Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
PLoS One. 2023 May 18;18(5):e0285873. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0285873. eCollection 2023.
Non-local dependency in Mandarin wh-questions has been extensively researched in theoretical linguistics, but it remains an under-studied topic in the field of language processing. Unlike languages that require wh-movement to form wh-questions, Mandarin is a wh-in-situ language, and hence is generally assumed to require a covert dependency between a wh-phrase and its scope-bearing position. Mandarin therefore provides an ideal linguistic environment in which to study not only cognitive-processing mechanisms, but also how different types of non-local dependency, especially covert dependency, can be handled by readers. This paper investigates the processing of such covert non-local dependency in multiple embedded clauses, that is, multiple complementizer phrases (CPs). In wh-in-situ sentences with multiple CPs, the wh-phrases' scope varies according to the types of verbs and their embedded clauses. Based on the subcategorization of clausal verbs, we designed four experimental conditions: double-embedded low scope, double-embedded high scope, double-embedded ambiguous scope, and long distance in pivotal construction. According to memory-based and distance-based language processing theories, the low-scope condition should be easier to process than the high-scope one, because the former has a shorter linear distance than the latter when forming dependencies; and pivotal construction should be easier to process than high-scope embedded clauses, because the former has a shorter structural distance. In cases where both low- and high-scope interpretations are possible, we aim to determine whether readers exhaust every potential interpretation during comprehension, or adopt a 'good-enough' approach to obtaining an interpretation via an easier and less costly process. To this end, we will adopt the eye-tracking technique that allows us to obtain fine-grained reading-time data, which can be used to compare processing across conditions. The results will contribute to understanding human readers' mechanisms for processing covert dependency and resolving scope ambiguity in wh-in-situ languages.
汉语中 wh-疑问句的非局部依存关系在理论语言学中得到了广泛研究，但在语言处理领域仍是一个研究不足的话题。与需要 wh-移位才能构成 wh-疑问句的语言不同，汉语是 wh-原位语言，因此通常假设 wh-短语与其辖域承载位置之间存在隐性依存关系。汉语因此为研究认知处理机制以及不同类型的非局部依存关系（尤其是隐性依存关系）如何被读者处理提供了理想的语言环境。本文研究了在多个嵌套子句中这种隐性非局部依存关系的处理，即多个补语标记 (CP)。在具有多个 CP 的 wh-原位句子中，wh-短语的辖域根据动词的类型及其嵌套子句而变化。基于子句动词的次范畴化，我们设计了四个实验条件：双嵌入式低范围、双嵌入式高范围、双嵌入式歧义范围和关键结构中的远距离。根据基于记忆和基于距离的语言处理理论，低范围条件应该比高范围条件更容易处理，因为前者在形成依存关系时具有比后者更短的线性距离；而关键结构应该比高范围嵌入式子句更容易处理，因为前者具有比后者更短的结构距离。在低范围和高范围解释都有可能的情况下，我们旨在确定读者在理解过程中是否会穷尽每一种潜在的解释，还是采用“足够好”的方法通过更简单、成本更低的过程获得解释。为此，我们将采用眼动追踪技术，使我们能够获得精细的阅读时间数据，可用于比较条件间的处理。研究结果将有助于理解人类读者处理隐性依存关系和解决 wh-原位语言中辖域歧义的机制。
