Sub-lexical phonological and semantic processing of semantic radicals: a primed naming study

Most sinograms (i.e., Chinese characters) are phonograms (phonetic compounds). A phonogram is composed of a semantic radical and a phonetic radical, with the former usually implying the meaning of the phonogram, and the latter providing cues to its pronunciation. This study focused on the sub-lexical processing of semantic radicals which are themselves free standing sinograms. Two primed naming experiments were carried out to examine whether the meanings and pronunciations of the semantic radicals embedded in phonograms were activated or not L. Zhou · G. Peng · H-Y. Zheng · W. S-Y.Wang Language Engineering Laboratory, Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China L. Zhou e-mail: [email protected] W. S-Y. Wang e-mail: [email protected] G. Peng Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China H-Y. Zheng Department of Software Engineering, Shenzhen Institute of Information Technology, Shenzhen, China e-mail: [email protected] I-F. Su Laboratory for Communication Sciences, Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China e-mail: [email protected] G. Peng (&) Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China e-mail: [email protected] 123 Read Writ (2013) 26:967–989 DOI 10.1007/s11145-012-9402-7