title: Processing Preference Toward Object-Extracted Relative Clauses in Mandarin Chinese by L1 and L2 Speakers: An Eye-Tracking Study.
abstract: The current study employed an eye-movement technique with an attempt to explore the reading patterns for the two types of Chinese relative clauses, subject-extracted relative clauses (SRCs) and object-extracted relative clauses (ORCs), by native speakers (L1), and Japanese learners (L2) of Chinese. The data were analyzed in terms of gaze duration, regression path duration, and regression rate on the two critical regions, head noun, and embedded verb. The results indicated that both the L1 and L2 participants spent less time on the head nouns in ORCs than in SRCs. Also, the L2 participants spent less time on the embedded verbs in ORCs than in SRCs and their regression rate for embedded verbs was generally lower in ORCs than in SRC. The findings showed that the participants experienced less processing difficulty in ORCs than SRCs. These results suggest an ORC preference in L1 and L2 speakers of Chinese, which provides evidence in support of linear distance hypothesis and implies that the syntactic nature of Chinese is at play in the RC processing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling, National Taiwan Normal UniversityTaipei, Taiwan; Center of Learning Technology for Chinese, National Taiwan Normal UniversityTaipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yao-Ting
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Sung
authors.affiliation: International Chinese Education Center, School of Humanities, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Jung-Yueh
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Tu
authors.affiliation: Center of Learning Technology for Chinese, National Taiwan Normal University Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Jih-Ho
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Cha
authors.affiliation: Center of Learning Technology for Chinese, National Taiwan Normal University Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ming-Da
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Wu
keywords: Japanese CSL learners; L2 sentence processing; Mandarin Chinese; eye-movements; relative clauses
references.citation: Mem Cognit. 1986 May;14(3):191-201
references.pmid: 3736392
references.citation: J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2008 Nov;34(6):1552-60
references.pmid: 18980414
references.citation: Mem Cognit. 2008 Jul;36(5):1033-45
references.pmid: 18630209
references.citation: Cognition. 2003 Nov;90(1):3-27
references.pmid: 14597268
references.citation: J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2006 Nov;32(6):1304-21
references.pmid: 17087585
references.citation: Mem Cognit. 2013 Jan;41(1):137-51
references.pmid: 22927027
references.citation: Brain Lang. 2007 Apr;101(1):1-18
references.pmid: 17250884
references.citation: PLoS One. 2013 Oct 02;8(10):e77006
references.pmid: 24098575
references.citation: Acta Psychol (Amst). 2008 Sep;129(1):61-5
references.pmid: 18538740
references.citation: J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform. 2008 Feb;34(1):205-23
references.pmid: 18248149
references.citation: J Psycholinguist Res. 2016 Oct;45(5):1089-113
references.pmid: 26385782
references.citation: Vision Res. 2004 May;44(10):1013-24
references.pmid: 15031094
references.citation: Cognition. 2010 Apr;115(1):79-92
references.pmid: 20035934
references.citation: Psychol Bull. 1998 Nov;124(3):372-422
references.pmid: 9849112