Department of Humanities, Language and Translation, Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Hong Kong.
Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong.
Neurosci Lett. 2024 Nov 20;843:138029. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2024.138029. Epub 2024 Oct 22.
This study compares the processing of cleft structures against that of monoclausal sentences using event-related potential (ERP). We aim to understand how syntactic complexity is processed by comparing the neural response to cleft and single-clause sentences with identical verb phrases, controlling for verb bias frequency effects. Sixty participants were tested, and we presented 100 cleft and 100 monoclausal sentences, balanced for active and passive verb usage. We examined the P600 component, an ERP associated with syntactic complexity, to assess the processing of cleft structures. Results showed that cleft structures incur a greater processing load, as indicated by a larger P600, compared to monoclausal sentences. The P600 response indicates that processing cleft sentences requires additional syntactic operations, consistent with behavioral studies showing that clinical populations have difficulty comprehending complex sentences.
本研究使用事件相关电位（ERP）比较了分裂结构和单句的处理。我们旨在通过比较具有相同动词短语的分裂句和单句的神经反应来理解句法复杂性是如何被处理的，同时控制动词偏向频率的影响。共有 60 名参与者接受了测试，我们呈现了 100 个分裂句和 100 个单句，平衡了主动和被动动词的使用。我们检查了 P600 成分，这是一种与句法复杂性相关的 ERP，以评估分裂结构的处理。结果表明，与单句相比，分裂结构会导致更大的处理负荷，这表现为更大的 P600。P600 反应表明，处理分裂句需要额外的句法操作，这与行为研究一致，表明临床人群在理解复杂句方面有困难。
