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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 11, 2026

Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Visual Word Recognition using Electrophysiology

Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Visual Word Recognition using Electrophysiology

Published on: June 29, 2021

Syntax does not necessarily precede semantics in sentence processing: ERP evidence from Chinese.

Yaxu Zhang¹, Ping Li, Qiuhong Piao

¹Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. yxzhang@pku.edu.cn

Brain and Language

|May 8, 2013

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Syntactic processing in Chinese does not always precede semantic processing. Even with syntactic errors, semantic integration can occur, as shown by event-related potential experiments.

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Published on: May 9, 2019

Area of Science:

Psycholinguistics
Cognitive Neuroscience
Computational Linguistics

Background:

The relationship between syntactic and semantic processing during language comprehension is a key area in psycholinguistics.
Previous research has debated whether syntactic analysis must be completed before semantic interpretation can begin.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the temporal order of syntactic and semantic processing in Chinese object-subject-verb sentences.
To determine if syntactic processing is a prerequisite for semantic integration.

Main Methods:

Two event-related potential (ERP) experiments were conducted.
Participants read Chinese sentences with semantic-only, syntactic category plus semantic, or transitivity plus semantic anomalies.
ERP data, specifically N400 and P600 components, were analyzed.

Main Results:

All anomaly types elicited a negativity between 300-500 ms, consistent with an N400 effect.
Syntactic category plus semantic anomalies also elicited a P600 response.
The presence of N400 effects indicated that semantic integration was attempted despite syntactic processing challenges.

Conclusions:

Semantic integration in Chinese can be initiated even when syntactic processing is unsuccessful.
Syntactic processing is not a necessary prerequisite for initiating semantic integration.
These findings challenge serial processing models and support more interactive or parallel models of language comprehension.