Homophony is prevalent in Chinese
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Chinese: A window on analytic processing. Laurie Beth Feldman State University at Albany, SUNY & Haskins Laboratories NIH HD 01994 Linguistic analysis in word recognition Orthographies based on phonemes, syllables, morphemes. English units of transcription are phonemes phonemes combine to form morphemes Chinese units of transcription are characters correspond to syllables Chinese is not a syllabic system many character spellings for the same syllable Symbols correspond to linguistic units: not treated monolithically Chinese: A window on analytic processing. Character = syllable graphemic units smaller than the character (but not smaller than a syllable) exist even in logographic writing systems 80-95% characters are semantic-phonetic compounds phonetic semantic • Mapping syllable --> character (homophones) • Semantic components within Chinese characters • Phonological influences on semantic components Homophony influences recognition Chinese: set of 1273 syllables (across tones, excl. gaps) transcribed by 7000+ characters in common use homophone families in Chinese vary greatly. range is about 40 /shi4/ to 1 /si3/ English syllables: more variability in onsets and codas homophone families in English are limited. Homophony is greater in Chinese than English Relation of orthographic and phonological form English: phonemes O-P correspondence Chinese: syllables O-P correspondence int --> /Int/ or /aInt/ 议 --> /yi4/ * Homophones: P-O correspondence 1:5 /it/ --> meet meet meat feet mete elite pete Homophones: P-O correspondence 1:20 *number indicates lexical tone. Manipulation of Homophony in Chinese Large character pronunciation meaning 意 /yi4/ meaning 议 /yi4/ 益 亿 易 艺 忆 /yi4/ /yi4/ discuss benefit 100,000,000 /yi4/ easy /yi4/ art /yi4/ remember Small character pron. meaning 突 /tu1/ sudden 凸 /tu1/ protruding 秃 /tu1/ bald Does homophony influence recognition in Chinese? Expt. 1: Homophonic mapping: syllable --> character Phonetic does not fully specify pronunciation. Control ‘frequency’ of syllable and visual complexity Collaborator: Shu Hua at Beijing Normal University Haiyan Zhou at Beijing Normal University Chinese ‘spelling’ task Onset: Hear: /yi4/ See: 意 – Judge: “yes” SS = Students at Beijing Normal University, China Hear: /yi4/ See: 突 – Judge: “no” --------------------------------> time Manipulation of ho mophony and surface frequency Target # Homophone s Freq # strokes freq homophone s ºË 15 137 10 117 »™ 16 12 10 140 ŽÃ 2 138 9 114 ‘Ì 3 9 9 118 Manipulation of ho mophony and surface frequency Target # Homophone s Freq # strokes freq homophone s ºË 15 137 10 117 »™ 16 12 10 140 ŽÃ 2 138 9 114 ‘Ì 3 9 9 118 Manipulation of ho mophony and surface frequency Target # Homophone s Freq # strokes freq homophone s ºË 15 137 10 117 »™ 16 12 10 140 ŽÃ 2 138 9 114 ‘Ì 3 9 9 118 Manipulation of ho mophony and surface frequency Target # Homophone s Freq # strokes freq homophone s ºË 15 137 10 117 »™ 16 12 10 140 ŽÃ 2 138 9 114 ‘Ì 3 9 9 118 Manipulation of ho mophony and surface frequency Target # Homophone s Freq # strokes freq homophone s ºË 15 137 10 117 »™ 16 12 10 140 ŽÃ 2 138 9 114 ‘Ì 3 9 9 118 Phonological- Orthographic syllable mapping influences performance in a ‘spelling’ task. 750 large small 700 650 600 550 high low Frequency ISI = onset Low frequency targets show P-O homophone effect large = many characters; small = few characters Chinese characters are compositional but not productive 34 % of words in Mainland Chinese texts consist of single character 80-95% of characters are phonetic compounds ¡¿ Τa lieΥpronounced /kwanj3/ semantic phonetic ΤwordsΥ /kwanj/ ®• …¹ Semantic components serve a semantic cueing function. 桌 染 板 ‘desk’ ‘dye’ ‘plank’ 木 means ‘wood’ Phonetic components 4000 phonetics for 1273 syllables phonetic can behave differently in different character contexts 26.3% of semantic-phonetic compounds are pronounced like their phonetic phonological information is • coded loosely at the level of the component • only in some characters • in phonological units greater than the phoneme • “typical” position is on right Bivalent components serve a semantic or a phonetic function. 米 糜 means ‘rice’ and is pronounced mi3 means “gruel” pronounced mi2 Expt. 2: Do readers treat characters analytically? Facilitation due to repetition of a semantic component in character recognition tasks. Reduce overall semantic similarity of prime and target manipulate semantic transparency attributes of a component defined over many characters Reduce overall form similarity of prime and target alter position of component Collaborators: Douglas Honorof at Haskins Laboratories Shu Hua at Beijing Normal University Character Decision Task + 250 ms + 250 ms ##### 500 ms prime 250 ms prime 50 ms target until response target until response Target Prime Type S+C+L-F+ Character Character meaning Character layout Semantic radical Semantic radical meaning S-C+L-F+ S-C+L+F- S-C-L+FControl •Â³¿ »æ„Âæ ΤboardΥ ΤdeskΥ LR TB Τto dyeΥ TB Τwash oneΥs hairΥ LR Τto fearΥ LR ƒæƒæ ƒæÀÆ –ƒ ΤwoodΥ ΥwoodΥ ΥwoodΥ ΥwaterΥ ΥheartΥ Target Prime Type S+C+L-F+ Character Character meaning Character layout Semantic radical Semantic radical meaning S-C+L-F+ S-C+L+F- S-C-L+FControl •Â³¿ »æ„Âæ ΤboardΥ ΤdeskΥ LR TB Τto dyeΥ TB Τwash oneΥs hairΥ LR Τto fearΥ LR ƒæƒæ ƒæÀÆ –ƒ ΤwoodΥ ΥwoodΥ ΥwoodΥ ΥwaterΥ ΥheartΥ Target Prime Type S+C+L-F+ Character Character meaning Character layout Semantic radical Semantic radical meaning S-C+L-F+ S-C+L+F- S-C-L+FControl •Â³¿ »æ„Âæ ΤboardΥ ΤdeskΥ LR TB Τto dyeΥ TB Τwash oneΥs hairΥ LR Τto fearΥ LR ƒæƒæ ƒæÀÆ –ƒ ΤwoodΥ ΥwoodΥ ΥwoodΥ ΥwaterΥ ΥheartΥ Target Prime Type S+C+L-F+ Character Character meaning Character layout Semantic radical Semantic radical meaning S-C+L-F+ S-C+L+F- S-C-L+FControl •Â³¿ »æ„Âæ ΤboardΥ ΤdeskΥ LR TB Τto dyeΥ TB Τwash oneΥs hairΥ LR Τto fearΥ LR ƒæƒæ ƒæÀÆ –ƒ ΤwoodΥ ΥwoodΥ ΥwoodΥ ΥwaterΥ ΥheartΥ Target Prime Type S+C+L-F+ Character Character layout Semantic radical Semantic radical meaning S-C+L+F- S-C-L+FControl •Â³¿ »æ„Âæ S+ Character meaning S-C+L-F+ ΤboardΥ ΤdeskΥ LR TB SΤto dyeΥ TB Τwash oneΥs hairΥ LR Τto fearΥ LR ƒæƒæ ƒæÀÆ –ƒ ΤwoodΥ ΥwoodΥ ΥwoodΥ ΥwaterΥ ΥheartΥ Component Repetition with alternation of function Semantic contribution of component in prime and target reduce semantic similarity of characters (ratings) reduce form similarity Phonological contribution of component in prime Semantic contribution of same component in target attributes of a component defined over many characters not prime and target Target Prime Type S+C+L-F+ Character Semantic radical Semantic radical meaning Phonetic component S-C+L-F+ S-C+L+F- S-C-L+FControl •Â³¿ »æ„Âæ ƒæƒæ ƒæÀÆ –ƒ ΤwoodΥ ΥwoodΥ •¥ S = Semantic Componen t C= repeated componen t F= func tion of repeated componen t ΥwoodΥ ΥwaterΥ Υhea rtΥ ƒææ½ L = layou t of char acter Target Prime Type S+C+L-F+ Character Semantic radical Semantic radical meaning Phonetic component S-C+L-F+ S-C+L+F- S-C-L+FControl •Â³¿ »æ„Âæ ƒæƒæ ƒæÀÆ –ƒ ΤwoodΥ ΥwoodΥ •¥ S = Semantic Componen t C= repeated componen t F= func tion of repeated componen t ΥwoodΥ ΥwaterΥ Υhea rtΥ ƒææ½ L = layou t of char acter Target Prime Type S+C+L-F+ Character Semantic radical Semantic radical meaning Phonetic component S-C+L-F+ S-C+L+F- S-C-L+FControl •Â³¿ »æ„Âæ ƒæƒæ ƒæÀÆ –ƒ ΤwoodΥ ΥwoodΥ •¥ S = Semantic Componen t C= repeated componen t F= func tion of repeated componen t ΥwoodΥ ΥwaterΥ Υhea rtΥ ƒææ½ L = layou t of char acter Target Character Character meaning Character layout Character pronunciation Semantic radical Semantic radical meaning Phonetic component Phonetic pronunciation Average character frequency (SD) Average numb er of strokes •Â Prim e Typ e S+C+L-F+ S-C+L-F+ S-C+L+F- ³¿ »æ „ S-C-L+FControl æ ΤboardΥ ΤdeskΥ Τto dyeΥ Τwash one Υs hair Υ Τto fearΥ LR TB TB LR LR /zhuo1 / /ran3 / /mu4/ /ju4/ /ban3 / ƒæ ΤwoodΥ ƒæ ΥwoodΥ ƒæ ΥwoodΥ •¥ /fan3 / ÀÆ –ƒ ΥwaterΥ Υhea rtΥ ƒæ æ½ /mu4/ /ju4/ 265 120 133 75 70 9 10 10 9 9 S = Semantic Componen t C= repeated componen t F= func tion of repeated componen t L = layou t of char acter Cross task comparison: Forward masked: attenuated semantics S+ = SSOA 250: greater effect semantic similarity S+ ≠ SCharacter decision: semantic emphasis Character naming: greater influence of phonology Facilitation as a function of component transparency and function RT (msec) 600 575 550 525 SOA 250 SOA 60 mask Character Decision S+C+L-F+ S-C+L-F+ S-C+L-F- Control Facilitation as a function of component transparency and function RT (msec) 600 575 550 525 SOA 250 SOA 60 mask Character Decision S+C+L-F+ S-C+L-F+ S-C+L-F- Control Facilitation as a function of component transparency and function RT (msec) 775 750 725 700 675 SOA 250 SOA 60 mask Character Naming S+C+L-F+ S-C+L-F+ S-C+L-F- Control Summary: Linguistic analysis in character recognition Exp. 1: Chinese character = syllable (≠ phonemes) Complexity O--> P mapping in a spelling task Exp. 2: Facilitation due to component repetition: ≠ simple relatedness among characters whole character relatedness is weak ≠ repetition of form change in component position ns Relation of component to character semantic (P-T) at longer SOA semantic (P-T) with mask change function (P≠T) Decision S+ not Sboth S F- = C Nam. neither S neither S F- ≠ C Conclusions for the non-Sinophone psycholinguist Naming slowed when the same component appeared as a phonetic, then as a semantic Interference reflects incompatible mappings: – Component —> phonology – Component —> semantics Processing of the semantic cannot arise at the level of the whole character: it must be analytic
