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EEG Correlates of Long-Distance Dependency Formation in Mandarin Wh-Questions.


ABSTRACT: Event-related potential components are sensitive to the processes underlying how questions are understood. We use so-called "covert" wh-questions in Mandarin to probe how such components generalize across different kinds of constructions. This study shows that covert Mandarin wh-questions do not elicit anterior negativities associated with memory maintenance, even when such a dependency is unambiguously cued. N = 37 native speakers of Mandarin Chinese read Chinese questions and declarative sentences word-by-word during EEG recording. In contrast to prior studies, no sustained anterior negativity (SAN) was observed between the cue word, such as the question-embedding verb "wonder," and the in-situ wh-filler. SANs have been linked with working memory maintenance, suggesting that grammatical features may not impose the same maintenance demands as the content words used in prior work.

SUBMITTER: Lo CW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7892779 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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EEG Correlates of Long-Distance Dependency Formation in Mandarin <i>Wh</i>-Questions.

Lo Chia-Wen CW   Brennan Jonathan R JR  

Frontiers in human neuroscience 20210205


Event-related potential components are sensitive to the processes underlying how questions are understood. We use so-called "covert" <i>wh</i>-questions in Mandarin to probe how such components generalize across different kinds of constructions. This study shows that covert Mandarin <i>wh</i>-questions do not elicit anterior negativities associated with memory maintenance, even when such a dependency is unambiguously cued. <i>N</i> = 37 native speakers of Mandarin Chinese read Chinese questions  ...[more]

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