The Effect Of Adjective Ordering On The Processing Of Chinese Adjective-noun Construction

Adjective ordering has been subject to debate in modern linguistic research(especially for adjective-noun construction)for a long time.Literature review shows that the majority of studies on prenominal adjective ordering have been restricted to English to date while the Chinese researches in this regard are abundant theoretically but relatively impoverished in the empirical perspective.In fact,Mandarin Chinese finds peculiar expressions in adjective-noun constructions,such as the classification of adjective by its syllable numbers,the insertion of subordinating particle de and the effect by the characteristics of Chinese as semantics-dominated language,all of which affect the cognition of Chinese adjective ordering.On this background,it remains to be tested psychologically and neurologically how the differently ordered adjectives affect the processing of adjective-noun constructions in Mandarin Chinese.To this end,this thesis deployed a series of experiments to reveal the processing mechanism of Chinese modifier-head constructions in which disyllabic adjectives are used as the modifiers,so as to provide the neuropsychological evidence for the theoretical researches of adjective-noun construction.The current study is comprised of three experiments,in which experiments one and two are carried out via the ERP methodology,and experiment three includes corpus concordance and subjectivity measurement.The two ERP experiments intend to investigate the effect of different adjective orders on the processing of adjective-noun constructions in Mandarin Chinese when disyllabic qualitative(Q-Adjs)and stative adjectives(S-Adjs)respectively juxtapose with non-predicate adjectives(N-Adjs).The experiments adopted a 3 conditions(preferred / reversed/ contradictory conditions)within-subjects design.The results are presented in the following three aspects:(1)The fashion of adjective ordering affects the processing of adjective-noun constructions in Chinese.The sequences of Q-Adjs / S-Adjs preceding N-Adjs are less difficult to process than their corresponding reversed ones.To our surprise,when the reversed constructions are of high acceptability(in Experiment 1),they basically take on the same processing pattern as the unaccepted reversed constructions in English(Kemmerer et al,2007).To be specific,relative to the preferred condition,the second adjective evoked a reduced N400 and an intensifying P600 in the reversed condition,meanwhile the head noun failed to elicit a robust N400.Moreover,when the reversed constructions are of low acceptability,they show a syntactic similarity but semantic distinction to the reversed and unaccepted constructions in English.That is,compared to preferred condition,the second adjective induced uniformly an enhanced P600 but no N400 in reversed condition,whereas the noun triggered an increased N400.(2)Participants' individual difference affects the processing of adjective-nounconstructions in Chinese.Experiment 1 reveals personal discrepancies in the geographical locations of electrophysiological responses while Experiment 2 unexpectedly shows dissimilar performances on detecting S-Adjs' ability to function as classifier and to coexist with de.(3)The particle de affects the processing of adjective-noun constructions in Chinese.By virtue of electrophysiological components,the two experiments consistently show less processing difficulty when N-Adjs occur with de,which is adducing evidence against hypothetical assumptions,and the very reasons have yet to be further explored.Experiment three analyzed the sequence of hierarchy for Chinese adjective ordering from the perspectives of three types of adjectives' mean distance from the head noun,adjectives' subjectivity and their probability to co-occur with the particle de,so as to further justify the credibility of the results in two experiments.The results confirm what two ERP experiments concluded,and further refine the sequence of hierarchy mentioned-above into a new one,namely,‘S-Adjs > Q-Adjs > N-Adjs(> represents ‘preceding').Moreover,adjectives' ability to collocate with de is basically consistent with theoretical assumptions,but contrary to ERP results.Overall,it is clear that the order of Chinese multiple adjectives follows a specific sequence of hierarchy,reflecting the universal law shared by world languages.At the same time,Chinese adjective-noun construction has its special typological characteristics(such as the subjectivity difference between Q-Adjs and S-Adjs and the insertion of the particle de),yielding a slightly different processing pattern compared with the processing of adjective ordering in English.Furthermore,both syntactic and semantic constraints show their impacts on Chinese adjective ordering and meanwhile the high error rate in the ERP experiments indicates a greater semantic impact.This thesis adds new evidence for the processing mechanism of Chinese adjective-noun construction,particularly of adjective ordering.For one thing,it expands and verifies the applicability of the sequence ‘S-Adjs > Q-Adjs > N-Adjs(> means preceding)' in the constructions when two disyllabic adjectives function as modifiers.For another,online and offline researches reveal that the internal factors(syntactic and semantic constraints)and external factors(such as individual differences)jointly affect the ordering of two co-occurring adjectives.The current study serves as a guiding reference for TCSL(Teaching Chinese as a Second Language)and Chinese information processing.In addition,it provides a new methodology for the study of other complex constructions in Mandarin Chinese.