The Processing Of Verbs And Nouns Primed By Music Tempos

Music and Language are two important communicating vehicles for human beings.Previous studies show that music can convey the concept of motion.To date,however,the majority of studies have adopted the concept priming paradigms to unveil the relationship between music and other physical entities like pictures,and basically no study was conducted to examine the concept of motion conveyed by music and language.More specifically,it is unknown whether music can prime and affect different linguistic categories like verbs and nouns in terms of motion concept conveyed by music.Against this background,this thesis uses two experiments to explore how verbs and nouns are processed under different music priming conditions,hopefully helping people understand the metaphorical motion concept communicated by music and language.This thesis is mainly comprised of two ERP(event-related potential)experiments.Experiment 1 investigated the processing of verbs primed by different music tempos in two tasks by virtue of a two factors within-subjects design.Task 1 adopted a 2(music with tempo changes:accelerating music vs.decelerating music)× 2(action verbs vs.state verbs)design and task 2 a 2(music without tempo changes: fast music vs.slow music)× 2(action verbs vs.state verbs)design.A cross-modality concept priming paradigm was used to first present a piece of music motif(i.e.,music tempos)to non-musicians,followed by an action verb or a state verb.Participants were required to judge whether the action verb or state verb is semantically congruent with the motion concept conveyed by the music.The results of task 1 showed that state verbs elicited larger N400 amplitudes than action verbs in the anterior regions under the condition of music with tempo changes.Moreover,music with tempo changes took effect only on action verbs(but basically not on state verbs),i.e.,the amplitudes of N400 effect were larger in accelerating music condition than in decelerating music condition.In task 2,nevertheless,the N400 component was absent as verbs were primed by music without tempo changes.In sum,Experiment 1 reveals that music tempos can affect the processing of verbs.That is,music with tempo changes relative to music without tempo changes takes more effect on verbs so that action verbs become easier to process than state verbs accordingly.This result is consistent with the previous studies on the motion concept of music on the one hand(e.g.Hedger et al.,2013)and the processing of different types of verbs on the other(e.g.Muraki,2020).Experiment 2 is similar to Experiment 1,subdivided into two tasks(task 3 and task 4),aiming to examine how Chinese nouns are processed when primed by different music tempos.Task 3 used a 2(music with tempo changes: accelerating music vs.decelerating music)× 2(animate nouns vs.inanimate nouns)within-subjects design and task 4 used a 2(music without tempo changes: fast music vs.slow music)× 2(animate nouns vs.inanimate nouns)within-subjects design.The results of task 3 showed that inanimate nouns elicited larger N400 amplitudes than animate nouns in the anterior and central regions under both accelerating and decelerating music conditions.Besides,there came up a stronger effect of music tempo changes on animate nouns but no effect on inanimate nouns,i.e.,the enhanced N400 effects induced by animate nouns were larger in accelerating music condition than in decelerating music condition.In task 4,no significant N400 component was present under the music or nouns conditions,suggesting that music without tempo changes didn’t influence the processing of nouns.On the whole,Experiment 2 reveals that only music with tempo changes takes effect on the processing of nouns,i.e.,animate nouns are easier to process than inanimate nouns,regardless of music condition(accelerating or decelerating music).However,music without tempo changes shows no effect on the processing of nouns.Taken together,the two experiments reveal that the metaphorical motion concept is represented by action verbs and animate nouns(other than state verbs and inanimate nouns)as they are primed by music with tempo changes.Yet as the priming stimuli are turned into music without tempo changes,neither verbs nor nouns show their respective differences in subcategory.In brief,this thesis provides new evidence for the processing mechanisms of verbs and nouns under music priming conditions.For one thing,the experiments investigate whether music tempos can affect verbs and nouns,revealing that the metaphorical motion association can be well established between music and language.Despite the fact that music and words represent two different modalities and categories,their shared concept of motion depends much on embodiment,i.e.,our bodily experience.For another,this study suggests that the effect of music tempos on the processing of verbs and nouns,varies with both the music type and the words’ subcategory.In addition,the current study supplies a research paradigm to reveal the similarity in meaning represented by music and language,for the motion concept studied here is surely one aspect of meanings in general.