Feedforward and feedback consistency in Chinese

Abstract

Old perspective of one-way spelling-to-sound (feedforward) inconsistency was challenged and sound-to-spelling (feedback) inconsistency was highlighted in word recognition recently in alphabetic scripts. However, corresponding data on logographic script is lacking. The current study presented statistical data of a newly established data corpus – Hong Kong Corpus of Feedforward and Feedback Consistency (HKCFFC). The data corpus analysis came up with three major findings: 1). Chinese is more feedforward inconsistent than English and French while all three languages are highly feedback inconsistent. 2). Large proportion of feedforward consistent characters in HKCFFC was found feedback inconsistent 3). Strong correlation was shown between type and token consistency computed. Furthermore, feedback inconsistency computed from type and token consistency values was examined in a writing-to-dictation task on 30 university students. Significant feedback consistency effect was found in error percent rate. It evidenced that frequency-weighted token consistency better represents feedback inconsistency than type consistency.