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Argument Structure Processing in Native and Non-Native Mandarin Speakers

Authors:
Max Wolpert at Zhejiang University
Max Wolpert
Jiarui Ao at McGill University
Jiarui Ao
Hui Zhang at Nanjing Normal University
Hui Zhang
Shari R. Baum
Shari R. Baum
Shari R. Baum
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Mandarin and English use different cues to express argument structure
⮩English favors word order, Mandarin favors plausibility (Liu, Bates, & Li, 1992; Su, 2001)
⮩Mandarin permits SOV and OSV word order (e.g., The apple the child ate and The child the apple ate)
⮩Mandarin also has coverbs BA and BEI that assign argument structure explicitly
How do Mandarin native speakers assign argument structure with conflicting cues?
⮩How do coverbs BA and BEI interact with plausibility?
⮩Do semantic reversals elicit P600 (widely reported for English) or N400 (crosslinguistic differences) effects?
How do Mandarin non-native, English native speakers assign argument structure in Mandarin?
⮩Will English native speakers still rely on word order in their non-native Mandarin?
⮩Will semantic reversals elicit P600 or N400?
Introduction Behavioral Results
(Chow & Phillips, 2013; Chow, Lau, Wang, & Phillips, 2018) (Bornkessel-Schlesewsky et al., 2011)
Materials and Procedure
Reversibility
Agent
Example Sentence
reversible
animate
老板技工
举报了。
Boss
technician denounced.
inanimate
温度气压
预测了。
Temperature
pressure predicted.
irreversible
animate
孩子
苹果吃掉了。
Child
apple ate.
inanimate
鸟笼
喜鹊困住了。
Birdcage
magpie trapped.
Having two
nouns with
same animacy
maximizes
ambiguity
Having nouns
with different
animacy
maximizes
plausibility
difference
•Nouns and verbs controlled for frequency and nº of strokes
•Each condition had 30 verbs (total 120)
•Each verb with noun pair shown in 3 structural conditions:
BA, BEI, and plain noun-noun-verb (NNV)(total 360 sentences)
•Word-by-word RSVP (650 ms duration, 100 ms blank screen ISI),
word order, structure, and agent animacy pseudorandomized
•TASK: read each sentence, choose which noun was the agent
•Recording/Preprocessing: 32 electrodes, linked mastoid offline
reference, high-pass filter 0.1 Hz, low-pass filter 30 Hz
Participants
28 Mandarin native speakers
Native speakers were functionally monolingual
21 Mandarin non-native speakers (English L1)
Living in China immersed in Mandarin
ERP Results
Conclusions
Argument Structure Processing in Native and Non-Native Mandarin Speakers
Max Wolpert1,5, Jiarui Ao2, Hui Zhang3, Shari Baum4,5, Karsten Steinhauer4,5
1Integrated Program in Neuroscience, McGill University; 2Faculty of Science, McGill University; 3School of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Nanjing Normal
University; 4School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University; 5Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, Montreal
max.a.wolpert@mail.mcgill.ca
Poster
and
references
@mxwolpert
mxwolp
Native speakers
Non-native speakers
Native speakers
Proportion 1st noun agent choice
Non-native speakers
reversible irreversible
reversible irreversible
BA and BEI were strongest
cues for agent assignment;
in the absence of both, word
order did not play a role
For irreversible sentences,
word order strong factor; in
reversible sentences, word
order did not play a role
Word order greater cue in NNV than BA or BEI
structure; plausible inanimate agents were slightly less
preferred than plausible animate agents
Word order strong factor
only for irreversible
sentences with animate
agents; some participants
(8 of 22) chose implausible
animate agent for
inanimate agent sentences
Word order greater cue in NNV than BA or BEI; reliance
on word order as a cue for irreversible sentences was
positively correlated with Mandarin proficiency
Proportion 1st noun agent choice
NNV BA BEI
BA and BEI just as strong
cues as for native speakers;
without BA or BEI, non-
native participants still did
not rely on word order
Both native and non-native Mandarin speakers showed
greater N400s to semantic reversals
⮩for BA but not BEI—from task or subject-first preference?
Non-native did not rely on English word order strategy
⮩but many had trouble accepting inanimate agents
BA and BEI are processed differently
⮩P200 difference, due to visual complexity difference?
⮩P300 for BEI for non-native speakers, task effect?
Languages differ in processing argument structure
Non-native and native processing similar
1.00
0.75
0.50
0.25
0.00
NNV BA BEI
1.00
0.75
0.50
0.25
0.00
1.00
0.75
0.50
0.25
0.00
1.00
0.75
0.50
0.25
0.00
Broad N400 for
content words
P300 difference
for BA/BEI
-1100 ms to -900 ms
BEI –BA
P300
TASK
After reading each
sentence, choose which
noun was the agent
+
孩子
把
苹果
吃掉
了。
孩子 !!!! 苹果
Fixation cross
child
BA
apple
ate
LE.
child !!!! apple
BEI –BA
P200
-1400 ms to -1200 ms
N400 for content words
P200 difference
for BA/BEI
Semantic reversals at verb at Pz
animate
agent
animate
agent
inanimate
agent
inanimate
agent
animate
agent
animate
agent
inanimate
agent
inanimate
agent
BA
BEI
NNV
BA
BEI
NNV
Processing at coverb
Native speakers
Non-native speakers
BEI
BA
broad N400
N400
LE
LE
LE
LE
Participant Mandarin Proficiency
Native
Non-native
Structure main effect
Word Order x Reversibility
x Agent Animacy
0 1 2 3
10
7.5
5.0
2.5
0
Mandarin Proficiency Self Rating
dprime on Chinese LexTALE (Chan & Chang, 2018)
Non-native and native speakers have range of proficiency
Apple BA child ate
or
Child BEI apple ate
Apple BEI child ate
or
Child BA apple ate
BA makes preceding noun
agent, following noun patient
BEI makes preceding noun
patient, following noun agent
Other interactions
Structure main effect
Word Order x Reversibility
x Agent Animacy
Other interactions
Implausible (e.g., Apple BA child ate and Child BEI apple ate)
Plausible (e.g., Child BA apple ate and Apple BEI child ate)
averaged across NNV, BA, and BEI
averaged across NNV, BA, and BEI
Plausibility collapsed across Agent Animacy
References for poster at SNL 2020
Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, I., Kretzschmar, F., Tune, S., Wang, L., Genç, S., Philipp, M., …
Schlesewsky, M. (2011). Think globally: Cross-linguistic variation in electrophysiological
activity during sentence comprehension. Brain and Language, 117(3), 133–152.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2010.09.010
Chan, I. L., & Chang, C. B. (2018). LEXTALE _ CH: A quick , character-based proficiency test for
Mandarin Chinese. Proceedings of the Annual Boston University Conference on Language
Development, 42(1), 114–130. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/2144/27833
Chow, W.-Y., & Phillips, C. (2013). No semantic illusions in the “Semantic P600” phenomenon:
ERP evidence from Mandarin Chinese. Brain Research, 1506, 76–93.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2013.02.016
Chow, W. Y., Lau, E., Wang, S., & Phillips, C. (2018). Wait a second! delayed impact of argument
roles on on-line verb prediction. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 33(7), 803–828.
https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2018.1427878
Liu, H., Bates, E., & Li, P. (1992). Sentence interpretation in bilingual speakers of English and
Chinese. Applied Psycholinguistics, 13(4), 451–484.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716400005762
Su, I. R. (2001). Transfer of sentence processing strategies: A comparison of L2 learners of
Chinese and English. Applied Psycholinguistics, 22(1), 83–112.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716401001059
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
Wait a second! Delayed impact of argument roles on on-line verb prediction
Article
Full-text available
  • Dec 2017
Comprehenders can use rich contextual information to anticipate upcoming input on the fly, but recent findings suggest that salient information about argument roles may not impact verb prediction. We took advantage of the word order properties of Mandarin Chinese to examine the time course with which argument role information impacts verb prediction. We isolated the contribution of argument role information by manipulating the order of pre-verbal noun phrase arguments while holding lexical information constant, and we examined its effects on accessing the verb in long-term semantic memory by measuring the amplitude of the N400 component. Experiment 1 showed when the verb appeared immediately after its arguments, even strongly constraining argument role information failed to modulate the N400 response to the verb. An N400 effect emerged in Experiment 2 when the verb appeared at a greater delay. Experiment 3 corroborated the contrast between the first two experiments through a within-participants manipulation of the time interval between the arguments and the verb, by varying the position of an adverbial phrase. These results suggest time is a key factor governing how diverse contextual information contributes to predictions. Here argument role information is shown to impact verb prediction, but its effect is not immediate. 3
View
No semantic illusion in the ‘Semantic P600’ phenomenon: ERP evidence from Mandarin Chinese
Article
  • Feb 2013
Recent observations of unexpected ERP responses to grammatically well-formed role-reversed sentences (the "Semantic P600" phenomenon) have been taken to bear directly on questions about the architecture of the language processing system. This paper evaluates two central pieces of evidence for accounts that propose a syntax-independent semantic composition mechanism, namely the presence of P600 effects and the absence of N400 effects in role-reversed sentences. Experiment 1 examined the relative contribution of the presence of an animacy violation and the semantic relations between words ('combinability') to the ERP responses to role-reversed sentences. Experiment 2 examined the ERP responses to role-reversed sentences that are fully animacy-congruous. Results from the two experiments showed that animacy-violated sentences with no plausible non-surface interpretation elicited the same P600 effect as both types of role-reversed sentences; additionally, semantically anomalous target words elicited no N400 effects when they were strongly semantically related to the preceding words, regardless of the presence of animacy violations. Taken together, these findings suggest that the presence of P600s to role-reversed sentences can be attributed to the implausibility of the sentence meaning, and the absence of N400 effects is due to a combination of weak contextual constraints and strong lexical association. The presence of a plausible non-surface interpretation and animacy violations made no unique contribution to the ERP response profiles. Hence, existing ERP findings are compatible with the long-held assumption that online semantic composition is dependent on surface syntax and do not constitute evidence for a syntax-independent semantic composition mechanism.
View
Sentence Interpretation in Bilingual Speakers of English and Chinese
Article
  • Oct 1992
  • APPL PSYCHOLINGUIST
This study examines patterns of transfer in the sentence processing strategies displayed by Chinese-English and English–Chinese bilinguals. Our results indicate that late bilinguals display strong evidence for forward transfer: late Chinese–English bilinguals transfer animacybased strategies to English sentences; late English–Chinese bilinguals transfer English-like word order strategies to Chinese. Early bilinguals display a variety of transfer patterns, including differentiation (use of animacy strategies in Chinese and word order strategies in English) and backward transfer (use of L2 processing strategies in L1, a possible symptom of language loss). These unusual transfer patterns reflect a complex interaction of variables, including age of exposure to L2 and patterns of daily language use. Implications of these findings for the critical period hypothesis are discussed, together with some new hypotheses concerning the interaction between acquisition of L2 and maintenance of L1.
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Think globally: Cross-linguistic variation in electrophysiological activity during sentence comprehension
Article
  • Oct 2010
  • BRAIN LANG
This paper demonstrates systematic cross-linguistic differences in the electrophysiological correlates of conflicts between form and meaning ("semantic reversal anomalies"). These engender P600 effects in English and Dutch (e.g. Kolk et al., 2003; Kuperberg et al., 2003), but a biphasic N400 - late positivity pattern in German (Schlesewsky and Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, 2009), and monophasic N400 effects in Turkish (Experiment 1) and Mandarin Chinese (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 revealed that, in Icelandic, semantic reversal anomalies show the English pattern with verbs requiring a position-based identification of argument roles, but the German pattern with verbs requiring a case-based identification of argument roles. The overall pattern of results reveals two separate dimensions of cross-linguistic variation: (i) the presence vs. absence of an N400, which we attribute to cross-linguistic differences with regard to the sequence-dependence of the form-to-meaning mapping and (ii) the presence vs. absence of a late positivity, which we interpret as an instance of a categorisation-related late P300, and which is observable when the language under consideration allows for a binary well-formedness categorisation of reversal anomalies. We conclude that, rather than reflecting linguistic domains such as syntax and semantics, the late positivity vs. N400 distinction is better understood in terms of the strategies that serve to optimise the form-to-meaning mapping in a given language.
View
Transfer of sentence processing strategies: A comparison of L2 learners of Chinese and English
Article
  • Mar 2001
  • APPL PSYCHOLINGUIST
A sentence interpretation experiment based on Bates and MacWhinney's Competition Model was administered to L2 learners of English and Chinese at three different stages of learning. The main purposes of the research were (a) to examine how transfer patterns at the sentence processing level change as a function of proficiency and (b) to investigate whether or how transfer patterns found in Chinese EFL learners (i.e., native speakers of a semantics-based language learning a syntax-centered target language) differ from those found in English CFL learners (i.e., native speakers of a syntax-based language acquiring a semantics-centered one). The results show that transfer patterns do vary as a function of proficiency, and that Chinese EFL learners and English CFL learners display somewhat different patterns of developmental change in sentence processing transfer.
View
LEXTALE _ CH: A quick , character-based proficiency test for Mandarin Chinese
  • Jan 2018
  • 114-130
  • I L Chan
  • C B Chang
Chan, I. L., & Chang, C. B. (2018). LEXTALE _ CH: A quick, character-based proficiency test for Mandarin Chinese. Proceedings of the Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, 42(1), 114-130. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/2144/27833