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The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/62454 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation
Author: Yang, Yang
Title: The two sides of Wh-indeterminates in Mandarin : a prosodic and processing account
Date: 2018-05-30
THE TWO SIDES OF WH-
INDETERMINATES IN MANDARIN:
A PROSODIC AND PROCESSING
ACCOUNT
Published by
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Cover illustration: Two winking owls. This is a Chinese ink painting made and photographed by Linjun Zhang, for this dissertation.
ISBN: 978-94-6093-288-5
NUR 616
THE TWO SIDES OF WH-
INDETERMINATES IN MANDARIN:
A PROSODIC AND PROCESSING ACCOUNT
PROEFSCHRIFT
ter verkrijging van
de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden, op gezag van Rector Magnificus prof. mr. C.J.J.M. Stolker,
volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties te verdedigen op woensdag 30 mei 2018
klokke 10:00 uur
door YANG YANG geboren te Shandong, China
in 1987
Promotores: Prof. dr. Lisa L.S. Cheng Prof. dr. Niels O. Schiller
Co-promotores: Dr. Leticia Pablos Dr. Stella Gryllia
Promotiecommissie: Prof. dr. Shengli Feng (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Prof. dr. Aoju Chen (Utrecht University) Prof. dr. Jenny Doetjes
Dr. Yiya Chen
Contents
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1 General Introduction 1
1.1 Background 1
1.1.1 An introduction to wh-in-situ, wh-indeterminates and clausal typing 1 1.1.2 Wh-indeterminates in Japanese, Korean and Mandarin 3
1.2 Research questions 7
1.3 Overview of the chapters 8
Chapter 2 Wh-question or Wh-declarative? Prosody Makes the Difference 11
2.1 Introduction 11
2.2 Relevant studies 13
2.3 Production experiment 15
2.3.1 Participants 15
2.3.2 Experimental materials 15
2.3.3 Procedure 16
2.3.4 Acoustic analysis 16
2.3.5 Statistical analysis 19
2.3.6 Results 19
2.4 Discussion and conclusion 26
Chapter 3 Clause Type Anticipation Based on Prosody
— An Audio-perception and Gating study 29
3.1 Introduction 29
3.2 Perception experiment 31
3.2.1 Participants 32
3.2.2 Acoustic stimuli 32
3.2.3 Procedure 36
3.2.4 Results 36
3.2.5 Discussion 37
3.3 Audio-gating experiment 37
3.3.1 Participants 38
3.3.2 Stimuli 38
3.3.3 Procedure 39
3.3.4 Results 39
3.3.5 Discussion 41
3.4 General discussion and conclusion 41
Chapter 4 On the Role of Diǎnr in Licensing Mandarin Wh-existentials 43
4.1 Introduction 43
4.2 What is diǎnr and discussions about effects of diǎnr on wh-existentials 45 4.3 A reading study testifying the two interpretations 50
4.3.1 Participants 50
4.3.2 Experimental materials 50
4.3.3 Procedure 51
4.3.4 Statistical analysis and results 51
4.4 An audio-gating study investigating the licensing of diǎnr on wh-declaratives 54
4.4.1 Participants 55
4.4.2 Acoustic stimuli 55
4.4.3 Stimuli for audio-gating experiment 56
4.4.4 Procedures 57
4.4.5 Results 57
4.5 Discussions on the licensing of diǎnr on wh-existentials 58 Chapter 5 The Processing Mechanism of Wh-questions and Declaratives with
Indefinites — Evidence from Mandarin 61
5.1 Introduction 61
5.2 Methodology 65
5.2.1 Experiment 1: Processing simplex wh-questions 65
5.2.1.1 Participants 65
5.2.1.2 Materials and design 65
5.2.1.3 Procedure 66
5.2.1.4 Data analysis and results 66
5.2.2 Interim discussion 68
5.2.3 Experiment 2: Processing simplex wh-questions with new stimuli 69
5.2.3.1 Participants 69
5.2.3.2 Materials and design 69
5.2.3.3 Data analysis and results 70
5.2.4 Experiment 3: Processing complex wh-questions with new stimuli 71
5.2.4.1 Participants 71
5.2.4.2 Materials and design 71
5.2.4.3 Data analysis and results 72
5.3 Discussion and conclusion 73
Chapter 6 Effects of Prosody on Clausal Typing in Mandarin — Evidence
from ERP Studies 75
6.1 Introduction 75
6.1.1 Event-related potentials and prosody 75
6.1.2 Previous ERP studies on effects of prosody in clausal typing 78
6.1.3 The current study 80
6.2 Experiment 1 Cross-splicings 82
6.2.1 Participants 82
6.2.2 Materials 82
6.2.2.1 Four conditions 82
6.2.2.2 Acoustic properties of wh-questions and wh-declaratives 85
6.2.3 The predictions of the experiment 89
6.2.4 Procedure 90
6.2.5 EEG recording 91
6.2.6 ERP analysis 91
6.2.7 Behavioral results 91
6.2.8 ERP results 92
6.2.9 Interim discussion 96
6.3 Experiment 2 Contexts-wh-sentences incongruities 97
6.3.1 Participants 97
6.3.3 Predictions of the experiment 98
6.3.4 Procedure 98
6.3.5 EEG recording 99
6.3.6 ERP analysis 99
6.3.7 Behavioral results 99
6.3.8 ERP results 99
6.3.9 Interim discussion 105
6.4 Discussion 105
Chapter 7 General Conclusion 111
7.1 The clausal typing mechanism 111
7.1.1 The main findings about clausal typing in Mandarin 111
7.1.2 The extended clausal typing mechanism 112
7.2 The licensing of wh-existentials and wh-interrogatives 113 7.2.1 The licensing of wh-existentials in Mandarin 113 7.2.2 The licensing of wh-interrogatives in Mandarin 114
7.3 Conclusions and future work 114
References 117
Summary 127
Samenvatting 131
摘要 135
Appendices 139
Appendix A 139
Appendix B 139
Appendix C 140
Appendix D 142
Appendix E 144
Appendix F 147
Curriculum Vitae 155
