title: Event-related potentials reveal early activation of syntax information in Chinese verb processing.
abstract: By taking advantage of the semantic-syntactic characteristics of Chinese verbs, the current study examined the brain activity of automatic activation of syntactic features at the single word level. Both syntactic (transitivity) and semantic (integrity) features of the verb were manipulated. Event-related potentials were measured while subjects performed lexical decision tasks on visually presented verbs at the single word level. The results showed that there was a significant transitivity effect in both lateral and midline areas for the 150-200ms time window (N200 effect), indicating the retrieval of the syntactic feature. There was also a significant syntactic-semantic interaction at the late stage of verb processing (N400 effect) in the midline central-parietal region, reflecting syntactic influences on semantic processing. These findings suggest that transitivity is an integral part of the mental representation of Chinese verbs and such information can be retrieved at the early stage of single verb processing and can influence subsequent semantic integration. These results also reveal the special features of Chinese language processing.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, PR China. Electronic address: dengy@psych.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, PR China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China.
authors.forename: Qiuyan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, PR China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Chinese Language and Culture, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100101, PR China.
authors.forename: Liping
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: School of Chinese Language and Culture, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100101, PR China.
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xiao
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D002755:Choice Behavior; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D012660:Semantics; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Chinese; Event-related potentials; N200; Transitivity; Verb