Constructing covert dependencies—The case of Mandarin wh-in-situ dependency

Xiang, Ming; Wang, Suiping; Cui, YanLing

doi:10.1016/j.jml.2015.05.006

Cited by 26 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 47 publications

(55 reference statements)

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“…Xiang et al, 2014Xiang et al, , 2015Aoshima et al, 2004, Ueno andKluender, 2009) has provided experimental evidence to corroborate prior theoretical claims (e.g., Aoun and Li, 1993;Huang, 1982;Cheng, 1991) that the same cognitive processes involved in the comprehension of overtly constructed dependencies also apply to covert ones. For instance, prior work by Xiang et al (2015) using a self-paced reading paradigm found that object wh-phrases in Mandarin were subject to the same types of interference effects known to affect the processing of overtly constructed wh-dependences in languages like English (Pearlmutter et al, 1999;Van Dyke and Lewis, 2003;Lewis and Vasishth, 2005;Wagers et al, 2009;etc). In line with what work in comprehension has shown, then, we expect that the same cognitive processes to be involved in the production of overt and covert dependencies.…”

Section: Experiments 2: Declaratives and Wh-questions In Mandarinmentioning

confidence: 56%

What can wh-questions tell us about real-time language production: Evidence from English and Mandarin

Kaiser

Zhao³

2018

Proc Ling Soc Amer

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Abstract. We present two visual-world eye-tracking experiments investigating how speakers begin structuring their messages for linguistic utterances, a process known as linguistic encoding. Specifically, we focus on when speakers first linearize the abstract elements of their messages (positional processing) and when they first assign a grammatical role to those elements (functional processing). Experiment 1 decoupled the process of linearization from grammatical role assignment using English object wh-questions, where the subject is no longer sentence initial. Experiment 2 used Mandarin declaratives and questions, which have the same word order, to test the extent to which findings from Experiment 1 were linked to information focus associated with wh-questions. We find evidence of both grammatical role assignment and linearization emerging around 400-600 ms, but we do not find evidence of the +/-wh distinction influencing eye-movements during that same time window.

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Section: Experiments 2: Declaratives and Wh-questions In Mandarinmentioning

confidence: 56%

What can wh-questions tell us about real-time language production: Evidence from English and Mandarin

Kaiser

Zhao³

2018

Proc Ling Soc Amer

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“…They reported that they rated them low because they seldom used the multiply embedded clauses or saw them in daily life. In other words, their frequency was low (see also Xiang et al, 2015). We divided the data into two parts based on the rating scores for the short + non-island conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mandarin Chinese wh-in-situ argument–adjunct asymmetry in island sensitivity: Evidence from a formal judgment study

2022

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Unlike adjunct wh’s-in-situ, argument wh’s-in-situ do not seem to be subject to island constraints in Chinese and other East Asian languages. This difference in island sensitivity between argument and adjunct wh’s-in-situ is known as argument–adjunct asymmetry in the theoretical literature. Recently, this long-established asymmetry is challenged by a formal judgment study. It was claimed in the study that this asymmetry is an illusion and both argument and adjunct wh’s-in-situ are subject to island constraints. The present study demonstrates that such a claim is not convincing because it is based on problematic experimental design. We designed two experiments to test the island effects on Chinese wh’s-in-situ. The results reaffirm that the argument–adjunct asymmetry in Chinese wh’s-in-situ is indeed present, contrary to the findings of previous formal judgment study, and they also corroborate our assumption that when object wh’s-in-situ like shénme ‘what’ are located inside a relative clause, they are subject to a pragmatic constraint, suggesting that the VP (formed by a verb and its wh-object) in the relative clause tends to describe the prominent/salient feature of the relativized nominal head.

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“…In contrast to English, Chinese has in situ WH-phrases, as demonstrated by example 4. In these cases, a LDD is formed between the wh-phrase and an unboundedly higher clausal position to its left (Huang, 1982(Huang, , 1992Xiang et al, 2015). (1) [The flower] i that you love i is not in danger (2) 小王子 the little prince…”

Section: Storybook Annotationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural correlates of object-extracted relative clause processing across English and Chinese

Dunagan

Stanojević

Coavoux

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Words can occur arbitrarily far away from where they contribute their meaning in a sentence. Two examples are WH-questions (WHQs), which begin with a WH-word like what and object-extracted relative clauses (ORCs), in which a noun is modified by a sentence-like grammatical unit. While these long-distance dependencies have been extensively studied, never before have their brain bases been examined from a multi-lingual, naturalistic perspective. This study fills this gap by analyzing WHQs and ORCs in fMRI data collected while 35 Chinese participants (15 females) and 49 English participants (30 females) listen to translation-equivalent stories. These languages exhibit radical typological differences in word order in these constructions. It remains unknown whether the brain basis for comprehension in these languages is similar or different. Separate general linear model analyses were performed and voxel-level intersections were calculated between the results to identify common regions of selectively increased activation during the comprehension of these linguistic constructions. Further Bayesian region of interest analyses probed whether common increases were truly similar. We found remarkable cross-linguistic commonality for both constructions. WHQs were associated with increased activation in the left middle and superior temporal lobe, left temporoparietal junction, left inferior frontal gyrus, and bilateral medial frontal lobe. ORCs were associated with increased activation in the left middle temporal lobe, left inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral angular gyrus, bilateral posterior cingulate, bilateral precuneus, and left medial frontal lobe. These results support the hypothesis that, regardless of form, the brain bases of higher-level language processing are uniform across languages.

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Constructing covert dependencies—The case of Mandarin wh-in-situ dependency

Cited by 26 publications

References 47 publications

What can wh-questions tell us about real-time language production: Evidence from English and Mandarin

What can wh-questions tell us about real-time language production: Evidence from English and Mandarin

Mandarin Chinese wh-in-situ argument–adjunct asymmetry in island sensitivity: Evidence from a formal judgment study

Neural correlates of object-extracted relative clause processing across English and Chinese

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