Processing ambiguous object clefts in Mandarin Chinese
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2023/14/0031/000625Keywords:
Self-paced reading, Object clefts, Ditransitive structure, Mandarin ChineseAbstract
Object cleft constructions in Mandarin Chinese are an understudied case of syntactic ambiguity. A self-paced reading experiment was employed to test whether readers of Mandarin Chinese would show more difficulties in processing indirect object (IO) clefts compared to direct object (DO) clefts and whether semantic cues would facilitate disambiguation. The results confirmed both our hypotheses, supporting a non-modular account of syntactic processing together with Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy proposed by Keenan & Comrie (1977). Thus, our findings suggest that readers integrate different modules in sentence processing, while also confirming the cognitive basis of a hierarchy operating when accessing theta roles in sentence parsing.
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