Effects of Lexical Properties in L2 Chinese Compound Processing: A Multivariate Approach

Previous studies on L2 (i.e., second language) Chinese compound processing have focused on the relative efficiency of two routes: holistic processing versus combinatorial processing. However, it is still unclear whether Chinese compounds are processed with multilevel representations among L2 learners due to the hierarchical structure of the characters. Therefore, taking a multivariate approach, the present study evaluated the relative influence and importance of different grain sizes of lexical information in an L2 Chinese two-character compound decision task. Results of supervised component generalized linear regression models with random forests analysis revealed that the orthographic, phonological and semantic information all contributed to L2 compound processing, but the L2 learners used more orthographic processing strategies and fewer phonological processing strategies compared to the native speakers. Specifically, the orthographic information was activated at the whole-word, the character and the radical levels in orthographic processing, and the phonological information at the whole-word, the syllable, and the phoneme levels all exerted contributions in phonological processing. Furthermore, the semantic information of the whole words and the constituents was accessed in semantic processing. These findings together suggest that the L2 learners are able to use cues at all levels simultaneously to process Chinese compound words, supporting a multi-route model with a hierarchical morphological structure in such processing.

Character Decomposition and Transposition of Chinese Compound Words in the Right and Left Visual Fields

This study investigated the character decomposition and transposition processes of Chinese two-character compound words (canonical and transposed words) and pseudowords in the right and left visual fields using a dual-target rapid serial visual presentation paradigm. The results confirmed a right visual field superiority for canonical words, but this advantage vanished for transposed words. The findings further indicated that the same quality of lexical processing could be obtained from the foveal and parafoveal regions of the right and left visual fields, regardless of the character order, but not in the periphery of the right visual field. Moreover, the proportion of order reversals peaked at the central position and the shortest exposure time, but it declined with increasing eccentricity and time interval. We concluded that the character transposition of Chinese compound words was significantly sensitive in the periphery of the right visual field. Furthermore, the character order errors were mainly encoded in the foveal vision with a duration of 100 ms, which suggested that the order of the foveally presented Chinese characters was more likely to be reversed at the early stage of visual word processing.