Syntactic Information Extraction in the Parafovea: Evidence from Two-Character Phrases in Chinese

This study investigates syntactic parafoveal processing in Chinese reading using a boundary paradigm with two-character verb–object phrases. Participants (N = 120 undergraduates) viewed sentences with manipulated previews (identity, syntactically consistent, and inconsistent previews). Results showe...

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Main Author: Zijia Lu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-07-01
Series:Behavioral Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/15/7/935
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author Zijia Lu
author_facet Zijia Lu
author_sort Zijia Lu
collection DOAJ
description This study investigates syntactic parafoveal processing in Chinese reading using a boundary paradigm with two-character verb–object phrases. Participants (N = 120 undergraduates) viewed sentences with manipulated previews (identity, syntactically consistent, and inconsistent previews). Results showed a selective syntactic preview effect: syntactical violations reduced target word skipping rates, but fixation durations remained unaffected. This dissociation contrasts with robust syntactic preview benefits observed in alphabetic languages, highlighting how Chinese’s lack of morphological markers constrains parafoveal processing. The findings challenge parallel processing models while supporting language-specific modulation of universal cognitive mechanisms. Our results advance understanding of hierarchical information extraction in reading, with implications for developing cross-linguistic reading models.
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spelling doaj-art-b65f7ec6d45845cf87f80c2b478eb29b2025-08-20T02:45:53ZengMDPI AGBehavioral Sciences2076-328X2025-07-0115793510.3390/bs15070935Syntactic Information Extraction in the Parafovea: Evidence from Two-Character Phrases in ChineseZijia Lu0School of Law, Tianjin University of Commerce, No. 409, Guangrongdao Road, Tianjin 300134, ChinaThis study investigates syntactic parafoveal processing in Chinese reading using a boundary paradigm with two-character verb–object phrases. Participants (N = 120 undergraduates) viewed sentences with manipulated previews (identity, syntactically consistent, and inconsistent previews). Results showed a selective syntactic preview effect: syntactical violations reduced target word skipping rates, but fixation durations remained unaffected. This dissociation contrasts with robust syntactic preview benefits observed in alphabetic languages, highlighting how Chinese’s lack of morphological markers constrains parafoveal processing. The findings challenge parallel processing models while supporting language-specific modulation of universal cognitive mechanisms. Our results advance understanding of hierarchical information extraction in reading, with implications for developing cross-linguistic reading models.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/15/7/935parafoveal previewsyntactic processingChinese readingeye movements
spellingShingle Zijia Lu
Syntactic Information Extraction in the Parafovea: Evidence from Two-Character Phrases in Chinese
Behavioral Sciences
parafoveal preview
syntactic processing
Chinese reading
eye movements
title Syntactic Information Extraction in the Parafovea: Evidence from Two-Character Phrases in Chinese
title_full Syntactic Information Extraction in the Parafovea: Evidence from Two-Character Phrases in Chinese
title_fullStr Syntactic Information Extraction in the Parafovea: Evidence from Two-Character Phrases in Chinese
title_full_unstemmed Syntactic Information Extraction in the Parafovea: Evidence from Two-Character Phrases in Chinese
title_short Syntactic Information Extraction in the Parafovea: Evidence from Two-Character Phrases in Chinese
title_sort syntactic information extraction in the parafovea evidence from two character phrases in chinese
topic parafoveal preview
syntactic processing
Chinese reading
eye movements
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/15/7/935
work_keys_str_mv AT zijialu syntacticinformationextractionintheparafoveaevidencefromtwocharacterphrasesinchinese