Lily Su

二語學習者往往無法以母語者所使用的認知神經資源來處理句法資訊；為了彌補其不足，學習者常以處理語意的方式來理解句法，或是尋求語言非優勢腦的協助。為更加瞭解這些替代處理模式，本研究結合分視野呈現以及事件相關電位來量測華語學習者左右半腦的反應。在實驗中，受試者需判斷以量詞為首的雙詞短語是否符合華語的語法結構。實驗結果顯示，與母語者相比，華語學習者不僅正確率較低，即便是在正確回答的題目裡，也誘發了和母語者不同本質的腦波反應。母語者只有在右視野呈現（左腦優先處理時）有顯著的P600效果，複製了以往母語者的語法處理偏向左側化的研究發現。由於二語學習者的腦波反應呈現很大的個體差異，因此整體而言，華語學習組並無呈現任何統計顯著的效果。然而，當我們進一步對學習組的腦波與華語行為表現做相關分析時發現，行為表現較佳的學習者在右視野呈現時誘發較小的N400 效果，在左視野呈現（右腦優先處理時）也誘發較小的P600 效果。依據學習組受試者的華語表現將他們分成四等份後，腦波反應清楚呈現出以下的變化：隨著華語表現的進展，右視野呈現（左腦優先處理時）誘發的N400效果會逐漸轉為P600效果，而左視野呈現（右腦優先處理時）誘發的P600效果則逐漸轉為晚期出現的負向波效果。因此，我們的實驗結果不僅支持了優勢腦中詞彙語意處理以及非優勢腦中語法結構處理這兩種鷹架機制的存在，更點出其在語言學習時所扮演的過渡角色，顯示二語學習者會逐漸減弱對這兩種鷹架機制的倚賴，以提升其二語語法的處理能力。

The recent studies on metaphor (Lakoff & Johnson 1980; Johnson 1987; Lakoff & Turner 1989; Sweetser 1990) have proved it to be an important language device that reflects the cognitive source of human thinking. These experientialists claim that metaphors in our languages mirror our ordinary conceptual system and treat metaphors as conven- tionalized cognitive structure. Adopting the experientialists' view of interpreting metaphor cognitively as a mapping relation from a source domain to a target domain (Lakoff 1990), the present study explores how metaphors reflect different cultural models by investigating the conceptu- al metaphor of THOUGHT AS FOODin current Chinese. With the data taken from spoken corpus as well as from the balance corpus by the Academia Sinica, we examine the metaphor THOUGHT AS FOOD. Four preposition-schemas are identified to be at work in our conceptualization: THE CONTENT OF THOUGHT IS THE INGREDI- * Dr. Su is a professor in the Graduate Institute of Ling...

The present study aimed to investigate the neural mechanism underlying semantic processing in Mandarin Chinese adult learners, focusing on the learners who were Indo-European language speakers with advanced levels of proficiency in Mandarin Chinese. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging technique and a semantic judgment task to test 24 Mandarin Chinese adult learners (L2 group) and 26 Mandarin Chinese adult native speakers (L1 group) as a control group. In the task, participants were asked to indicate whether two-character pairs were related in meaning. Compared to the L1 group, the L2 group had greater activation in the bilateral occipital regions, including the fusiform gyrus and middle occipital gyrus, as well as the right superior parietal lobule. On the other hand, less activation in the bilateral temporal regions was found in the L2 group relative to the L1 group. Correlation analysis further revealed that, within the L2 group, increased activation in the left middle t...

Chinese Quadrisyllabic Idiomatic Expressions (henceforth QIEs) are highly productive in the modern language. They can be used to understand the cognitive processing of structure and meaning during reading comprehension, as in the patterning of [qian-A-wan-B] ‘1k-A-10k-B’ (e.g. one-thousand army ten-thousand horse). However, little is known about the underlying mechanisms of QIEs during reading comprehension. Adopting the framework of Construction Grammar, in the present study, we aimed to study the convergence and divergence between native speakers and L2 learners in the processing of Chinese idiomatic constructions.In the present study, twenty-three native university-level Mandarin speakers and twenty-three L2 learners of intermediate and advanced levels of Mandarin, all speakers of the non Sinosphere, participated in the experiment, and were instructed to make a semantic congruency judgment during the presentation of a QIE. Our results showed that, for both native speakers and L2 ...

While idioms and idiomatic patterns constitute a large part of our linguistic knowledge, they nevertheless present special difficulties because their meanings are not predictable merely from the combination of their constituents. Recently, as studies of construction grammar (CG hereafter) has suggested, the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic unpredictability of the so-called constructional idioms should be resorted to Construction itself. Based on the CG assumption, this paper aims to suggest that the existence of Constructions such as the Chinese X-lai (come)-X/Y-qu (go) (XLXQ or XLYQ), bu (not)-X-bu (not)-Y (BXBY), and bu (not)-X-er (yet)-Y (BXEY) stands for a certain format of mental representation, i.e., the conceptual structure. The difference in terms of their degree of productivity hints at their different stage in the grammaticalization process. The comparison of the linguistic features and constructional meanings of these three combinations will show that one does not interpret the idiomatic expression solely on the lexicon. Levels beyond syntax, semantics and even pragmatics should be incorporated in linguistic analysis so that a speaker may grasp meaning of ”non-lexically filled elements” that are not in the lexicon. For this reason, a constructional idiom is taken as ”a match of syntactic and conceptual structure” which cannot be derived compositionally.

Unlike logicians, linguists approach conditionals from the perspective of how human beings document meanings carried by linguistic conversations, and further- more, the working of mental spaces for the processing of conditionals. This paper aims to investigate, via the examination of Chinese conditionals as used in conver- sation, the claim offered in previous studies─the hypotheticality and optionality associated with if-clauses make

The paper focuses on the issues within the paradigm of Contemporary MetaphorTheory, concerning significant differences in the ways time is conceptualized inChinese and English. Although it is still true that time is understood through spacevia metaphor, the paper provides evidence that time and space in Chinese presenta blended form, rather than what is widely assumed to be conceptualizationof one dimension in terms of another one. For instance, the Chinese word forthe universe, conventionally referred to by the form entailing both space andtime in its Chinese morphology, is now blended into one. Furthermore, thepaper will argue that time, as a culturally sensitive entity, is more distinctlyconceptualized as water in Chinese.

Studies of the endangered languages depend heavily upon reliable fieldworks and linguistic documentation. A common method used in meta-linguistic glossing is to ask the informant to translate the object language into the meta-language. This strategy, as warned by Matthewson (2004), can be problematic, and the present study will focus on two of the problems: (a) the confusion of semantic meaning and pragmatic implicature, and (b) the mismatch of sense classification in object language and meta-language. Based on the theory of categorization, in particular Principled Polysemy (Tyler and Evans 2001), we hold that pragmatic implicatures, triggered by textual/situational/cultural contexts, should be represented in free translation, and morph-by-morph glossing should be saved for semantic cores. Meta-linguistic glossing often contains cultural-specific information. When information of this nature is not well-documented, corpus thus established fails to capture information indispensable fo...

Information technologies have now matured to the point of enabling researchers to create a repository of language resources, especially for those languages facing the crisis of endangerment. The development of an online platform of corpora, made possible by recent advances in data storage, character-encoding and web technology, has profound consequences for the accessibility, quantity, quality and interoperability of linguistic field data. This is of particular significance for Formosan languages in Taiwan, many of which are on the verge of extinction. As a response to the recognition of this burgeoning problem, the key objectives of the establishment of the NTU Corpus of Formosan Languages aim to document and thus preserve valuable linguistic data, as well as relevant ethnological and cultural information. This paper will introduce some of the theoretical bases behind this initiative, as well as the procedures, transcription conventions, database normalization, in-house system and ...