A Structural Priming Study of the Information Function of the Chinese Ba Construction

Bingxian Chen; Yu Yin Hsu

doi:10.1007/978-981-97-0586-3_37

A Structural Priming Study of the Information Function of the Chinese Ba Construction

Bingxian Chen, Yu Yin Hsu (Corresponding Author)

Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies

Research output: Chapter in book / Conference proceeding › Conference article published in proceeding or book › Academic research › peer-review

Abstract

Much research on the function of the ba construction in Mandarin Chinese has been conducted. However, there is a controversy about the ba NP regarding whether it expresses a topic denotation, a focus denotation, or neither. To study its information function, the present study has adopted a structural priming paradigm in a self-paced reading experiment to investigate whether Mandarin native speakers’ reaction times (RTs) when reading ba sentences can be influenced after reading a priming sentence of the following three types: topic, focus, and subject-verb-object (SVO). The results revealed that the information conditions had a significant effect on the RT of processing the ba sentence (p < .001), while the RT for the ba NP in the condition of the priming focus sentences was significantly faster than the others. As priming effects occurred in the condition of priming focus sentences, processing the ba NP may be more similar to processing focus than to topic and canonical sentences in language comprehension.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Chinese Lexical Semantics
Subtitle of host publication	24th Workshop, CLSW 2023, Singapore, Singapore, May 19–21, 2023, Revised Selected Papers, Part II
Editors	Minghui Dong, Jia-Fei Hong, Jingxia Lin, Peng Jin
Publisher	Springer
Pages	486-497
Number of pages	12
ISBN (Electronic)	978-981-97-0586-3
ISBN (Print)	978-981-97-0585-6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-0586-3_37
Publication status	Published - 28 Feb 2024
Event	The 24th Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop - National University of Singapore, Singapore Duration: 19 May 2023 → 21 May 2023 https://www.colips.org/conferences/clsw2023/wp/en/

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume	14515 LNAI
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)	1611-3349

Workshop

Workshop	The 24th Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop
Abbreviated title	CLSW 2023
Country/Territory	Singapore
Period	19/05/23 → 21/05/23
Internet address	https://www.colips.org/conferences/clsw2023/wp/en/

Keywords

The Ba Construction
Structural Priming
Information Function

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Theoretical Computer Science
General Computer Science

More information

10.1007/978-981-97-0586-3_37

http://hdl.handle.net/10397/104955

Cite this

Chen, B., & Hsu, Y. Y. (2024). A Structural Priming Study of the Information Function of the Chinese Ba Construction. In M. Dong, J.-F. Hong, J. Lin, & P. Jin (Eds.), Chinese Lexical Semantics: 24th Workshop, CLSW 2023, Singapore, Singapore, May 19–21, 2023, Revised Selected Papers, Part II (pp. 486-497). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 14515 LNAI). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-0586-3_37

Chen, Bingxian ; Hsu, Yu Yin. / A Structural Priming Study of the Information Function of the Chinese Ba Construction. Chinese Lexical Semantics: 24th Workshop, CLSW 2023, Singapore, Singapore, May 19–21, 2023, Revised Selected Papers, Part II. editor / Minghui Dong ; Jia-Fei Hong ; Jingxia Lin ; Peng Jin. Springer, 2024. pp. 486-497 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)).

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Chen, B & Hsu, YY 2024, A Structural Priming Study of the Information Function of the Chinese Ba Construction. in M Dong, J-F Hong, J Lin & P Jin (eds), Chinese Lexical Semantics: 24th Workshop, CLSW 2023, Singapore, Singapore, May 19–21, 2023, Revised Selected Papers, Part II. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), vol. 14515 LNAI, Springer, pp. 486-497, The 24th Chinese Lexical Semantics Workshop, Singapore, 19/05/23. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-0586-3_37

A Structural Priming Study of the Information Function of the Chinese Ba Construction. / Chen, Bingxian; Hsu, Yu Yin (Corresponding Author).
Chinese Lexical Semantics: 24th Workshop, CLSW 2023, Singapore, Singapore, May 19–21, 2023, Revised Selected Papers, Part II. ed. / Minghui Dong; Jia-Fei Hong; Jingxia Lin; Peng Jin. Springer, 2024. p. 486-497 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 14515 LNAI).

Research output: Chapter in book / Conference proceeding › Conference article published in proceeding or book › Academic research › peer-review

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AU - Chen, Bingxian

AU - Hsu, Yu Yin

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.

PY - 2024/2/28

Y1 - 2024/2/28

N2 - Much research on the function of the ba construction in Mandarin Chinese has been conducted. However, there is a controversy about the ba NP regarding whether it expresses a topic denotation, a focus denotation, or neither. To study its information function, the present study has adopted a structural priming paradigm in a self-paced reading experiment to investigate whether Mandarin native speakers’ reaction times (RTs) when reading ba sentences can be influenced after reading a priming sentence of the following three types: topic, focus, and subject-verb-object (SVO). The results revealed that the information conditions had a significant effect on the RT of processing the ba sentence (p < .001), while the RT for the ba NP in the condition of the priming focus sentences was significantly faster than the others. As priming effects occurred in the condition of priming focus sentences, processing the ba NP may be more similar to processing focus than to topic and canonical sentences in language comprehension.

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Chen B, Hsu YY. A Structural Priming Study of the Information Function of the Chinese Ba Construction. In Dong M, Hong JF, Lin J, Jin P, editors, Chinese Lexical Semantics: 24th Workshop, CLSW 2023, Singapore, Singapore, May 19–21, 2023, Revised Selected Papers, Part II. Springer. 2024. p. 486-497. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)). doi: 10.1007/978-981-97-0586-3_37

A Structural Priming Study of the Information Function of the Chinese Ba Construction

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