How are cantonese sentence-final particles phonologically and semantically processed in the mind?
How are cantonese sentence-final particles phonologically and semantically processed in the mind?

Summary/Abstract: This study investigates the semantic and phonological processing of Cantonese sentence-final particles (SFPs) in the mind. Experiment 1 showed that the reaction times (RTs) of Cantonese SFPs were shortest in the congruent condition, followed by the incongruent condition, and longest in the category-congruent condition, while in terms of Cantonese content-words the RTs were shortest in the congruent condition, but followed by the category-congruent condition, and longest in the incongruent condition. Experiment 2 showed that in congruent trials the RTs of Cantonese SFPs and content words in the right-ear condition were shorter than those in the left-ear condition, while the pattern was reverse in the category-congruent and the incongruent trials. Experiment 3 showed that in the vowel condition, Cantonese speakers exhibited shorter RTs for SFPs compared to content words, while Mandarin speakers had longer RTs for SFPs relative to content words. However, in the consonant condition, the RTs for both Cantonese and Mandarin speakers were comparable between SFPs and content words. The findings of this study suggest that: (1) Cantonese SFPs are distinct from content words and possess a unique semantic representation; (2) Cantonese speakers exhibit greater potential in processing the vowels of SFPs, possibly due to their enhanced ability to maintain short-term memory for this type of phonemes; and (3) SFPs appear to be more affected by a speaker’s exposure to Cantonese than content words. This suggests that linguistic experience plays a crucial role in shaping the perception of phonemes and phonetic features associated with Cantonese SFPs.

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