Languages may differ regarding the functional units of word-from encoding in spoken word production. It is widely accepted that segments are the primary units in Indo-European languages. However, it is controversial what are the functional units (syllables or segments) in Chinese spoken word production. In the present study, Mandarin Chinese speakers named pictures while ignoring distractor words presented simultaneously, which were share atonal syllables, initial segments or final segments with the name of the target pictures or were unrelated. Behavioral results showed that naming latencies in the three phonologically related conditions were significantly shortened in comparison with unrelated condition. EEG data indicated that syllable-related condition modulated ERPs in the time window of 320 ms to 500 ms, initial segment-related condition modulated ERPs from 370 ms to 420 ms, while final segment-related condition modulated ERPs from 400 ms to 450 ms. Onset latencies for syllable, initial segments, and final segments priming effects were 322 ms, 368 ms, and 408 ms, respectively. Our findings firstly provide a relative temporal course of syllable and segments encoding in Chinese spoken naming: Syllables are retrieved 46 ms before segments, and they constitute the primary processing units at the early stage of word-form encoding. Furthermore, segments and their order are retrieved incrementally from left to right in producing Chinese spoken words.
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