Sustained anterior positivity related to the complexity of argument structure: An ERP experiment on the comprehension of Chinese applied-object structures

ZHOU Changyin

Verb-argument relations are very important aspects of the syntax-semantics interaction in sentence processing. Previous ERP (event related potentials) studies in this field mainly concentrated on the relation between the verb and its core arguments. The present study aims to reveal the ERP pattern of Chinese applied object structures (AOSs), in which a peripheral argument is promoted to occupy the position of the patient object, as compared with the patient object structures (POSs). ERP data were collected when participants performed acceptability judgments of Chinese phrases. Our results show that, similar to previous studies of number-of-argument violations, Chinese AOSs show a bilaterally distributed N400 effect. Different from previous studies of verb-argument relations, however, Chinese AOSs demonstrate a sustained anterior positivity (SAP). This SAP, which relates to complexity of argument structure, reflects the difficulty of integrating the newly promoted arguments and the progressive nature of well-formedness checking in the of Chinese AOSs.