Abstract: Most complex Chinese characters are composed of a semantic radical on the left and a phoneticradical on the right. Semantic radicals may indicate the semantic category of morphemes correspondingto the characters, whereas phonetic radicals may point to the pronunciations of the whole character.Using a primed naming technique, this study investigated into the nature of sublexical processing inreading Chinese. Complex characters were used as primes while characters homophonic to the semanticradicals embedded in the primes were used as targets. Consistent with Zhou & Marslen-Wilson (1999a,1999b), which observed semantic activation of phonetic radicals in reading complex characters, thisstudy found phonological activation of semantic radicals in reading low frequency complex characters. Itwas concluded that there were no fundamental differences between sublexical processing of semantic andphonetic radicals and lexical processing of simple and complex characters.

Key words: reading, sublexical processing, semantic radicals, phonological activation