Abstract: Using the Chinese two-character words without initial syllables as materials, the study investigated the activation process of phonology and semantics of Chinese spoken words. Experiment 1 addressed whether the sounds of spoken words could activate many phonological and semantic nodes which sounded similar with spoken words. Experiment 2 probed into whether there were phonological activation in the later phase of the comprehension process. The results showed that: ⑴the sounds of Chinese spoken words could activate the phonological and semantic nodes that sounded similar with spoken words, this kind of activation became low level at the point that ISI=400ms；⑵the phonology would be activated twice after the present of spoken words；⑶in the later phase of interpretation of Chinese words without initial syllables, the target words would be renovated by the guide from the interaction between semantic activation and the second phonological activation. Based on the experimental results mention above, the authors proposed the dynamic activation-spreading model of Chinese spoken words interpretation.

Key words: exhaustive access, context-dependency, phonological activation, semantic activation