This paper will report a cross-modal lexical priming experiment which focuses on Mandarin homographs of varying degrees of semantic relatedness. In this experiment, the time course of context effects and the effect of semantic relatedness on lexical ambiguity resolution will be examined.
The phenomenon of lexical ambiguity is one of several types of ambiguities and is pervasive in almost all natural languages. When a listener hears an ambiguous word with multiple meanings in a sentence, do they activate all meanings associated with that ambiguous word automatically regardless of the preceding context, or do they make use of the preceding context to eliminate irrelevant meanings? This is one of the fundamental empirical questions in the study of language processing, id est lexical ambiguity resolution.
Two main types of models have been suggested by the research literature for this issue. The first one is the exhaustive access model, which proposes that all meanings of an ambiguous word will be accessed automatically following the occurrence of the word and that the context can only help to select the appropriate meaning at a later stage. The second contrasting model is the interactive access model, which assumes that the context can facilitate the contextually appropriate meaning of an ambiguous word at the initial stage of lexical access if the prior context provides a strong bias towards the appropriate meaning. As the literature shows, what undoubted is that the context plays an important role in the selection of a contextually appropriate meaning of the ambiguous words, the main debate lies in how early the context effects take place in the lexical processing.
So far, these two models have been mostly examined in Indo-European languages, particularly in English. There has been just a scarcity of this line of research in Chinese, one of the most important East Asian languages, which differs significantly from Indo-European languages in terms of its unique psycholinguistic properties in phonological, lexical and syntactic structures. These properties can thus pose a good challenge to verify and complement the examination of these models in lexical processing from a different perspective.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Models of lexical ambiguity resolution
2.1 The exhaustive access model
2.2 The interactive access model
3. Issues in lexical ambiguity resolution
3.1 Position of visual target in cross-modal priming
3.2 Types of lexical ambiguity
3.3 The relatedness of multiple meanings
4. The processing of Chinese homographs: an experiment
4.1 Method
4.2 Results
4.3 Discussion
5. Conclusion
Research Objectives and Key Topics
This work investigates the mechanisms of lexical ambiguity resolution in Mandarin Chinese, specifically focusing on how context and semantic relatedness influence the activation of multiple word meanings during the initial stages of processing. The central research objective is to determine whether Chinese homographs are processed according to an exhaustive access model or an interactive access model, and to what extent the degree of semantic relatedness between meanings modulates these effects.
- Comparison of exhaustive vs. interactive access models in lexical processing.
- Impact of semantic relatedness (ROM) on meaning activation.
- Cross-modal lexical priming experiments with Mandarin homographs.
- The role of logographic versus phonological representations in Chinese.
- Influence of sentential context and syntactic category on ambiguity resolution.
Excerpt from the Book
The interactive access model
The alternative view is the interactive or selective access model. According to this model, language processing system is composed of processing modules that are not functionally autonomous. Instead, it can interact and share information across levels. In other words, higher-level (sentential context) can give feedback to guide lower-level (lexical access) processes and lower the amount of “noise” in the processing system (McClelland 1987). Hence, the interactive access model argues that lexical processing is an interaction process restricted to the appropriate meaning of an ambiguous word in context. When the context of the preceding sentence provides a sufficiently strong bias towards a certain meaning, only that contextually supported meaning becomes activated (Simpson 1981). In other words, if the context is biased towards the primary meaning of an ambiguity, only the primary meaning is accessed. However, if the context is biased towards the secondary meaning of an ambiguity, only the secondary meaning is accessed. Some research offered evidence supporting this interactive access model in which context directs the early lexical selection of the appropriate meaning throughout the whole lexical processing (Simpson 1981; Li and Yip 1996, 1998; Shu et al. 2000; Wu und Shu 2002; Zhou et al. 2003).
Chapter Summaries
1. Introduction: Defines the phenomenon of lexical ambiguity and introduces the primary theoretical debate between exhaustive and interactive access models within natural language processing.
2. Models of lexical ambiguity resolution: Provides a detailed examination of the two dominant theoretical frameworks, the exhaustive (modular) access model and the interactive (selective) access model.
3. Issues in lexical ambiguity resolution: Analyzes secondary factors influencing ambiguity resolution, specifically the methodology of cross-modal priming, different types of lexical ambiguity, and the concept of meaning relatedness.
4. The processing of Chinese homographs: an experiment: Details an empirical study on Mandarin homographs, presenting the method, results, and discussion regarding semantic activation patterns.
5. Conclusion: Summarizes the findings, supporting the exhaustive access model for Chinese homographs and suggesting future research directions regarding meaning relatedness.
Keywords
Lexical ambiguity, Mandarin Chinese, Homographs, Exhaustive access model, Interactive access model, Cross-modal priming, Semantic relatedness, Language processing, Syntactic category, Psycholinguistics, Meaning activation, Contextual influence, Logographic orthography, Homophones, Lexical decision.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core focus of this research paper?
The paper examines how listeners resolve lexical ambiguity in Mandarin Chinese, specifically testing whether multiple meanings of an ambiguous word are activated automatically or if context influences this process early on.
What are the primary theoretical models discussed?
The study contrasts the "exhaustive access model," which suggests all meanings are initially accessed regardless of context, with the "interactive access model," which proposes that context can guide the selection of the correct meaning during initial access.
What is the main research question?
The central question is whether the processing of Mandarin Chinese homographs follows the exhaustive or interactive access model, and whether the semantic relatedness of meanings affects these outcomes.
Which scientific method is utilized in this study?
The researcher uses a cross-modal lexical priming experiment, where participants listen to sentences containing ambiguous words and must respond to visual targets to measure reaction times associated with different meanings.
What does the main body of the text cover?
It covers theoretical backgrounds, critical factors like the position of visual targets in priming, the classification of lexical ambiguity types in Chinese, and a detailed experimental study with findings and discussion.
Which keywords best characterize this work?
Key terms include Lexical ambiguity, Mandarin Chinese, Homographs, Exhaustive access model, Interactive access model, Cross-modal priming, and Semantic relatedness.
How do Mandarin homographs differ from English ambiguous words in this context?
Mandarin is a logographically-scripted language where orthography is more directly associated with meaning than sound, unlike sound-based alphabetic scripts like English.
What did the experimental results indicate regarding context?
The results showed that for Chinese homographs, multiple meanings were activated regardless of contextual bias, which provided support for the exhaustive access model.
Did the semantic relatedness of meanings affect the findings?
The study found that the degree of semantic relatedness did not significantly impact the resolution process for the homographs tested; multiple meanings were co-activated in both high and low relatedness conditions.
- Arbeit zitieren
- Anonym (Autor:in), 2021, The processing of homographs in Mandarin Chinese. A cross-modal lexical priming experiment, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.hausarbeiten.de/document/1041899
