Demystifying the myths — Ignatius and the

Chinese writing system

Yi XuYi Xu University College London & Haskins Laboratories

Demystifying the myths — Ignatius and the

Chinese writing system

Yi XuYi Xu University College London & Haskins Laboratories

Link between reading and speechLink between reading and speech• One of the most important contributions of

Ignatius Mattingly is to help firmly establish the theoretical link between reading and speech.

• This was done not only through his proposal of the notion of linguistic awareness, but also through his research on reading in different orthographic systems, especially the Chinese writing system.

• This can be seen in the following publication list.

An incomplete list of Mattingly’s work An incomplete list of Mattingly’s work on reading in Chineseon reading in Chinese

Ren, N. and Mattingly, I. G. (1990) Short-term serial recall performance by good and poor readers of Chinese. Haskins Laboratories Status Report on Speech Research, 153.

Mattingly, I. G. and Xu, Y. (1994). Word superiority in Chinese. In H.-W. Chang, J.- T. Huang, C.-W. Hue, & O.J.L. Tzeng (Eds.), Advances in the study of Chinese language processing. Volume 1.(pp. 101-111). Taipei: Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University.

Mattingly, I. G. (1994) Horizontal and vertical views of Chinese psycholinguitics. In H.-W. Chang, J.- T. Huang, C.-W. Hue, & O.J.L. Tzeng (Eds.), Advances in the study of Chinese language processing. Volume 1.(pp. 541-547).

Mattingly, I. G. and Ni, W. (1996?) Zhou Youguang and phonological mediation in Chinese.

Mattingly, I. G. and Xiao, P. (1999) Are phonetic elements in Chinese characters drawn from a syllabary? Psychologia, 42, 281-289.

Chinese vs. alphabetic orthographiesChinese vs. alphabetic orthographies• With its characters often regarded as ideograms,

the Chinese writing system is widely believed to directly represent meaning.

• And as such the system is often believed to be fundamentally different from alphabetic systems

• Based on the modular view of speech (Fodor, 1983; Liberman & Mattingly, 1985), Ignatius argued that the Chinese orthography is only superficially different from alphabetic systems.

• The superficial differences are nevertheless very useful for research on the mechanisms of reading as well as speech

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Short-Term Memory (STM)Short-Term Memory (STM) — The ability to retain any material in memory for a brief period of time

Phonological RecodingPhonological Recoding — To remember any linguistic material in written form for more than a few milliseconds, humans have to first transform the material into a speech-like form (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974).

The phenomenon is well established, but it is not fully clear why recoding has to happen.

Also not clear: the exact nature of recoding, e.g., the level of phonology involved – abstract underlying phonemes, or surface phonetic forms?

Depth of phonological recoding in Depth of phonological recoding in short-term memoryshort-term memory (Xu, 1992, under the (Xu, 1992, under the supervision of Mattingly)supervision of Mattingly)

Depth of phonological recoding in Depth of phonological recoding in short-term memoryshort-term memory (Xu, 1992, under the (Xu, 1992, under the supervision of Mattingly)supervision of Mattingly)

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Ren & Mattingly (1990): Second-grade primary school children who are good readers are penalized more by phonological similarity in the series to be recalled than poor readers.

Visual similarity had no effect on either the good readers or the poor readers.

STM is simply "the rehearsal of verbal material with the aid of the linguistic mechanism or module that supports speaking and listening, and that necessarily produces phonological representations."

According to this account, one would predict that the production of the surface phonetic representations is inevitable, regardless of the nature of the orthography, since all of them are the necessary output of the language module.

STM is needed in readingSTM is needed in readingSTM is needed in readingSTM is needed in reading

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• To determine the exact nature of phonological recoding in STM, we can employ the phenomenon that phonological similarity impairs immediate recall of linguistic material

• For that we need to find linguistic materials that are more similar in surface than in underlying forms

• An ideal case is the phenomenon of tone sandhi in Mandarin

Understanding STM by exploring Understanding STM by exploring the depth of phonological recodingthe depth of phonological recodingUnderstanding STM by exploring Understanding STM by exploring the depth of phonological recodingthe depth of phonological recoding

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The Maindarin tone sandhi phenomenonThe Maindarin tone sandhi phenomenonThe Maindarin tone sandhi phenomenonThe Maindarin tone sandhi phenomenon

Low Rise / __ Low

Example:Underlying Surface Glossary

Pinyin mai2 ma3 mai2 ma3 “to bury a horse”Tone Rise Low Rise Low

Pinyin mai3 ma3 mai2 ma3 “to buy a horse”Tone Low Low Rise Low

• Perceptually, derived Rise is indistinguishable from original Rise (Wang & Li, 1967; Peng, 2000)

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• We can manipulate tonal combinations so that there is more similarity in the material to be recalled after the application of tone sandhi than before its application.

• If the surface phonetic representation is produced, immediate recall for this kind of material should be poorer than for material to which no such tone sandhi can apply.

• If tone sandhi is not applied, immediate recall should be the same for both kinds of material.

Does tone sandhi apply in STM?Does tone sandhi apply in STM?Does tone sandhi apply in STM?Does tone sandhi apply in STM?

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Sandhi ListSandhi ListSandhi ListSandhi List• The 1st syllables in all words have the same CV structure, but the

tone is either Rise or Low. The second syllables all share the same tone but have different CV structures. The 2nd syllables all have Low tone.

• Whenever the tone of the 1st syllable is also Low, tone sandhi may apply. If it does, the 1st syllable becomes phonetically indistinct from the other 1st syllable(s) within the same list, which have Rise underlyingly. In this way, all the three first syllables in the list would be phonetically identical.

• 24 sandhi lists

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No-Sandhi ListNo-Sandhi ListNo-Sandhi ListNo-Sandhi List• The 1st syllables in all words again have the same CV

structure, and the tone is either Rise or Low.

• But the tone of the second syllable is always Fall.

• No tone sandhi is applicable. The surface tones of the 1st syllables should therefore remain different.

• 24 no-sandhi lists

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• 10 native speakers of Beijing Mandarin, 3 male and 7 female.

• Each disyllabic sequence was displayed on computer screen for 1 second. After a delay of 0.5 second, the following word appeared. 1.5 seconds after the disappearance of the last word in a list, two short beeps were played and, 1 second later, a probe word appeared and stayed on screen for 2 seconds.

• The subject’s task was to write down the word that followed the probe in the list just shown. When the probe was "• •", they were supposed to write down the first word in the list.

Subjects and procedureSubjects and procedureSubjects and procedureSubjects and procedure

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Results: Sandhi applied in STM!Results: Sandhi applied in STM!Results: Sandhi applied in STM!Results: Sandhi applied in STM!

• Errors on the first syllables in the Sandhi Lists was 2.5 times as many as on the first syllables in the No-Sandhi Lists, F(1, 9) = 20.02, p < 0.01.

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• Logically, for the task, the best strategy is to memorize the visual forms of the characters or their morphemic identities because they are all different.

• The second best is to memorize the underlying phonological forms, because there are at least two different tones on the first characters in the Sandhi Lists.

• The worst is to memorize the surface phonetic forms, which are identical within each Sandhi Lists on the first characters.

• Apparently, derivation of surface phonetic formssurface phonetic forms through the application of the phonological rule is somehow compulsory for STM.

STM involves surface phonetic formsSTM involves surface phonetic formsSTM involves surface phonetic formsSTM involves surface phonetic forms

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But what are the surface forms?But what are the surface forms?

80

100

120

140

160HF

R

L

L The divergence The divergence starts near the starts near the syllable onset!syllable onset!

Implication: Implication: 1. An articulatory 1. An articulatory target is set before target is set before syllable onsetsyllable onset

2. F0 continually 2. F0 continually approaches the approaches the target during the target during the syllablesyllable

Data from Xu (1997)

The Target Approximation ModelThe Target Approximation Model (Yi Xu & Qi E. Wang 2001)(Yi Xu & Qi E. Wang 2001)

The Target Approximation ModelThe Target Approximation Model (Yi Xu & Qi E. Wang 2001)(Yi Xu & Qi E. Wang 2001)

time

F0

Syllable 1 Syllable 2

[rise

]

Onset F0

[low]

Approaching [rise]

Approaching

[low]

Pitch targets as simple linear functions: static or dynamic F0 approaches the target asymptotically The approximation is synchronized with the syllable

Basic mechanism of tone articulation: Syllable-synchronized sequential target approximation

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No anticipation in No anticipation in Target ExecutionTarget Execution, , not even during weak syllables!not even during weak syllables!No anticipation in No anticipation in Target ExecutionTarget Execution, , not even during weak syllables!not even during weak syllables!

100

150

200

Lee may know my niece

— Focus —

100

150

200

Lee may know my nanny

—— Focus ——

100

150

200

250

300

350

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

F

N N NH L100

150

200

250

300

350

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

F

N N NR L

Mandarin neutral tone before different tones (Chen & Xu, submitted):

English unstressed syllable before focused and non-focused words (Xu & Xu, submitted):

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But plenty of anticipation in But plenty of anticipation in Target Target AssignmentAssignment, at least by one syllable, at least by one syllable An articulatory goal is set before the onset of the syllable F0 during the syllable is to approach the pre-set goal The surface contour is the result of goal execution

Such execution involves constant monitoring of the goal attainment via both proprioception (Kelso et al., 1984; Tremblay et al., 2003) and auditory feedback (Xu et al., 2004).

[rise

]

[low]

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Because it is part of the process of assigning articulatory targets

Without targets, there can be no articulation! Target assignment is therefore a different process from

target execution

Target assignment is probably less constrained by physical mechanisms, but it must depend heavily on long-term memory, i.e., the formation and maintenance of specific neural circuitries during language acquisition

The process must be so robust that it blindly copies everything from the linguistic input

As a result, target assignment is language-specific and “arbitrary”, and often not one-to-one

Why does tone sandhi have to apply Why does tone sandhi have to apply in speech?in speech?Why does tone sandhi have to apply Why does tone sandhi have to apply in speech?in speech?

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• As part of target assignment, tone sandhi is therefore not at the most superficial level of articulation, and the sandhi STM experiment of Xu (1992) did not actually assess the effect of the most superficialsuperficial level of phonetics on STM or reading

Studies that probably did:

1. Baddeley, Thomson & Buchanan (1975): When number of syllables and number of phonemes in words are held constant, STM span is inversely related to the temporal duration of the vowels in words

2. Abramson & Goldinger (1997): Lexical decision time is longer for phonetically long stimuli than for phonetically short stimuli, despite equal orthographic lengths.

3. Lukatela, Eaton, Sabadini & Turvey (2004): Vowel duration affects visual word identification

Tone sandhi occurs below “surface Tone sandhi occurs below “surface phonetics”phonetics”Tone sandhi occurs below “surface Tone sandhi occurs below “surface phonetics”phonetics”

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Lukatela et al. (2004): … “latencies were longer for long-vowel words than for short-vowel words in lexical decision but not in naming,” because, “lexical forms are reflected to a lesser degree in naming than in lexical decision.”

Naming latencyNaming latency — the time between the presentation of a target stimulus (a written word, picture, spoken word, or sentence) and the acoustic onsetonset of a spoken response.

By this definition, naming latency probably measures the timing of target assignment before execution

The assignment process is unlikely to be affected by target length because the length differences are manifested only during execution

Naming vs. lexical decision:Naming vs. lexical decision: Measuring target assignment vs. assignment+executionMeasuring target assignment vs. assignment+execution Naming vs. lexical decision:Naming vs. lexical decision: Measuring target assignment vs. assignment+executionMeasuring target assignment vs. assignment+execution

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Naming vs. lexical decision:Naming vs. lexical decision: Measuring target assignment vs. assignment+executionMeasuring target assignment vs. assignment+execution Naming vs. lexical decision:Naming vs. lexical decision: Measuring target assignment vs. assignment+executionMeasuring target assignment vs. assignment+execution

Lexical decisionLexical decision time — the time it takes a subject to determine whether an item is a word.

Results of the lexical decision experiments suggest that, lexical decision cannot be made until the articulatory execution, even if silent, is over!

The “inner ear” has to “hear” the completed “inner speech” before the meaning of a word can be fully accessed!

This is even stronger support for what Ignatius has been saying all along: Reading is just taking advantage of our species-specific module for speech

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Lukatela et al. (2004):

“The research challenge now becomes that of specifying the particulars of the phonetically informed phonology that mediates reading and determining the generality of reading's basis in that phonology.”

New challenge: Can the phonetic New challenge: Can the phonetic module be decomposed?module be decomposed?New challenge: Can the phonetic New challenge: Can the phonetic module be decomposed?module be decomposed?

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• If so, different behavioral measurements should be affected differently

• Those that measure target assignment, e.g., naming latency, should be affected more by complexity of target assignment

• Evidence 1: Seidenberg et al. (1984): Irregular spelling-sound correspondences affect naming more than they affect lexical decision

• New test: Is naming slower when tone sandhi applies than when it does not apply?

• And many other possible experiments…!

The phonetic module may consist of at The phonetic module may consist of at least two sub-processes: least two sub-processes:

Target AssignmentTarget Assignment & & Target ExecutionTarget Execution

The phonetic module may consist of at The phonetic module may consist of at least two sub-processes: least two sub-processes:

Target AssignmentTarget Assignment & & Target ExecutionTarget Execution

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Conclusions Conclusions Conclusions Conclusions As Ignatius has been arguing all along, the Chinese

orthography and its reading process are likely just as parasitic on language (Liberman, 1968) as other writing systems.

The special characteristics of this ancient orthography nevertheless provides us with rare opportunities for more clearly demonstrating the link between reading and speech, of which Ignatius and his students have made full use.

The findings of the tone sandhi STM study, when viewed in conjunction with the Target Approximation model (Xu & Wang, 2001), may have opened a peephole into “the particulars of the phonetically informed phonology that mediates reading” (Lukatela et al., 2004).