1. Chinese: A window on analytic processing. Laurie Beth Feldman State University at Albany, SUNY & Haskins Laboratories NIH HD 01994

2. Linguistic analysis in word recognition Orthographies based on phonemes, syllables, morphemes. English units of transcription are phonemes phonemes combine to form morphemes Chinese units of transcription are characters correspond to syllables Chinese is not a syllabic system many character spellings for the same syllable Symbols correspond to linguistic units: not treated monolithically

3. Chinese: A window on analytic processing. Character = syllable graphemic units smaller than the character (but not smaller than a syllable) exist even in logographic writing systems 80-95% characters are semantic-phonetic compounds phonetic semantic Mapping syllable --> character (homophones) Semantic components within Chinese characters Phonological influences on semantic components

4. Homophony influences recognition Chinese: set of 1273 syllables (across tones, excl. gaps) transcribed by 7000+ characters in common use homophone families in Chinese vary greatly. range is about 40 /shi4/ to 1 /si3/ English syllables: more variability in onsets and codas homophone families in English are limited. Homophony is greater in Chinese than English

5. Relation of orthographic and phonological form English: phonemes O-P correspondence int --> /Int/ or /a I nt/ Homophones: P-O correspondence 1:5 /it/ --> meetmeet meatfeet meteelite pete Chinese: syllables O-P correspondence 议 --> /yi4/ * Homophones: P-O correspondence 1:20 *number indicates lexical tone.

6. Manipulation of Homophony in Chinese LargeSmall characterpronunciationmeaningcharacterpron. meaning 意 /yi4/ meaning 突 /tu1/ sudden 议 /yi4/ discuss 凸 /tu1/ protruding 益 /yi4/ benefit 秃 /tu1/ bald 亿 /yi4/ 100,000,000 易 /yi4/ easy 艺 /yi4/ art 忆 /yi4/ remember

7. Expt. 1: Does homophony influence recognition in Chinese? Homophonic mapping: syllable --> character Phonetic does not fully specify pronunciation. Control ‘frequency’ of syllable and visual complexity Collaborator: Shu Hua at Beijing Normal University Haiyan Zhou at Beijing Normal University

8. Chinese ‘spelling’ task Hear: /yi4/ See: 意 –Judge: “yes” Hear: /yi4/ See: 突 –Judge: “no” --------------------------------> time Onset: SS = Students at Beijing Normal University, China

14. Phonological- Orthographic syllable mapping influences performance in a ‘spelling’ task. Frequency ISI = onset Low frequency targets show P-O homophone effect large = many characters; small = few characters

15. Chinese characters are compositional but not productive 34 % of words in Mainland Chinese texts consist of single character 80-95% of characters are phonetic compounds

16. Semantic components serve a semantic cueing function. 桌染板 ‘desk’ ‘dye’‘plank’ 木 means ‘wood’

17. Phonetic components 4000 phonetics for 1273 syllables phonetic can behave differently in different character contexts 26.3% of semantic-phonetic compounds are pronounced like their phonetic phonological information is coded loosely at the level of the component only in some characters in phonological units greater than the phoneme “typical” position is on right

18. Bivalent components serve a semantic or a phonetic function. 米 means ‘rice’ and is pronounced mi3 糜 means “gruel” pronounced mi2

19. Expt. 2: Do readers treat characters analytically? Facilitation due to repetition of a semantic component in character recognition tasks. Reduce overall semantic similarity of prime and target manipulate semantic transparency attributes of a component defined over many characters Reduce overall form similarity of prime and target alter position of component Collaborators: Douglas Honorof at Haskins Laboratories Shu Hua at Beijing Normal University

20. Character Decision Task +250 ms+ #####500 ms prime250 msprime50 ms targetuntil responsetargetuntil response

25. S+S-

26. Component Repetition with alternation of function Semantic contribution of component in prime and target reduce semantic similarity of characters (ratings) reduce form similarity Phonological contribution of component in prime Semantic contribution of same component in target attributes of a component defined over many characters not prime and target

31. Cross task comparison: Forward masked: attenuated semantics S+ = S- SOA 250: greater effect semantic similarity S+ ≠ S- Character decision: semantic emphasis Character naming: greater influence of phonology

34. Summary: Linguistic analysis in character recognition Exp. 1: Chinese character = syllable (≠ phonemes) Complexity O--> P mapping in a spelling task Exp. 2: Facilitation due to component repetition: ≠ simple relatedness among characters whole character relatedness is weak ≠ repetition of form change in component position ns Relation of component to character DecisionNam. semantic (P-T) at longer SOA S+ not S-neither S semantic (P-T) with mask both S neither S change function (P≠T) F- = CF- ≠ C

35. Conclusions for the non-Sinophone psycholinguist Naming slowed when the same component appeared as a phonetic, then as a semantic Interference reflects incompatible mappings: –Component —> phonology –Component —> semantics Processing of the semantic cannot arise at the level of the whole character: it must be analytic