汉字形声字声旁的语义加工

汉字形声字声旁的语义加工 心理学报2002,34(1) ActaPsychologicaSinica SemanticProcessingofPhoneticRadicals inReadingChineseCharacters木 ZhouXiaolin (CenterforBrainandCognitiveSciences,andDepartmentofPsychology,PekingUniversity,Bering,100871) WilliamMarslen—Wilson (MRCCognitionandBrainSciencesUnit,Cambridge,UnitedKingdom) Abstract Mo8tcomplexChinesecharactersarecomposedofasemanticradicalontheleftandaphoneticradicalontheright, whichmayprovideinformationconcerningthepronunciationofthewholecharacter.Asemanticjudgementtaskwasusedto investigatewhethersublexicalprocessingofphoneticradicalsembeddedincomplexcharactersispurelyaphonologic?,d event,involvingactivationofphonologicalinformationassociatedwiththephoneticradicals,orwhetheritisalsoasemantic event,involvingactivationofsemanticpropertiesrelatedtotheradicals,whicharemeaningfulcharactersontheirown. Signifieantinhibitoryeffectswasfoundforcomplexcharacterswhosephoneticradicalsweresemanticallyrelatedtotheother memberoftheconsecutivelypresentedpairofcharacters.Themagnitudeoftheinhibitoryeffectswasgenerallynot influencedbytheregularityofphoneticradicalsinprovidingphonologicalinformationforthewholecharacters,norbythe Dresentationorderofcomplexcharactersandsemanticassociatesofthephoneticradicals.Itisarguedthat,inreading Chinese,phoneticradicalsembeddedincomplexcharactersaredecomposedfromvisualinputandusedtoactivatetheirown phonologicalandsemanticproperties,inparalleltotheprocessingofwholecharacters. KeywordsreadingChinese,Chinesecharacters,sublexicalprocessing,phoneticradicals. 1Introduction TheChinesewritingsystemisoftendescribedas logographicormorpho—syllabic,wherethebasic orthographicunits,thecharacters,corresponddirectly tomorphemicmeaningsandtosyllablesinspoken form.Withsomeexceptions,eachcharacterrepresents onemorphemeandhasonepronunciation,although differentcharactersmayhavethesamepronunciations. ModemChinesecharacterscanbebroadly differentiatedintotwocategories:simpleandcomplex, bothofwhichaxecomposedofs~okesandarrangedin squaresofsimilarsize.Simple(orintegrated) charactersmakeupabout5%ofthetotalcharactersin ModemChinese.Theyareholisticvisualpatternsthat cannotbedividedmeaningfullyintosub—lexicalunits. Complex(orcompound)charactersconstituteabout 95%ofallmodemChinesecharactersandmostof thesecharactersarecomposedofasemanticradicalon theleftandaphoneticradicalontheright(e.g.,议yi [4],discuss,inwhichthephoneticradicalis.义yi [4],righteousness.Numbersinbracketsrepresentthe lexicaltonesofsyllables),althoughsomearrangetheir radicalsinotherways[„,. 收稿日期:2001—03—05. TheresearchreportedherewassupportedinpartbygrantsfromChinaNationalPandengProgram(95-Sp ecial-09),NationalScienceFoundation (3007026)andtheMinistryofEducationofChina(99000127)toXiaolinZhouandinpartbyagranlfrom UKEconomicandSocialResearchCouncil t0XiaolinZhouandWilliamMarslen.Wilson.Correspondenceconcerningthispapershouldbeaddress edtoDr.XiaolinZhou,DepartmentofPsychology, PekingUniversity,Beijing10087l,China.Electronicmailmaybesentloxzl04@pku.edu.cn. 1 2理学报34卷 Linguistically,whilesemanticradicalshavethe functionofindicatingthesemanticcategoryof morphemescorrespondingtothewholecharacters, phoneticradicalshavethefunctionofpointingtothe pronunciationsofthesecharacters.However,dueto theevolutionofthewritingsystem,manycomplex charactersarenolongerpronouncedinthesamewayas theirphoneticradicals.Lessthanonethirdofcomplex characters(“regular”characters)haveexactlythe samepronunciationsastheirphoneticradicals_3I4], whileaboutonethirdaretotallyirregularf”irregular” characters)andtheirpronunciationhasnorelationship totheirphoneticradicals.Thefinalonethirdshare someaspectsofphonologywiththeirphoneticradicals. Mostphoneticradicalscanbeinvolvedinbothregular andirregularcharacters.Moreover,mostphonetic radicalsal?ealsomeaningfulcharactersbythemselves, eventhoughtheirmeaningusuallyhasnothingtodo withthemeaningofcomplexcharacterscontaining theseradicals. Therehavebeenanumberofstudiesonthe sublexicalorsub?characterprocessingofphonetic radicalsinreadingChinesecharactersE14]. Withfew exceptions[?,, ,thesestudieshaveconcentratedon phonologicalactivationofphoneticradicalsandthe influenceofthisactivationonphonologicalprocessing ofwholecharacters.Seidenberg[ , forexample, foundthatregularcomplexcharacters—————thatis. charactershavingthesamepronunciationsastheir phoneticradicals,_??___._______——werenamedfasterthan frequency—matchedsimplecharacters.Thiseffect, however,wasrestrictedmostlytolowfrequency characters.Usingaprimednamingtask,Zhouand I?arslen—Wilson[H]demonstmtedmoredirectlvthe activationofphonologicalinformationassociatedwith phoneticradicalsembeddedincomplexcharacters. Highandlowfrequencyirregularcomplexcharacters (e.g.,猜cai[1],guess,inwhichthephonetic radicalwas青qing[1],blue)wereusedasprimes, whiletargetswerecharacters(e.g.,轻qing[1], 坛ht)thatwerehomophonictothephoneticradicals embeddedinthecomplexcharactersbutnottothe charactersthemselves.Theauthorsfoundthattargets precededbylowfrequencycomplexcharacterswere namedfasterthanwhentheywereprecededbyunrelated characters.Targetsprecededbyhighfrequency complexcharacters,however,didnotshowsignificant facilitationinnaming. Thesefindingssuggestthatinprocessingcomplex characters,phoneticradicalsaredecomposedfromthe visualinputandusedtoaccesstheirownphonological representationsaswellasrepresentationsofother characterscontainingtheseradicals,leadingtoa cooperativeandcompetitiveinteractionbetweenthe phonologicalactivationofwholecharactersandoftheir phoneticradicals[9,13,14].Anahernativeaccount, however.wasalsoproposed[15I.Accordingtothis account,sublexicalprocessingofphoneticradicalsin readingcomplexcharactersisessentiallythesameas theprocessofusinggrapheme?phoneme correspondencesinreadingalphabeticwords.The over—-learnedradical—-soundcorrespondencessubserve therule—likecomputationof”prelexical”or “nonlexical”phonologyforthewholecharacters.Thus onthisaccount,sublexicalprocessingofphonetic radicalsispurelyaphonologicalevent,involvingonly computationfromorthographytophonology. Themainpurposeofthisstudyistoinvestigate whethersublexicalprocessingofphoneticradicals embeddedincomplexcharactersisrestrictedjusttothe activationoftheirphonologicalrepresentations.Weuse asemanticjudgmenttasktoexaminewhetherthe semanticpropertiesassociatedwiththesephonetic radicals,sincetheyaremeaningfulcharactersontheir own,arealsoactivatedintherecognitionofcomplex characters.Ifweobtainevidenceforsemantic activationofphoneticradicalsinreadingcomplex characters,thisevidencewillaHowustorejectthe” prelexical”or”nonlexical”phonologyaccountof sublexicalprocessingofphoneticradicals. ZhouaIldMarslen—Wilson[,,4]haye investigatedthisissueinaprimednamingstudy.They observedfacilitatoryprimingeffectsfortargetcharacters (e.g.,东dong[1],east),whichwerenot semanticallyrelatedtothecomplexcharacterprimes themselves(e.g.,洒sa[3],spray)buttothe phoneticradicals(e.g.,西xi[1],west)embedded intheprimes.Theyalsofoundaninhibitoryeffectfor ZhouXiaolin:SemanticProcessingofPhoneticRadicalsinReadingChineseCharacters3 complexcharactertargets,whichwereprecededby primessemanticallyrelatedtothephoneticradicals embeddedinthetargetsbutnottothetargets themselves.Theauthorsarguedthatsublexical processingofphoneticradicalsisbothaphonological andasemanticeventandthattherearenofundamental differencesbetweensublexicalofphoneticradicalsand lexicalprocessingofsimpleandcomplexcharacters. Inthepresentsemanticjudgmenttask, participantswereaskedtodecidewhetherapairof consecutivelypresentedcharactersweresemantically related.111ecrucialcomparisonwasforcharacterslike 洒(sa[3],spray)and东(dong[1],east)thatare notsemanticallyrelatedaswholes,butwherethe phoneticradical(e.g.,西xi(1),west)embedded inthecomplexcharacterisrelatedtotheothermember ofeachpair.Ifsemanticpropertiesoftheembedded phoneticradicalareactivatedinreadingthecomplex character.thesemanticrelationbetweenthisradical andtheothercharactershouldsendapositivesignalto thedecisionsystemandmakeitdifficulttorejectthe pairofcharactersasunrelated.If,ontheotherhand, sublexicalprocessingofthephoneticradicalispurelya phonologicalevent,thispairofcharacterswillnotbe relatedateitherthewhole.characterlevelorthe sublexicalleve1.Theyshouldnotbemoredifficultto rejectthanappropriatecontrolsinthejudgmenttask. Animportantpartofthepresentexperimentisthe useofbothregularandirregularcomplexcharacters. Thiswasnotonlytoexaminewhetherthepotential sublexicalsemanticactivationisuniformacross differenttypesofcomplexcharacters,butalsoto examinetowhatextentsublexicalphonological activationcontributestothissublexicalsemantic activati0n.Forirregularcharacterslike洒(sa[3], spray),phonologicalactivationofthewhole charactersshouldcompetewithsublexicalphonological activationoftheirphoneticradicals(e.g.,西xi[1], west),hencereducingthelevelofsublexical phonologicalactivation.Forregularcomplexcharacters like谓(wei[4],say),however,phonological processingofthewholecharactersandphonological processingoftheirphoneticradicals(e.g.,胃wei [4],stomach)supporteachother.Ifsublexical semanticactivationofphoneticradicalsismediatedor atleastinfluencedbyphonologicalactivationofthese radicals.thelevelofsublexicalsemanticactivationand hencetheinterferenceeffectinsemanticjudgment shouldbedifferentforthetwotypesofcomplex characters.Thususingbothregularandirregular charactersinthisexperimentcouldshedadditional lightonthecontroversialissueofwhethersemantic activationinreadingChinesecharactersis predominantlymediatedbyphonologicalactivationor throughdirectmappingbetweenorthographyand semantics[16.. Thisstudyalsomanipulatedthepositionof complexcharactersinthecriticalpairs.Theregularor irregularcomplexcharacterswerepresentedeitheras thefirstorthesecondcharacter.Ifdecompositionof phoneticradicalsandaccesstotheirsemantic propertiesisinducedbytheconsecutivepresentationof pairedstimuli,thenlargerinterferenceeffectsshould beobservedwhenthecomplexcharactersarepresented asthesecondcharactersthanwhentheyarepresented asthefirstcharacters.Thepresentationofcharacters whicharesemanticassociatesofthephoneticradicals embeddedinthecomplexsecondcharactersshould encouragetheirdecompositionandsemanticactivation. Thestimulusasynchronyonset(SOA)between thefirstandsecondcharacterswassetat100ms.This shortSOAwasusedtominimizepossiblecompetition effectsthatcouldreducesublexicalprocessingeffects incomplexcharacterspresentedasthefirstcharacter. AlongerSOAwouldgivethesemantic(and phonological,forirregularcharacters)activationofthc wholecomplexcharactersenoughtimetosuppressthe semantic(andphonologica1)activationoftheir phoneticradicals.Ontheotherhand,previousstudies usingthisandsimilartasks[suggestthatparticipants couldhavedifficultiesinidentifyingthefirstcharacters iftheSOAisshorterthan100ms. 2Method 2.1DesignandMaterials Sixtyregularcomplexcharactersand52irregular complexcharacterswereselectedasthecritical stimuli.Fortyoftheirregularcharactersdidnotshare 4理学报34卷 anyoftheirpronunciationwiththeembeddedphonetic radicals.Aminoritysharedeithertheirconsonants(8 out52)ortheirvowels(4out52)withtheirphonetic radicals.Allthephoneticradicalshadstrongsemantic associatesthatwereusedastheothermemberineach pair.Forexample,theirregularcharacter洒(sa[3], spray)waspairedwith东(dong[1],east),which issemanticallyrelatedtotheembeddedphonetic radical西(xi[1],west);theregularcharacter谓 (wei[4],say)waspairedwith肚(du[4],belly), whichisasemanticassociateofthephoneticradical胃 (wei[4],stomach).Thesemanticrelatedness betweenthephoneticradicalsandtheothermember8 werecheckedagainstadatabaseinwhichthesemantic relatednessbetweenpairsofcharacterswerejudgedby atleast15undergraduatestudentsona9-pointscale (1=totallyunrelatedand9=veryrelated).Average relatednesswas8.3forirregularcharacters(ranging from7.3to9.0)and8.2forregularcharacters (rangingfrom7.1to9.0).Theregularorirregular complexcharacters,asawhole,werenotsemantically relatedtotheothermemberofeachpair. Onlycomplexcharacterswithaninternalleft—right structurewereselected,withtheembeddedphonetic radicalsalwaysontherightsideofthecomplex characters.Thisisnotonlybecausetheyconstitutethe majortypeofcomplexcharactersinChinese,butalso becausetheyareeasiertodecomposeinperceptual analysesthancharacterswithotherstructures. so thattheeffectsoftheirsublexicalprocessingshouldbe easiertodetect.Thesecomplexcharacterswerealsoof relativelylowfrequency.Theaveragefrequencywas85 permillionfortheirregularcharactersand25per millionfortheregularcharacters.Thereasonfor selectinglowfrequencycomplexcharacterswasthat visualdecompositionandsublexicalprocessingare morelikelytotakeplaceforlowratherthanhigh frequencycharacters[9.1. However.duetothe distributionofcharactersinChinese[2o].wecouldnot balancethefrequenciesofregularandirregular complexcharacters.Anyway,wewerenotinterestedin companng Thevisual regularandirregularcharactersdirectly complexityofthesecharacters,which correlateswiththeirfrequency,wasnotperfectly matchedeither.Theaveragenumberofstrokes,which measuresvisualcomplexity,was8.7percharacterfor irregularcharactersand10.7percharacterforregular complexcharacters.Theaveragefrequencyoftheother pairedcharacters(i.e.,semanticassociatesofthe phoneticradicals)was1161permillionforthe irregulargroupand864fortheregulargroup.The averagefrequencyoftheembeddedphoneticradicals, whentheyareusedasindependentcharacters,was 1137permillionfortheirregulargroupand756forthe regulargroup.Clearly,theyweremuchhigherthanthe frequenciesofthecomplexcharactershavingthemas phoneticradicals. Thepositionofeachpairoftestcharacterswas reversedsothatthecomplexcharacterswereeither presentedfirst(e.g.,洒(sat3],spray)一东(dong [1],east)orsecond(e.g.,东(dong[1],east)一 洒(sa[3],spray).Unrelatedcontrolpairswere createdbyre—pairingthefirstcharacterswiththe secondcharactersinthesamestimulusgroup,sothat thesamesetofstimuliwereusedacrosstherelatedand unrelatedconditions.Forexample,fortwocritically relatedpairshavingirregularcomplexcharactersasthe firstcharacters,洒(sa[3],spray)一东(dong[1], east),and猜(cai[1],guess)一紫(zi[3], purple),theirunrelatedcontrolpairswere, respectively,猜(cai[1],guess)一东(zi[3],east) and洒(sa[3],spray)一紫(zi[3],purple). Fortheregularandirregulargroupsofstimuli,a Latinsquaredesignwasusedtoassignthepairsof charactersinto4counter—balancedtestversions.111is designwouldallowthesamecharactersappearonly onceinaversion.Ineachversion,halfofthe112 pairswerecriticallyrelated.Amongtherelated56 pairs,halfofthemtookthecomplexcharactersasthe firstcharacterandhalfasthesecondcharacter.There were13irregularcharactersand15regularcharacters actingasthecriticallyrelatedfirstorsecond characters.Thirty—fourpairsofcharactersthatwere neithersemantically,norphonologically,nor orthographicallyrelatedwereusedasfillersandadded toeachtestversion.These,togetherwiththecritical stimuli,required”no”responsesinthesemantic judgmenttask.Another150pairsofsemantically ZhouXiaolin:SemanticProcessingofPhonet