1. Introduction

The word order of Chinese relative clauses is different from that of Indo European language families, usually placed before the central word, which is relatively rare in typology. The sentence processing theory is mainly based on the Indo European language family, and Chinese relative clauses can test these theories. Psycholinguists focus on the processing difficulty of Chinese subject object relative clauses, but the research results are inconsistent. There are studies showing that subject relative clauses have processing advantages, some indicate that object relative clauses are easier to process, and some find no difference between the two. Further research is needed to determine whether the processing of Chinese relative clauses is consistent with English.

2. Research question

The existing research on the processing advantages of Chinese subject object relative clauses is inconsistent, mainly due to the polysemy of the "de" character structure and the incomparability of the internal part of speech categories in subject object relative clauses. The character 'de' in Chinese has multiple grammatical functions, resulting in unclear structure of relative clauses with empty spaces, and recognition needs to be delayed until the central noun appears. In addition, the position of the subject object relative to the verb in relative clauses is reversed, and the categories of word classes are different, making it difficult to directly compare the processing difficulty. To make a reasonable and comprehensive comparison of the processing difficulty of Chinese subject object relative clauses, this study designed the following scheme: 1) using the central word region as a direct comparison basis to examine the processing of filler vacancy dependency relationships; 2) Add a successor sentence after the relative clause, introduce a third person singular pronoun to refer back to the center word, and indirectly compare the structural representation of the relative clause by examining the pronoun antecedent dependency relationship; 3) Common personal names are used as nouns in the subordinate clause, and descriptive occupational referents are used as central words to reduce semantic interference. Only the influence of syntactic complexity on processing difficulty is examined. This study adopts the eye movement experiment paradigm to answer the following questions: 1) Is the difficulty of constructing filler vacancy dependency relationships for the position of the central word in the subject object relative clause different? 2) Is there a difference in the subject object relationship between clauses when constructing a pronoun antecedent dependency relationship in a succeeding sentence?

3. Theoretical framework

This chapter analyzes the theoretical framework of the processing advantages of Chinese subject relative clauses, mainly involving experience based theory and working memory based theory. Based on empirical theory, the processing difficulty of sentence structure is related to the familiarity of the interpreter with the structure, and Chinese subject relative clauses are predicted to have processing advantages due to their high frequency of use. On the contrary, the theory based on working memory suggests that storing and integrating long-distance dependencies can consume cognitive resources and lead to processing difficulties. Due to the long dependency distance between the filler word and the vacancy in the subject relative clause, as well as the interference effect, it is more difficult to predict its processing and has a processing disadvantage.

4. Eye Movement Experiment

This chapter studied the processing advantages of Chinese subject relative clauses and object relative clauses through eye tracking experiments. The experiment adopts a single factor within subject design, with the independent variable being the relative clause type, and a total of 36 sets of stimulus sentences. The experimental materials include relative clauses and successor sentences. The relative clauses adopt a dual vitality pattern, while the successor sentences contain adverbials of time or place, personal pronouns, adverbs, main verbs, and their objects. Before the experiment, a semantic credibility assessment was conducted on simple sentences rewritten with relative clauses, and the results showed no significant difference in credibility between the subject and object relative clauses. The experimental subjects were 50 undergraduate or graduate students from a university in Shanghai. The Eye Link 1000 Plus eye tracking system was used to record the movement of the subjects' right eye. The experiment is divided into three parts: eye movement calibration, practice, and formal experiment. Participants are required to silently read sentences and answer comprehension questions. Eye tracking data analysis focuses on the regions of interest of the central word and personal pronouns in relative clauses, selecting four indicators: first reading time, backtracking path time, second reading time, and total reading time. The statistical analysis adopts a linear mixed effects model, with the object relative clause condition as the baseline, the independent variable relative clause type as the fixed factor, and the subjects and experimental items as random factors.

5. Experimental results

The experimental results show that there is no significant difference in the accuracy of comprehension questions between subject relative clauses and object relative clauses. Eye tracking analysis found that the total reading time of subject relative clauses in the area after the central word and the merging area between pronouns and the next word is shorter, indicating a processing advantage.

6. Discussion

Eye tracking data reveals that Chinese subject relative clauses exhibit processing advantages in constructing filler vacancy dependency relationships, especially in the area after the center word. Compared with object relative clauses, subject relative clauses are easier to integrate dependency relationships. This discovery contradicts the dependency locality theory of working memory, but supports the experience based theory. The study also found that subject relative clauses have an advantage in constructing pronoun antecedent dependency relationships in successor sentences, indicating that the antecedent (center word) is easier to extract. This may be related to the high accessibility and easy relatedness of the subject. The research results support the processing advantage of Chinese subject relative clauses and are consistent with similar findings in English, indicating a universal preference for subject relatability.

7. Conclusion

This study solved the problem of "incomparability" in the processing of Chinese subject object relative clauses through the reading eye movement paradigm. Research has found that Chinese subject relative clauses are easier to process than object relative clauses, supporting empirical theory and providing evidence for the universal advantage of subject relatability between languages. The study only involves modifying the subject of relative clauses, and in the future, the position factor of relative clauses can be considered.