Representation of Polysemy in Mandarin Verbs: Chī, Dǎ, and Xǐ

• DOI: 10.6241/concentric.ling.42.1.01
• Publication Date: 2016-05-01
• Authors: Huichen S. Hsiao; Yi‐Chun Chen; Yingchen Wu
• Keywords: Polysemy; Priming (agriculture); Mental lexicon; Mandarin Chinese; Representation

This paper reports the findings from a semantic judgment priming task aimed at examining how senses of three semantically complex Mandarin verbs chī ‘eat’, dǎ ‘hit’, and xǐ ‘wash’ are stored in mental lexicon. In experiment, prime stimuli belonged to basic critical polysemous verbs. Three target conditions, that is, verb phrases with same (e.g. niupai ‘to eat steak’), closely related wěiya attend year-end party’), distantly lǎoběn live on one’s own fat’), were prepared test whether processing patterns varied for different types extended within verb. The results indicate linearly decreasing effects moving core senses, through senses. These conflict separate-entry view provide evidence shared representation among