The Semantic Accessibility of Non-character Semantic Radicals in Chinese Characters’ Recognition

Aim. Prior research concentrated on testifying to the presence of the semantic activation of semantic radicals as well as the separate role of a couple of modulating factors like Transparency of the phonograms, Position of semantic radicals, and Authenticity of the phonograms. However, the combined and hierarchical effects of these factors on non-character semantic accessibility remain largely unexplored. The present study, first proposed a hypothesis on the semantic accessibility hierarchy of non-character semantic radicals, and empirically investigated the hypothesis. Materials and Design. The experiment adopted a 2 (Prime type: body effector vs. Asterisk *) × 6 (Target type: transparent phonograms embedding non-character effector semantic radical on the left [TPA1] vs. opaque phonograms embedding non-character effector semantic radical on the left [TPA2] vs. pseudo-characters embedding non-character effector semantic radical on the left [TPA3] vs. pseudo-characters embedding non-character effector semantic radical on the right [TPA4] vs. TPAcontrol1 vs. TPAcontrol2) design. The prime type comprised three effector-based characters: “脚” (/jiao3/, foot), “嘴”(/zui3/, mouth), and “手” (/shou3/, hand), together with a control asterisk “*”. A primed lexical decision task was administered to 30 native Mandarin-speaking participants. Results. Data of 26 participants were retained for analysis, yielding a mean accuracy of 93.62%. Trials with errors or reaction times exceeding 3 SD were excluded prior to analysis. Significant priming effects were observed across most target conditions, with effect magnitudes partially confirming the proposed hierarchy: the highest semantic accessibility was observed for non-character semantic radicals left-positioned in pseudo-characters (TPA3), followed by those right-positioned in pseudo-characters (TPA4), then those left-positioned in transparent phonograms (TPA1), and the lowest for those left-positioned in opaque phonograms (TPA2). Conclusions. The semantic behavior of non-character semantic radicals was shaped by the host phonograms configured by such modulating factors as phonograms’ transparency, authenticity, and semantic radicals’ position.