Chinese: A window on analytic processing. Laurie Beth Feldman State University at Albany, SUNY &...

Chinese: A window on analytic processing.

Laurie Beth Feldman

State University at Albany, SUNY

& Haskins Laboratories

NIH HD 01994

Linguistic analysis in word recognition

Orthographies based on phonemes, syllables, morphemes.

English units of transcription are phonemesphonemes combine to form morphemes

Chinese units of transcription are characterscorrespond to syllablesChinese is not a syllabic system many character spellings for the same syllable

Symbols correspond to linguistic units: not treated monolithically

Chinese: A window on analytic processing.

Character = syllable

graphemic units smaller than the character (but not smaller than a syllable) exist even in logographic writing systems

80-95% characters are semantic-phonetic compounds phoneticsemantic

• Mapping syllable --> character (homophones)• Semantic components within Chinese characters• Phonological influences on semantic components

Homophony influences recognition

Chinese: set of 1273 syllables (across tones, excl. gaps)transcribed by 7000+ characters in common use

homophone families in Chinese vary greatly.range is about 40 /shi4/ to 1 /si3/

English syllables: more variability in onsets and codashomophone families in English are limited.

Homophony is greater in Chinese than English

Relation of orthographic and phonological form

English: phonemes O-P correspondence

int --> /Int/ or /aInt/

Homophones:P-O correspondence 1:5/it/ --> meet meet

meat feetmete elite

pete

Chinese: syllables

O-P correspondence

议 --> /yi4/ *

Homophones:

P-O correspondence 1:20

*number indicates lexical tone.

Manipulation of Homophony in Chinese

Large Smallcharacter pronunciation meaning character pron. meaning

意 /yi4/ meaning 突 /tu1/ sudden

议 /yi4/discuss

凸 /tu1/ protruding

益 /yi4/ benefit 秃 /tu1/ bald

亿 /yi4/100,000,000

易 /yi4/ easy

艺 /yi4/ art

忆 /yi4/ remember

Expt. 1: Does homophony influence recognition in Chinese?

Homophonic mapping: syllable --> character

Phonetic does not fully specify pronunciation.

Control ‘frequency’ of syllable and visual complexity

Collaborator: Shu Hua at Beijing Normal University

Haiyan Zhou at Beijing Normal University

Chinese ‘spelling’ task

Hear: /yi4/

See: 意– Judge: “yes”

Hear: /yi4/

See: 突– Judge: “no”

-------------------------------->time

Onset:

SS = Students at Beijing NormalUniversity, China

Manipulation of homophony and surface frequency

Target # Homophones Freq # strokes Σ fr eq homophones

ºË 15 137 10 117

»™ 16 12 10 140

∂Ã 2 138 9 114

‘Ì 3 9 9 118



ºË 15 137 10 117

»™ 16 12 10 140

∂Ã 2 138 9 114

‘Ì 3 9 9 118



ºË 15 137 10 117

»™ 16 12 10 140

∂Ã 2 138 9 114

‘Ì 3 9 9 118



ºË 15 137 10 117

»™ 16 12 10 140

∂Ã 2 138 9 114

‘Ì 3 9 9 118



ºË 15 137 10 117

»™ 16 12 10 140

∂Ã 2 138 9 114

‘Ì 3 9 9 118

550

600

650

700

750

high low

large small

Phonological- Orthographic syllable mapping influences performance in a ‘spelling’ task.

Frequency

ISI = onsetLow frequency targets show P-O homophone effectlarge = many characters; small = few characters

Chinese characters are compositional but not productive

34 % of words in Mainland Chinese texts consist of single character80-95% of characters are phonetic compounds

¡¿ ‘a lie’ pronounced /kwanj3/

semantic phonetic

‘words’ /kwanj/

®• …⁄

Semantic components

serve a semantic cueing function.

桌染板 ‘desk’ ‘dye’ ‘plank’

木 means ‘wood’

Phonetic components

4000 phonetics for 1273 syllables phonetic can behave differently in different character contexts26.3% of semantic-phonetic compounds are pronounced like

their phonetic

phonological information is • coded loosely at the level of the component• only in some characters• in phonological units greater than the phoneme• “typical” position is on right

Bivalent components

serve a semantic or a phonetic function.

米 means ‘rice’ and is pronounced mi3

糜means “gruel” pronounced mi2

Expt. 2: Do readers treat characters analytically?

Facilitation due to repetition of a semantic component in character recognition tasks.

Reduce overall semantic similarity of prime and target manipulate semantic transparency attributes of a component defined over many characters

Reduce overall form similarity of prime and targetalter position of component

Collaborators: Douglas Honorof at Haskins LaboratoriesShu Hua at Beijing Normal University

Character Decision Task

+ 250 ms + 250 ms

##### 500 ms

prime 250 ms prime 50 ms

target until response target until response

Target Prime TypeS+C+L-F+ S-C+L-F+ S-C+L+F-

S-C-L+F-Control

Character∞Â◊¿ »æ„ÂæÂ

Character meaning ‘board’ ‘desk’ ‘to dye’‘washone’shair’

‘tofear’

Character layout LR TB TB LR LR

Semantic radical ƒæƒæƒæÀÆ–ƒSemantic radicalmeaning ‘wood’ ’wood’ ’wood’ ’water’ ’heart’


S-C-L+F-Control



‘tofear’




S-C-L+F-Control



‘tofear’




S-C-L+F-Control



‘tofear’




S-C-L+F-Control



‘tofear’



S+ S-

Component Repetition with alternation of function

Semantic contribution of component in prime and targetreduce semantic similarity of characters (ratings)reduce form similarity

Phonological contribution of component in prime Semantic contribution of same component in target

attributes of a component defined over many charactersnot prime and target


S-C-L+F-Control


Semanticradical

ƒæƒæƒæÀÆ–ƒSemantic radicalmeaning ‘wood’ ’wood’ ’wood’ ’water’ ’heart’

Phoneticcomponent ∑¥ ƒææflS = Semantic Component C= repeated component L = layout of characterF= function of repeated component


S-C-L+F-Control


Semanticradical




S-C-L+F-Control


Semanticradical



Target Prime Type

S+C+L-F+ S-C+L-F+ S-C+L+F-S-C-L+F-Control

Character ∞Â ◊¿ »æ „Â æÂ

Character meaning‘board’ ‘desk’ ‘to dye’ ‘wash one’s

hair’ ‘to fear’

Characterlayout LR TB TB LR LR

Characterpronunciation /ban3/ /zhuo1/ /ran3/ /mu4/ /ju4/

Semantic radical ƒæ ƒæ ƒæ ÀÆ –ƒSemantic radicalmeaning ‘wood’ ’wood’ ’wood’ ’water’ ’heart’

Phonetic component ∑¥ ƒæ æfl

Phoneticpronunciation /fan3/ /mu4/ /ju4/

Average characterfrequency (SD) 265 120 133 75 70

Average number ofstrokes

9 10 10 9 9

S = Semantic Component C= repeated component L = layout of characterF= function of repeated component

Cross task comparison:

Forward masked: attenuated semantics

S+ = S-

SOA 250: greater effect semantic similarity

S+ ≠ S-

Character decision: semantic emphasis

Character naming: greater influence of phonology

Facilitation as a function of component transparency and function

525

550

575

600

SOA 250 SOA 60 mask

Character Decision

RT (msec)

S+C+L-F+ S-C+L-F+ S-C+L-F- Control


675

700

725

750

775

SOA 250 SOA 60 mask

Character Naming

RT (msec)



525

550

575

600

SOA 250 SOA 60 mask

Character Decision

RT (msec)


Summary: Linguistic analysis in character recognitionExp. 1: Chinese character = syllable (≠ phonemes)

Complexity O--> P mapping in a spelling task

Exp. 2: Facilitation due to component repetition:

≠ simple relatedness among characterswhole character relatedness is weak

≠ repetition of form change in component position ns

Relation of component to character Decision Nam.semantic (P-T) at longer SOA S+ not S- neither Ssemantic (P-T) with mask both S neither Schange function (P≠T) F- = C F- ≠ C

Conclusions for the non-Sinophone psycholinguist

Naming slowed when the same component appeared as a phonetic, then as a semantic

Interference reflects incompatible mappings:– Component —> phonology– Component —> semantics

Processing of the semantic cannot arise at the level of the whole character: it must be analytic

Date post:	17-Dec-2015
Category:	Documents
Upload:	madlyn-chambers
View:	216 times
Download:	0 times

Chinese: A window on analytic processing. Laurie Beth Feldman State University at Albany, SUNY &...

Documents