Differences in Mental Rotation Strategies for Native Speakers of Chinese and English and How They Vary As a Function of Sex and College Major

2011 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yingli Li ◽  
Michael W. O’Boyle
Keyword(s):  
Mental Rotation ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
College Major ◽  
Chinese And English

Gesture, verb aspect, and the nature of iconic imagery in natural discourse

Gesture ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan D. Duncan
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Language Differences ◽  
Imperfective Aspect ◽  
Verb Aspect ◽  
Action Sequences ◽  
Natural Discourse ◽  
Abstract Level ◽  
Linguistic Analyses ◽  
Chinese And English

Linguistic analyses of Mandarin Chinese and English have detailed the differences between the two languages in terms of the devices each makes available for expressing distinctions in the temporal contouring of events — verb aspect and Aktionsart. In this study, adult native speakers of each language were shown a cartoon, a movie, or a series of short action sequences and then videotaped talking about what they had seen. Comparisons revealed systematic within-language covariation of choice of aspect and/or Aktionsart in speech with features of co-occurring iconic gestures. In both languages, the gestures that speakers produced in imperfective aspect-marked speech contexts were more likely to take longer to produce and were more complex than those in perfective aspect speech contexts. Further, imperfective-progressive aspect-marked spoken utterances regularly accompanied iconic gestures in which the speaker’s hands engaged in some kind of temporally-extended, repeating or‘agitated’ movements. Gestures sometimes incorporated this type of motion even when there was nothing corresponding to it in the visual stimulus; for example, when speakers described events of stasis. These facts suggest that such gestural agitation may derive from an abstract level of representation, perhaps linked to aspectual view itself. No significant between-language differences in aspect- or Aktionsart-related gesturing were observed. We conclude that gestural representations of witnessed events, when performed in conjunction with speech, are not simply derived from visual images, stored as perceived in the stimulus, and transposed as faithfully as possible to the hands and body of the speaker (cf. Hadar & Butterworth, 1997). Rather, such gestures are part of a linguistic-conceptual representation (McNeill & Duncan, 2000) in which verb aspect has a role. We further conclude that the noted differences between the systems for marking aspectual distinctions in spoken Mandarin and English are at a level of patterning that has little or no influence on speech-co-occurring imagistic thinking.

The effects of discourse processing with regard to syntactic and semantic cues: A competition model study

2004 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 587-601 ◽  
Author(s):  
I-RU SU
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Context Effects ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Competition Model ◽  
English Sentence ◽  
Discourse Context ◽  
Semantic Cues ◽  
Model Study ◽  
Intended Interpretation ◽  
Chinese And English

Based on Bates and MacWhinney's competition model, the present study aims to examine the effects of discourse context on sentence interpretation. In my previous study it was found that both Chinese and English monolinguals paid less attention to context than to intrasentential cues that have been identified as the determinants for Chinese and English sentence processing. The conclusions obtained in that study have to be considered tentative because the contextual sentences were short and might not have been sufficiently biasing toward the intended interpretation. Hence, the present study was undertaken to further examine the context effects by elaborating the contents of the contextual sentences. The results show that English native speakers rely on discourse context in interpreting their native language to a greater extent than the previous research has suggested and that Chinese native speakers make use of context information to a greater degree than do their English counterparts.

scholarly journals Homophone auditory processing in cross-linguistic perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 529
Author(s):  
Youtao Lu ◽  
James L. Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Auditory Processing ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Intrinsic Properties ◽  
Native Japanese Speakers ◽  
Processing Abilities ◽  
Chinese And English

Previous studies reported conflicting results for the effects of homophony on visual word processing across languages. On finding significant differences in homophone density in Japanese, Mandarin Chinese and English, we conducted two experiments to compare native speakers’ competence in homophone auditory processing across these three languages. A lexical decision task showed that the effect of homophony on word processing in Japanese was significantly less detrimental than in Mandarin and English. A word-learning task showed that native Japanese speakers were the fastest in learning novel homophones. These results suggest that language-intrinsic properties influence corresponding language processing abilities of native speakers.

Transfer of sentence processing strategies: A comparison of L2 learners of Chinese and English

2001 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
I-RU SU
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Developmental Change ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Processing Level ◽  
Processing Strategies ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Chinese And English

A sentence interpretation experiment based on Bates and MacWhinney's Competition Model was administered to L2 learners of English and Chinese at three different stages of learning. The main purposes of the research were (a) to examine how transfer patterns at the sentence processing level change as a function of proficiency and (b) to investigate whether or how transfer patterns found in Chinese EFL learners (i.e., native speakers of a semantics-based language learning a syntax-centered target language) differ from those found in English CFL learners (i.e., native speakers of a syntax-based language acquiring a semantics-centered one). The results show that transfer patterns do vary as a function of proficiency, and that Chinese EFL learners and English CFL learners display somewhat different patterns of developmental change in sentence processing transfer.

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