Chinese is often classified as a logographic writing system. Unlike English in which
words are composed of letters representing phonemes, Chinese characters map onto
single-syllable morphemes rather than onto phonemes in the spoken language. Even
more problematically, Chinese syllables have a relatively simple form, with the
majority being of consonant-vowel (CV) structure and with only two consonants that
can follow the vowel in Mandarin (the nasal consonants /n/ and /ŋ/). As a
consequence, there are approximately 420 syllables in Mandarin (before consideration
of tone) map onto around 5,000 different characters. On average, 11 characters share a
single pronunciation. The pervasive homophony of Chinese implies that a graphic
form is important for selecting meaning and escaping homophony in reading Chinese.
For Chinese, characters are units for writing. Each of them has its own sound and a
primary meaning for usage and will have a square-like space for arranging their
constituent strokes. Chinese words are composed of Chinese characters which,
therefore, serve a role as morphemes for constructing words. For one Chinese word, it
can comprise one, two, or more characters. Note that, over 80% of Chinese words are
two-character compounds. Here, in this talk we would like to present a couple fMRI
studies to depict neural correlates of psychological processes underlying Chinese
reading.