Decoding the implausible: Mandarin sentence interpretation through the noisy channel model

The noisy channel language comprehension proposal posits that comprehenders detect and correct errors when interpreting sentences. This study replicates and extends Zhan et al. (2023), testing the model in Mandarin Chinese with three syntactic alternations: (1) Active-Passive-BA sentences, (2) Double Object (DO)-Initial position Prepositional Object (PO)-Final position PO sentences, and (3) Transitive-Initial position Adverbial Intransitive-Final position Adverbial Intransitive sentences. In each alternation, the first two structures were adopted from Zhan et al. (2023), while the third was introduced in this study. These alternations require different numbers and types of edits to transform implausible sentences into plausible ones. Participants read test items and answer corresponding comprehension questions, which indicate whether they interpret the item literally. The results aligned with Zhan et al. (2023)'s findings, indicating that Mandarin participants were most likely to make inferences for implausible sentences resulting from deleting or inserting a single morpheme, followed by those formed by a noun phrase exchange across a function word, and least likely to make inferences for implausible sentences obtained through a noun phrase exchange across a main verb. The inclusion of novel structures reinforces the robustness of the noisy-channel framework and highlights how language-specific properties influence language comprehension.