An ERP Study On English Relative Clause Processing In Chinese Native Speakers At Different L2 Levels

Syntactic processing and semantic processing in second language are obviously different than that in native language, and it is shown that the second language(L2) learners at different levels perform apparently different in processing of syntactic and semantic information. At present, certain researches have been achieved, yet most of them are concerned with analysis of syntactic and semantic processing in simple sentences, which hardly research on that in complex sentences. A s the representative of complex syntactic structures, relative clause plays an important role in language practice and linguistic theories. Therefore, it is of great significance to analyze syntactic and semantic processing in English relative clause by the L2 learners at different levels.By using the Event-related Potentials(ERPs) technology, this paper examines the performance of the L2 learners in English relative clause processing under the condition of using different animacy subjects and objects, and compares their difference between the high and low level learners. O n the basis of this comparison, the author observes the mechanism that influences high and low level L2 learners’ syntactic and semantic processing in relative clause and explores the view of dissociation that exists in the processing syntactic and semantic information o f Chinese native speakers with different English language skills. Referencing the previous researches and analyzing the experiment, the author comes out the following conclusions:This paper shows that the second language learners and native speakers have the same advantage in the processing of relative clause. The discussion for the processing advantage is meaningful only under the condition that the subject and object in relative clause are animated. It also proves the view of local syntactic complexity t hat when other complex factors are added into clauses they should be taken into consideration instead of merely talking about advantages of processing relative clause.Another fact found in this paper is that the L2 learners at high level and low level have a significant difference in the processing of relative clause. For the L2 learners at high level, semantic information don’t work in their early sentence processing and only work in late processing while for those at a low level always depend on the semantic information.Meanwhile, this paper shows the view of dissociation of semantic information and syntax information in the processing of different level L2 learners. For the L2 learners at high level,the processing of semantic information is early,and t hen the processing of semantic information and syntax information affect simultaneously;for the L2 learners at low level only the semantic information affects, which different from before.