title: Investigating the Processing of Relative Clauses in Mandarin Chinese: Evidence from Eye-Movement Data.
abstract: A number of previous studies on Chinese relative clauses (RC) have reported conflicting results on processing asymmetry. This study aims to revisit the prevalent debate on whether subject-extracted RCs (SRC) or object-extracted RCs (ORC) are easier to process by using the eye-movement technique. In the current study, the data are analyzed in terms of the gaze duration and regression of eye-movement in three critical areas: head noun, embedded verb, and RC-modifying noun phrase as subject. The results show an ORC preference for the processing of RC structures, which supports the word-order account and the Dependency Locality Theory, and a better cross-clausal integration for SRC, which supports the perspective-shift account. The processing asymmetry in Chinese RCs are discussed under relevant theoretical accounts, such as structure-based, memory-based, and perspective shift accounts. We argue that the findings are associated with the syntactic nature of Chinese (a head-initial language with pre-nominal RCs).
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, National Taiwan Normal University, 162, Sec. 1, Ho-Ping E. Rd., Taipei, Taiwan.|Center of Learning Technology for Chinese, National Taiwan Normal University, 162, Sec. 1, Ho-Ping E. Rd., Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yao-Ting
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Sung
authors.affiliation: Center of Learning Technology for Chinese, National Taiwan Normal University, 162, Sec. 1, Ho-Ping E. Rd., Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Jih-Ho
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Cha
authors.affiliation: International Chinese Education Center, School of Humanities, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, No. 1954, Hua Shan Rd., Shanghai, 200030, China. jungyueh.tu@outlook.com.
authors.forename: Jung-Yueh
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Tu
authors.affiliation: Center of Learning Technology for Chinese, National Taiwan Normal University, 162, Sec. 1, Ho-Ping E. Rd., Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ming-Da
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Center of Learning Technology for Chinese, National Taiwan Normal University, 162, Sec. 1, Ho-Ping E. Rd., Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wei-Chun
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D053483:Eye Movement Measurements; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011578:Psycholinguistics / Q000379:methods*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011932:Reading; D013624:Taiwan; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Eye-movement; Mandarin Chinese; Processing asymmetry; Relative clauses; Sentence complexity