Acknowledgements

With deep appreciation and sincere gratitude, I would like to acknowledge many individuals who have given me guidance, support, and encouragement in the completion of this book which was based on my PhD dissertation.

My greatest gratitude should be first expressed to my PhD supervisor, Prof. Chen Yongjie, for his professional advice and constant support during the process of formulating a research plan, collecting literature, conducting experiments and composing and revising the dissertation. He is the driving force that prevents me from giving up and the bright beacon that helps put things in the right perspective.

I would also like to thank Prof. Wang Tongshun, Prof. Jin Yan, Prof. Zhu Zhengcai, and Prof. Wu Shiyu from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Prof. Gong Rong from East China University of Science and Technology, for their challenging questions and constructive suggestions at the early stage of my work. Many thanks are also due to Prof. Liu Longgen, Prof. Wang Zhenhua, Prof. Lei Xiuyun, Prof. Chang Hui and Associate Prof. Zhen Fengchao from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, who either gave me informative teaching in my first year as a doctoral candidate or provided solid advice and selfless help in writing this dissertation.

Special thanks also go to professors from the Linguistics Department of the University of Kansas in the United States, especially Dr. Joan Sereno, Dr. Allard Jongman, Dr. Annie Tremblay, Dr. Robert Fiorentino and Dr. Utako Minai, whose classes taught me indispensable knowledge and skills for this work. I am especially grateful to Dr. Joan Sereno, who always shared her time and advice when I was studying as a visiting scholar in her department. Robert's neurolinguistics lecture and Utako's research method class have left a deep impression on me. I was lucky to have that opportunity, for the graduate program in the Linguistics Department of KU has had the tradition of studying compound word processing. It was in there that I obtained valuable research materials which were not yet available at home. I also benefited greatly from the nourishing environment provided by such wonderful researchers.

When I was preparing for the experiments, it took me much time and energy to settle on the target English and Chinese compound words and to design the experiment procedure. Along the way many teachers and students from East China University of Science and Technology have helped me with the questionnaires and the pilot tests. Their time and attention spent on the tasks were great contributions to my data collection. They are Shi Xiaohui, Feng Zongying, Zheng Guofeng, Yang Dairuo, Zhu Xiaoqin, Dong Huimin, Zhang Jie, to name just a few. I am deeply thankful to them.

In addition, I wish to acknowledge the participation and collaboration of my dear students in the three online experiments. I am particularly indebted to Fang Xiaoliang, a former student of mine, for kindly assisting me with the administration of the lexical decision experiment. His help made the process much smoother.

Finally,my heartfelt appreciation is dedicated to my beloved family, to Dad, who has forgotten a lot of things, but never forgets to ask how I am doing with my dissertation writing, to Mom, who gives me and my son unconditional love and care, to my husband, who helps with household chores and tolerates my bad temper, and to my son, who provided timely distractions whenever I was struggling in the process.

Thank you all.