Abstract: Taken 32 Chinese university students of intermediate and high proficiency as subjects whose ages ranging from 23 to 25(average age=24.38), and adopted English passive sentences as experimental materials which were divided into two literal translation sentences and free translation sentences according to whether word order of sentences was changed or not in understanding them in Chinese, the study probed into the effect of second language proficiency on passive sentences processing under semantic complexity. The results showed: Reaction time and accuracy rate of subjects of high proficiency were faster and higher than those of intermediate subjects, indicating that proficiency could still predict the degree and level of English passive sentence processing in in the verb semantic complex situations. At this time the correct rate of the semantic violations is higher and it’s reaction time is shorter, than those of syntactic violations. Double violations and semantic violations caused N400 effect significantly; the correct sentence and syntactic violations did not induce negative N400. Behavioral data supported the effect of inter-Language Syntactic Similarity ---reaction time and accuracy rate on of literal sentences was faster and higher than those of free translation sentences, whereas ERP data indicated that N600 effect was larger in literal sentences, a larger P600 effect was observed in free translation sentences. These results second language proficiency could alter the effect of inter-Language Syntactic Similarity on second sentence processing.

Key words: The Passive Voice, Semantic Complexity, Language Proficiency, Inter-Language Syntactic Similarity, Sentence Processing

摘要： 采用英语所独有且非常重要的句法结构——被动语态作为语言材料，选取某些可以在句子中的词汇顺序基本没有变化的情况下转换为汉语句式（汉语“被”字句）的“直译型”被动句以及必须根据其意义进行句式转换方能形成相应的汉语句式（汉语主动句）的“意译型”被动句作为实验材料，探讨了在动词语义复杂条件下二语熟练度（包括晚期中等熟练者和高熟练者）对被动句加工过程的影响。结果表明：高熟练者正确率均高于中等熟练者，说明在动词语义复杂的情况下熟练度依然可以预测英语被动句实时加工的程度和水平。此时，语义违例的正确率最高、反应时最短，句法违例句则与之相反。双违例引发的N400效应显著，正确句和句法违例均未引发负向的N400；高熟练者P600的波幅明显高于中等熟练者，句法违例和双违例引发的P600效应最显著。行为指标支持语言间句法加工相似性效应——直译句反应快、正确率高。ERP数据则得出了与之相反的结果：直译句比意译句诱发出更大的N400效应，意译句则引发了较大的P600。上述结果进一步说明二语熟练度对语言间句法加工相似性效应具有很强的调节作用。

关键词: 被动语态, 语义复杂度, 二语熟悉度, 语言间句法结构相似性, 句子加工