An ERP Study On The Processing Of English Subjunctive Mood By Chinese EFL Learners

Sentence processing is the basic format of language comprehension.It is generally held that sentence processing mainly involves syntactic and semantic processing.There has been much debate,however,regarding when and how syntactic and semantic information in one sentence are integrated into a single coherent explanation during online sentence processing.Two basic theoretical models based on behavioral paradigms have been proposed to account for the controversial issue:Modular model and Interactive model.The former insists that sentence processing begins with independent syntactic processing and then followed with lexical and semantic processing while the latter suggests that syntactic and semantic processing interact with each other from the very beginning of sentence processing.However,the flaws of traditional research paradigm(Reaction Time)as well as the theoretical discrepancy gradually emerge to the extent that researchers begin to switch their focus to the technique of event-related potentials(ERP).With the facilitation of ERP technique,researchers could make continuous measures on the whole process of language comprehension,with an excellent temporal resolution at the level of milliseconds.Therefore,the ERP technique has advanced our knowledge of the mental mechanisms and processes involved in language comprehension.So far,theories concerning the mechanism of sentence comprehension have fallen into two camps:Syntactic-centered theory and Semantic-centered theory.The former one argues that syntactic analysis is autonomous and it starts from the very beginning of online sentence processing.Semantic analysis is overruled by the syntactic analysis without any influences on syntactic processing.The most representative neurocognitive model supporting Syntactic-centered theory is the Three-phase Sentence Model(Friederici,2002).On the other hand,the Semantic-centered theory denies the assumption of the primacy of syntax,instead,it maintains that semantic information can guide or facilitate the syntactic analysis in a sentence.This view is mainly supported by the Extended Argument Dependency Model(Bornkessel&Schlesewsky,2006).On the whole,the research on sentence processing has developed from the theoretical level to the behavioral level,and then to the neuropsychological level for decades,bringing about a variety of sentence processing theories and models.Currently,studies concerning sentence processing are mainly conducted in the field of first language(LI),including English,French,German,Dutch and other Indo-European languages.The language processing theories and models are thus proposed by researchers in the western countries and based on the findings of alphabetic languages.However,the applicability of these models to second language learners is still under debate.Besides,studies on L2 processing basically choose simple sentences as experimental materials.The ERP results and conclusions based on such materials should be further examined,for the complexity of the semantic processing and syntactic processing in actual sentence comprehension would be remarkably reduced on the basis of simple sentences.Therefore,the experimental materials selected are expected to fully reflect the typical syntactic structure of L2 in terms of voice,mood and morphological change.Based on the research gap,the present study aims to investigate the neural mechanisms of Chinese EFL learners in processing the English subjunctive mood.To this end,the subject clause that begins with "it" is taken as the syntactic structure of materials and the key verb in the sentence is regarded as it's critical word.Besides,in order to examine the role that language proficiency plays on L2 processing,this research deals with two groups of Chinese EFL learners with different L2 proficiency,namely,high proficient group(Group H)and low proficient group(Group L).Through analyzing and discussing the data(Behavioral and EEG data)acquired,the following findings have been revealed:(1)In response to syntactic anomaly,both Group elicit a LAN-P600 effect after the onset of critical words,which demonstrates a similar processing mechanism of syntactic information between Group H and Group L.Meanwhile,the significantly larger ELAN-like effect elicited by Group H,compared to Group L,indicates that L2 learners with high proficiency are more sensitive to syntactic-structure building,in other words,they may have a more native-like processing capability in terms of automatic structure-building.(2)In response to semantic anomaly,both groups evoke a N400-P600 effect after the onset of critical words.However,a more significant N400 is elicited by Group H relative to Group L,which confirms that high-proficient L2 learners are more sensitive to semantic violation than low-proficient ones.Besides,the P600 effects elicited by Group H and Group L are different in nature(Group H:Semantic P600;Group L:Syntactic P600)judged by the scalp distribution as well as behavioral results.Therefore,L2 learners with high proficiency are considered to have obtained the native-like processing mechanism in semantic integration while those with low proficiency are incompetent in processing semantic information.(3)Based on the ERP results concerning combined anomaly,the interaction between syntax and semantics is well demonstrated during sentence processing.For L2 learners with high proficiency,it is the syntactic processing that takes the dominant role in sentence processing while the L2 processing mechanism of low-proficient EFLlearners is more complex than that of high-proficient ones.Specifically,during the second phase of sentence processing,the syntactic processing takes the dominant role over semantic processing.However,during the third phase of sentence processing,it is the semantic processing that affects the syntactic processing.(4)Neither the Three-phase sentence model nor the eADM hold water in explaining the ERP results of this paper.Therefore,L2 processing cannot be simply categorized into the syntactic-centered theory or the semantic-centered theory.A more comprehensive new model,named the New Three-phase Sentence Model,comes into being to expose the mental mechanism of Chinese EFL learners during L2 processing.