The resolution of lexical ambiguity has been a main focus for the investigation of context effects in word recognition for the past twenty-five years (e.g. Hogaboam & Perfetti, 1975; Onifer & Swinney, 1981; Sereno, 1995; Simpson, 1981; Simpson & Burgess, 1985; Simpson & Krueger, 1991; Swinney, 1979; Tabossi, 1988; Tanenhaus, Leiman & Seidenberg, 1979). Most studies have been done on Indo-European languages (e.g. Dutch, English, and Italian), with little on non-Indo-European languages. In this chapter, we review studies on lexical ambiguity resolution in Chinese, a major Sino-Tibetan language, and show how they can contribute to our understanding of language processing. We begin with a review of models of lexical ambiguity resolution that have formed the main framework for studies on lexical ambiguity. Next we examine the different approaches used in this area. And then we discuss some linguistic properties of Chinese relevant to the study of lexical ambiguity, together with some recent studies conducted in our laboratories. Finally, we propose some directions for future studies.

Lexical ambiguity resolution: a test bench for modular/interactive theories

The fundamental purpose of language comprehension is the understanding of meaning. How is our language-processing system organized so meaning access is a rapid and accurate process? A central issue in psycholinguistics related to this question is whether the various language-processing subsystems (e.g. lexical and discourse subsystems) are interactive or modular in nature. The existing literature contains two opposing positions. Modular theory (Fodor, 1983; Forster, 1979) proposes the autonomy of the lexical processor.