Abstract: Inflectional morphology is the modification of a word to fit its grammatical role. By adding suffix, they mark properties such as tense, number, gender, case, and so forth. Compared to native English speakers, it's difficult for second language learners to process inflected words even when they study abroad for many years. Previous studies suggested the processing of inflections involved two different memory systems: declarative memory system for storage of word knowledge and procedural memory system for processing of grammar, syntax and rules. For late second language learners, they rely more on declarative memory system to process inflections. However, whether the processing will turn into procedural processing, and what kind of rules or inflections can be processed by procedural memory system, these are all not clear. According to Ullman (2004), ERP patterns can reflect the mechanism of inflection processing through different patterns of component, such as latency and scalp distribution. Therefore, the present study adopted ERP measures to examine Chinese learners’ processing of English verbal inflections (the inflection of verb progressive tenses, -ing; the inflection of regular verb perfect tenses, -ed; and the inflection of irregular verb perfect tenses). Moving window paradigm was used in this research. Sixteen Chinese students who learn English as a second language participated in the experiment; they completed a grammatical judgment task, and ERPs were recorded by NeuroScan system at the same time. The materials contain 408 sentences, with 48 sentences per condition (grammatical/ungrammatical sentences with -ing; grammatical/ungrammatical sentences with -ed; grammatical/ungrammatical sentences with irregular verb inflections in perfect tense). Behavioral results suggested that, for late English learners, the processing of –ing are better than the other two inflections. ERP results showed that, the violation of -ing caused the component of P600, the violation of -ed caused the component of N400, while the violation of irregular verb perfect tenses didn’t produce any significant ERP components. Based on these findings, we concluded that the inflection of verb progressive tenses, the inflection of regular verb perfect tenses and the inflection of irregular verb perfect tenses which have no obvious affix do not share the same processing mechanism, the difference across English verbal inflections may be related to the complexity of inflectional rules.

Key words: inflectional morphology, progressive tense, perfect tense, second language

摘要： 采用ERP技术考察了汉语母语者，英语动词三种屈折变化形式加工机制的差异。结果发现，英语动词进行式的屈折变化形式- ing的错误使用诱发了P600成分；完成式的屈折变化形式- ed的错误使用诱发了N400成分；完成式中没有明显屈折变化标识的不规则词的错误使用没有诱发典型的ERP成分。研究结果表明：对于缺乏英语使用环境、母语为汉语的晚期英语学习者来说，屈折变化形式- ing，完成式规则动词的变化形式- ed和没有明显形态变化标识的不规则动词的变化形式具有不同的加工机制，前者可能处于由陈述性记忆系统向程序性记忆系统加工的转变过程中，而后两者更多地由陈述性系统进行加工。这种加工机制的差异可能与动词屈折变化规则的复杂程度有关。

关键词: 词形屈折变化, 进行式, 完成式, 第二语言