| Researchers generally hold that sentence processing involves syntactic processing and semantic processing and the interaction between them.Researchers have not yet reached the consensus on whether there exists interaction between two processing streams,and when and how they interplay.And there are three conventional models based on behavioral studies were proposed concerning this issue:the first is the Modular Model proposed by Fodor(1983)which holds that sentence processing begins with syntactic processing,followed by semantic processing at the second phase.And the interaction between two processing streams takes place at the final phase.The second model is the Interactive Model proposed by McClelland et al.(1989)which believes that all information is processed simultaneously,there is an interaction between the two processing streams at the beginning of sentence processing.The third one is the Concurrent Model proposed by Boland(1997)which assumes that assumes that there doesn't exist absolutely independent syntactic or semantic processing,these two processing streams take place concurrently,both receiving the lexical input,and respectively output syntactic and semantic representationsWhile traditional behavioral studies which applied the paradigm of reaction time,couldn't accurately describe the real-time and continuous psychological process in language comprehension.Thus,since 1980s,psycholinguists started to applied ERP technique to explore the real-time continuous language processing mechanism.As a result,the study of psychological mechanism of language comprehension has improved a lot with the help of ERP technique.Based on the ERP studies on sentence processing,there are two theories concerning sentence processing:Syntactic-centered theory and Semantic-centered theory.Syntactic-centered theory holds that syntactic analysis which takes place at the beginning of sentence processing is autonomous and unaffected by semantic variables,while semantic analysis is overruled by syntactic analysis(Friderici,2002).Three-phase Model is a representative model supports this theory While semantic-centered theory maintains that semantic information can facilitate syntactic analysis in sentence processing.The eADM model(Bornkessel&Schlesewsky,2006)is the representative model of this theoryLinguists have conducted many researches explore the sentence processing mechanism of L1 and L2 speakers.Some research findings provide evidence for these two models,and some challenge these models.But these findings mainly come from the studies which chose English or Indo-European speakers as subjects.Only few studies deal with the sentence processing mechanism of Chinese EFL learners.And most of the existing researches use simple sentences as the materials of explore Chinese EFL learners'sentence processing.But these materials fail to reflect the complexity in real language comprehension.Thus,to fulfill this research gap,the present study uses ERP technique to study the mental mechanism of Chinese EFL learners at different proficiency levels in processing English subjunctive mood which is a complex grammatical item.Based on the research purpose,the stimuli in the present study follow the same syntactic structure,"If A were to+verb+article+noun,B would+verb+pronoun/adverb".The critical words of syntactic anomaly are fixed on the modal verb in the main clause,and that of semantic anomaly and combined anomaly are fixed on the verb in main clause.The study selected 40 students aged at 20-25 as subjects who were grouped by their L2 proficiency with 20 subjects in each group,namely Group H(high-proficient)and Group L(low-proficient).By analyzing the ERP data,the following findings were observed1)Under syntactic anomaly,ELAN-LAN-P600 effect is found in Group H and GroupL,which indicates that subjects in both groups share a similar syntactic processingmechanism.ELAN,which is interpreted as reflecting first-phase syntactic structurebuilding,is detected under correct sentence and syntactic anomaly.And ELANeffect is more significant in Group H,thus,subjects in Group H are more sensitiveto the first-phase automatic structure building,and they possess the more native-like processing competence.Moreover,P600 in Group L is more widely distributed compared with that in Group H,which indicates that at the final phase,subjects in Group L have to put more cognitive efforts to reanalyze the full sentences2)Under semantic anomaly,a N400-P600 effect is evoked in both groups.While the P600 effects in two groups are different in nature.The P600 effect in Group H mainly distributed in Anterior region,so it is semantic P600 in Group H.While that in Group L showed a similar distribution to P600 under syntactic anomaly,so it is syntactic P600 in Group L.This means that there exists the process of semantic integration in the sentence processing of subjects in Group H.In addition,N400 effect in Group H is larger than that in Group H,this demonstrates that subjects in Group H are more sensitive to semantic processing3)Under combined anomaly,there existed interplay between syntactic processing and semantic analysis.Syntactic processing facilitates the second and third phase sentence processing,and thus predominates the sentence processing in Group H So,Group H is syntactic-driven.While in Group L,the syntactic processing impedes the semantic processing at the second phase,and thus takes the dominant role during this phase.The third phase sentence processing is influenced by semantic processing and unaffected by syntactic processing4)Neither Three-phase model nor eADM model could explain the sentence processing mechanism of Chinese EFL leaners.Based on the research findings,the current study proposes a new model to describe it.Phase 1 relates to first-phase syntactic structure building.Phase 2 includes two processing streams:morpho-syntactic processing and lexical-semantic processing.During Phase 3,the integration,reanalysis and repair of the full sentence take place5)The present study not only fill the research gap of the study of the mental mechanism of Chinese EFL learners in processing subjunctive sentences,provides empirical evidence for the study of second language sentence processing,but also detect the interaction effect between syntactic processing and semantic processing,and tentatively propose of a sentence processing model based on the research findings,and thus enriches the theoretical models of sentence processing Moreover,the findings of this study provide implications for English teaching in China,in English subjunctive mood teaching,teachers should attach importance to syntactic structure teaching,in vocabulary teaching,teachers should teach words in context... |
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