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The resolution of case conflicts from a neurophysiological perspective
Abstract
We present two ERP experiments examining the resolution of language processing conflicts involving the multidimensional linguistic feature case, which determines processing in both syntactic and interpretive respects. Ungrammatical German structures with two identically case-marked arguments (double subject or double object constructions) were tested. In earlier studies, double subject constructions have been shown to elicit a biphasic pattern consisting of an N400 effect (a marker of thematic integration problems) followed by a P600 effect (a marker of syntactic ill-formedness). Here, we compare double nominative (subject case) constructions with double datives (indirect object case; Experiment 1) and double accusatives (direct object case; Experiment 2). All types of double case ungrammaticalities elicited a biphasic N400-P600 response. However, double datives differed from double nominatives in that they elicited a larger P600, suggesting that the ill-formedness is more salient in structures with two dative arguments. Double accusatives, by contrast, elicited a stronger N400 in comparison to double nominatives, suggesting that they induce more severe semantic-thematic integration problems. The results demonstrate that the human language comprehension system is sensitive to fine grained linguistic distinctions between different cases and utilizes these in its attempts to solve processing conflicts.
... In a study in adults by Frisch and Schlesewsky (2005), the processing of interrogative sentences with a double accusative and a double nominative marked argument was investigated. The authors observed a more pronounced negativity around 400 ms (N400) in sentences with a double accusative than in sentences with a double nominative. ...
... The IFG activation in the double nominative condition is not in line with this argumentation. If the accusative was the more salient marker and therefore faster to detect (Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005), this would implicate that the children have not identify this violation and try to build a local structure in the double nominative condition. This would be contrary to the findings in the two cor- In summary, comparing syntactically complex sentences to a baseline, the predicted involved IFG activation could be found, but was observed in BA 45. ...
... The missing FO activation in the second violation condition (double accusative) can be explained by more salient characteristics of accusative markers. A study by Frisch and Schlesewsky (2005) indicated that the perception of a double nominative is somewhat delayed and its detection is not as fast as in the double accusative condition. Most importantly, focusing on Broca's area, a region of interest analysis revealed that higher processing demands for object-initial sentences can also be found in adults. ...
... Schipke, Friederici and Oberecker (2011) observed a positive-going wave in young German children (3-, 4-and-a-half and 6-years-old) during the auditory presentation of sentences with double-nominatives (e.g. Der Tiger küsst *der/den Frosch 'The-Nom tiger kisses the-Nom frog') 5 , a thematic error in German that elicits N400/P600 waves in adults (Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005). ERPs for the three age groups were characterized first by a broadly distributed frontal negative-going wave between 300 and 700 ms after stimulus presentation. ...
... The negativity was followed by a late P600like positive wave. This biphasic pattern was similar to the N400/P600 present in adult ERPs in equivalent conditions (Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005), considering that N400s tend to be more broadly distributed in children than adults. However, in the same study, double-accusative violations (e.g. ...
... In addition the design compares two different target words, where frequency, animacy and other factors might also influence ERP responses. Frisch, 2000;Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005) rather than the ELAN/P600 complex. Moreover, at the point where the data are analyzed (i.e., clown) the sentences were not yet ungrammatical (consider Who did Barbie push the clown into?). ...
Recent advances in neuroimaging have allowed for insight into the millisecond-by-millisecond unfolding of language processing in the brain. In particular, event-related brain potentials (ERPs), non-invasive measures of scalp-based EEG (electroencephalographic) recordings of underlying brain activity, can reflect on-line neurocognitive processes involved in linguistic processing. In this chapter we will present a review of ERP research focusing on lexical-semantic, morphosyntactic and syntactic processing during language comprehension in children with and without specific language impairment (SLI). We will highlight results important for our understanding of SLI, as well as methodological issues and challenges involved in ERP research.
... Importantly, if sentential arguments resemble each other in one or more dimensions of prominence, thematic role identification might be hampered, as may be observed in some form of processing cost. This hypothesis has received support from ERP studies on the processing of animacy and case information during German sentence comprehension (e.g., Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2001; Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005). Frisch and Schlesewsky (2001) conflict (two nominative case-marked arguments) when both arguments were animate, but only a P600 effect when the second argument was inanimate. ...
... In contrast, the inanimate object nouns are thematically less problematic but incorrect case marking is nevertheless detected. It stands to argue, however, that the ungrammatical sentences that led to N400-P600 effects in previous work (e.g., Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2001; Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005) incurred more thematic ambiguity (due to double nominative case marking) than is likely here. In those studies, the two sentential arguments always preceded the verb such that thematic interpretation was independent of verb-semantics, and sentence position alone was insufficient to establish a thematic interpretation. ...
... Because the asymmetry of animacy and object marking are coextended, though, we cannot tease apart the differential impact of animate versus inanimate nouns and the differential impact of neglecting versus over-application of this particular grammatical rule (see also Choudhary et al., 2009). Another difference is that our participants answered simple comprehension questions (which were unrelated to the critical manipulation), whereas participants in previous work (e.g., Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2001; Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005; see also Frenzel et al., 2011 ) explicitly evaluated sentence well-formedness. Explicit judgment tasks might alter how participants process language as compared to without a secondary task, and, moreover, tend to elicit positive ERP components at critical-words even if responses are post-sentence (e.g., Roehm, Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, Rösler, & Schlesewsky, 2007; see also Kuperberg, 2007). ...
... For example, in an ERP violation paradigm, German-speaking children between the ages of 4 and 6 showed a pattern of effects, which suggested that their thematic predictions were completely dependent on word order. Specifically, upon hearing a sentence fragment with an initial nominative NP, they experienced a processing disruption (a P600) when they encountered a second nominative argument, much like adults (Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005), suggesting that they were expecting an accusative object. However, when the same children heard a sentence with an initial accusative NP they also showed an increase in positivity to a subsequent nominative, suggesting that despite the case marker on the first noun they were still expecting to find an object. ...
... Critically, this difference between the groups was not present in Experiment 2 in which the crucial regions came before the verb. Interestingly, we saw no evidence in our data that the adults had a general preference for agent or subject-initial sentences, though this pattern has been found in a variety of languages and tasks (e.g., Bever, 1970;Frazier, 1987;de Vincenzi, 1991;Schriefers et al., 1995;Schlesewsky, Fanselow, Kliegl, & Krems, 2000;Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005;Demiral, Schlesewsky, & Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, 2008). ...
During language comprehension we must rapidly determine the thematic roles of arguments (who did what to whom) in order to semantically integrate the players into a single event and predict upcoming structure. While some languages signal these relations mostly with reliable word order, others rely more on case markers. The present study explores whether Turkish-speaking children use case marking predictively during online language comprehension. Specifically, we use the visual-world paradigm to test whether 4-year-olds (and adults) can use a contrast between nominative and accusative case on the first noun to predict the referent of the second noun in verb-medial and verb-final spoken sentences. In verb-medial sentences, both children and adults used case to predict the upcoming noun, but children did so only after hearing the verb. In verb-final structures, however, both children and adults made predictive looks to the correct referent prior to the second noun (and the verb). Thus, Turkish-speaking preschoolers interpret case marking incrementally, independent of the verb, and use it to anticipate the upcoming argument. These findings are inconsistent with the hypothesis that the online interpretation of case marking depends on a late maturing neural circuit. The predictive use of case at four provides strong evidence that children's comprehension relies on broad, abstract mappings between syntax and semantics, which allow children to determine the event role of a case marked argument prior to identifying the verb.
... example 1a ⁄ b) compared to canonical word order, suggesting that there are no additional processing costs for the non-canonical order (Frisch, Schlesewsky, Saddy & Alpermann, 2002). A further study replicated this result in general, although a minor effect at NP2 in the form of a more positivegoing wave was found at one electrode position for the object-initial structure (Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005). The authors interpreted this small effect as a preference for a subject-initial word order in German (see below). ...
... Following the processing of the object noun in initial position, processing of the rest of the sentence is effortless in adults, as indicated by the absence of any effect at NP2. This can be taken as further evidence of the oftencited subject-first preference in German speakers (Beim Graben et al., 2000;Friederici & Mecklinger, 1996;Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005;Mecklinger et al., 1995). ...
The acquisition of the function of case-marking is a key step in the development of sentence processing for German-speaking children since case-marking reveals the relations between sentential arguments. In this study, we investigated the development of the processing of case-marking and argument structures in children at 3, 4;6 and 6 years of age, as well as its processing in adults. Using EEG, we measured event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to object-initial compared to subject-initial German sentences including transitive verbs and case-marked noun phrases referring to animate arguments. We also tested children's behavioral competence in a sentence-picture matching task. Word order and case-marking were manipulated in German main clauses. Adults' behavioral performance was close to perfect and their ERPs revealed a negativity for the processing of the topicalized accusative marked noun phrase (NP1) and no effect for the second NP (NP2) in the object-initial structure. Children's behavioral data showed a significant above-chance outcome in the subject-initial condition for all age groups, but not for the object-initial condition. In contrast to adults, the ERPs of 3-year-olds showed a positivity at NP1, indicating difficulties in processing the non-canonical object-initial structures. Children at the age of 4;6 did not differ in the processing patterns of object-initial vs. subject-initial sentences at NP1 but showed a slight positivity at NP2. This positivity at NP2, which implies syntactic integration difficulties, is more pronounced in 6-year-olds but is absent in adults. At NP1, however, 6-year-olds show the same negativity as adults. In sum, the behavioral and electrophysiological findings demonstrate that children in each age group use different strategies, which are indicative of their developmental stage. While 3-year-olds merely detect differences in the two sentence structures without being able to use this information for sentence comprehension, 4;6-year-olds proceed to use mainly a word-order strategy, processing NP1 in both conditions in the same manner, which leads to processing difficulties upon detecting case-marking cues at NP2. At the age of 6, children are able to use case-marking cues for comprehension but still show enhanced effort for correct thematic-role assignment.
... However, work also shows that the the predictions of larger models and those trained on more data increasingly correlate with human incremental online predictions, in particular those indexed by N400 amplitude (Frank et al., 2015;Aurnhammer and Frank, 2019a,b;Michaelov and Bergen, 2020;Merkx and Frank, 2021;Michaelov et al., 2021Michaelov et al., , 2022. In general, the two are aligned-it is easier for humans to process well-formed sentences with plausible semantics (Frisch and Schlesewsky, 2005;Nieuwland et al., 2020). But in cases such as the present study, the two are not aligned, and what we see instead is that as language models increase in size, their predictions more closely correlate with human online predictions, even when these are contrary to offline judgements. ...
Language Models appear to perform poorly on quantification. We ask how badly. 'Few'-type quantifiers, as in 'few children like vegetables' might pose a particular challenge for Language Models, since the sentence components without the quantifier are likely to co-occur, and because 'few'-type quantifiers are rare. We present 960 sentences stimuli from two human neurolinguistic experiments to 22 autoregressive transformer models of differing sizes. Not only do the models perform poorly on 'few'-type quantifiers, but overall the larger the model, the worse its performance. We interpret this inverse scaling as suggesting that larger models increasingly reflect online rather than offline human processing, and argue that decreasing performance of larger models may challenge uses of Language Models as the basis for Natural Language Systems.
... Regardless of the typological characteristics of nominative/ergative case-marking of subjects, the presence of a P600 effect in the current study is consistent with existing findings in native speakers of SOV languages of ergativeabsolutive Basque (Zawiszewski and Friederici, 2009;Dıaz et al., 2011;Zawiszewski et al., 2016;Chow et al., 2018) and splitergative Hindi (Nevins et al., 2007). It is noteworthy to mention that no indication of P600 was found in nominative-marked cases in Hindi speakers (Choudhary et al., 2009) during the double case processing (ergative vs. nominative) and a more pronounced P600 was observed during the dative-marked cases as opposed to nominative-and accusative-marked cases in German (Frisch and Schlesewsky, 2005), reflecting the sensitivity of the brain either to linguistic distinctions between different cases or to non-default cases (i.e., ergative in Hindi or dative in German). With all caution (there was no significant interaction), if replicable, the numerically larger P600 in non-native than in native speakers could be partially attributed to the involvement of higher cognitive control in second language processing, which was indicated also for an SOV language in our recent fMRI study (Meykadeh et al., 2021). ...
While most studies on neural signals of online language processing have focused on a few—usually western—subject-verb-object (SVO) languages, corresponding knowledge on subject-object-verb (SOV) languages is scarce. Here we studied Farsi, a language with canonical SOV word order. Because we were interested in the consequences of second-language acquisition, we compared monolingual native Farsi speakers and equally proficient bilinguals who had learned Farsi only after entering primary school. We analyzed event-related potentials (ERPs) to correct and morphosyntactically incorrect sentence-final syllables in a sentence correctness judgment task. Incorrect syllables elicited a late posterior positivity at 500–700 ms after the final syllable, resembling the P600 component, as previously observed for syntactic violations at sentence-middle positions in SVO languages. There was no sign of a left anterior negativity (LAN) preceding the P600. Additionally, we provide evidence for a real-time discrimination of phonological categories associated with morphosyntactic manipulations (between 35 and 135 ms), manifesting the instantaneous neural response to unexpected perturbations. The L2 Farsi speakers were indistinguishable from L1 speakers in terms of performance and neural signals of syntactic violations, indicating that exposure to a second language at school entry may results in native-like performance and neural correlates. In nonnative (but not native) speakers verbal working memory capacity correlated with the late posterior positivity and performance accuracy. Hence, this first ERP study of morphosyntactic violations in a spoken SOV nominative-accusative language demonstrates ERP effects in response to morphosyntactic violations and the involvement of executive functions in non-native speakers in computations of subject-verb agreement.
... Some further studies revealed an N400 in sentences with case or verb inflection violation (e.g. Bornkessel et al., 2003;Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005;Nieuwland et al., 2013) or case/aspect violations in Hindi (Choudhary et al., 2009). ...
The current study aims at contributing to the interpretation of the most prominent language-related ERP effects, N400 and P600, by investigating how neural responses to congruent and incongruent sentence endings vary, when the language processor processes the full array of the lexico-syntactic content in verbs with three affixes in canonical Turkish sentences. The ERP signals in response to three different violation conditions reveal a similar triphasic (P200/N400/P600) pattern resembling in topography and peak amplitude The P200 wave is interpreted as the extraction of meaning from written.form by generating a code which triggers the computation of neuronal ensembles in the distributed LTM (N400). The P600 potential reflects the widely distributed coordination process of activated neuronal patterns of semantic and morphosyntactic cues by connecting the generated subsets of these patterns and adapting them into the current context. It further can be deduced that these ERP components reflect cognitive rather than linguistic processes.
... al., 1998). Schlesewsky and Frisch (2005) examine the process of subject and object case markers in German using the ERP method. In the first experiment of this study, there are non-grammatical structures in which both subject and object are used identically as nominative and dative case marked, and in the second experiment, non-grammatical structures in which both subject and object are used identically as nominative and accusative case marked. ...
There is no consensus in terms of processing subject- object case markers (Bornkessel, et al., 2004; Schlesewsky & Frisch, 2005; Mueller, et al., 2005; Chow, et al., 2018). The purpose of this study is to determine how +/- definite objects affect the processing cost and to reveal whether there is a processing difference in subject-object case markers. In the first analysis, it is observed that + definite objects are processed easier than - definite objects. Possible reasons are different definiteness and specificity of +/- definite objects and - definite objects creating pseudo incorporation with verb, which causes additional processing cost. In the second analysis, it is observed that subject case creates more processing cost than object case. It is thought that assignment of case markers of subject within TP, object within VP, linear distance between subject and verb, and involvement of more features in subject assignment may cause this difference.
... Both N400 and LAN effects are indexed by a large positive shift called P600, which occurs between 500-900 ms after the stimulus post-onset (e.g., Coulson, King, & Kutas, 1998;Friederici, 2002;Friederici & Frisch, 2000;Gunter, Friederici, & Schriefers, 2000). This positive marker is related to N400 or LAN effects on syntactic reanalysis and correction of garden-path effects, grammatical violations, thematic hierarchizing, syntactic integration, repair, or complexity (see e.g., Friederici, 2002;Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005;Hagoort et al., 1993;Hagoort, Brown, & Osterhout, 1999;Kaan & Swaab, 2003;Osterhout & Holcomb, 1992). Studies have reported these three effects for morphosyntactic case marking violations, namely N400, LAN and P600 effects (see e.g., Friederici & Frisch, 2000;Hopf, Bayer, Bader, & Meng, 1998 components were obtained in studies on linguistic processing of morphosyntactic information, they are likely to reflect the case marking manipulation in this study. ...
Focused elements are generally marked with syntactic canonicity and prosody. Being a scrambled language, Turkish uses both syntactic and prosodic information to mark the focus. However, it does not allow for focus marking in post-verbal position. In this study, the neurophysiological processes of the focus in Turkish are examined by using prosodic and syntactic information. Recent psycholinguistics studies assume that there is an interaction between prosody and syntax through the focus in the online sentence comprehension process. Thirty participants (16 female and 14 male between the ages of 19 and 33), whose native language was Turkish and who spoke monolingual Turkish, and who did not have any neurological, hearing, or linguistic impairments, took part in the experiments measured with Electroencephalogram (EEG). Using an event-related potentials
(ERPs) design, this study provides evidence for an interaction between prosody and syntax in Turkish. The experimental design of the study consisted of prosodic, syntactic, and prosodic-syntactic violations. Participants were asked to listen 300 auditory stimuli (100 filler sentences) including sentences with both congruent and incongruent focus. The stimuli consisted of 50 sentences for each experimental condition. All critical words occurred in the sentence-final positions. For the prosodic violation critical words were focused via incongruent
focusing on post-verbal position, and for the syntactic violation critical words were manipulated with case marking manipulation (i.e., accusative case versus dative case violations). In addition, for the interaction of prosodic and syntactic violations, critical words were incongruent focused and incongruent case was marked. The results revealed that prosodic incongruity elicited a broadly distributed positivity in posterior regions (400-1200 ms) lateralized to the left
hemisphere and a right anterior negativity (RAN) (300-500 ms) effect. Syntactic violations also indicated a distributed anterior negativity (300-500 ms) effect. Supportive evidence for the late interaction of prosodic and syntactic processing in the neural integration of positive 600 (P600) and Closure Positive Shift (CPS) was observed. The findings provide support for recent neurocognitive approaches
for late interaction between prosody and syntax in the sentence-final position in Turkish sentences.
... The results from ergative and dative case manipulations in Basque and those from accusative and dative case manipulations in Spanish suggest that information about the thematic hierarchy of the arguments is processed and established during the early stage of processing (300-500 ms) as indicated by the N400 component (cf. Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2001;Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005), whereas the errors are reanalyzed and repaired later on (500-900 ms). Interestingly, data from Spanish show that predictions concerning the thematic roles of the arguments are made in absence of any semantic information: a N400 is present at the first critical word position (al vs. *el) when no lexical information about the upcoming word has been provided yet. ...
Evidence shows that second language (L2) processing depends on the Age of Acquisition (AoA), proficiency and differences between L1 and L2 grammar. Here we focus on the influence of the latter factor on L2 processing. To this end, we tested early (AoA = 3 years) and highly proficient Spanish-Basque and Basque-Spanish bilinguals by means of Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) while processing noun morphology in Basque (Experiments 1 and 2) and Spanish (Experiments 3 and 4). Both behavioral and electrophysiological results revealed significant differences between L1 and L2 speakers: non-natives made more errors and elicited a smaller P600 for violations than natives when processing ergative and allative morphology in Basque and accusative, dative and allative in Spanish. These findings reveal that, even for early and highly proficient bilinguals, (a) L2 processing is modulated by L1 grammar and (b) native vs. non-native differences obtain only when L1 and L2 morphological categories differ but not otherwise.
... Strikingly, they found an N400 in the latter case (animate objects without the case-marker), but a P600 in the former (inanimate objects with the case-marker). They argue that while the P600 is a clear reflex of ungrammaticality (inanimate objects should not be preceded by the case-marker), the N400 indicates thematic ambiguity (an animate noun phrase is inherently agentive and therefore not a typical object), see also Frisch and Schlesewsky (2005). ...
We examine the effects of morphosyntactic marking and selectional restrictions of predicates on conceptual and grammatical animacy. We argue in favour of animacy as an ontological category with human, animate and inanimate entities representing discrete subtypes in the domain of entities. We distinguish between conceptual animacy, which is a gradient notion, and grammatical animacy, for which discrete, binary oppositions are needed. The main aim of this paper is to argue for a distinction between overt and covert type shifts in animacy. On the one hand, overt shifts are linguistic solutions to type mismatches in the grammar. Crucially, these type shifts do not involve a shift in conceptual animacy. Covert animacy shifts, on the other hand, brought about by selectional restrictions or by the linguistic context in general, do involve a proper type shift in conceptual animacy. By making explicit the relation between the gradience of conceptual and the discreteness of grammatical animacy, and by exploring the distinction between covert and overt type shifts that involve animacy, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of animacy and its effects on language.
... By contrast, the procedural memory system is thought to be comprised of parietal, cerebellar, basal ganglia and frontal structures, including premotor regions ( Newman et al., 2001;Ullman, 2016). Moreover, Ullman (2001Ullman ( , 2016) argues that specific ERP components are rooted in the neuroanatomical structures of the two memory systems: the N400, which is often associated with lexico-semantic violations (but see, for example, Frisch and Schlesewsky, 2001Schlesewsky, , 2005Choudhary et al., 2009;Dröge et al., 2016, for evidence against a narrow lexicosemantic function of the N400), is suggested to be tied to MTL and rhinal cortex activation, while left anterior negativities are tied to procedural memory activation ( Ullman, 2001Ullman, , 2016Morgan-Short et al., 2012). Late positivities, such as the P600, are discussed as originating from 'conscious syntactic integration' processes ( Ullman, 2016). ...
We hypothesize a beneficial influence of sleep on the consolidation of the combinatorial mechanisms underlying incremental sentence comprehension. These predictions are grounded in recent work examining the effect of sleep on the consolidation of linguistic information, which demonstrate that sleep-dependent neurophysiological activity consolidates the meaning of novel words and simple grammatical rules. However, the sleep-dependent consolidation of sentence-level combinatorics has not been studied to date. Here, we propose that dissociable aspects of sleep neurophysiology consolidate two different types of combinatory mechanisms in human language: sequence-based (order-sensitive) and dependency-based (order-insensitive) combinatorics. The distinction between the two types of combinatorics is motivated both by cross-linguistic considerations and the neurobiological underpinnings of human language. Unifying this perspective with principles of sleep-dependent memory consolidation, we posit that a function of sleep is to optimize the consolidation of sequence-based knowledge (the when) and the establishment of semantic schemas of unordered items (the what) that underpin cross-linguistic variations in sentence comprehension. This hypothesis builds on the proposal that sleep is involved in the construction of predictive codes, a unified principle of brain function that supports incremental sentence comprehension. Finally, we discuss neurophysiological measures (EEG/MEG) that could be used to test these claims, such as the quantification of neuronal oscillations, which reflect basic mechanisms of information processing in the brain.
... That is, the N400 is often reported to be sensitive to unexpected sentence continuations in terms of both form and content (Ito, Corley, Martin, Pickering, & Nieuwland, 2016). Therefore, N400 effects might signal whether the incoming words do not fit the expectations of what comes next (Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005). In other words, the amplitude of the N400 response varies inversely to the cloze probability of the following word (Lau, Phillips, & Poeppel, 2008). ...
This paper tested an assumption of the gradient model of split intransitivity put forward by Sorace (“Split Intransitivity Hierarchy” (SIH), 2000, 2004), namely that agentivity is a fundamental feature for unergatives but not for unaccusatives. According to this hypothesis, the animacy of the verb’s argument should affect the processing of unergative verbs to a greater extent than unaccusative verbs. By using eye-tracking methodology we monitored the online processing and integration costs of the animacy of the verb’s argument in intransitive verbs. We observed that inanimate subjects caused longer reading times only for unergative verbs, whereas the animacy of the verb’s argument did not influence the pattern of results for unaccusatives. In addition, the unergative verb data directly support the existence of gradient effects on the processing of the subject argument.
... German the case marking system is not as transparent as it is in languages like Turkish as it is conflated by number and gender information (Slobin, 1982). German-speaking adults have been reported to show an effect of surprisal in the form of biphasic N400/P600 effects upon encountering object-initial sentences (Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005;Brauer, Anwander, Perani, & Friederici, 2013) and they have been reported to combine the verb information with the case marking information to be able to predict the second upcoming argument in an utterance (Kamide, Scheepers, & Altmann, 2003). Thus, a moral from these studies is that the basis for thematic prediction varies cross-linguistically so some cues might be more opportunistically used in some languages than others. ...
Languages differ along various dimensions with respect to how they mark argument relations. In about 35% of the world's languages, the subject appears prior to the verb, which is followed by the object. These languages tend to have strict word order and scarce morphosyntactic marking (Dryer, 2013a; Dryer, 2013b; Iggesen, 2005). In 42% of world's languages, on the other hand, the verb appears following the object. These languages tend to have flexible word ordering and rich morphosyntax (Dryer, 2013a; Dryer, 2013). It is plausible to think that in languages where the verb information appears relatively early in an utterance and where the location of the arguments is relatively fixed, the verb and the word order provide reliable information with respect to the thematic role of the arguments during the course of online interpretation; whereas in verb-final languages with flexible word order, morphosyntax might be more reliable in understanding the event structure revealed in an utterance.
... The LPC was interpreted as a result of a differentiation between licit and illicit neologisms and followed an earlier negativity (N400), which was ascribed to the detection of a nonexistent structure. A late positivity was previously found and associated with the re-analysis of syntactic complexity and ambiguity or the violation of (morpho-) syntactic structures (Friederici, 1995(Friederici, , 2002Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005;Hagoort, 2003;Meerendonk, Chwilla, & Kolk, 2013). The N400 component, however, has been ascribed to the differentiation between existent and non-existent words in numerous studies (Bentin et al., 1999;Holcomb, 1988Holcomb, , 1993Holcomb & Neville, 1990;Kutas & Hillyard, 1980). ...
The paper reports the results of a learnability experiment with German speakers, investigating the role of universal phonotactic constraints and language use in language processing. Making use of an artificial language paradigm, participants learned nonce words with existent and non-existent German final consonant clusters adhering to or violating sonority sequencing principles postulated for consonant clusters. Behavioural data and event-related brain potentials in response to these cluster properties were obtained twice, before and after learning word- picture-pairs. The results show (1) that learning and processing of final consonant clusters is facilitated by adherence to the sonority hierarchy, and (2) that actual existence of well- and ill- formed consonant clusters aids processing mechanisms. Thus, both implicit knowledge of universal phonotactic principles and frequency-based factors are demonstrated to play a role in the online-processing of words.
... In addition, the object-verb agreement violation elicited an early posterior negativity between 150 and 300 ms. The finding of a P600 for subject-verb agreement, object-verb agreement, and ergative case violations is in line with previous studies with native listeners across several languages, such as English, Spanish, Basque, and Hindi (Coulson et al., 1998a,b;Frisch and Schlesewsky, 2005;Nevins et al., 2007;Silva-Pereyra and Carreiras, 2007;Zawiszewski et al., 2011). In addition, in previous studies with Basque and Hindi native listeners, an N400 was found for objectverb agreement and ergative case violations (Nevins et al., 2007;Zawiszewski and Friederici, 2009;Zawiszewski et al., 2011). ...
In the present study, we investigate how early and late L2 learners process L2 grammatical traits that are either present or absent in their native language (L1). Thirteen early (AoA = 4 years old) and 13 late (AoA = 18 years old) Spanish learners of Basque performed a grammatical judgment task on auditory Basque sentences while their event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded. The sentences contained violations of a syntactic property specific to participants' L2, i.e., ergative case, or violations of a syntactic property present in both of the participants' languages, i.e., verb agreement. Two forms of verb agreement were tested: subject agreement, found in participants' L1 and L2, and object agreement, present only in participants' L2. Behaviorally, early bilinguals were more accurate in the judgment task than late L2 learners. Early bilinguals showed native-like ERPs for verb agreement, which differed from the late learners' ERP pattern. Nonetheless, approximation to native-likeness was greater for the subject-verb agreement processing, the type of verb-agreement present in participants' L1, compared to object-verb agreement, the type of verb-agreement present only in participants' L2. For the ergative argument alignment, unique to L2, the two non-native groups showed similar ERP patterns which did not correspond to the natives' ERP pattern. We conclude that non-native syntactic processing approximates native processing for early L2 acquisition and high proficiency levels when the syntactic property is common to the L1 and L2. However, syntactic traits that are not present in the L1 do not rely on native-like processing, despite early AoA and high proficiency.
... Their interpretation of the occurrence / absence of the N400 suggest that identical case-marked and animate arguments cannot easily be thematically hierarchized due to animacy information. They argue that the language processor has no possibility to overrule the case-marking violation by thematically hierarchizing the subject and object NPs due to animacy (see also Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005;Frenzel, Schlesewsky, & Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, 2011). In other words, the N400 is enhanced in contexts where thematic hierarchizing is challenged because animacy information does not resolve the processing problems due to ill case-markings. ...
Diese Dissertation untersucht den Einfluss des Erwerbsalters und des Kenntnisstandes auf die Verarbeitung semantischer und syntaktischer Strukturen des Deutschen als Zweitsprache. Gegenstand sind drei EKP Studien, die die Verarbeitung von semantischen Anomalien, Doppel-Nominativ Verletzungen und nicht-lizenzierten negativ polaren Elementen untersuchen. Neben den Fragen, welchen Einfluss das Erwerbsalter und der Kenntnisstand auf die Verarbeitung der Zweitsprache nehmen und welche daraus resultierenden Unterschiede sich bezüglich der Dissoziation zwischen der Verarbeitung semantischer und syntaktischer Strukturen ergeben, widmet sich diese Arbeit zentral der Frage, ob die Einflüsse von Erwerbsalter und Kenntnisstand unabhängig oder interaktiv auftreten und ob sie eher auf einen kontinuierlichen Verlauf oder sichtbare Grenzen hinweisen.
... Three out of four of these studies (Kotz et al., 2008;Proverbio et al., 2002;Weber and Lavric, 2008) presented syntactic violations at the final positions of the sentence, which have been previously reported to elicit N400-like effects reflecting final wrap-up processes (Hagoort, 2003;Hagoort and Brown, 1999). The fourth study (Zawiszewski et al., 2011) found an N400 effect for case and person violations suggesting a greater involvement of semantic system in the processing of syntactic anomaly, which have been observed also for native speakers (case violation: Frisch and Schlesewsky, 2005;person violation: Mancini et al., 2011a,b). Thus, the high number of N400 effects reported in this group of studies seems to be more related to specific characteristics of the experimental designs than to participants' early AoA. ...
Learning a second language (L2) can be crucial in the present globalized society. However, reaching the level of L1 performance of native speakers is still a challenge for many. Distinct factors could account for the persistent gap observed between natives’ and non-natives’ syntactic abilities: L1-L2 differences, AoA, proficiency, L2 immersion duration, L2 training duration. Although different theoretical approaches described the role of these several factors, not all studies using on-line measures have investigated them comprehensively and consistently. The present work reviews available ERP studies on L2 syntactic analysis in order to establish the relative weight of each factor on the time course of L2 processing. Logistic regression analyses were performed on the presence or absence of ERP effects reported in response to L2 syntactic violations, including all the influential factors as categorical independent variables. The results showed that immersion duration has an influence on the ERP correlates linked to early mechanisms of syntactic processing, while the global proficiency level has an impact on the ERP correlates related to late, language-monitoring activity.
... This negativity was followed by a late positive wave. This biphasic wave pattern, observed from 3 years of age, is assumed to reflect similar biphasic LAN/P600 patterns present in adults ERPs in similar conditions (Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005). Clahsen, Lück and Hahne (2007), observe no positivity similar to the P600 in younger children (aged 6 to 7 years) when they are presented with morphosyntactic errors (plural overregularization) in German. ...
... This negativity was followed by a late positive wave. This biphasic wave pattern, observed from 3 years of age, is assumed to reflect similar biphasic LAN/P600 patterns present in adults ERPs in similar conditions (Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005). Clahsen, Lück and Hahne (2007), observe no positivity similar to the P600 in younger children (aged 6 to 7 years) when they are presented with morphosyntactic errors (plural overregularization) in German. ...
... Syntactic ambiguities have been shown to engender a centro-parietally distributed positive shift, occurring between 500 and 1,000 ms following the presentation of either the disambiguating information (Friederici & Mecklinger, 1996;Friederici, Mecklinger, Spencer, Steinhauer, & Donchin, 2001;Friederici et al., 1998;Osterhout & Holcomb, 1992Osterhout, Holcomb, & Swinney, 1994) or the syntactically ambiguous element itself (Frisch et al., 2002). This ERP-component, called the P600 or the syntactic positive shift (SPS), is also elicited by syntactic anomalies such as agreement, case or phrase structure violations (Coulson, King, & Kutas, 1998;Hagoort, Brown, & Groothusen, 1993;Osterhout, McKinnon, Bersick, & Corey, 1996), and syntactically dispreferred or marked structures (see, e.g., Fiebach, Schlesewsky, & Friederici, 2002;Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005;Haupt et al., 2008;Roll, Horne, & Lindgren, 2010; that are restricted to certain linguistic contexts (Siewierska, 1988). It has primarily been seen as a correlate of syntactic repair or reanalysis processes, or, alternatively, as a response to a competition between alternative mappings or unification links between syntactic frames (Hagoort, 2003(Hagoort, , 2005. ...
Language comprehension is assumed to proceed incrementally, and comprehenders commit to initial interpretations even in the absence of unambiguous information. Initial ambiguous object arguments are therefore preferably interpreted as subjects, an interpretation that needs to be revised towards an object initial interpretation once the disambiguating information is encountered. Most accounts of such grammatical function reanalyses assume that they involve phrase structure revisions, and do not differ from other syntactic reanalyses. A number of studies using measurements of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) provide evidence for this view by showing that both reanalysis types engender similar neurophysiological responses (e.g., P600 effects). Others have claimed that grammatical function reanalyses rather involve revisions of the mapping of thematic roles to argument noun phrases (NPs). In line with this, it has been shown that grammatical function reanalysis during spoken language comprehension engenders a N400 effect, an effect which has been shown to correlate with general problems in the mapping of thematic roles to argument NPs in a number of languages. This study investigated the ERP correlate to grammatical function reanalysis in Swedish. Postverbal NPs that disambiguated the interpretation of object-topicalised sentences towards an object-initial reading engendered a N400 effect with a local, right-parietal distribution. This “reanalysis N400” effect provides further support for the view that grammatical function reanalysis is functionally distinct from syntactic reanalyses and rather involves a revision of the mapping of thematic roles to the sentence arguments. Postverbal subject pronouns in object-topicalised sentences were also found to engender an enhanced P300 wave in comparison to object pronouns, an effect which seems to depend on the overall infrequency of object-topicalised constructions. This finding provides support for the view that the “reanalysis N400” in some cases can be attenuated by a task-related P300 component.
... Syntactic ambiguities have been shown to engender a centro-parietally distributed positive shift, occurring between 500 and 1,000 ms following the presentation of either the disambiguating information (Friederici & Mecklinger, 1996;Friederici, Mecklinger, Spencer, Steinhauer, & Donchin, 2001;Friederici et al., 1998;Osterhout & Holcomb, 1992Osterhout, Holcomb, & Swinney, 1994) or the syntactically ambiguous element itself (Frisch et al., 2002). This ERP-component, called the P600 or the syntactic positive shift (SPS), is also elicited by syntactic anomalies such as agreement, case or phrase structure violations (Coulson, King, & Kutas, 1998;Hagoort, Brown, & Groothusen, 1993;Osterhout, McKinnon, Bersick, & Corey, 1996), and syntactically dispreferred or marked structures (see, e.g., Fiebach, Schlesewsky, & Friederici, 2002;Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005;Haupt et al., 2008;Roll, Horne, & Lindgren, 2010; that are restricted to certain linguistic contexts (Siewierska, 1988). It has primarily been seen as a correlate of syntactic repair or reanalysis processes, or, alternatively, as a response to a competition between alternative mappings or unification links between syntactic frames (Hagoort, 2003(Hagoort, , 2005. ...
Projective prepositions express the relation between two objects by referring to a direction in space and have traditionally been regarded as expressing purely geometric relations. Recent studies have shown that the appropriateness of English and Spanish projectives also depends on functional relations between objects. This study investigates if the acceptability of the Swedish projectives över, under, ovanför and nedanför are influenced by functional factors as well, and whether över and under are differentially influenced by function than ovanför and nedanför, as has been shown for their English cognates. It also investigates how the shape and parts of the related objects influence their functional interaction, and thereby the acceptability of the prepositions. This is done with respect to the predictions of the AVS-model, a model of the perceptual processes underlying the apprehension of projectives, which takes both the geometric and the functional relation between objects into account. It was found that acceptability judgments about the prepositions are influenced by function as their corresponding English and Spanish prepositions. The acceptability of över was more sensitive to function than ovanför, whereas under and nedanför were not differentially influenced by function, as has been shown for Spanish. It was further found that the shape and parts of both of the related objects influence acceptability regions associated with the prepositions in predictable ways, as functional interactions between objects largely depend on their parts. The results finally show that the AVS-model needs to be further developed in order to account for the form and function of the located object.
... The last decade has seen an increasing number of neurolinguistic studies examining the brain responses to word order variations. Most of these studies have examined the neurophysiological effects elicited by object-initial structures in Germanic languages (see, for example, Bornkessel, Schlesewsky, & Friederici, 2003; Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005; Haupt, Schlesewsky, Roehm, Friederici, & Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, 2008; Schlesewsky, Bornkessel, & Frisch, 2003). Other languages, such as Japanese (Hagiwara, Soshi, Ishihara, & Imanaka, 2007; Ueno & Kluender, 2003; Wolff, Schlesewsky, Hirotani, & Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, 2008), Chinese (Wang, Schlesewsky, Bickel, & Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, 2009), and Turkish (Demiral, Schlesewsky, & Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, 2008) have also been examined but to a lesser extent. ...
During the last years there has been an increasing interest in examining the brain responses to word order variations. In one ERP study conducted in Spanish, Casado, Martín-Loeches, Muñoz, and Fernández-Frías (2005) had participants read Spanish transitive sentences with either an SVO (subject-verb-object) or an OVS order. The word order of a sentence was determined by semantic information (semantic condition) or by syntactic information (syntactic condition). We will focus on the syntactic condition, which suffers from a number of serious pitfalls. By using both linguistic evidence and data from off-line rating studies, we will first show that the authors are wrong in claiming that the OVS sentences in the syntactic condition are grammatical. Secondly, we will show that these sentences are not interpreted as OVS sentences but as SVO sentences. In light of these pitfalls, we conclude that their results in the syntactic condition do not inform issues concerning brain responses to word order variations, but of the detection and repair of an ungrammatical string.
... Regarding the ERP results, a P600 effect was found for all three types of grammatical violations. These results are thus in line with previous studies in language processing where ungrammatical sentences were evaluated (Münte et al., 1997; Coulson et al., 1998; Hagoort & Brown, 2000; Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2001; Angrilli, Penolazzi, Vespignani, De Vincenzi, Job & Ciccarelli, 2002; Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005; Mueller et al., 2005 Mueller et al., , 2007 Rossi et al., 2005; Nevins et al., 2007; Silva-Pereyra & Carreiras, 2007; Frenck-Mestre et al., 2008), Regarding its functional role, P600 has been classically interpreted as capturing processes of reanalysis and syntactic repair. However, the P600 is also triggered by syntactically well-formed sentences with a high degree of syntactic complexity (Kaan, Harris, Gibson, & Holcomb, 2000) or less preferred syntactic structures in temporarily ambiguous sentences (Osterhout, Holcomb, & Swinney, 1994). ...
... In addition to correlating with reanalysis processes, late positivities have been linked to structural markedness (e.g. Fiebach, Schlesewsky, & Friederici, 2002; Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2005; Kaan, Harris, Gibson, & Holcomb, 2000;). Thus, a task focusing on the well-formedness of the critical structures ( ...
This paper examines the hypothesis that grammatical function reanalyses in simple sentences should not be treated as phrase structure revisions, but rather as increased costs in “linking” an argument from a syntactic to a semantic representation. To this end, we investigated whether subject–object reanalyses in German verb-final sentences can be associated with an electrophysiological processing signature that is distinct from the response typically engendered by structure-affecting reanalyses (the P600). We hypothesized that the previously observed heterogeneous ERP component pattern for subject-object reanalyses in German might be due to task- or strategy-related interactions between the critical processing mechanisms and the experimental environment. In order to minimize specific task influences, Experiment 1 therefore embedded subject–object ambiguities into short stories (presented auditorily). Constructions with dative and accusative objects both showed a biphasic N400-late positivity pattern for disambiguation towards an object-initial structure. These results thus contrast with previous findings, in showing that there is no principled difference in the component pattern for the two types of structures. This conclusion was confirmed by the results of Experiment 2, which presented the identical accusative sentences from Experiment 1 in isolation using two different tasks (comprehension vs. acceptability) and again revealed N400-late positivity responses. From the overall data pattern, we conclude that the N400 is a robust correlate of grammatical function reanalysis that occurs independently of any lexical factors and, consequently, that grammatical function reanalysis is functionally distinct from phrase structure reanalysis.
... The negativity associated with it-clefts in our study can be interpreted as a reflex of integrating an unexpected element pragmatically (since truth-value violations do not generate an N400 Fischler et al. (1983)). Specifically, the mechanism of exhaustiveness cancelation is hypothesized to operate as follows: when the parser reaches the critical region of the exhaustiveness violation (Luise and Jana) it expects a different grammatical role/different animacy information (Bornkessel & Schlesewsky, 2006;Friederici & Frisch, 2000;Frisch & Schlesewsky, 2001Hoeks et al., 2004), and therefore attempts to delete the exhaustiveness interpretation generated when the cleft was processed (recall that the eyetracking evidence discussed in Section 2.2 suggests that such an exhaustiveness interpretation is generated at the cleft). This cancelation process is presumably reflected in the negativity seen in it-clefts. ...
Deducing processing parity in the face of linguistic variation has been a key ambition for neurolinguists as well as psycholinguists. However, the same has usually been tried only from the languages belonging to nominative-accusative alignment, and then there has been a general tendency to shoehorn ergative-absolutive languages into the mould. However, the handful of studies that have explored ergative case violations suggest that ergative languages seem to behave differently in comparison to the nominative-accusative type of languages. These studies have reported either an N400-P600 (Choudhary et al. 2009; Zawiszewski et al. 2011) or only positivity (Diaz et al. 2011) for ergative case violations. The present study in Punjabi is a replication of an experiment previously conducted in Hindi. The aim is to test if case-based violations are neurophysiologically equivalent in typologically similar language, or if typological variation have a bearing on the processing mechanism. In terms of the ERP component, in contrast to the previously reported N400-P600 pattern in Hindi, we observed only a positivity for both nominative as well as ergative case violations in Punjabi. We argue that this difference in the ERP components might have arisen owing to certain idiosyncratic properties of the language, namely the restricted use of the ergative case in Punjabi. Further, this neurophysiological difference is taken to be suggestive of the fact that ergative case might not be as strong a cue for Punjabi as it is in Hindi.KeywordsLanguage comprehensionVariationEEG-ERPErgativityPunjabi
This study investigates the processing of wh-dependencies in English by native speakers and advanced Mandarin Chinese-speaking learners. We examined processing at a filled gap site that was in a licit position (non-island) or located inside an island, a grammatically unlicensed position. Natives showed N400 in the non-island condition, which we take as evidence of gap prediction; no N400 emerged within the island. Learners yielded P600 in the non-island condition, suggesting learners did not predict a gap, but rather experienced syntactic integration difficulty. Like natives, learners showed no effects inside the island. Island sensitivity was also observed for both natives and learners in an offline acceptability judgment task. We also explored whether event-related potentials (ERP) responses were related to attentional control (AC), a cognitive ability that has been related to predictive processing in native speakers, in order to examine whether variability in processing in learners and native speakers is similarly explained. Results showed that increased AC was associated with larger N400s for natives and larger P600s for learners in the non-island condition, suggesting that increased AC may be related to prediction for natives and to integration effort for learners. Overall, learners demonstrated island sensitivity offline and online, suggesting that second language (L2) processing is indeed grammatically-guided. However, ERP results suggest that predictive processing in the resolution of wh-dependencies may be limited, at least for learners whose first language (L1) does not instantiate overt wh-movement.
Purportedly (morpho)syntactic-event-related brain wave components – P600, LAN, and e[arly]LAN – have over the years proved more likely to be domain-general responses. Studies comparing late positive responses to anomalies across cognitive domains, and manipulating their probability of occurrence, suggest that the P600 is a member of the P300 family. Other studies report individual variation in response to (morpho)syntactic anomalies, smudging the distinction between N400 and P600 responses, and suggesting that LAN responses to morphosyntactic anomaly may be an artifact of N400+P600 overlap. The eLAN has similarly been shown to be a methodological artifact. We argue that studies of long-distance dependencies have produced the most consistent and reliable results, partly because they largely avoid violation paradigms, although current insights may be profitably applied to ERP studies of syntactic islands. We also suggest that what are taken to be specialized effects of referential processing are in fact another manifestation of such long-distance (anaphoric) effects.
Dilin yorumlayıcı bileşenlerinden biri olan anlambilim, uzun yıllardan beri dilin beyindeki işlemlenişini ve konumlanışını araştıran nörodilbilimin temel araştırma konularından birini oluşturmaktadır. Bu yazıda, sözcük ve tümce işlemleme süreçlerinde, nörodilbilimsel teknikler kullanılarak gerçekleştirilen araştırmalara, alanyazından elde edilen veriler çerçevesinde gözlem yapılması amaçlanmaktadır. Nörodilbilimsel araştırmalar, dilin beyindeki işlemlenişi ve konumlanışını, zamansal ve uzamsal olmak üzere iki temel yaklaşımla incelemektedir. Elektroensefalografi teknikleriyle zamansal etkiyi inceleyen araştırmalarda, anlambilimsel bileşenin sözcük anlamlandırma, algılama ve tanımlama gibi süreçlerin işlemlenişinde Negatif 400 (N400) ve Pozitif 600 (P600) gibi olaya ilişkin beyin potansiyellerini ürettiği gözlenmektedir. Uzamsal işlemlemede ise, sözcük tanıma süreçlerinin beyindeki nöral kaynaklar üzerinden beynin ön ve arka yolaklarındaki işlemlenişini ele alan araştırmalarda üst temporal girüs (üTG), orta temporal girüs (oTG), üst temporal sulkus (üTS), inferior frontal girüs (IFG), frontal operkulum ve Brodmann 45/47 (BA 45/47) gibi beyin bölgeleri, sözcük tanıma ve anlamlandırmada alt bir işlemleme alanı olarak varsayılmaktadır. Bu yazıda, nörodilbilimsel gözlem tekniklerinin kullanıldığı araştırmalarda süreç-içi sözcük ve tümce işlemleme süreçlerinde Türkçe ve dünya dilleri üzerine yapılan araştırmaların ele alınması, günümüz yaklaşımları çerçevesinde dilbilimsel bakış açısıyla sentezlenmesi ve alanlarla ilişkilendirilen bilişsel dil işlemleme modellerinin tanıtımı yapılmaktadır.
The aim of this thesis was to improve our understanding of the neural basis of language learning, focussing on markers of sleep-associated memory consolidation. To this end, the studies reported here tested the hypothesis that the generalisation of sentence-level regularities benefits from sleep-based neurophysiological activity, including slow oscillations and sleep spindles. In addition to building on the sleep and language learning literature, this thesis aimed to: (1) develop a cross-linguistically informed miniature language paradigm to study higher-order language learning; (2) characterise the neural oscillatory mechanisms underlying the encoding, (sleep-based) consolidation and comprehension of sentence-level information; and (3) develop a neurobiologically plausible model of how sleep consolidates language-related rules and how these effects manifest in task-related neural activity.
Chapter 1 summarises major theories of sleep-based memory consolidation and a neurobiological, cross-linguistic model of sentence comprehension. We propose a novel integration of these models based on notions of hierarchical predictive coding, a unified theory of brain function. Chapter 2 then synthesises studies on sleep and language learning and outlines testable hypotheses that focus on sleep-related effects on oscillatory activity during sentence processing within a newly learned language. Data are presented in Chapter 3 from a study verifying the utility of a novel modified miniature language paradigm modelled on Mandarin Chinese (Mini Pinyin). Results demonstrate that monolingual native English speakers can rapidly learn complex grammatical rules and that language learning is related to inter-individual differences in statistical learning ability, as well as similarities to the rules of comprehenders’ native language. In order to characterise the neural mechanisms underlying the encoding of Mini Pinyin, Chapter 4 describes an EEG experiment that quantified task-evoked spectral power and broadband aperiodic activity to predict grammar learning and acceptability judgements. Results demonstrate that aperiodic activity plays an important role in higher-order cognition, including language learning, and that grammar learning is modulated by fixed and flexible word orders, which manifest in distinct oscillatory profiles during incremental sentence processing. Finally, Chapter 5 presents data demonstrating an association between sleep neurophysiology, task-related oscillatory activity and behaviour: slow wave-spindle coupling during non-rapid eye movement sleep predicted the generalisation of sentence-level regularities. This effect also interacted with task-related oscillatory power, possibly reflecting learning-related alterations in the underlying neuronal populations engaged during sentence processing.
Together, these results highlight the beneficial influence of sleep on language learning, providing evidence that adds to neurobiological models of sleep-associated memory consolidation and models of sentence processing. In Chapter 6, these models are re-evaluated in light of this evidence. Proposals are made on how theories of sleep-associated memory consolidation and sentence processing can be better integrated with the goal of developing a neurobiologically inspired model of cognition that views language as a complex form of memory that is organised across both wake and sleep.
In this study, the neuropsychological processing between hemispheres of prosody-syntax interaction in Turkish in post-verbal position is researched via using EEG. For this purpose, it is searched for an answer to following questions: (a) Are the Right Anterior Negativity (RAN) Effect and P800 potential also seen in Turkish post-verbal position for focus violation manipulated by phonology on the critical word which indicates the main effect of prosody? (b) Are the Left Anterior Negativity (LAN) Effect, N400 and P600 potentials observed on the critical word by case marking violation which shows the main effect of syntax? (c) Is the prosody-syntax interaction between hemispheres functioned by lateral or bilateral? (d) Is the prosodic effect or syntactic effect processed previously on brain? The sample group of thesis is composed of Turkish native speakers and healthy 18-35 age-matched participants. The electrophysiological analysis of data which is collected in Ankara University Brain Research Center is perfomed by event-related potentials. Findings is represented that the main effect of prosody and main effect of syntax are consisted in Turkish and exposed the bilateral functioning of prosody-syntax interaction between hemispheres. It is also found in study which involves distinctive results for Turkish that P800 potential is observed on prosody-syntax interaction and the intense impact of prosodic main effect on syntax is on this process. Results are found answer to main reseach question and the first findings are presented that prosody is processed before syntax.
We hypothesise a beneficial influence of sleep on the consolidation of the combinatorial mechanisms underlying incremental sentence comprehension. These predictions are grounded in recent work examining the effect of sleep on the consolidation of linguistic information, which demonstrate that sleep-dependent neurophysiological activity consolidates the meaning of novel words and simple grammatical rules. However, the sleep-dependent consolidation of sentence-level combinatorics has not been studied to date. Here, we propose that dissociable aspects of sleep neurophysiology consolidate two different types of combinatory mechanisms in human language: sequence-based (order-sensitive) and dependency-based (order-insensitive) combinatorics. The distinction between the two types of combinatorics is motivated both by cross-linguistic considerations and the neurobiological underpinnings of human language. Unifying this perspective with principles of sleep-dependent memory consolidation, we posit that a function of sleep is to optimise the consolidation of sequence-based knowledge (the when) and the establishment of semantic schemas of unordered items (the what) that underpin cross-linguistic variations in sentence comprehension. This hypothesis builds on the proposal that sleep is involved in the construction of predictive codes, a unified principle of brain function that supports incremental sentence comprehension. Finally, we discuss neurophysiological measures (EEG/MEG) that could be used to test these claims, such as the quantification of neuronal oscillations, which reflect basic mechanisms of information processing in the brain.
Poster presentation of my article ”The neurophysiological correlate to grammatical function reanalysis in Swedish”, investigating the ERP response to grammatical function reanalysis in Swedish transitive sentences.
The results of two German speeded acceptability-judgement experiments suggest that placing a DP in the position before a sentence adverb in the German middle field, which has been argued to be a structural topic position (Frey, 2004), has an impact on sentence processing. In object-before-subject orders, placing an object DP, whose referent is not normally topical, in the topic position increases acceptability and reduces acceptance latencies compared to structures where the object DP does not appear in the topic position. For subject-before-object orders, placing the subject, which is a typical topic, in the topic position does not yield such processing advantages. Locative adverbials, which do not mark topic boundaries, do not affect the processing of subject-object asymmetries in the way that sentence adverbs do. I suggest that these effects can be explained if Frey's topic position is indeed a topic position, and if topics serve as addresses in a structured mental representation of the discourse (cf. Repp and Drenhaus, 2015). Furthermore, evidence is provided for an influence of topic marking on the detection of case errors in ungrammatical structures with two DPs that are marked with the same case. Error detection also was found to be influenced by linear closeness.
The specificity or generality of language-related event-related brain potentials (ERPs) has been a point of continuing debate in the cognitive neuroscience of language. The present study measured ERPs to (preferred) subject-before-object (SO) and (dispreferred) object-before-subject (OS) word orders in German while manipulating morphosyntactic and semantic cues to correct sentence interpretation. We presented sentence pairs as connected speech (context and target sentences) and examined ERPs at the position of the first argument (noun phrase) in the target sentence. At this position, word order was determinable by either (a) case marking (morphosyntactic cue); (b) animacy (semantic cue); or (c) the preceding context sentence (local ambiguity; contextual cue). Following each sentence pair, participants judged the acceptability of the second sentence in the context of the first and performed a probe word recognition task. Results showed a biphasic N400-P600 pattern at the first noun phrase in the OS conditions irrespectively of which cues (syntactic or semantic) were available to the parser for disambiguation. N400 latency varied as a function of temporal cue availability and P600 amplitude increased for unambiguous object-initial conditions even though these were rated acceptable in the judgment task. These findings support an interpretation of ERP components in terms of general cognitive mechanisms such as predictive processes (N400) and decision certainty (P600 as an instance of the P300) rather than a domain-specific view of a semantic N400 and a syntactic P600.
The inference of causality is a crucial cognitive ability and language processing is no exception: recent research suggests that, across different languages, the human language comprehension system attempts to identify the primary causer of the state of affairs described (the “actor”) quickly and unambiguously (Bornkessel-Schlesewsky and Schlesewsky, 2009). This identification can take place verb-independently based on certain prominence cues (e.g., case, word order, animacy). Here, we present two experiments demonstrating that actor potential is also encoded at the level of individual nouns (a king is a better actor than a beggar). Experiment 1 collected ratings for 180 German nouns on 12 scales defined by adjective oppositions and deemed relevant for actorhood potential. By means of structural equation modeling, an actor potential (ACT) value was calculated for each noun. Experiment 2, an event-related potential study, embedded nouns from Experiment 1 in verb-final sentences, in which they were either actors or non-actors. N400 amplitude increased with decreasing ACT values and this modulation was larger for highly frequent nouns and for actor versus non-actor nouns. We argue that potency to act is lexically encoded for individual nouns and, since it modulates the N400 even for non-actor participants, it should be viewed as a property that modulates ease of lexical access (akin, for example, to lexical frequency). We conclude that two separate dimensions of actorhood computation are crucial to language comprehension: an experience-based, lexically encoded (bottom–up) representation of actorhood potential, and a prominence-based, computational mechanism for calculating goodness-of-fit to the actor role in a particular (top–down) sentence context.
Abstract Linking is the theory that captures the mapping of the semantic roles of lexical arguments to the syntactic functions of the phrases that realize them. At the sentence level, linking allows us to understand 'who did what to whom' in an event. In Spanish, linking has been shown to interact with word order, verb class and case marking. The current study aims to provide the first piece of experimental evidence about the interplay between word order and verb type in Spanish. We achieve this by adopting Role and Reference Grammar and the extended Argument Dependency Model. Two different types of clauses were examined in a self-paced reading task: Clauses with object-experiencer psychological verbs and activity verbs. These types of verbs differ in the way that their syntactic and semantic structures are linked and thus, they provide interesting evidence on how information that belongs to the syntax-semantics interface might influence the predictive and integrative processes of sentence comprehension with alternative word orders. Results indicate that in Spanish, comprehension and processing speed is enhanced when the order of the constituents in the sentence mirrors their ranking on a semantic hierarchy that encodes a verb's lexical semantics. Moreover, results show that during on-line comprehension, predictive mechanisms based on argument hierarchization are used rapidly to inform the processing system. Our findings corroborate already existing cross-linguistic evidence on the issue and briefly discussed under the light of other sentence processing models. Supplementary material Supplementary material.
L2 syntactic processing has been primarily investigated in the context of syntactic anomaly detection, but only sparsely with syntactic ambiguity. In the field of event-related potentials (ERPs) syntactic anomaly detection and syntactic ambiguity resolution is linked to the P600. The current ERP experiment examined L2 syntactic processing in highly proficient L1 Spanish-L2 English readers who had acquired English informally around the age of 5 years. Temporary syntactic ambiguity (induced by verb subcategorization information) was tested as a language-specific phenomenon of L2, while syntactic anomaly resulted from phrase structure constraints that are similar in L1 and L2. Participants judged whether a sentence was syntactically acceptable or not. Native readers of English showed a P600 in the temporary syntactically ambiguous and syntactically anomalous sentences. A comparable picture emerged in the non-native readers of English. Both critical syntactic conditions elicited a P600, however, the distribution and latency of the P600 varied in the syntactic anomaly condition. The results clearly show that early acquisition of L2 syntactic knowledge leads to comparable online sensitivity towards temporal syntactic ambiguity and syntactic anomaly in early and highly proficient non-native readers of English and native readers of English.
In contrast to native language acquisition, adult second-language (L2) acquisition occurs under highly variable learning conditions. Although most adults acquire their L2 at least partially through explicit instruction, as in a classroom setting, many others acquire their L2 primarily through implicit exposure, as is typical of an immersion environment. Whether these differences in acquisition environment play a role in determining the neural mechanisms that are ultimately recruited to process L2 grammar has not been well characterized. This study investigated this issue by comparing the ERP response to novel L2 syntactic rules acquired under conditions of implicit exposure and explicit instruction, using a novel laboratory language-learning paradigm. Native speakers tested on these stimuli showed a biphasic response to syntactic violations, consisting of an earlier negativity followed by a later P600 effect. After merely an hour of training, both implicitly and explicitly trained learners who were capable of detecting grammatical violations also elicited P600 effects. In contrast, learners who were unable to discriminate between grammatically correct and incorrect sentences did not show significant P600 effects. The magnitude of the P600 effect was found to correlate with learners' behavioral proficiency. Behavioral measures revealed that successful learners from both the implicit and explicit groups gained explicit, verbalizable knowledge about the L2 grammar rules. Taken together, these results indicate that late, controlled mechanisms indexed by the P600 play a crucial role in processing a late-learned L2 grammar, regardless of training condition. These findings underscore the remarkable plasticity of later, attention-dependent processes and their importance in lifelong learning.
Most linguistic theories of language offer analysis of agreement describing the rules and constraints involved in the computation and interpretation of this dependency. A good testing ground for theoretical accounts of agreement is mismatching patterns. In this article we focus on a mismatch available in the Spanish agreement system - Unagreement - in which there is a person mismatch in the realization of plural subject-verb agreement. Unagreement seems to challenge both purely syntactic and lexicalist analyses of agreement, as the realization of this pattern cannot be carried out either on a strictly formal basis or by simply postulating a lexically-driven asymmetry. We propose an approach that overcomes the limitations of existing analyses and that is able to successfully account for standard as well as non-standard agreement patterns.
In 1994, there were only two dominant noninvasive techniques to offer insight about the functional organization of language from its brain bases: the behavior of brain-damaged patients (neuropsychology), and event-related brain potential (ERPs). Positron emission tomographic and magnetoencephalographic (MEG) measures begin to contribute in understanding neuropsychology. Over the ensuing decade plus, these have been joined by functional magnetic resonance imaging, transcranial magnetic stimulation, event related spectral changes in the electroencephalogram (EEG), and noninvasive optical imaging. These methods are closely related in their neural and physical bases: ERPs, event-related frequency changes in the EEG and MEG. The amplitude of the EEG is considerably smaller than invasively recorded field potentials because the skull is a strong electrical insulator. Like field potentials, the amplitude and polarity of the EEG depends on the number and amplitude of the contributing synaptic potentials, on whether current is flowing into or out of cells (i.e., movement of positive or negative ions, excitatory or inhibitory synaptic potentials), and on the geometric relationship between the synapses and electrode.
In this study, we explore native and non-native syntactic processing, paying special attention to the language distance factor. To this end, we compared how native speakers of Basque and highly proficient non-native speakers of Basque who are native speakers of Spanish process certain core aspects of Basque syntax. Our results suggest that differences in native versus non-native language processing strongly correlate with language distance: native/non-native processing differences obtain if a syntactic parameter of the non-native grammar diverges from the native grammar. Otherwise, non-native processing will approximate native processing as levels of proficiency increase. We focus on three syntactic parameters: (i) the head parameter, (ii) argument alignment (ergative/accusative), and (iii) verb agreement. The first two diverge in Basque and Spanish, but the third is the same in both languages. Our results reveal that native and non-native processing differs for the diverging syntactic parameters, but not for the convergent one. These findings indicate that language distance has a significant impact in non-native language processing.
This chapter reports the results of an Event-Related Potential (ERP) study of relative clause processing in Mandarin Chinese.
The objective of this research is to determine whether electrophysiological evidence of filler-gap integration costs found
for other languages would be observed in Mandarin and to determine where in the relative clause filler-gap integration occurs.
To pursue these goals, we analyze ERP data obtained from 20 Mandarin speakers as they read sentences containing subject-gap
and object-gap relative clauses modifying the subjects and objects of matrix sentences. Our results indicate a larger P600
ERP component for subject-gap than object-gap relative clauses at the point in the clause where the filler is integrated with
the antecedent gap. That effect was found on the relative clause marker de for clauses modifying the matrix subject and on the relative clause head for clauses modifying the matrix object. We interpret
our results as supporting the hypothesis that the difficulty of integrating verb arguments is reflected in the magnitude of
the P600 ERP component and that in Mandarin relative clauses, subject-gap arguments are more difficult to integrate than object-gap
arguments. Based on these findings, we argue that in Mandarin, relative clause verb selectional restrictions may be satisfied
in real time either by the relative clause head or by the relative clause marker de, depending on where the relative clause is located within the matrix sentence.
KeywordsChinese–ERP–Filler-gap–Integration–P600
In the recent literature there is a hypothesis that the human parser uses number and case information in different ways to resolve an initially incorrect case assignment. This paper investigates what role morphological case information plays during the parser's detection of an ungrammaticality or its recognition that a reanalysis is necessary. First, we compare double nominative with double accusative ungrammaticalities in a word by word, speeded grammaticality task and in this way show that only double nominatives lead to a so-called "illusion of grammaticality" (a low rate of ungrammaticality detection). This illusion was found to disappear when the second argument was realized by a pronoun rather than by a full definite determiner phrase, i.e. when the saliency of the second argument was increased. Thus, the accuracy in recognizing an ungrammaticality induced by the case feature of the second argument is dependent on the type of this argument. Furthermore, we found that the accuracy in detecting such case ungrammaticalities is distance sensitive insofar as a shorter distance leads to a higher accuracy. The results are taken as support for an "expectation- driven" parse strategy in which the way the parser uses the information of a current input item depends on the expectation resulting from the parse carried out so far. By contrast, "input-driven" parse strategies, such as the diagnosis model (Fodor & Inoue, 1999) are unable to explain the data presented here.
The time courses for processing constituent structure relations, subcategorization restrictions, and thematic role relations during sentence comprehension were measured with reaction time and speed–accuracy trade-off variants of a grammaticality judgment task. Thematic role processing was found to be delayed by as much as 100 ms relative to the time when constituent structure and subcategorization information were processed. These data suggest a model of sentence comprehension in which the construction of a syntactic representation temporally leads the construction of a more embellished thematic representation. Serial and parallel variants of such a model are discussed.
The present paper addresses a current view in the psycholinguistic literature that case exhibits processing properties distinct from those of other morphological features such as number (cf. Fodor & Inoue, 2000; Meng & Bader, 2000a/b). In a speeded-acceptability judgement experiment, we show that the low performance previously found for case in contrast to number violations is limited to nominative case, whereas violations involving accusative and dative are judged more accurately. The data thus do not support the proposal that case per se is associated with special properties (in contrast to other features such as number) in reanalysis processes. Rather, there are significant judgement differences between the object cases accusative and dative on the one hand and the subject nominative case on the other. This may be explained by the fact that nominative has a specific status in German (and many other languages) as a default case.
The results of three experiments are reported which investigated the processing of locally ambiguous object-subject sentences in German. These sentences are known to elicit garden-path effects because the parser initially prefers the assignment of a subject-object structure (e.g., Schriefers, Friederici, Kühn, 1995). The aim of the experiments was to test whether the type of grammatical information that signals the garden-path (the mode of disambiguation) has an impact on how difficult it is to arrive at the correct structural assignment. We exploited the fact that subject-object ambiguities in German can be disambiguated in two different ways: by agreement or by case. If disambiguation concerning the relative order of subject and object is provided by the number features of the finite verb (agreement disambiguation) a robust garden-path effect results. In contrast, if the disambiguating information is provided by a second NP morphologically marked for nominative, the resulting garden-path effect is weak. This finding poses difficulty for models of reanalysis which relate garden-path strength to revision cost because the revision operations necessary to transform the subject-object structure initially computed into an object-subject structure are the same for both modes of disambiguation. Our results show that different modes of disambiguation can be more or less effective in signaling how to come out of the garden-path, a conclusion in accordance with the diagnosis model of reanalysis as first proposed in Fodor and Inoue (1994).
review . . . methods and data in the domain of the electrophysiology of psycholinguistics / aimed at the psycholinguist who wants to better understand experimental reports in which ERPs [event-related brain potentials] are the primary dependent measure and/or [those] who may wish to use ERPs to address certain psycholinguistic questions / concerned with the representation and timing of language processes at both psychological and physiological levels that has yielded the data that were reviewed
general description of the electroencephalogram and event-related brain potentials / why use ERPs to study language / overview of language-sensitive components / biological factors / psycholinguistic factors (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Theories of sentence comprehension have addressed both initial parsing processes and mechanisms responsible for reanalysis. Three experiments are summarized that were designed to investigate the reanalysis and interpretation of relatively difficult garden-path sentences (e.g., While Anna dressed the baby spit up on the bed). After reading such sentences, participants correctly believed that the baby spit up on the bed; however, they often confidently, yet incorrectly, believed that Anna dressed the baby. These results demonstrate that garden-path reanalysis is not an all-or-nothing process and that thematic roles initially assigned for the subordinate clause verb are not consistently revised. The implications of the partial reanalysis phenomenon for Fodor and Inoue's (1998) model of reanalysis and sentence processing are discussed. In addition, we discuss the possibility that language processing often creates good enough structures rather than ideal structures.
It is well-known from psycholinguistic literature that the human language processing system exhibits preferences when sentence constituents are ambiguous with respect to their grammatical function. Generally, many theories assume that an interpretation towards the subject is preferred in such cases. Later disambiguations which contradict such a preference induce enhanced processing difficulty (i.e. reanalysis) which reflects itself in late positive deflections (P345/P600) in event-related brain potentials (ERPs). In the case of phoric elements such as pronouns, a second strategy is known according to which an ambiguous pronoun preferentially receives the grammatical function that its antecedent has (parallel function strategy). In an ERP study, we show that this strategy can in principle override the general subject preference strategy (known for both pronominal and nonpronominal constituents) and induce an object preference, in case that the pronoun's antecedent is itself an object. Interestingly, the revision of a subject preference leads to a P600 component, whereas the revision of an object preference induces an earlier positivity (P345). In order to show that the latter component is indeed a positivity and not an N400-like negativity in the same time range, we apply an additional analysis based on symbolic dynamics which allows to determine the polarity of an ERP effect on purely methodological grounds. With respect to the two positivities, we argue that the latency differences reflect qualitative differences in the reanalysis processes.
Arguments about the existence of language-specific neural systems and particularly arguments about the independence of syntactic and semantic processing have recently focused on differences between the event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by violations of syntactic structure (e.g. the P600) and those elicited by violations of semantic expectancy (e.g. the N400). However, the scalp distribution of the P600 component elicited by syntactic violations appears to resemble that elicited by rare categorical events ("odd-balls") in non-linguistic contexts, frequently termed the P3b. The relationship between the P600 and the P3b was explored by manipulating the grammaticality of sentences read for comprehension, as well as two factors known to influence P3b amplitude: odd-ball probability and event saliency. Oddball probability was manipulated by varying the frequency of morphosyntactic violations within blocks of sentences, and event saliency was manipulated by using two types of morphosyntactic violations, one of which was more striking than the other. The results indicate that the amplitude of the P600, like the P3b, was sensitive to both the probability and saliency manipulations, and that the scalp distributions for the effect of probability and grammaticality are essentially similar. An unexpected, but not wholly surprising, finding was the elicitation of an anterior negativity between 300 and 500 msec post-word onset, which may index working memory operations involved in sentence processing.
This experiment explored the effect of semantic expectancy on the processing of grammatical gender. and tice versa, in German using event-related-potentials (ERPs). Subjects were presented with correct sentences and sentences containing an article-noun gender agreement violation. The doze probability of the nouns was either high or low. ERPs were measured on the nouns. The low-cloze nouns evoked a larger N400 than the high-cloze nouns. Gender violations elicited a left-anterior negativity (LAN, 300-600 msec) for ail nouns. An additional P600 component was found only in high-cloze nouns. The N400 was independent of the gender mismatch variable; the LAN was independent of the semantic variable, whereas an interaction of the two variables was found in the P600. This finding indicates that syntactic and semantic processes are autonomous during an early processing stage, whereas these information types interact during a later processing phase.
In an ERP study German sentences were investigated that contain a case-ambiguous NP that may be assigned accusative or dative case. Sentences were disambiguated by the verb in final position of the sentence. As our data show, sentences ending in a verb that assigns dative case to the ambiguous NP elicit a clear garden-path effect. The garden-path effect was indicated by a broad centro-posterior negative shift that occurred between 300 and 900 msec after the dative-assigning verb was presented. No enhanced P600 following the misanalysis was observed. Noun phrases whose case ambiguity was resolved in favor of accusative case and unambiguouslv dativemarked NPs did not trigger significant ERP differences. We will discuss the implications of our results for parsing and its neuropsychological correlates. The results of this study support a parser design according to which the so-called structurdl case (nominative or accusative) is assigned without any delay in the absence of morpho-lexical counterevidence. It is argued that the enhancement of a negative ERP component with a "classical" N400 topographv reflects the difficulty of reanalysis due to reaccessing morpho-lexical information that lies outside the domain of the parsing module. Consequently, ERP responses to garden-path effects are not confined to a late positivity but vary depending on the level of processing involved in reanalysis. The fact that garden-path effects may also elicit an N400 can be linked to the nonhomogeneous linguistic properties of the constructions from which they arise.
In a semantic priming paradigm, the effects of different levels of processing on the N400 were assessed by changing the task demands. In the lexical decision task, subjects had to discriminate between words and nonwords, and in the physical task, subjects had to discriminate between uppercase and lowercase letters. The proportion of related versus unrelated word pairs differed between conditions. A lexicality test on reaction times demonstrated that the physical task was performed nonlexically. Moreover, a semantic priming reaction time effect was obtained only in the lexical decision task. The level of processing clearly affected the event-related potentials. An N400 priming effect was only observed in the lexical decision task. In contrast, in the physical task a P300 effect was observed for either related or unrelated targets, depending on their frequency of occurrence. Taken together, the results indicate that an N400 priming effect is only evoked when the task performance induces the semantic aspects of words to become part of an episodic trace of the stimulus event.
The ERP experiment reported here addresses some outstanding questions regarding word processing in sentential contexts: (1) Does only the 'message-level' representation (the representation of sentence meaning combining lexico-semantic and syntactic constraints) affect the processing of the incoming word [J. Exp. Psychol.: Learn. Mem. Cogn. 20 (1994) 92]? (2) Is lexically specified semantic relatedness between multiple words the primary factor instead [J. Exp. Psychol.: Learn. Mem. Cogn. 15 (1989) 791]? (3) Alternatively, do word and sentence level information interact during sentence comprehension? Volunteers read sentences (e.g. Dutch sentences resembling The javelin was by the athletes...) in which the (passive) syntactic structure and the semantic content of the lexical items together created a strong expectation of a specific final word (e.g., thrown), but also sentences in which the syntactic structure was changed from passive to active (e.g. Dutch sentences resembling The javelin has the athletes...), which altered the message level constraint substantially and strongly reduced the expectation of any particular completion. Half of the sentences ended in a final word with a good lexico-semantic fit relative to the preceding content words (e.g. thrown, fitting well with the preceding javelin and athletes). This creates very plausible sentences in the strong constraint context but semantically anomalous ones in the weakly constraining context (e.g., The javelin has the athletes thrown). In the other half the final word had a poor lexico-semantic fit (e.g., summarized that does not fit at all with javelin and athletes). Good lexico-semantic fit endings showed no difference in N400 amplitude in the strong and weak message-level constraint sentences, despite the fact that the latter were semantically anomalous. This result suggests that lexico-semantic fit can be more important for word processing than the meaning of the sentence as determined by the syntactic structure, at least initially. These conditions did differ, however, in the region of the P600 where the anomalous weak constraint version was much more positive, a pattern usually seen with ungrammatical sentences. The processing of poor lexico-semantic fit words showed a quite different pattern; in both strong and weak constraint sentences they elicited a substantial N400 effect, but N400-amplitude was significantly more negative following strong constraint contexts, even though both sentence contexts were equivalently anomalous. Taken together, these findings provide evidence for the importance of both message-level and lexico-semantic information during sentence comprehension. The implications for theories of sentence interpretation are discussed and an extension of the message-based hypothesis will be proposed.
Syntactic anomalies reliably elicit P600 effects. Recent studies, however, reported P600 effects to semantic anomalies. These findings are difficult to reconcile with the common view on the P600 as a purely syntactic component. The present study--carried out in Dutch--tested the possibility that a P600 to semantic anomalies would nevertheless reflect syntactic processing. We presented semantic reversal anomalies in syntactically correct and unambiguous sentences, like #The cat that fled from the mice.... If participants would use a plausibility strategy and combine the lexical items in the most plausible way, they would--in the case of the example--assume that the mice were fleeing from the cat. Furthermore, this interpretation could lead them to expect a particular inflection of the verb (here: plural inflection). The violation of this expectation could have elicited the P600 effect. Such a syntactic mismatch can occur only in sentences in which the number of theme and agent are different. Therefore, in the present study, the number of theme and agent was either different or the same. A centroparietal P600 effect was present not only in different number sentences but also in same number sentences. Consequently, the P600 effect was not due to a syntactic mismatch, thereby challenging a purely syntactic account of the P600. An alternative view concerning the functional significance of the P600 is discussed, i.e., that it reflects a monitoring component that checks upon the veridicality of ones sentence perception.
Functional dissociations within the neural basis of auditory sentence processing are difficult to specify because phonological, syntactic and semantic information are all involved when sentences are perceived. In this review I argue that sentence processing is supported by a temporo-frontal network. Within this network, temporal regions subserve aspects of identification and frontal regions the building of syntactic and semantic relations. Temporal analyses of brain activation within this network support syntax-first models because they reveal that building of syntactic structure precedes semantic processes and that these interact only during a later stage.
Investigation is made of the character of the covariance matrix which will result in exact F-distributions for the treatments and interaction variance ratios in repeated measurements designs. It is shown, assuming multivariate normality, that the matrix may exhibit a more general character than is typically implied to be essential. Equality of variances and equality of covariances, with identical matrices for all levels of a second treatment factor, are sufficient but not necessary conditions. The necessary and sufficient condition is the equality of variances of differences for all pairs of treatment measures assumed to be correlated. An alternative statement is that the Box-Geisser-Greenhouse parameter ε = 1.0. A test is described which bears on the tenability of this condition.
The time courses for processing constituent structure relations, subcategorization restrictions, and thematic role relations during sentence comprehension were measured with reaction time and speed-accuracy trade-off variants of a grammaticality judgment task. Thematic role processing was found to be delayed by as much as 100 ms relative to the time when constituent structure and subcategorization information were processed. These data suggest a model of sentence comprehension in which the construction of a syntactic representation temporally leads the construction of a more embellished thematic representation. Serial and parallel variants of such a model are discussed.
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As a novel attack on the perennially vexing questions of the theoretical status of thematic roles and the inventory of possible roles, this paper defends a strategy of basing accounts of roles on more unified domains of linguistic data than have been used in the past to motivate roles, addressing in particular the problem of ARGUMENT SELECTION (principles determining which roles are associated with which grammatical relations). It is concluded that the best theory for describing this domain is not a traditional system of discrete roles (Agent, Patient, Source, etc.) but a theory in which the only roles are two cluster-concepts called PROTO-AGENT and PROTO-PATIENT, each characterized by a set of verbal entailments: an argument of a verb may bear either of the two proto-roles (or both) to varying degrees, according to the number of entailments of each kind the verb gives it. Both fine-grained and coarse-grained classes of verbal arguments (corresponding to traditional thematic roles and other classes as well) follow automatically, as do desired 'role hierarchies'. By examining occurrences of the 'same' verb with different argument configurations—e.g. two forms of psych predicates and object-oblique alternations as in the familiar spray/load class—it can also be argued that proto-roles act as defaults in the learning of lexical meanings. Are proto-role categories manifested elsewhere in language or as cognitive categories? If so, they might be a means of making grammar acquisition easier for the child, they might explain certain other typological and acquisitional observations, and they may lead to an account of contrasts between unaccusative and unergative intransitive verbs that does not rely on deriving unaccusatives from underlying direct objects.
In a semantic priming paradigm, the effects of different levels of processing on the N400 were assessed by changing the task demands. In the lexical decision task, subjects had to discriminate between words and nonwords and in the physical task, subjects had to discriminate between uppercase and lowercase letters. The proportion of related versus unrelated word pairs differed between conditions. A lexicality test on reaction times demonstrated that the physical task was performed nonlexically. Moreover, a semantic priming reaction time effect was obtained only in the lexical decision task. The level of processing clearly affected the event-related potentials. An N400 priming effect was only observed in the lexical decision task. In contrast, in the physical task a P300 effect was observed for either related or unrelated targets, depending on their frequency of occurrence. Taken together, the results indicate that an N400 priming effect is only evoked when the task performance induces the semantic aspects of words to become part of an episodic trace of the stimulus event.
A formal approach to the typology of differential object marking (DOM) is developed within the framework of Optimality Theory. The functional/typological literature has established that variation in DOM is structured by the dimensions of animacy and definiteness, with degree of prominence on these dimensions directly correlated with the likelihood of overt case-marking. In the present analysis, the degree to which DOM penetrates the class of objects reflects the tension between two types of principles. One involves iconicity: the more marked a direct object qua object, the more likely it is to be overtly case-marked. The other is a principle of economy: avoid case-marking. The tension between the two principles is resolved differently in different languages, as determined by language-particular ranking of the corresponding constraints. Constraints expressing object markedness are derived throughharmonic alignment of prominence scales. Harmonic alignment predicts a corresponding phenomenon ofdifferential subject marking. This too exists, though in a less articulated form.
One of the most basic assumptions regarding language comprehension is that it proceeds incrementally, i.e. by seeking to maximise the degree of interpretation computed with each new word that is encountered. This perspective has often been though to entail that the thematic interpretation of an argument may be derived from its grammatical function, for example, via a preference-strategy associating a subject with a Causer. In the present paper, we argue that these conclusions are not supported by experimental findings. Rather, as we show on the basis of a number of studies using event-related brain potentials (ERPs), the degree of meaning derived from a given sentence fragment (form) during online sentence comprehension differs as a function of the morphological informativeness of the sentential arguments. Finally, we present a new model of sentence comprehension, the Argument Dependency Model (ADM), which is designed to capture these differences in the way that meaning is computed incrementally. Specifically, the ADM assumes that argument processing proceeds via two alternative processing pathways, one of which is syntactic, and the other of which is thematic (interpretive) in nature. Whereas both pathways seek to establish hierarchical relations between arguments, only the thematic pathway allows for incremental interpretation to be maximised. Which of the two pathways is chosen during the comprehension of a given sentence crucially depends on the morphological informativeness (i.e. presence or absence of unambiguous morphological case marking) of the arguments. Consequences for language architecture arising from this model will be discussed.
Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 13 scalp electrodes while subjects read sentences containing syntactic ambiguities. Words which were inconsitent with the “preferred” sentence structure elicited a brain potential (P600) quite distinct from the potential previously observed following contextually inappropriate words (N400). Furthermore, final words in sentences typically judged to be unacceptable elicited an N400-like effect, relative to final words in sentences typically judged to be acceptable. These findings suggest that ERPs are sensitive to syntactic anomaly, including anomaly engendered by disambiguating material following erroneous analysis of a syntactically ambiguous string (the “garden path” effect). We evaluate the speculation that the P600 and N400 effects are elicited as a function of anomaly type (syntactic and semantic, respectively).
Psycholinguistic investigations of reanalysis phenomena have typically focused on revisions of phrase structure. Here, we identify a further subcomponent of syntactic reanalysis, namely the revision of case marking. This aspect of reanalysis was isolated by examining German subject–object ambiguities that require a revision towards a dative-initial order. Since dative-initial orders are potentially unmarked, no phrase structure corrections are required, but the original, preference-based nominative assignment must be revised. Experiment 1, an ERP study, revealed an N400 component for reanalysis of case marking, which contrasted with a P600 component for phrase structure revisions. The ‘reanalysis N400’ was replicated in Experiment 2, which also showed that direct lexical support for a dative-initial order leads to a reduction of the effect. Finally, in Experiment 3, direct time course measures provided by the speed-accuracy trade-off (SAT) procedure supported the case reanalysis account by showing that conditions hypothesized to involve case reanalysis (dative-initial structures) require longer computation times than their nominative-initial counterparts. Lexeme-specific support for the dative-initial reading, however, does not lead to a faster computation of the target structure, but rather increases the likelihood that the correct interpretation will be computed. We interpret these findings as evidence for the general availability of an unmarked dative–nominative word order in German, the accessibility of which may be increased by lexical information. Moreover, the data show that syntactic reanalysis is not a homogeneous process, but may rather be subdivided along several dimensions that interact in determining overall garden path strength.
In German, oblique Cases (dative and genitive) require morphological licensing while structural Cases (nominative and accusative) do not. This difference can be captured by assuming that in German, NPs bearing oblique Case have an extra structural layer Kase phrase (KP) which is missing in NPs bearing structural Case. Focusing on dative NPs, we will show that the postulation of such a phrase-structural difference between oblique and structural case allows for a unified explanation of a wide array of facts both from the domain of grammar and from the domain of language comprehension. First, with regard to grammar, several asymmetries between dative NPs and nominative/accusative NPs follow if the former but not the latter are included within a KP-shell, including asymmetries with respect to function changing operations, clausal licensing, binding and topic drop, among others. Corroborating evidence for our analysis of dative Case in German will be provided by a comparison with data from English and Dutch. Second, when combined with certain independent assumptions about the human sentence parsing mechanism, the postulation of a KP for datives helps explain several recent experimental findings with respect to on-line sentence understanding, including the facts that dative case is dispreferred in situations of local syntactic ambiguity and that dative case may erroneously override structural case during sentence comprehension but not vice versa.
Issues regarding the nature of the semantic relationships holding between a verb (or other predicating element) and its arguments have been the focus of much research and controversy since the mid-1960's. Starting from Gruber (1965)'s notion of thematic relations and Fillmore (1968)'s concept of case roles, most contemporary theories of grammar assume some system of semantic predicate-argument relations. Most theories assume a set of thematic relations such as agent, patient, theme, instrument, etc. which map into a set of grammatical relations (e.g. Lexical-Functional Grammar) or structural positions in clauses (Government & Binding Theory). Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) (Van Valin 1993, in press; Van Valin & LaPolla 1997) has taken a somewhat different approach to this aspect of the syntax-semantics interface. In some of the earliest work in the theory (Van Valin 1977), it was proposed that there are two types of semantic relationships holding between predicates and their arguments: the familiar thematic relations like agent, experiencer, patient, etc., as well as a second, more general type of semantic role, of which there are only two, termed actor and undergoer. The latter type of role was labelled semantic macroroles. Originally unique to RRG, this notion has been picked up and developed in different ways in a variety of approaches. 1 The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the RRG concept of semantic macrorole. The discussion will proceed as follows. In the next section, the semantic basis of the distinction between actor and undergoer will be clarified, and in the following section, the function of semantic macroroles in the RRG linking system will be discussed. In the final section, the issue of how many macroroles there should be will be addressed.
Three experiments concerning the processing of syntactic and semantic violations were conducted. Event related potentials (ERPs) showed that semantic violations elicited an N400 response, whereas syntactic violations elicited two early negativities (150 and 350 ms) and a P600 response. No interaction between the semantic and early syntactic ERP effects was found sentence complexity and violation probability (25% vs 75%) affected only the P600 and not the early negativities. The probability effect was taken as evidence that the P600 resembles the P3B, The temporal order of word processing in a sentence as suggested by the data was such that a more automatic syntactic analysis was performed (earlier syntactic-related negativities) in parallel with a semantic analysis 9N400), after which a syntactic reanalysis was performed (P600). A reanalysis interpretation of the P600 could explain why the extent of the reanalysis differed with syntactic complexity and probability of ungrammaticality.
In this paper, we present experimental evidence for the existence of syntax-independent (viz. thematic) reanalysis effects. In an experiment using event-related brain potentials (ERPs), we manipulated the thematic structure of the verb in transitive, unambiguously case marked German verb-final clauses such that the processing of this verb either confirmed the 'canonical' hierarchical thematic ordering between the sentential arguments (active verbs) or required a reversal of this ordering (object-experiencer verbs). The latter elicited a parietal positivity between 300 and 600 ms post onset, which, as we argue, must be interpreted as reflecting a thematic reanalysis. The second experimental manipulation, i.e., a variation of word order (SO vs. OS), revealed an early positivity at the position of the second NP in dative-nominative (OS) structures. Again, we account for this effect in terms of a thematic reanalysis, which becomes necessary when the original interpretation of the initial argument as thematically highest-ranking must be revised. We conclude from our data that case marking languages such as German may employ non-syntactic processing routes to determine the thematic interpretation of a sentence.
The processing of semantic and structural information concerning the relation between a verb and its arguments is investigated in German in two experiments: In Experiment 1 the verb precedes all its arguments, whereas in Experiment 2 all arguments precede the verb. In both experiments, participants read sentences containing a semantic violation concerning the thematic role, a violation of the number of arguments, or a violation of the grammatical type of the argument (direct versus indirect object) indicated by case marking. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded during sentence reading. ERPs displayed different patterns for each of the violation types in the two experiments. The specific ERP patterns found for the different violation types indicate that the processes concerning the thematic role violation are primarily semantic in nature and that those concerning the grammatical type of argument are purely syntactic. Interestingly, processes concerning the number of arguments seem to trigger semantic processes followed by syntactic processes. The combined findings from the two experiments suggest that the parser uses verb-specific information to build up syntactic and thematic structures against which incoming arguments are checked and that argument-specific information can be used to build up syntactic and thematic structures against which the incoming verb has to be checked to allow lexical integration.
The need for a simply applied quantitative assessment of handedness is discussed and some previous forms reviewed. An inventory of 20 items with a set of instructions and response- and computational-conventions is proposed and the results obtained from a young adult population numbering some 1100 individuals are reported. The separate items are examined from the point of view of sex, cultural and socio-economic factors which might appertain to them and also of their inter-relationship to each other and to the measure computed from them all. Criteria derived from these considerations are then applied to eliminate 10 of the original 20 items and the results recomputed to provide frequency-distribution and cumulative frequency functions and a revised item-analysis. The difference of incidence of handedness between the sexes is discussed.
In a sentence reading task, words that occurred out of context were associated with specific types of event-related brain
potentials. Words that were physically aberrant (larger than normal) elecited a late positive series of potentials, whereas
semantically inappropriate words elicited a late negative wave (N400). The N400 wave may be an electrophysiological sign of
the "reprocessing" of semantically anomalous information.
This paper presents a model describing the temporal and neurotopological structure of syntactic processes during comprehension. It postulates three distinct phases of language comprehension, two of which are primarily syntactic in nature. During the first phase the parser assigns the initial syntactic structure on the basis of word category information. These early structural processes are assumed to be subserved by the anterior parts of the left hemisphere, as event-related brain potentials show this area to be maximally activated when phrase structure violations are processed and as circumscribed lesions in this area lead to an impairment of the on-line structural assignment. During the second phase lexical-semantic and verb-argument structure information is processed. This phase is neurophysiologically manifest in a negative component in the event-related brain potential around 400 ms after stimulus onset which is distributed over the left and right temporo-parietal areas when lexical-semantic information is processed and over left anterior areas when verb-argument structure information is processed. During the third phase the parser tries to map the initial syntactic structure onto the available lexical-semantic and verb-argument structure information. In case of an unsuccessful match between the two types of information reanalyses may become necessary. These processes of structural reanalysis are correlated with a centroparietally distributed late positive component in the event-related brain potential.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
This paper reviews a series of electrophysiological experiments on syntactic processing against the background of a psycholinguistic two-stage model of parsing. The data reveal two event-related brain potential components in correlation with syntactic processes: an early left anterior negativity and a late centro-parietal positivity. It is argued that these two components can be correlated with two separate stages of syntactic processing: the early left anterior negativity reflecting first-pass parsing processes and the late positivity reflecting second-pass parsing processes possibly including processes of reanalyses.
In two experiments, event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 13 scalp locations while subjects read sentences containing a syntactically or a semantically anomalous word. The position (sentence-embedded vs sentence-final) and word class (open vs closed) of the syntactic anomalies were manipulated. In both experiments, semantically anomalous words elicited an enhanced N400 component. Syntactically anomalous closed class words elicited a widely distributed late positive wave (P600) regardless of the word's position and a smaller negative-going effect that was largest over anterior sites when the anomaly occurred in sentence-final position. The response to syntactically anomalous open class words revealed striking qualitative individual differences: These words elicited a P600 response in the majority of subjects and an N400 response in others. The proportion of subjects exhibiting the N400 response was greater when the anomaly occurred in sentence-final position. These results are interpreted in the context of prior findings, and implications for the hypothesis that syntactic and semantic anomalies elicit distinct brain potentials are discussed.
A new view of the functional role of the left anterior cortex in language use is proposed. The experimental record indicates that most human linguistic abilities are not localized in this region. In particular, most of syntax (long thought to be there) is not located in Broca's area and its vicinity (operculum, insula, and subjacent white matter). This cerebral region, implicated in Broca's aphasia, does have a role in syntactic processing, but a highly specific one: It is the neural home to receptive mechanisms involved in the computation of the relation between transformationally moved phrasal constituents and their extraction sites (in line with the Trace-Deletion Hypothesis). It is also involved in the construction of higher parts of the syntactic tree in speech production. By contrast, basic combinatorial capacities necessary for language processing--for example, structure-building operations, lexical insertion--are not supported by the neural tissue of this cerebral region, nor is lexical or combinatorial semantics. The dense body of empirical evidence supporting this restrictive view comes mainly from several angles on lesion studies of syntax in agrammatic Broca's aphasia. Five empirical arguments are presented: experiments in sentence comprehension, cross-linguistic considerations (where aphasia findings from several language types are pooled and scrutinized comparatively), grammaticality and plausibility judgments, real-time processing of complex sentences, and rehabilitation. Also discussed are recent results from functional neuroimaging and from structured observations on speech production of Broca's aphasics. Syntactic abilities are nonetheless distinct from other cognitive skills and are represented entirely and exclusively in the left cerebral hemisphere. Although more widespread in the left hemisphere than previously thought, they are clearly distinct from other human combinatorial and intellectual abilities. The neurological record (based on functional imaging, split-brain and right-hemisphere-damaged patients, as well as patients suffering from a breakdown of mathematical skills) indicates that language is a distinct, modularly organized neurological entity. Combinatorial aspects of the language faculty reside in the human left cerebral hemisphere, but only the transformational component (or algorithms that implement it in use) is located in and around Broca's area.
Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we present evidence that the current interpretation of the N400 component must be extended. This component is elicited in incorrect German sentences with two grammatical subjects, thereby showing its sensitivity to thematic relations between arguments in a sentence (who is doing what to whom). Such a violation only elicits an N400 when both arguments are animate but not when one of them is animate and the other inanimate, thus showing that the brain uses animacy information to overcome interpretation problems due to thematic competition. Structures with two subjects additionally elicit a P600 component which occurs independently of the animacy variation. Thus, animacy information does not appear to influence the syntactic processing problems resulting from such violations.
On the basis of an experiment using event-related brain potentials (EPRs), we argue that a characterisation of language-related positivities as necessarily syntax-related is too restrictive. Our data show that, in verb-final German clauses, the processing of a verb which disconfirms the expectations with regard to the hierarchical thematic structure of a sentence (who is doing what to whom) gives rise to an early (200-600 ms) parietal positivity. Thus, positive ERP components elicited during language processing appear to be related to operations (most often revisions) applying to hierarchically structured linguistic information in general, rather than to syntactic structure in particular.
- R Jacobson
- Beitrag Zur Allgemeinen Kasuslehre
R. Jacobson, Beitrag zur allgemeinen Kasuslehre: Gesamtbedeutungen
der russischen Kasus, Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Prague 6
(1936) 240 -288.
Cases and Thematic Roles, Niemeyer, Tü bingen
- B Primus
B. Primus, Cases and Thematic Roles, Niemeyer, Tü bingen, 1999.
Towards a neural basis of auditory sentence comprehension
- Friederici
Beitrag zur allgemeinen Kasuslehre: Gesamtbedeutungen der russischen Kasus
- Jacobson