Cognitive processing of semantic mismatch in Chinese reading: the moderating effect of contextual constraint

Semantic mismatch processing is fundamental to language comprehension, yet how contextual constraint modulates this processing in Chinese reading remains unclear. The present study investigated the cognitive processing of semantic mismatch in Chinese modifier-noun constructions and examined the moderating effect of contextual constraint.

Forty-eight native Mandarin Chinese speakers read sentences containing semantically matched or mismatched modifier-noun constructions embedded in high- or low-constraint contexts while their eye movements were recorded using an EyeLink 1000 Plus eye tracker. Linear mixed-effects models were used to analyze eye movement measures.

Robust semantic mismatch effects were observed: mismatched constructions elicited longer first fixation durations and gaze durations, higher regression probabilities, and longer total reading times. Critically, significant interactions between semantic relation and contextual constraint emerged on gaze duration and late processing measures, with mismatch effects approximately twice as large in high-constraint contexts. Simple effects analyses revealed that contextual constraint selectively affected mismatched constructions while leaving matched constructions unaffected.

These findings support predictive processing accounts of language comprehension, demonstrating that readers actively generate contextual expectations and experience amplified processing difficulty when these expectations are violated.