Semantic Radical Research Articles

Sub-Lexical Processing of Chinese-English Bilinguals: An ERP Analysis.

Previous research has established that bilinguals automatically activate lexical items in both of their languages in a nonselectivemanner, even when processing linguistic information in the second language (L2) alone. However, whether this co-activation extends to the sub-lexical level remains debated. In this study, we investigate whether bilinguals access sub-lexical information while processing in their L2. Thirty-two Chinese-English bilinguals and thirty-one English monolinguals completed an EEG-based semantic relatedness task, during which they judged whether pairs of English words were related in meaning or not (±S). Unbeknownst to the participants, the form (±F) of the Chinese translations in half of the pairs shared a sub-lexical semantic radical. This leads to four conditions: +S+F, +S-F, -S+F, and -S-F. This design, along with the comparison to English monolinguals, allows us to examine if bilinguals' native language is activated at the sub-lexical level when they are exposed only to L2. The results revealed that both groups showed sensitivity to semantic relatedness, as evidenced by a greater N400 for semantic unrelated pairs than related pairs, with monolinguals eliciting a more pronounced difference. Bilinguals, on the other hand, exhibited a greater P200 difference compared to monolinguals, indicating greater sensitivity to the hidden Chinese radical/form manipulation. These results suggest that highly proficient bilinguals automatically engage in lexical co-activation of their native language during L2 processing. Crucially, this co-activation extends to the sub-lexical semantic radical level.

Spatiotemporal Neural Network for Sublexical Information Processing: An Intracranial SEEG Study.

Words offer a unique opportunity to separate the processing mechanisms of object subcomponents from those of the whole object, because the phonological or semantic information provided by the word subcomponents (i.e., sublexical information) can conflict with that provided by the whole word (i.e., lexical information). Previous studies have revealed some of the specific brain regions and temporal information involved in sublexical information processing. However, a comprehensive spatiotemporal neural network for sublexical processing remains to be fully elucidated due to the low temporal or spatial resolutions of previous neuroimaging studies. In this study, we recorded stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) signals with high spatial and temporal resolutions from a large sample of 39 epilepsy patients (both sexes) during a Chinese character oral reading task. We explored the activated brain regions and their connectivity related to three sublexical effects: phonological regularity (whether the whole character's pronunciation aligns with its phonetic radical), phonological consistency (whether characters with the same phonetic radical share the same pronunciation), and semantic transparency (whether the whole character's meaning aligns with its semantic radical). The results revealed that sublexical effects existed in the inferior frontal gyrus, precentral and postcentral gyri, temporal lobe, and middle occipital gyrus. Additionally, connectivity from the middle occipital gyrus to the postcentral gyrus and from postcentral gyrus to the fusiform gyrus was associated with the sublexical effects. These findings provide valuable insights into the spatiotemporal dynamics of sublexical processing and object recognition in the brain.Significance statement Elucidating the intricate neural mechanisms underlying sublexical processing is crucial for understanding the intricacies of language comprehension and object recognition in the human brain. This study employed intracranial stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG) recordings to investigate the spatiotemporal dynamics of sublexical processing during a Chinese character reading task. We constructed a neural network for sublexical processing and depicted its temporal sequence in different brain regions. Furthermore, we identified the information flow within this network and observed its variation with the reading of characters containing different sublexical information. These findings not only advance our understanding of the cerebral mechanisms governing sublexical processing but also offer insights into the broader framework of object recognition processes.

The effectiveness of visual instructions in the memorization of Chinese Semantic Radicals by Beginners

Abstract The acquisition of Chinese Characters (CCs) is challenging for learners. Chinese Semantic Radicals (SRs) are semantic components of CCs. The memorization of SRs facilitates the acquisition of CCs when learning Chinese as a second language. This study investigates the effectiveness of Visual Instructions (VIs) in the memorization of SRs by beginners. A preliminary study and three other studies have been conducted. The results have shown that the use of color-coded illustrations helps learners remember the meanings, shapes, and positions of SRs. This could be seen in the significantly increased accuracy of the responses in memory tests. These findings are an important contribution to research on VIs and on the memorization of SRs by beginners.

The neural correlates of sub-lexical semantics and its integration with the lexical meaning in reading Chinese characters

The semantic neural routes in contemporary models of visual word recognition are mainly constructed based on lexical-semantic processing. However, the neural bases of processing semantic cues embodied in sub-lexical units are less clear. The current fMRI study takes the ideographic property of Chinese characters (The semantic radical can provide a semantic cue for the character's meaning) to explore the brain mechanisms of sub-lexical semantic processing and its interaction with lexical-semantic processing in a lexical decision task. The GLM results and further ROI analysis revealed that the lexical-semantic processing relied on the left posterior Middle Temporal Gyrus (pMTG) and Angular Gyrus (AG); the sub-lexical semantic processing relied on the left middle MTG (mMTG) and AG; their integration relied on the left Anterior Temporal Lobe (ATL). It sheds light on investigating the neural circuit of the semantic processing in visual word reading.

Are Zhuzi contentious? A rhetorical investigation of speech/word radicals in ancient Chinese texts

Abstract In communication, rhetors are inclined to employ contentious rhetorical modes designed to win or compete. Consequently, noncontentious rhetorical modes, such as invitational rhetoric, are underappreciated. This study fosters a better understanding of the rationale and possibility of noncontentious rhetorical modes rooted in texts by traditional Chinese intellectuals. We identify, classify, and interpret indigenous terms identified with speech/word radicals in nine Chinese philosophical classics across five major schools of thought in ancient China using a corpus-driven approach and key concepts of rhetorical studies to delineate the pattern, components, and modes of ancient Chinese rhetoric. The results show that (1) characters with speech/word radicals in ancient Chinese texts follow a pattern between rank and frequency; (2) basic components of rhetorical acts in ancient China can be described based on these terms, and characteristic rhetorical components are identified upon similarities and differences among five schools of thought; and (3) studying rhetorical modes of ancient Chinese rhetoric with speech/word radicals reveals that intellectuals in ancient China adopted both the contentious modes and the noncontentious modes of rhetoric. This study also demonstrates the possibility of studying semantic radicals in texts through digital methods to delineate ancient Chinese rhetoric.

Evaluating the Critical Period Influence on the Development of Semantic Radicals Awareness and Lexical Tones Awareness in Chinese Character Recognition

The present study adopts the priming word-judging paradigm to investigate whether the critical period will influence radical and lexical tone awareness during the bilinguals' Chinese character recognition. Two types of bilinguals (simultaneous and sequential bilinguals) will be recruited as participants in the present study. The different features between these two types of participants are used to test the influence of the critical period. Through a Chinese character decision task experiment, we hypothesis that the critical period will influence the semantic radical and lexical tone awareness while processing the Chinese characters of bilinguals. In addition, this study will provide some advice to learning Chinese characters in second language acquisition.

The Influence of Prior Linguistic Knowledge on Second Language Semantic Implicit Learning: Evidence from Cantonese–English Bilinguals

AbstractPrevious studies have shown that prior linguistic knowledge affects semantic implicit learning when stimuli are presented in the first language. We report an experiment that investigated whether such crosslinguistic influence from the first language would still emerge in the second language for semantic implicit learning of novel articles and fire/water semantic category mappings, a semantic distinction that is explicitly marked by semantic radicals in Chinese but not in English and a type of form–meaning connections that has not been investigated. We found that 30 Cantonese–English bilinguals and 30 native English speakers learned the target form–meaning connections and that the knowledge that they developed may have been implicit, as shown through post‐experiment verbal reports. Moreover, the bilingual group was significantly faster than the English group in distinguishing fire/water English nouns. These findings extend the range of semantic‐based regularities that can be learned at the implicit level and suggest that the markings of fire/water distinctions in Chinese affect second language task performance.

Hong Kong Chinese character psycholinguistic norms: ratings of 4376 single Chinese characters on semantic radical transparency, age-of-acquisition, familiarity, imageability, and concreteness

Several norms of psycholinguistic features of Chinese characters exist in Mandarin Chinese, but only a few are available in Cantonese or in the traditional script, and none includes semantic radical transparency ratings. This study presents subjective ratings of age-of-acquisition (AoA), familiarity, imageability, concreteness, and semantic radical transparency in 4376 Chinese characters. The single Chinese characters were rated individually on the five dimensions by 20 native Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong to form the Hong Kong Chinese Character Psycholinguistic Norms (HKCCPN). The split-half reliability and intra-class correlations testified to the high internal reliability of the ratings. Their convergent and discriminant patterns in relations to other psycholinguistic measures echoed previous findings reported on Chinese. There were high correlations for semantic radical transparency, imageability and concreteness, and moderate-to-high correlations for AoA and familiarity among subsets of items that had been collected in previous studies. Concurrent validity analyses showed convergence in predicting behavioral response times in various tasks (lexical decision, naming, and writing-to-dictation) when compared with other Chinese character databases. High predictive validity was shown in writing-to-dictation data from an independent sample of 20 native Cantonese speakers. Several objective psycholinguistic measures (character frequency, stroke number, number of words formed, number of homophones and number of meanings) were included in this database to facilitate its use. These new ratings extend the currently available norms in language and reading research in Cantonese Chinese for researchers, clinicians, and educators, as well as provide them with a wider choice of stimuli.

The Contribution of Radical Knowledge and Character Recognition to L2 Chinese Reading Comprehension.

Although there have been extensive theoretical discussions on the various component skills needed in comprehending texts in L2 English and L1 Chinese, empirical investigations on the component skills of L2 Chinese are scarce. This study attempts to fill in this gap by investigating the direct and indirect contributions of two lower-level latent component skills, radical knowledge and character recognition, to L2 Chinese passage-level reading comprehension. Radical knowledge was measured by a Receptive Semantic Radical Knowledge Test and a Semantic Radical Meaning Matching Test. Character recognition was assessed by a Lexical Decision Test and a Character Knowledge Test. Two tests, a Multiple-choice Test and a Cloze Test, were adopted to measure textual reading comprehension. The data were collected from 209 learners of Chinese as a second language (CSL). Radical knowledge was found to have a significant direct effect on character recognition and significant indirect effect on L2 Chinese reading through the mediation of character recognition. Character recognition was found to have a significant direct effect on reading comprehension. Taken together, this study suggests the importance of lower-level character and sub-character component skills to L2 Chinese reading.

The relative contributions of facets of morphological awareness to vocabulary development in Chinese: A longitudinal study in grades one to three

The study examined the vocabulary growth trajectory and the relative contributions of three facets of morphological awareness (compounding, homograph, and radical awareness) in grade one to vocabulary levels and growth across grades one through three. We administered measures of morphological awareness that assessed lexical compounding, homograph, and semantic radical (in grade one) as well as vocabulary definition (two times in grade one, one time in grade two and three, respectively) to 204 Chinese native speakers. Latent growth modeling showed that vocabulary growth was linear with significant growth across grades. Individual differences were observed in initial vocabulary levels but not growth. All three facets of morphological awareness in grade one were significant predictors of initial vocabulary levels, whereas only homograph awareness predicted vocabulary growth. Specifically, homograph awareness had a negative slope where children with lower performance on homograph awareness in grade one exhibited larger growth in vocabulary scores. Theoretical and educational implications are discussed.

Self‐teaching in Chinese: the roles of phonetic and semantic radicals in orthographic and vocabulary learning

BackgroundPrevious work suggests that children can teach themselves new written words via reading aloud texts independently (i.e., orthographic learning via self‐teaching). In self‐teaching in Chinese, regular phonetic radicals and transparent semantic radicals facilitate orthographic learning. The present study examined the roles of phonetic and semantic radicals in both orthographic learning and oral vocabulary learning via self‐teaching among Chinese children.MethodsThirty‐four Mandarin‐speaking second graders read aloud and comprehended 12 stories annotated with Pinyin, a phonetic script in Chinese. Each story included a semantic–phonetic compound pseudocharacter appearing five times. The phonetic radicals were classified as one‐third regular, one‐third semiregular and one‐third irregular. These phonetic radicals carried full, partial or no phonetic information, depending on their regularity. Moreover, half of the semantic radicals were either transparent or opaque, meaning that they were semantically related or unrelated to the meaning of the pseudocharacters, respectively. Learning outcomes included participants' oral vocabulary learning and orthographic learning regarding word recognition and spelling.ResultsIn addition to the well‐studied orthographic learning, children can also achieve vocabulary learning via self‐teaching. Results indicate that transparent semantic radicals facilitated orthographic and vocabulary learning. Moreover, vocabulary learning was facilitated by regular phonetic radicals but hindered by semiregular phonetic radicals.ConclusionsThese findings, together, point to the roles of phonetic and semantic radicals in Chinese children's orthographic and vocabulary learning. Findings advance our understanding of self‐teaching across writing systems and add to the educational value of self‐teaching.

The Development of Preschool Children’s Awareness of Semantic Radicals in Chinese Characters

The present study investigated the development of Chinese preschool children’s awareness of semantic radicals in Chinese characters. The two specific areas of focus were the development of awareness of the category consistency of the semantic radical and awareness of the semantic radical. A sample of 55 four-year-old children and 61 five-year-old children were randomly selected from a public preschool that did not include formal literacy education in its curriculum. Experiment 1 found that the children’s awareness of the category consistency of semantic radicals had not yet developed, regardless of the configuration of characters. Experiment 2 found that the children showed no obvious awareness of the semantic radical and had a strong bias toward using phonetic radicals rather than semantic radicals to classify characters, with the bias being significant for characters of left-right configuration. The current findings suggest that Chinese preschool children have an awareness of radicals in Chinese characters and they are more sensitive to the phonetic radical than to the semantic radical and, consequently, prioritize the former.

Effects of Phonological Consistency and Semantic Radical Combinability on N170 and P200 in the Reading of Chinese Phonograms.

Studies have suggested that visually presented words are obligatorily decomposed into constituents that could be mapped to language representations. The present study aims to elucidate how orthographic processing of one constituent affects the other and vice versa during a word recognition task. Chinese orthographic system has characters representing syllables and meanings instead of suffixation roles, and the majority of Chinese characters are phonograms that can be further decomposed into phonetic radical and semantic radical. We propose that semantic radical combinability indexed by semantic radicals and the effect of phonological consistency indexed by phonetic radicals would interact with each other during the reading of Chinese phonograms. Twenty-six right-handed native Chinese speakers were recruited to the study. Participants were presented with phonograms divided into four conditions following their semantic radical combinability (large vs. small) and phonological consistency (high vs. low). EEG signals were recorded throughout the covert naming task. Our results show that there is an interaction effect between phonological consistency and semantic radical combinability on the right hemisphere N170 activity while reading phonograms. Semantic radical combinability influenced the right hemisphere N170 during the process of low-consistency character reading but not high-consistency character reading. On the other hand, the left hemisphere N170 revealed a more significant activity during reading high-consistency characters and was not affected by radical combinability. In addition, while low-consistency characters revealed a larger P200 than high-consistency characters, the semantic radical combinability effect on P200 was only significant when participants were reading high-consistency characters but not low-consistency characters. These results provide new information about how ERPs are involved in word recognition within the context of interaction among orthographic and phonological dimensions.

The Graded Priming Effect of Semantic Radical on Chinese Character Recognition.

This study used priming paradigm with lexical decision task to examine the effects of different levels of semantic relatedness on the identification of Chinese phonetic–semantic compound characters. Unlike previous studies that simply classify Chinese compound characters as semantically transparent or opaque, we categorize the semantic relatedness between semantic radicals (i.e., prime) and the target characters containing them into five levels: highly related (i.e., high condition; e.g., prime ± vs. target 地), moderately related (i.e., moderate condition; e.g., prime ± vs. target 场), minimally related (i.e., minimal condition; e.g., prime ± vs. target 塔), unrelated but sharing the semantic radical (i.e., form-only condition; e.g., prime ± vs. target 坏), and unrelated without sharing the semantic radical (i.e., control condition; e.g., prime ± vs. target 涌). Moreover, three stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA)s (i.e., 57, 140, and 243 ms) were used in this study to dissociate the radical- and character-level semantic priming effects. Results revealed a graded priming effect of the semantic radical on character recognition in Chinese readers for all SOAs. More specifically, the facilitative effect of the semantic radical on character processing was most evident for the high condition, followed by the minimal, form-only, and control conditions. This suggests a graded priming effect of the semantic radical on character identification.

Functional orthographic units in Chinese character reading: Are there abstract radical identities?

Previous research has shown that the components of Chinese characters (e.g., semantic components, phonetic components, and radicals) serve as processing units in reading. One outstanding question concerns the existence of amodal orthographic representations that unify multiple, form-specific character components, similar to the abstract letter identities (ALIs) that unify case-specific letter forms (A/a) in Roman script. Although Chinese does not have case, a subset of semantic radicals have multiple forms (e.g., - are both "water" radicals), allowing for a test of the existence of Abstract Radical Identities (ARIs) that unify the multiple forms. In Experiment 1, a visual same-different judgement task was used to detect the presence of ARI representations. Evidence for ARIs was provided by the finding that radical pairs with different forms but the same radical identity were judged to be visually different more slowly than matched pairs of different forms with different radical identities. In Experiment 2, we evaluated ARI effects in real character reading. A lexical decision priming task compared prime-target character pairs containing radicals with the same identity but different forms (e.g., -) with matched prime-target character pairs with unrelated radicals (e.g., -). Inhibitory priming was observed only in the same-identity radical condition compared with the unrelated condition. These combined results provide, for the first time, evidence of format-free representations of orthographic units in Chinese characters-abstract radical identities (ARIs).

Semantic and Phonological Decoding in Children’s Orthographic Learning in Chinese

ABSTRACT In this study, we investigated if children build a print-to-meaning connection via the semantic radical – a mechanism we call semantic decoding – and its interaction with phonological decoding in orthographic learning of Chinese compound characters. Ninety-two Grade 4 children were taught the pronunciations and meanings of 16 pseudocharacters and were then exposed to their written forms in short stories. Half of the characters contained semantic radicals related to the taught meaning; the other half were unrelated. Half of the children learned the pseudocharacters’ regular pronunciations; the other half learned the irregular pronunciations. There was better orthographic learning of regular than irregular pseudocharacters across measures of spelling and orthographic choice. However, the effect of semantic decoding was not as unequivocal. The findings indicate that in Chinese, decoding via phonetic radicals underpins orthographic learning. Whereas, the effect of semantic decoding might depend more on the linguistic features of the radicals and the learning environments.

Nontransparent Compound Character Learning in L2 Chinese: Does Radical Awareness Always Work?

Chinese character learning requires various reading subskills, such as radical awareness and character knowledge. Radical awareness refers to learners’ ability to identify, analyze, and apply semantic radicals in compound characters. Previous studies have shown that radical awareness and character knowledge facilitate learning semantically transparent characters. Yet, little is known regarding whether radical awareness plays an active role in the meaning retention for nontransparent characters. The meanings of transparent characters, such as “河” (river) containing the radical “氵” (water), are related to the semantic category of the radicals within the characters, whereas the meanings of nontransparent characters, such as “淑” (kind and gentle) with the same radical “氵,” are not directly related to the radicals. To fill these gaps, this study included 39 L2 Chinese learners at one American university. They completed one character-learning session, and five radical-related and character-related tasks. The results suggested that radical awareness did not positively affect the meaning retention for nontransparent characters when learners’ character knowledge was controlled. In addition, character knowledge was a moderator, which shaped the relationship between radical awareness and character retention. Pedagogical implications for the understanding of L2 Chinese compound character learning are discussed.

Differentiation of radical processing strategies in character decoding by L2 learners of Chinese according to L1-type

Abstract This study investigates the productive use of semantic and phonetic radicals for Chinese character decoding by Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners at different levels of L2 proficiency, focusing on the application of radical knowledge according to the learners’ L1 language families. Using a pseudo-word test developed by Williams, Clay. 2014. The development of intra-character radical awareness in L1 Chinese children: Changing strategies. Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association 49(2). 1–26 to measure subject preference for semantic versus phonological decoding processes, subjects are asked to match a provided definition and pronunciation with a character in a multiple choice format which included two pseudo characters designed with radicals which corresponded with the provided definition or pronunciation, respectively. The results demonstrate that reliance on semantic or phonological radicals for character identification varies according to the L1 of the CFL learners; subjects whose L1 is relatively orthographically transparent predominantly make use of phonological processing strategies at all levels of proficiency, whereas those whose L1 are more orthographically opaque demonstrate more malleable processing preferences, with relatively strong semantic radical reliance in the early stage of their language learning, and considerable variability between semantic and phonological processing at intermediate and advanced proficiency levels. The findings suggest that developmental trends of using radical decoding strategies differ among CFL learner groups with varying L1 literacy strategy preferences.

What regions of Chinese characters are crucial for recognition? A web-based study

The study involves approximately 250 Chinese university students from eight institutions to determine what parts of a representative sample of Chinese characters are crucial to their correct identification. A web-based experimental platform was used to present 102 simplified characters to participants. The characters were partially obscured using a Gaussian blurring technique. The direction of maximum blur could either be from top to bottom, bottom to top, left to right, or right to left. Participants were asked to identify the blurred character and type its pinyin. Overall, participants correctly identified 88% of characters. The effects of all forms of blurring on correct recognition were correlated with character structures. Phonetic radicals seem to be more sensitive to the blurring than semantic radicals, while the radical transparency and radical frequency also plays a role in the recognition accuracy. The blurring conditions that impacted most significantly on correct recognition were top to bottom and bottom to top, which caused, respectively, the upper and lower parts of the character to be obscured.

Orthographic learning via self-teaching in Chinese: The roles of phonological recoding, context, and phonetic and semantic radicals

According to the self-teaching hypothesis, children can self-teach new written words via phonological recoding—translating written words into their verbal pronunciations. Moreover, learning words in meaningful story contexts supports learning when phonological recoding is reduced (e.g., when encountering irregular words). The current study tested the self-teaching hypothesis in Chinese—a non-alphabetic writing system. Native Mandarin-speaking second graders read either 16 stories (story context; n = 33) or word lists (without context; n = 34) under the conditions of allowed phonological recoding (reading aloud) or reduced phonological recoding (viewing while repeatedly naming a meaningless letter sequence b p m f). Each story and word list included one target pseudo-character consisting of a phonetic radical and a semantic radical providing pronunciation and meaning cues, respectively, for the pseudo-character. The regularity of phonetic radicals of pseudo-characters (regular vs. irregular: providing full vs. no pronunciation cue) and the transparency of semantic radicals of pseudo-characters (transparent vs. opaque: providing complete vs. no meaning cue) were manipulated. The orthographic learning outcomes were measured using the character writing, orthographic choice, naming, and a semantic production task. Our results support a primary role of phonological recoding in orthographic learning. Moreover, regular phonetic radicals facilitate phonology–orthography association, whereas transparent semantic radicals support semantic–orthography mapping. In sum, we extended the self-teaching hypothesis to a non-alphabetic writing system and revealed the unique roles of phonetic and semantic radicals in orthographic learning.