Abstract:

Music is the life of poetry. In classical Chinese poetry, the ping-ze (level-oblique) tonal pattern is a typical expression of poetic musicality. Using regulated five-character verse as materials, the present study manipulated both ping-ze patterns and semantic properties, and employed EEG to investigate the cognitive and neural mechanisms of ping-ze perception and poetic-meaning comprehension during reading of classical Chinese poetry. Behaviorally, both the main effect of ping-ze and the interaction between ping-ze and semantics were significant. ERP results further showed ping-ze effects during poetry reading, manifested as an early P200 effect, followed by an N400 effect and a late LPC effect. Moreover, ping-ze perception and poetic-meaning comprehension mutually regulated and integrated at mid-to-late stages, as reflected by interactions on the N400 and LPC. To reveal the relationship between neural activity and tonal/semantic features, we conducted decoding analyses on EEG data and found that neural networks trained on EEG signals could effectively classify different types of poetic lines. Together, the findings indicate that readers expect both the harmony of speech sounds themselves and the coordination between sound and meaning during poetry reading; such expectations influence early phonological representations and subsequent sound-meaning integration.

Key words: poetry, music, ping-ze tonal patterns, semantics, EEG