Predicting pragmatic functions of Chinese echo questions using prosody: evidence from acoustic analysis and data modeling.

Echo questions serve two pragmatic functions (recapitulatory and explicatory) and are subdivided into two types (yes-no echo question and wh-echo question) in verbal communication. Yet to date, most relevant studies have been conducted in European languages like English and Spanish. It remains unknown whether the different functions of echo questions can be conveyed via prosody in spoken Chinese. Additionally, no comparison was made on the diversified algorithmic models in predicting functions by the prosodity of Chinese echo questions, a novel linguistic cognition in nature. This motivated us to use different acoustic cues to predict different pragmatic functions of Chinese echo questions by virtue of acoustic experiment and data modeling. The results showed that for yes-no echo question, explicatory function exhibited higher pitch and intensity patterns than recapitulatory function whereas for wh-echo question, recapitulatory function demonstrated higher pitch and intensity patterns than explicatory function. With regard to data modeling, the algorithm Support Vector Machine (SVM) relative to Random Forest (RF) and Logistic Regression (LR) performed better when predicting different functions using prosodic cues in both yes-no and wh-echo questions. This study from a digitized perspective adds evidence to the cognition of echo questions' functions on a prosodic basis.

Chinese EFL learners different from English natives in cataphora resolution: Evidence from eye-tracking studies.

Previous studies on English natives have shown that encountering an English cataphoric pronoun triggers an active search for its antecedent and this searching process is modulated by syntactic constraints. It remains unknown whether the conclusion is universal to EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners, particularly those with distinct L1 like Chinese in linguistic typology. Therefore, this study used two eye-tracking experiments to investigate how Chinese EFL learners resolve English cataphora. The experiments adopted the gender-mismatch paradigm. Experiment 1 investigated whether Chinese EFL learners with different proficiency would adopt the similar processing pattern to English natives and found that gender congruency elicited longer reading times than gender incongruency between the first potential antecedent and the cataphoric pronoun, the effect early observed in high-proficiency relative to low-proficiency learners. Experiment 2 explored whether the cataphora resolution process was modulated by Binding Principle B and revealed that longer first fixation durations and first pass reading times were observed in gender-mismatch than in gender-match conditions no matter the antecedents are binding-accessible or not while longer regression path durations occurred in gender-mismatch than in gender-match conditions only as the antecedents are binding-accessible. Taken together, these results indicate that Chinese EFL learners also adopt an active search mechanism to resolve cataphoric pronouns, yet along a processing path distinct from English natives'. Specifically, Chinese EFL learners predictively link a cataphoric pronoun to the first potential antecedent in the sentence but only a gender-matching antecedent can prompt them to engage in deep processing of the antecedent. Moreover, the processing time varies with the learners' English proficiency. Furthermore, unlike native English speakers' early application of syntactic constraints in their cataphora resolution, Chinese EFL learners try to establish co-reference relations between cataphoric pronouns and antecedents regardless of following or flouting Binding Principle B in early processing stages whereas they exclusively link the cataphoric pronouns to the binding-accessible antecedents in late processing stages. This study adds evidence to the Shallow Structure Hypothesis whereby L2 learners resort to lexical prior to syntactic cues to process sentences in general, which is just opposite to the fashion adopted by the natives.

Chinese JSL/JFL learners' online perception of Japanese verb conjugations: Evidence from a behavioral study.

Verb conjugation is essential in learning Japanese as a second or foreign language (JSL/JFL). Previous studies showed that Chinese JSL/JFL beginners behaved differently in acquiring Japanese verb conjugations, but the results were obtained from offline tests (e.g., writing examination without time limitation), hard to reflect the real perception. On this background, the current study adopted a time-controlled lexical decision task (real-time automatic processing) to explore how Chinese intermediate JSL/JFL learners processed four types of verb conjugations (i.e., masu/tai form, te/ta form, nai form and yoo form). Based on the error rates and RTs collected form 27 Chinese intermediate JSL/JFL learners, the results showed that the JSL/JFL learners processed better in masu/tai form and te/ta form, followed by nai form and yoo form. The discrepant processing of the four types of Japanese verb conjugations suggests that the JSL/JFL learners do have difficulties in Japanese acquisition. Finally, a general discussion is offered from the perspective of verb conjugations' frequency, JSL/JFL learners' learning strategy and Japanese teaching method.

The social hierarchical restrictions of Chinese verbs rapidly guide online thematic role assignment in comprehension.

The information about social hierarchical relationship has been intrinsically embedded into semantic restrictions of some Chinese verbs theoretically. For example, the Chinese verb ''(shanyang, support: provide for the needs and comfort of one's elders) only allows its Agent role to have a lower social status compared to the Patient role. However, whether this hierarchical restriction can be rapidly activated and how it impacts online thematic role assignment in reading remains to be seen. To answer this question, a 2 (Verb Type: hierarchical vs non-hierarchical verbs) × 2 (Social Hierarchy Sequence: match vs mismatch) design was constructed in the present study to investigate the interaction between the two factors. ERPs showed that hierarchical restriction violations evoked a stronger anterior negativity to the sentence-final noun (NP2). This effect was absent under two non-hierarchical conditions. To our knowledge, this study is the first to reveal that social hierarchical restrictions of Chinese hierarchical verbs can be rapidly available to guide online thematic role assignment and this process might be closely related to readers' thematic role knowledge.

N400 Indexing the Motion Concept Shared by Music and Words.

The two event-related potentials (ERP) studies investigated how verbs and nouns were processed in different music priming conditions in order to reveal whether the motion concept via embodiment can be stimulated and evoked across categories. Study 1 (Tasks 1 and 2) tested the processing of verbs (action verbs vs. state verbs) primed by two music types, with tempo changes (accelerating music vs. decelerating music) and without tempo changes (fast music vs. slow music) while Study 2 (Tasks 3 and 4) tested the processing of nouns (animate nouns vs. inanimate nouns) in the same priming condition as adopted in Study 1. During the experiments, participants were required to hear a piece of music prior to judging whether an ensuing word (verb or noun) is semantically congruent with the motion concept conveyed by the music. The results show that in the priming condition of music with tempo changes, state verbs and inanimate nouns elicited larger N400 amplitudes than action verbs and animate nouns, respectively in the anterior regions and anterior to central regions, whereas in the priming condition of music without tempo changes, action verbs elicited larger N400 amplitudes than state verbs and the two categories of nouns revealed no N400 difference, unexpectedly. The interactions between music and words were significant only in Tasks 1, 2, and 3. Taken together, the results demonstrate that firstly, music with tempo changes and music without tempo prime verbs and nouns in different fashions; secondly, action verbs and animate nouns are easier to process than state verbs and inanimate nouns when primed by music with tempo changes due to the shared motion concept across categories; thirdly, bodily experience differentiates between music and words in coding (encoding and decoding) fashion but the motion concept conveyed by the two categories can be subtly extracted on the metaphorical basis, as indicated in the N400 component. Our studies reveal that music tempos can prime different word classes, favoring the notion that embodied motion concept exists across domains and adding evidence to the hypothesis that music and language share the neural mechanism of meaning processing.

A review of the ESL/EFL learners' gains from online peer feedback on English writing.

Peer feedback is essential in writing English as a Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL). Traditionally, offline PF was more widely favored but nowadays online peer feedback (OPF) has become frequent in ESL/EFL learners' daily writing. This study is undertaken to probe into the gains of using OPF in ESL/EFL writing on the basis of 37 research articles published in core journals from 2012 till 2022. In order to accurately cover the previous researches, we capitalize on three methods to evaluate and analyze the data, i.e., database search, citation search and manual search. Results show that from the perspective of the ESL/EFL learners' gains, the OPF is basically divided into two categories (cognitive OPF and affective OPF), involving eight aspects in all: face-based strategies, revision-based comments, writing performance, learning environment, reflection/critical thinking/responsibility, writing emotion, motivation, and attitudes; and OPF can be well supported by a set of theories like Process-oriented Writing Theory, Collaborative Learning Theory, Interactionist Theory of L2 Acquisition and Vygotsky's sociocultural theory. By comparison, the gains from OPF outperform those from offline PF in many dimensions (e.g., face-based strategies), despite some overlaps (e.g., the shift of the role) that were revealed in several investigations. Based on the past studies, we propose some pedagogical implications on OPF from ESL/EFL writing, including accenting the "student-centered" teaching strategy, providing students with OPF on the basis of incremental knowledge, adopting OPF regularly in ESL/EFL writing activities to shape personalities and outlooks and putting OPF into its full play with recourse to abundant internet-based vehicles. This review is desired to provide a guideline for both the peer feedback practice and the upcoming scholarly researches with respect to EFL/ESL writing.

Brain Regions Involved in Underlying Syntactic Processing of Mandarin Chinese Intransitive Verbs: An fMRI Study.

According to the Unaccusative Hypothesis, intransitive verbs are divided into unaccusative and unergative ones based on the distinction of their syntactic properties, which has been proved by previous theoretical and empirical evidence. However, debate has been raised regarding whether intransitive verbs in Mandarin Chinese can be split into unaccusative and unergative ones syntactically. To analyze this theoretical controversy, the present study employed functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare the neural processing of deep unaccusative, unergative sentences, and passive sentences (derived structures undergoing a syntactic movement) in Mandarin Chinese. The results revealed no significant difference in the neural processing of deep unaccusative and unergative sentences, and the comparisons between passive sentences and the other sentence types revealed activation in the left superior temporal gyrus (LSTG) and the left middle frontal gyrus (LMFG). These findings indicate that the syntactic processing of unaccusative and unergative verbs in Mandarin Chinese is highly similar but different from that of passive verbs, which suggests that deep unaccusative and unergative sentences in Mandarin Chinese are both base-generated structures and that there is no syntactic distinction between unaccusative and unergative verbs in Mandarin Chinese.