Verb-object Compound Processing in Mandarin

• Main Authors: Hsu, Ya-Wen, 許雅雯
• Other Authors: Chan, Shiao-Hui
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/21416659256193113377

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 英語學系 === 103 === The current study examined the controversial issue of Verb-Object Compounds (VOCs). Some scholars in previous literatures contended that a VOC should be treated as a lexical unit no matter it is in a separated form or unseparated one (Chao, 1968; Li &; Thompson, 1983; Yi, 2007; Wang, 2009). In contrast, the other group of scholars contended that as long as a VOC can be separated by interposing element, it should be considered a phrase instead of a lexical unit (Lu, 1979; Paul, 1988; Sybesma, 1999). Combining the two views above, a group of researchers think that VOCs are lexical units when they are in unseparated form but are phrases when they are in separated form (Liu, 1967; Zhang, 2010). By adopting a grammatical judgment task, how VOCs with various semantic transparency are processed in unseparated and separated forms in a sentence was examined in this study. It was hypothesized that VO sequences with lower semantic transparency (i.e. traditionally defined as VOC compounds) might be processed differently when they are in an unseparated and in a separated form. Also, when these VO sequences are in an unseparated form, they might be processed similarly to VO sequences with higher semantic transparency (i.e. traditionally defined as a Verb-Object phrase (VOP)). The results revealed that VO sequences with lower semantic transparency were indeed processed faster than those with higher semantic transparency in the unseparated condition, but all the VO sequences were equally taxing in the separated condition, suggesting that VOCs were processed as a lexical unit in the unseparated condition, while they were processed like phrases in the separated condition. The theoretical claim that VOCs are compound words in an unseparated form and are phrases in a separated form (Liu, 1967; Zhang, 2010) is thus a more plausible explanation. From a psycholinguistic point of view, the duel-route model is a more likely explanation for VOC representations in the mental lexicon.