TY - JOUR
T1 - Ambiguity in the processing of Mandarin Chinese relative clauses
T2 - One factor cannot explain it all
AU - Mansbridge, Michael P.
AU - Tamaoka, Katsuo
AU - Xiong, Kexin
AU - Verdonschot, Rinus G.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was funded in part by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Grant-in-Aid for challenging exploratory research (https://www.jsps.go.jp/english/), Grant Number 16K13242 (Katsuo Tamaoka) and 15H06687 (Rinus G. Verdonschot; also sponsored by a Tokutei Kadai Kiso Grant), and the Grant-In-Aid for JSPS doctoral course fellows granted to Michael P. Mansbridge (15J03336) and Kexin Xiong (15J03617).
PY - 2017/6
Y1 - 2017/6
N2 - This study addresses the question of whether native Mandarin Chinese speakers process and comprehend subject-extracted relative clauses (SRC) more readily than objectextracted relative clauses (ORC) in Mandarin Chinese. Presently, this has been a hotly debated issue, with various studies producing contrasting results. Using two eye-tracking experiments with ambiguous and unambiguous RCs, this study shows that both ORCs and SRCs have different processing requirements depending on the locus and time course during reading. The results reveal that ORC reading was possibly facilitated by linear/temporal integration and canonicity. On the other hand, similarity-based interference made ORCs more difficult, and expectation-based processing was more prominent for unambiguous ORCs. Overall, RC processing in Mandarin should not be broken down to a single ORC (dis)advantage, but understood as multiple interdependent factors influencing whether ORCs are either more difficult or easier to parse depending on the task and context at hand.
AB - This study addresses the question of whether native Mandarin Chinese speakers process and comprehend subject-extracted relative clauses (SRC) more readily than objectextracted relative clauses (ORC) in Mandarin Chinese. Presently, this has been a hotly debated issue, with various studies producing contrasting results. Using two eye-tracking experiments with ambiguous and unambiguous RCs, this study shows that both ORCs and SRCs have different processing requirements depending on the locus and time course during reading. The results reveal that ORC reading was possibly facilitated by linear/temporal integration and canonicity. On the other hand, similarity-based interference made ORCs more difficult, and expectation-based processing was more prominent for unambiguous ORCs. Overall, RC processing in Mandarin should not be broken down to a single ORC (dis)advantage, but understood as multiple interdependent factors influencing whether ORCs are either more difficult or easier to parse depending on the task and context at hand.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0178369
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0178369
M3 - Article
C2 - 28594939
AN - SCOPUS:85020397276
VL - 12
JO - PLoS One
JF - PLoS One
SN - 1932-6203
IS - 6
M1 - e0178369
ER -