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ICS Lecture: Jerome L. Packard, "Cognitive Processing of Chinese Writing"

Jerome Packard
November 15, 2021
2:30PM - 4:00PM
Online (registration required)

Date Range
Add to Calendar 2021-11-15 14:30:00 2021-11-15 16:00:00 ICS Lecture: Jerome L. Packard, "Cognitive Processing of Chinese Writing" The Institute for Chinese Studies presents: "Cognitive Processing of Chinese Writing" Jerome L. Packard University of Illinois Abstract: This talk explores the cognitive processing of Chinese writing in the brain. We will see how each Chinese character gives a clue to both the meaning and the pronunciation of a character.  We examine how reading Chinese activates the same brain pathways as reading English, and that the same types of reading—like whole word and phonetic reading—are used both in Chinese and in English. We will see how Chinese characters are activated in the brain automatically during Chinese speech processing, even when there are no characters present!  We will see how the part of the brain used to recognize words in English—the Visual Word Form Area—is also used to recognize Chinese words. Finally, we see that the same reading disorders occur in Chinese as in English and that the part of the brain activated in Chinese morphological processing is the same as areas activated during morphological processing in alphabetic languages. Jerome L. Packard is Professor Emeritus of Chinese at the University of Illinois.  Professor Packard received his PhD in Chinese linguistics from Cornell University and is the author of five books and over 30 articles on the Chinese language.  He has served as a Fulbright scholar in China and has taught Chinese at the University of Massachusetts, Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Illinois.  Professor Packard has performed research on Chinese aphasia and dyslexia, the first-language acquisition of Chinese and the acquisition of Chinese as a second language. Online (registration required) East Asian Studies Center easc@osu.edu America/New_York public

The Institute for Chinese Studies presents:

"Cognitive Processing of Chinese Writing"

Jerome L. Packard
University of Illinois

Abstract: This talk explores the cognitive processing of Chinese writing in the brain. We will see how each Chinese character gives a clue to both the meaning and the pronunciation of a character.  We examine how reading Chinese activates the same brain pathways as reading English, and that the same types of reading—like whole word and phonetic reading—are used both in Chinese and in English. We will see how Chinese characters are activated in the brain automatically during Chinese speech processing, even when there are no characters present!  We will see how the part of the brain used to recognize words in English—the Visual Word Form Area—is also used to recognize Chinese words. Finally, we see that the same reading disorders occur in Chinese as in English and that the part of the brain activated in Chinese morphological processing is the same as areas activated during morphological processing in alphabetic languages.

Jerome L. Packard is Professor Emeritus of Chinese at the University of Illinois.  Professor Packard received his PhD in Chinese linguistics from Cornell University and is the author of five books and over 30 articles on the Chinese language.  He has served as a Fulbright scholar in China and has taught Chinese at the University of Massachusetts, Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Illinois.  Professor Packard has performed research on Chinese aphasia and dyslexia, the first-language acquisition of Chinese and the acquisition of Chinese as a second language.

Free and Open to the Public (registration required)

If you require an accommodation, such as live captioning, to participate in this event, please contact EASC at easc@osu.edu. Requests made at least two weeks in advance of the event will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date. 

This event is supported by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant to The Ohio State University East Asian Studies Center.