Phonology, Orthography, and Semantic Activation in Reading Chinese

Phonological and orthographic constraints on semantic activation in reading Chinese were investigated using a phonologically mediated semantic priming technique. In Experiment 1, we observed no significant mediated priming and homophone density effects for homophone mediated primes having no orthographic similarity with semantic primes. Such primes, when they contained regular phonetic radicals, did produce significant effects in Experiment 2. In Experiment 3, targets were facilitated to the same extent by mediated primes that were either orthographically similar and homophonic to or only orthographically similar to semantic primes. In Experiment 4, facilitatory effects equivalent to semantic priming were observed for orthographically similar homophone mediated primes containing regular and consistent phonetic radicals. We argue that access to semantics in reading Chinese is constrained by both phonology and orthography operating in interaction with each other, and that phonology has no inherently privileged role over orthography in constraining semantic activation.