Chang Xin, Wang Pei
School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiaotong University, 800, Dongchuan Road, Minhang District, Shanghai, 200240, China.
Department of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, 100, Guilin Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, 200234, China.
J Psycholinguist Res. 2016 Feb;45(1):85-101. doi: 10.1007/s10936-014-9319-1.
To investigate the influence of L2 proficiency and syntactic similarity on English passive sentence processing, the present ERP study asked 40 late Chinese-English bilinguals (27 females and 13 males, mean age = 23.88) with high or intermediate L2 proficiency to read the sentences carefully and to indicate for each sentence whether or not it was correct. Sentences were classified into literal translation sentences with the similar structure between the two languages and free translation sentences with the different structure. Behavioral data showed: shorter reaction times and higher accuracy rates occurred in the high-proficient group than those in the intermediate-proficient group; shorter reaction times and higher accuracy rates were observed in literal translation sentences than those in free translation sentences. ERP results showed literal translation sentences elicited an enhanced P200 and P600 while free translation sentences elicited a larger N400. The high-proficient group showed a larger P600 in syntactic violations and double violations while the intermediate-proficient group evoked an enhanced N400 in semantic violations and double violations. Literal translation sentences caused a larger P200 while free translation sentences elicited more negative-going N400. Behavioral and ERP data revealed the influence of L2 proficiency and syntactic similarity on L2 sentence processing, and L2 proficiency played a predominate role.
为了研究二语熟练程度和句法相似性对英语被动句加工的影响，本项事件相关电位（ERP）研究要求40名高水平或中等水平的中国英语晚期双语者（27名女性和13名男性，平均年龄=23.88岁）仔细阅读句子，并指出每个句子是否正确。句子被分为两种语言结构相似的直译句和结构不同的意译句。行为数据显示：高水平组的反应时比中等水平组短，准确率比中等水平组高；直译句的反应时比意译句短，准确率比意译句高。ERP结果显示，直译句引发了增强的P200和P600，而意译句引发了更大的N400。高水平组在句法违反和双重违反时表现出更大的P600，而中等水平组在语义违反和双重违反时引发了增强的N400。直译句引发了更大的P200，而意译句引发了更负向的N400。行为和ERP数据揭示了二语熟练程度和句法相似性对二语句法加工的影响，且二语熟练程度起主要作用。
