Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, 393 Binshui West Road, Xiqing District, Tianjin 300387, China.
Educational & Counseling Psychology, University at Albany, State University of New York, New York, United States of America.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2022 Aug;228:103641. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103641. Epub 2022 Jun 6.
Though previous research has examined how implicit meter can facilitate the processing of stress-timed languages, syllable-timed languages, such as Chinese, remain under studied. Past research has shown that among verb-noun combinations in Chinese, the processing of [2 + 2] (two disyllabic words) combination rhythmic pattern is easier than that of [2 + 1] (a disyllabic word and a monosyllabic word) pattern, though it is unclear whether this effect is modulated by the sentential position of the verb-noun combination. The present study uses eye-tracking to examine the influence of position on rhythmic pattern during silent reading. In Experiment 1, participants read sentences with [2 + 1] versus [2 + 2] VN phrases embedded in different sentential positions. Results show that the fixation duration of [2 + 1] VN phrases is significantly longer than that of [2 + 2] and that the fixation duration of VN phrases is shorter at the sentence-middle position than it is at the sentence-final position, suggesting that the rhythmic pattern effect at the sentence-middle position exhibits a reduced magnitude compared to the sentence-final position. In Experiment 2, participants read sentences with either mono- or disyllabic words after the VN phrases to further explore whether the reduction of the rhythmic pattern effect is related to the number of succeeding syllables. Results show that while the fixation duration of the [2 + 1] VN pattern is significantly longer than that of the [2 + 2] pattern, there is no significant difference between the monosyllabic versus the disyllabic conditions, nor is there a significant interaction between rhythmic pattern and syllable length post VN phrases, thus ruling out the rhythmic effect from succeeding context. Together, these patterns suggest that the reduction of the rhythmic pattern effect is caused by position rather than number of syllables after phrases.
尽管先前的研究已经考察了隐性韵律如何促进重音计时语言（stress-timed languages）的处理，但像中文这样的音节计时语言（syllable-timed languages）仍有待研究。过去的研究表明，在汉语的动词-名词组合中，[2+2]（两个双音节词）组合的节奏模式比[2+1]（一个双音节词和一个单音节词）模式更容易处理，尽管尚不清楚这种效果是否受到动词-名词组合在句子中的位置的调节。本研究使用眼动追踪技术考察了在默读过程中位置对节奏模式的影响。在实验 1 中，参与者阅读了在不同句子位置嵌入[2+1]与[2+2]VN 短语的句子。结果表明，[2+1]VN 短语的注视持续时间明显长于[2+2]VN 短语，并且 VN 短语在句子中间位置的注视持续时间短于句子结尾位置，这表明与句子结尾位置相比，句子中间位置的节奏模式效应幅度减小。在实验 2 中，参与者在 VN 短语后阅读了单音节词或双音节词的句子，以进一步探究节奏模式效应的减小是否与后续音节的数量有关。结果表明，虽然[2+1]VN 模式的注视持续时间明显长于[2+2]VN 模式，但单音节词与双音节词条件之间没有显著差异，VN 短语后也没有节奏模式与音节长度之间的显著交互作用，从而排除了后续语境中的节奏效应。综上所述，这些模式表明，节奏模式效应的减小是由位置而不是短语后的音节数量引起的。
