Throughanevent-relatedpotential(ERP)study,weexaminedtheprocessingmechanismsoffourtypesofChinese(Mandarin)relativeclauses(RCs),namelysubjectsubject-extractedrelativeclause(SSR),subjectobject-extractedrelativeclause(SOR),objectsubject-extractedrelativeclause(OSR),andobjectobject-extractedrelativeclause(OOR)totesttheuniversalityandlanguagespecificityofRCcomprehensionprocesses.Theresultsofthisstudysupportapreferenceforobject-extractedRCsmodifyingboththesubjectandobjectofasentence,i.e.,SORsandOORs.Inparticular,ERPresultsshowedstrongerP600effectsintheRCregionforSSRscomparedwithSORs,whichwearguereflectsacanonicalwordordertheory.StrongerN400effectswereobservedforverbscomparedwithnouns,reflectingeasierunderstandingfornouns.ERPresultsfromthematrixclauseobjectandtherelativizer'de'showedstrongerP600effectsinSSRscomparedwithSORs,suggestingthematicstructureeffectsonsyntacticconstructionandtheprocessingpreferenceofthewholesentence.
