How Quotation Types Shape Classic Novel Reading in Chinese: A Comparison Between Human Eye-Movements and Large Language Models.

ABSTRACT: Quotations play a central role in shaping narrative perspective, as they guide readers' adoption and shifting of character and narrator viewpoints. While direct speech (DS) is often assumed to enhance vividness and emotional engagement, its cognitive demands relative to free direct speech (FDS) and free indirect speech (FIS) remain unclear, particularly in Chinese classical literature. Using eye-tracking, we investigated how Chinese readers process DS, FDS, and FIS in the Four Great Classical Novels, manipulating perspective congruency through address terms versus proper names. The results revealed two key findings. First, DS consistently incurred longer fixation times than FIS, demonstrating its higher processing cost. Second, congruency effects emerged robustly across all q

SUBMITTER: Chen L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12729666 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature