Studies of Psychology and Behavior

Studies of Psychology and Behavior >

2023 , Vol. 21 >Issue 6: 744 - 750

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12139/j.1672-0628.2023.06.004

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Prosodic Constraints in Chinese “N de V” Construction

  • Miao YU ,
  • Wendi WANG ,
  • Xiaoxiao CHEN
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  • 1. Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387
    2. Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387
    3. Tianjin Social Science Laboratory of Students’ Mental Development and Learning, Tianjin 300387

Received date: 2023-01-06

  Online published: 2024-01-24

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, 2023, Copyright reserved © 2023.
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Abstract

Evidence suggests that implicit prosody can facilitate the processing of written texts. Although there is considerable research on stress-timed languages, the role of implicit prosody in syllable-timed languages has not received much attention. The current study explored the cross-linguistic universality of implicit prosody in the “N de V” construction. The results revealed an interaction between prosodic patterns and semantic relations. At an early stage of processing, there was a preference for disyllabic verbs when there was a “patient-verb” semantic relationship. The findings demonstrate the immediate availability of prosodic information in Chinese sentence processing. Importantly, a stable and continuous effect of prosody was found such that monosyllabic verbs had longer fixation duration than disyllabic verbs and more regressions were made to prosodic patterns containing monosyllabic verbs. The conclusion supports the Implicit Prosody Hypothesis.

Key words： implicit prosody; semantic relations; “N de V” construction; silent reading; eye movement

Cite this article

Miao YU , Wendi WANG , Xiaoxiao CHEN . Prosodic Constraints in Chinese “N de V” Construction[J]. Studies of Psychology and Behavior, 2023 , 21(6) : 744 -750 . DOI: 10.12139/j.1672-0628.2023.06.004

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