4 research outputs found
On reading Chinese characters: a neuropsychological and experimental study
The research reported here attempts to identify those reading
processes common to both alphabetic readers and readers of Chinese
logographic characters, and those processes unique to Chinese
reading. Three types of evidence are presented: (1) experimental
studies of normal Chinese readers; (2) clinical and experimental
investigations of Chinese patients with acquired dyslexic symptoms;
(3) a survey of developmental dyslexia in China. Like alphabetic
readers, Chinese readers show independent procedures for mapping
from orthography to meaning and from orthography to sound. Also
like alphabetic readers, the mapping to sound can be accomplished
by both a lexical and a sublexical procedure. The special
characteristics of Chinese script are analysed and their
significance in reading processes are revealed.
The research is presented in six chapters.
Chapter 1 is the background of this study which contains a
general review of reading studies of Chinese and other scripts, the
main theoretical issues and the objectives of this study.
Chapter 2 presents a new analysis of statistical properties
of Chinese characters including the consistency of phonetic
radicals.
Chapter 3 presents experiments on reading Chinese characters
by normal Chinese readers. In these studies, phonological recoding
is demonstrated; the lateralization of reading Chinese characters
is investigated; and finally, the errors of normal subjects'
reading is examined. Chapter 4 contains a clinical study on Chinese acquired
dyslexic patients. In this study, several Chinese acquired dyslexic
symptoms are reported for the first time. Analogues of surface and
deep dyslexia in Chinese patients are described for the first time.
This supports the idea of independent lexical and sublexical
procedures for mapping from orthography to sound. However, Chinese
surface and deep dyslexia show features distinct from their
alphabetic counterparts. In addition, it is also revealed that
there are some special dyslexic symptoms which are predictable from
the characteristics of Chinese script which I term associative
dyslexia and compound dyslexia.
Chapter 5 contains a survey on developmental dyslexia among
8106 Chinese pupils in which the ratio of developmental dyslexia is
found to be lower (1.92%) than in alphabetic children.
Chapter 6 presents the theoretical implications of the
studies taken together for Chinese reading and for reading
generally