsistencies and ambiguities. This study revisits these arguments from the perspective of semantic relations between clauses, using behavioral experiments as its methodological approach. The results indicate that running utterances and complex sentences are better treated as distinct categories rather than a unified whole—at least in terms of semantic connectivity. Participants exhibited significantly lower inter-rater consistency, lower accuracy, and longer reaction times when judging semantic relations in running utterances, in comparison with their performance on complex sentences. These findings lend support to the distinction between non-regulated semantic relations(in running utterances) and regulated ones(in complex sentences), thereby casting doubt on the robustness of the “complex sentence hypothesis.” Furthermore, the presence or absence of connectives did not significantly affect participants' judgments of semantic relations, which suggests that prior studies may have overestimated the role of connectives in the interpretation of running utterances.

The similarity type and syntactic structure of the metaphorical “N+N” phrase

The metaphorical “N+N” phrase can be divided into two types: Vehicle+Tenor(V+T) and Tenor+Vehicle(T+V). By comparing the two types, this study finds that:(1) in terms of similarity type, V+T belongs to attributional similarity, while T+V belongs to relational similarity;(2) in terms of syntactic structure, V+T is a modifier-head structure, while T+V is a quasi-apposition structure; and(3) there is an interaction between similarity type and syntactic structure: when the tenor and the vehicle share a similar attribute, they belong to different entity categories and form a modifier-head construction, with the vehicle modifying the tenor; when the tenor and the vehicle indicate a similar relation, they fall into the same relational category and form a quasi-apposition construction, with the vehicle interpreting the tenor. The formation of V+T and T+V can be further explained from the perspectives of cognition and pragmatics. Attributional similarity and relational similarity play an important role in the study of metaphorical expressions.