关键词: 汉语句子理解, 句型, 语义可逆性, 句法

Abstract: Three experiments were carried out to examine the effects of sentence pattern and semantic reversibility on Chinese sentence processing. In Experiment 1, 36 adult subjects were asked to make an agent judgment (a task that emphasized semantic analysis) of sentences which differed in sentence patterns (active sentence, “bei” sentence, and “ba” sentence) and semantic reversibility (reversible and nonreversible sentences). The results showed that both sentence pattern and semantic reversibility played important roles in the processing of Chinese sentences. In Experiment 2, 36 adult subjects were asked to make a speeded sentence judgment (a task that emphasized both semantic and syntactic analyses) of the same sentences. The results showed that sentence pattern had strong effect on sentence processing, but semantic reversibility had no significant effect. No significant interaction was found between sentence pattern and semantic reversibility in the two experiments. In experiment 3, the animate-agent verbs used in sentences of Experiment 2 were changed to animate-patient verbs. It was found that the results of Experiments 2 and 3 were the same. These results were discussed within a theory which assumes that syntactic parsing may be an autonomous process independent of semantic influence.

Key words: Chinese sentence processing, sentence pattern, semantic reversibility, syntactic autonomy