An Empirical Research On The Relationship Between The Relative Embodiment Of Verbs And Second Language Learners' Semantic Processing Of Verbs

The present research probes in the effects of relative embodiment in second language learners' semantic processing of verbs.Through questionnaire and QPT test 2,we selected 30 advanced English learners and 30 lower intermediate learners as our experimental groups and 30 English native speakers as our control group.Objects of the present study are 60 verbs with different relative embodiment,which are chosen from the 678 verbs with relative embodied scales from Sidhu & Pexman(2014).On the basis of embodied theory and lexical development of second language learners,by using E-prime 2.0 and SPSS 20.0,the effect of verbs' relative embodiment in verbs semantic processing of Chinese English learners was explored by comparing the response latencies and accuracy to different relative embodiment verbs of native speakers with those of Chinese English learners.The result demonstrates that: for the relative high embodied verbs and relative low embodied verbs,advanced learners' response latencies and accuracy to each respectively are contrary to the native speakers'.Lower intermediate learners' response latencies and accuracy to the two groups of verbs respectively are similar to the native speakers'.As for the verbs with same relative embodiments,response latencies and accuracy for advanced learners are longer and lower respectively than those for lower intermediate learner.The distinguish results between advanced learners and native speakers,and the different results between advanced learners and lower intermediate learners are analyzed.There is no effect of verbs' embodiment in advanced learners' semantic processing.The executive and decision-related process,context and other factors aree discussed for the missing effect of embodiment.The lower intermediate learners' response latencies to the verbs with same embodiment are shorter than advanced learners.This is discussed from the cognition role in lexical development,nominalization and so on.The present research supports the weak embodiment theory.For second language learners with different language proficiency,the role of cognition in their lexical development is different,so is the role of embodiment.Sensory and motor-simulation maybe the essential condition for verbs' semantic processing rather than be the sufficient condition for it.