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Semantic context effects when naming Japanese kanji, but not Chinese hànzì

Research output: Journal Publications and ReviewsRGC 21 - Publication in refereed journalpeer-review

Abstract

The process of reading aloud bare nouns in alphabetic languages is immune to semantic context effects from pictures. This is accounted for by assuming that words in alphabetic languages can be read aloud relatively fast through a sub-lexical grapheme-phoneme conversion (GPC) route or by a direct route from orthography to word form. We examined semantic context effects in a word-naming task in two languages with logographic scripts for which GPC cannot be applied: Japanese kanji and Chinese hànzì. We showed that reading aloud bare nouns is sensitive to semantically related context pictures in Japanese, but not in Chinese. The difference between these two languages is attributed to processing costs caused by multiple pronunciations for Japanese kanji. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)512-518
JournalCognition
Volume115
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2010
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publication details (e.g. title, author(s), publication statuses and dates) are captured on an “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE” basis at the time of record harvesting from the data source. Suggestions for further amendments or supplementary information can be sent to [email protected].

Research Keywords

  • Chinese hànzì
  • Japanese kanji
  • Language production
  • Reading aloud
  • Semantic context effects

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