Chinese function words grammaticalized from content words: Evidence from ERPs

In linguistics, Chinese function words are validated to be grammaticalized from content words. In this paper, we aim to further explore the relationship and difference between them, and verify the linguistic results using ERP methods. Sentences containing either expected or unexpected content words or function words are presented to participants in our experiment. As compared with expected Chinese content words, the unexpected ones elicit a significant N400 effect, and as compared with expected Chinese function words, the unexpected ones evoke both N400 and P600 effects. Additionally, expected content words and expected function words also elicit different ERPs. Expected content words evoke a larger P200 and one negativity while expected function words elicit two negativities. These results suggest that besides their syntactic functions, Chinese function words have their own meanings in some forms, expanding on previous researches in both phonetic languages and Chinese. It has been verified that Chinese function words are grammaticalized from content words and in general circumstances, they are easily distinguishable from content words. However, such grammaticalization is not thorough and Chinese function words still convey meanings in certain situations. These results are consistent with linguistic opinion.