Bird house or birdhouse? Research on compounds gives insight into how our brain works
When we hear the word ‘bird house’, do we process it as a whole or does our brain see it as ‘bird’ and ‘house’? PhD student Jiaqi Wang explored this for speakers of Mandarin Chinese.
'To understand how our brain processes language, we use a Language Production Model,' Wang explains. 'We use this model to describe what happens in our brain when we make words. For example, do we form the meaning first or the sound first?'
A Language Production Model is a complex set of sounds, words and sentence structures about which scientists still do not fully agree. For instance, does the same model apply to all languages, or are there major differences among languages? Research on compounds can help answer such questions and shed light on what happens in our brain when we use language. Wang: ‘If we keep processing a compound consistently as two words, it means we process language differently, in smaller chunks, than when we see those words as a whole.’
Four experiments
To test what happens in the brain, Wang subjected native speakers of Mandarin Chinese to four different experiments. Among other things, they had to look at a picture of a birdhouse and then name what they saw. Wang then manipulated different linguistic elements, for example by comparing common words with less common ones and showing pictures of concrete and less concrete concepts.
In the end, subjects' responses showed that they almost always think of compounds as two words. 'That is consistent with what we know from users of Indo-European languages,' Wang says. That makes it plausible that people around the world process compounds more or less the same way - and thus says something about how the brain handles language.
Continuing in science
‘Of course there is still a lot to explore,’ says Wang, who is therefore keen to continue in the world of science. The only question is where she will do that. 'Over the past year, I have been thinking a lot about my future. I really enjoyed my stay in Leiden: LUCL is one of the top institutes in the field of linguistics. At the same time, it’s sometimes lonely. Many of the friends I made end up moving on, and the winters are so dreary. So I’m back in China now, also to be closer to my family. I hope I can find a way to combine my career with my private life.'