The Effects Of Syntactic And Prosodic Segmentation On Reading Comprehension Of Ancient Poetry: Evidence From Behavior And ERP

Syntax and prosody play important roles in the research of language construction and language processing.When dealing with a text with difficulty in both prosody and syntax,how should an individual make a choice? The purpose of this study is to explore the role of prosodic and syntactic processing in the comprehension of ancient Chinese poem by manipulating the segmentation pattern.In Behavioral Experiment,The researcher used the global presentation paradigm to investigate the effect of segmentation on people’s reading time.participants were asked to silently read and understand the poem lines and finish the key-pressing task under four segmentation conditions(no segmentation,prosodic segmentation,syntactic segmentation,and double violation segmentation).The results of the Linear Mixed model showed that reading time under syntactic segmentation condition is significantly shorter than that under double violation segmentation condition.The reading time in the prosodic segmentation condition was shorter than that in the double violation segmentation condition,but it did not reach the significant level.Therefore,compared with prosodic segmentation,syntactic segmentation can effectively shorten individual reading time.Under the unsegmented condition,individuals would adopt a reading model like syntactic processing mode driven by the comprehension task.In ERP Experiment,the researcher presented the stimuli character by character to investigate the neuroelectrophysiological components induced by prosodic and syntactic processing under three segmentation conditions(prosodic segmentation,syntactic segmentation,and double violation segmentation).In the character-by-character presentation,the subjects were asked to concentrate on reading the poem and pressing buttons.EEG analysis showed that the interaction between prosody and syntactic processing occurred both in the early and late stages.In the initial stage of visual attention,prosodic segmentation was superior to syntactic segmentation,and prosodic segmentation induced a larger N100.In the early stage of prosodic boundary awareness,prosodic segmentation is better than syntactic segmentation,and prosodic violation induces larger P200 and N400.In the late stage of meaning comprehension,syntactic segmentation is better than prosodic segmentation,and syntactic violation induces a larger LPC.The results of behavioral and neuroelectrophysiological experiments showed that both prosody and syntax play important roles in poetry reading comprehension processing.Prosodic segmentation is helpful for individuals to recognize prosodic patterns,while syntactic segmentation is more helpful for individuals to understand the meaning of poem lines.