Abstract
Chinese coordinative compound words are common and unique in inter-character semantic and orthographic relationships. This study explored the inter-character orthographic similarity effects on the recognition of transparent two-morpheme coordinative compound words. Seventy-two native Chinese readers participated in a lexical decision task. The findings demonstrated robust inhibitory inter-character orthographic similarity effects, intra-word character reversal effects, and inter-character semantic similarity effects. These results were compared to those of previous studies on coordinative compound word recognition and on the orthographic similarity phenomenon at both character and word levels. The findings were explained with the multi-level representational model of morphological processing of Chinese compound words (Zhou and Marslen-Wilson in Psychologia 43:47–66, 2000). The model was further extended by adding the activation of morpho-orthographic relationships and the mapping of morphemic orthographic information onto the semantic information of both morphemes and whole words.
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Notes
In this study, inter-character and intra-word are used interchangeably with the same concept except for slight difference depending on immediate contexts.
Total percentage is less than 100% because the scholar could not identify the structure of some compound words (Chen and Duanmu 2016).
Mok (2009) defined the degree of semantic transparency in terms of the relationship between the compound word and its constituent morphemes. Because the notions of “transparent” and “opaque” “vary along a single semantic continuum” rather than dichotomous (Mok 2009, p. 1042), we deliberately focused on those coordinative compound words whose “meanings are related to the combined meaning of both constituents (i.e., fully transparent)” (p. 1042) (see more in “The Current Study” section).
A reviewer pointed out the importance of the base rates of orthographic similarity and dissimilarity when two morphemes have the same semantics, considering that native speakers may have an implicit knowledge of the likelihoods and that this might affect the way that similarity information informs word recognition. Unfortunately, we have not found any literature or statistics identifying base rates that determine orthographic similarities or dissimilarities in Chinese coordinative compound words.
It is to note that for non-coordinative compounds, there was no situation where the two characters share orthographic similarity.
Because orthographic similarity was our primary interest point in this study, the nonwords were created in O+ and O− conditions as well. It would be insightful to replicate this inter-character semantic similarity effect with other types of nonwords in lexical decision task in the future. We appreciate reviewer’s insight on this point.
It is also possible that at a post-lexical processing stage after initial visual activation, there might be an excitatory connection between O and S. We appreciate reviewer’s insight on this point. This should be addressed in a follow-up study.
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Appendix: List of the Word Stimuli
Appendix: List of the Word Stimuli
No. | O+ TCC | O− TCC | Non-coordinative compounds |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | 通过 | 按照 | 重点 |
2 | 思想 | 分别 | 战略 |
3 | 认识 | 事业 | 推动 |
4 | 眼睛 | 利益 | 银行 |
5 | 继续 | 材料 | 营养 |
6 | 价值 | 共同 | 将来 |
7 | 迅速 | 城市 | 财政 |
8 | 意思 | 音乐 | 到底 |
9 | 机械 | 真正 | 既然 |
10 | 剥削 | 创作 | 读者 |
11 | 疾病 | 年代 | 增强 |
12 | 婚姻 | 帮助 | 想象 |
13 | 热烈 | 家庭 | 元素 |
14 | 议论 | 模仿 | 欣赏 |
15 | 钢铁 | 身体 | 宪法 |
16 | 评论 | 整齐 | 眼前 |
17 | 抵抗 | 选择 | 道理 |
18 | 寂寞 | 错误 | 电视 |
19 | 艰难 | 颤抖 | 物理 |
20 | 船舶 | 消灭 | 总理 |
21 | 遥远 | 责任 | 见到 |
22 | 疼痛 | 停止 | 抓住 |
23 | 潮湿 | 固定 | 好像 |
24 | 饥饿 | 奇怪 | 英雄 |
25 | 跳跃 | 季节 | 心情 |
26 | 睡眠 | 锻炼 | 电话 |
27 | 挖掘 | 黑暗 | 统计 |
28 | 话语 | 居住 | 前提 |
29 | 捕捉 | 等待 | 结婚 |
30 | 吩咐 | 描绘 | 少数 |
31 | 谈论 | 温暖 | 真理 |
32 | 粗糙 | 包围 | 否则 |
33 | 逃避 | 尖锐 | 昨天 |
34 | 湖泊 | 和谐 | 医院 |
35 | 拥挤 | 旋转 | 当地 |
36 | 抚摸 | 街道 | 直线 |
37 | 场地 | 喜爱 | 逻辑 |
38 | 泛滥 | 明亮 | 专家 |
39 | 思念 | 珍贵 | 国外 |
40 | 安宁 | 喜悦 | 仔细 |
41 | 催促 | 补偿 | 完善 |
42 | 江河 | 寒冷 | 多数 |
43 | 扶持 | 恐惧 | 改进 |
44 | 拥抱 | 疯狂 | 抽象 |
45 | 衬衫 | 微弱 | 全体 |
46 | 病症 | 柔软 | 看法 |
47 | 保佑 | 采购 | 争取 |
48 | 祈祷 | 长久 | 身边 |
49 | 嫉妒 | 行走 | 冲突 |
50 | 清澈 | 验证 | 此时 |
51 | 编织 | 价钱 | 吃饭 |
52 | 冰冷 | 楼房 | 电影 |
53 | 伴侣 | 语文 | 能源 |
54 | 浑浊 | 猜测 | 佛教 |
55 | 妩媚 | 搜索 | 强度 |
56 | 缠绕 | 宽敞 | 脱离 |
57 | 呼叫 | 虚假 | 效率 |
58 | 践踏 | 破旧 | 有机 |
59 | 荒芜 | 言行 | 贵族 |
60 | 肥胖 | 首脑 | 地铁 |
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Sun, J., Zhao, W. & Pae, H.K. Inter-character Orthographic Similarity Effects on the Recognition of Chinese Coordinative Compound Words. J Psycholinguist Res 49, 125–145 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-019-09674-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-019-09674-7