Effects Of Congruency And Semantic Transparency On L2 Collocational Processing By Advanced Chinese EFL Learners

Collocation has attracted much attention in the field of linguistics as a type of word combination which has both a cross-linguistic and language-specific nature.In addition,collocational knowledge is significant part of linguistic competence though it can be challenging for second language learners to learn.In order to explore the representation of L2 collocations in mental lexicon as well as the possible mechanism for L2 collocational processing,linguists have carried out a great number of empirical studies to investigate the possible factors that influence L2 collocational processing by second language learners,involving statistical knowledge such as frequency and collocational strength,as well as linguistic features such as congruency,types of collocation and directionality.However,few research has been done on the semantic properties of collocations.Applying corpus methodology and psycholinguistic experiments,the present study aimed to investigate the effects of congruency and semantic transparency on L2 collocational processing by advanced Chinese EFL learners,and attempted to answer the following three research questions:(1)What is the effect of congruency on L2 collocational processing by advanced Chinese EFL learners?(2)What is the effect of semantic transparency on L2 collocational processing by advanced Chinese EFL learners?(3)What is the underlying mechanism of L2 collocational processing by advanced Chinese EFL learners?The results revealed the effects of congruency and semantic transparency on L2 collocational processing by advanced Chinese EFL learners.(1)Congruent collocations were processed faster and more accurately than incongruent collocations.(2)Congruent collocations with higher level of semantic transparency were processed faster and more accurately than that with lower level of semantic transparency.Incongruent collocations with lower level of semantic transparency were also processed at a relatively quick speed.(3)The results suggested that the activation of L1 accelerated the processing of L2 collocations by advanced Chinese EFL learners.In addition,L2 collocations of different types were processed either holistically or in a decomposed way.Incongruent collocations with lower level of semantic transparency tended to a holistic processing by advanced Chinese EFL learners.Findings of the present study contribute to our understanding of the representation and processing mechanism of L2 collocations,and provide guidance for the teaching and learning of L2 collocations.