Effects of Spacing on Sentence Reading in Chinese

Given that Chinese writing conventions lack inter-word spacing, understanding whether and how readers of Chinese segment regular unspaced Chinese writing into words is an important question for theories of reading. This study examined the processing outcomes of introducing spaces to written Chinese...

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Autores principales:	Gaisha Oralova, Victor Kuperman
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:	reading Chinese eye movements inter-word spacing segmentation probability Psychology BF1-990
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/913b9a0cd8724d288d85a126699ca5ff
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:913b9a0cd8724d288d85a126699ca5ff
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:913b9a0cd8724d288d85a126699ca5ff2021-11-10T08:22:33ZEffects of Spacing on Sentence Reading in Chinese1664-107810.3389/fpsyg.2021.765335https://doaj.org/article/913b9a0cd8724d288d85a126699ca5ff2021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.765335/fullhttps://doaj.org/toc/1664-1078Given that Chinese writing conventions lack inter-word spacing, understanding whether and how readers of Chinese segment regular unspaced Chinese writing into words is an important question for theories of reading. This study examined the processing outcomes of introducing spaces to written Chinese sentences in varying positions based on native speaker consensus. The measure of consensus for every character transition in our stimuli sentences was the percent of raters who placed a word boundary in that position. The eye movements of native readers of Chinese were recorded while they silently read original unspaced sentences and their experimentally manipulated counterparts for comprehension. We introduced two types of spaced sentences: one with spaces inserted at every probable word boundary (heavily spaced), and another with spaces placed only at highly probable word boundaries (lightly spaced). Linear mixed-effects regression models showed that heavily spaced sentences took identical time to read as unspaced ones despite the shortened fixation times on individual words (Experiment 1). On the other hand, reading times for lightly spaced sentences and words were shorter than those for unspaced ones (Experiment 2). Thus, spaces proved to be advantageous but only when introduced at highly probable word boundaries. We discuss methodological and theoretical implications of these findings.Gaisha OralovaVictor KupermanFrontiers Media S.A.articlereadingChineseeye movementsinter-word spacingsegmentation probabilityPsychologyBF1-990ENFrontiers in Psychology, Vol 12 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	reading Chinese eye movements inter-word spacing segmentation probability Psychology BF1-990
spellingShingle	reading Chinese eye movements inter-word spacing segmentation probability Psychology BF1-990 Gaisha Oralova Victor Kuperman Effects of Spacing on Sentence Reading in Chinese
description	Given that Chinese writing conventions lack inter-word spacing, understanding whether and how readers of Chinese segment regular unspaced Chinese writing into words is an important question for theories of reading. This study examined the processing outcomes of introducing spaces to written Chinese sentences in varying positions based on native speaker consensus. The measure of consensus for every character transition in our stimuli sentences was the percent of raters who placed a word boundary in that position. The eye movements of native readers of Chinese were recorded while they silently read original unspaced sentences and their experimentally manipulated counterparts for comprehension. We introduced two types of spaced sentences: one with spaces inserted at every probable word boundary (heavily spaced), and another with spaces placed only at highly probable word boundaries (lightly spaced). Linear mixed-effects regression models showed that heavily spaced sentences took identical time to read as unspaced ones despite the shortened fixation times on individual words (Experiment 1). On the other hand, reading times for lightly spaced sentences and words were shorter than those for unspaced ones (Experiment 2). Thus, spaces proved to be advantageous but only when introduced at highly probable word boundaries. We discuss methodological and theoretical implications of these findings.
format	article
author	Gaisha Oralova Victor Kuperman
author_facet	Gaisha Oralova Victor Kuperman
author_sort	Gaisha Oralova
title	Effects of Spacing on Sentence Reading in Chinese
title_short	Effects of Spacing on Sentence Reading in Chinese
title_full	Effects of Spacing on Sentence Reading in Chinese
title_fullStr	Effects of Spacing on Sentence Reading in Chinese
title_full_unstemmed	Effects of Spacing on Sentence Reading in Chinese
title_sort	effects of spacing on sentence reading in chinese
publisher	Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/913b9a0cd8724d288d85a126699ca5ff
work_keys_str_mv	AT gaishaoralova effectsofspacingonsentencereadinginchinese AT victorkuperman effectsofspacingonsentencereadinginchinese
_version_	1718440398997684224

Effects of Spacing on Sentence Reading in Chinese

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