Data and Materials

Parsing is thought to aid sentence comprehension and thus precede sentence comprehension. However, it is noted that in understanding English sentences for Chinese English learners, sentence comprehension is often the prerequisite for parsing and consequently precedes syntactic processing. These processes represent an intriguing circular logic: parsing utilized to aid sentence comprehension operates after sentence comprehension. This shifts our interest from the conventional topic of the relative time course of syntactic and semantic processing in sentence comprehension among first language learners to a related but rarely directly discussed topic of the relative time course of syntactic processing and sentence comprehension among second language learners, specifically Chinese English learners. By elucidating this circular logic, this study reveals and subsequently confirms through empirical experimental and statistical analysis from three perspectives that syntactic processing often ensues after sentence comprehension in Chinese English learners when understanding English sentences. This suggests that parsing often provides limited assistance in their understanding of English sentences. This pattern arises due to the heavy reliance of the parsing approach on trial and error, leading to trial-caused delay. This study not only fills the theoretical gaps regarding the time course between syntactic processing and sentence comprehension among Chinese English learners but also lays a practical foundation for creating a novel parsing method for English that allows Chinese learners to conduct syntactic processing without prior sentence comprehension, with the potential of rendering syntactic processing genuinely beneficial in English sentence comprehension for Chinese English learners.