| 其他摘要 | Semantic processing of compound words is an essential topic in both psycholinguistic and artificial intelligence. Compound word are formed by combining two morphemes, which can be classified into two types: lexicalized compound words and novel compound words according to the familiarity of individuals. Novelcompound words are commonly used in daily life, such as on websites, social media, and during communication. The present dissertation raises several important questions that need to be addressed: For Chinese readers, how do they process novel compound words during reading? How can novel compound words be represented using natural language processing techniques? What is the preference of Chinese readers for the explanation type of novel compound words and what factors will influence the explanation type? And, how can novel compound words be lexicalized by learning? These questions are addressed by the present thesis. The answers to these questions can provide valuable insights into understanding the cognitive processes involved in novel compound words identification, semantic composition and lexicalization, which can have practical implications for natural language processing techniques and develop effective strategies for teaching Chinese words.
Study 1 aimed to investigate how individuals combine the meanings of constituents to construct the meaning of novel compound words when the compound words are in isolation. We used natural language processing techniques to represent the compositional semantics of compound words. Our goal was to investigate how the semantics of compound words are constructed, either by directly adding the meanings of the two constituents or by using compositional rules to combine them. Consequently, we developed both additive and weight additive models and simulated some results of previous studies to compare the effects of these two models. The results showed that the weight additive model outperformed the additive model. In a corpus study, we further investigated how individuals combine the meanings of constituents and what factors influence the composition procedure. We collected participants' ratings of compositionality and explanations for 400 novel compound words, along with language and sensorimotor properties of the constituents of these compound words. After coding all the explanations, we found that Chinese readers tended to explain the meaning of novel compound words using a relation-based method. We also found that language information influenced shallow compositionality ratings and deep explanations, while visual information only influenced deep explanations. This finding is consistent with the Embodied Conceptual Combination Theory, which posits that sensorimotor information plays a critical role in conceptual combination.
Study 2 aimed to investigate whether novel compound words are processed through a holistic or decompositional way during sentence reading. The purpose of Experiment 1 was to investigate the processing route of novel compound words and the influence of word length. The experiment was divided into two sub-experiments, using two-character and four-character compound words respectively. Each pair of novel and lexicalized compound words were embedded into the same sentence frame, and the contemporary plausibility of the first constituent of the compound word was manipulated by the verb before it. Participants were required to read sentences and their eye movements were recorded. Results of Experiment 1 a showed that fixation durations in the novel compound word condition were significantly longer than those in the lexicalized compound word condition. No plausibility effect was found in the first constituent region. However, a significant reversed plausibility effect was found in the second constituent region in the novel word condition but not in the lexicalized word condition. Results of Experiment 1b replicated the pattern of Experiment 1 a, except that a significant plausibility effect was observed in the novel compound word condition in the first constituent region. The result of Experiment 1 indicated that while lexicalized compound words are identified through a holistic route, novel compound words are processed via a decompositional route. Experiment 2 further investigated whether two-character novel compound words require semantic composition. The experiment manipulated the compositionality of novel compound words and included high compositional lexicalized compound words as a control condition. Results demonstrated that fixation durations in the low-compositionality novel compound word condition were significantly longer than those of the high-compositionality novel compound word and lexicalized word conditions. However, it seems that your message was cut off before you could finish your thought.
Study 3 aimed to investigate the time course of novel compound word lexicalization. We were also concerned with the role of picture information in this process. Experiment 1 investigated how novel compound words are lexicalized by different learning methods. In the explanation learning condition, explanations of novel compound words were presented on the screen. In the picture learning condition, pictures of novel compound words that could indicate their meaning were presented on the screen. We also included a no semantic condition and a control condition. Participants learned all the novel compound words on the first day. To explore the lexicalization process, tests were set on Day 1，Day 2, and Day 8, including memory tests (free recall and recognition) and lexicalization tests (segmentation, semantic priming). On day 8, participants had to finish a natural reading test with their eye movements recorded. We found that participants recalled more words and recognized words more accurately in memory tests. However, compared to explanation learning, no significant benefits were shown in lexicalization tests for picture learning. Furthermore, novel compound words were lexicalized on Day 2 in both picture learning and explanation learning conditions. Words in the control condition were not lexicalized by Day 8. These results indicate that both picture learning and explanation learning can help readers to lexicalize novel compound words, but picture learning can better help learners to remember novel compound words.
In summary, Chinese readers identify novel compound words through decomposition and composition during reading. During semantic composition, participants preferred relation-based explanations. While language information influenced both compositionality ratings and semantic composition production, visual information only influenced semantic composition production. Visual information also facilitated novel compound word memory but not lexicalization. Novel compound words can be lexicalized on the day after they were learned. This study contributes to the understanding of general semantic processing, composition, and lexicalization of compound words and has certain implications for Chinese word teaching. |
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