文脈が日本語文中の漢字単語の処理に及ぼす影響 : 留学中の中国人上級日本語学習者を対象に

In this study, we investigated the effect of context on the processing of kanji words, which are at neither the start nor the end of Japanese sentences, for advanced Chinese learners of Japanese. The experiments were conducted under the high- /low-constraint sentence conditions and considered orthographical and phonological similarities of kanji words between Chinese and Japanese. The observed reaction time for reading task showed different effects of context on orthographical and phonological similarities. Under the low-constraint sentence condition, the processing of kanji words in sentences showed the same tendency as the processing of kanji words in the single presentation situation. Under the high-constraint condition, kanji words in sentences are supported by contextual information, and conceptual and lexical representations are activated first, resulting in a different processing from the low-constraint case. Besides, the activation degree of conceptual and lexical representations of the kanji words in the context changes with their position.