Effects of animacy and executive functions in Mandarin-speaking children’s processing of relative clauses: A self-paced listening task

This study investigated how animacy cues and executive functions (i.e., working memory [WM], inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility) influence 4- to 5-year-old Mandarin-speaking children’s processing of subject relative clauses and object relative clauses (ORCs). Using a self-paced listening task combined with a picture selection task, two experiments tested distinct animacy configurations. Experiment 1 employed relative clauses (RCs) with animate embedded nouns and manipulated the head noun animacy (animate vs. inanimate), revealing a facilitation effect for inanimate head nouns. Experiment 2 used RCs with inanimate embedded nouns and the same head noun animacy manipulation but found the opposite pattern: a facilitation effect for animate head nouns. The reverse animacy effects support the similarity-based interference processing account. Both experiments showed an ORC preference in accuracy, modulated by head noun animacy, and critically, WM played a prominent role in children’s comprehension of RCs. The study underscores the multifaceted nature of RC comprehension, which is influenced by syntactic complexity, animacy cues, and cognitive resources.