scholarly journals Re-examination of Chinese Semantic Processing and Syntactic Processing: Evidence from Conventional ERPs and Reconstructed ERPs by Residue Iteration Decomposition (RIDE)

2016 ◽  
pp. 527-532
Author(s):  
Fang Wang ◽  
Guang Ouyang ◽  
Changsong Zhou ◽  
Suiping Wang
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Syntactic Processing

An ERP Study of Second Language Learning after Childhood: Effects of Proficiency

2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (8) ◽  
pp. 1212-1228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiro Ojima ◽  
Hiroki Nakata ◽  
Ryusuke Kakigi
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Critical Period ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Early Maturation ◽  
Period Effects ◽  
L2 Learning

Whether there is an absolute critical period for acquiring language is a matter of continuous debate. One approach to address this issue is to compare the processes of second language (L2) learning after childhood and those of first language (L1) learning during childhood. To study the cortical process of postchildhood L2 learning, we compared event-related brain potentials recorded from two groups of adult Japanese speakers who attained either high or intermediate proficiency in English after childhood (J-High and J-Low), and adult native English speakers (ENG). Semantic anomalies embedded in English sentences evoked a clear N400 component in all three groups, with only the time course of the brain activation varying among the groups. Syntactic violations elicited a left-lateralized negativity similar to the left anterior negativity in ENG and J-High, but not in J-Low. In ENG, a P600 component was additionally found. These results suggest that semantic processing is robust from early on in L2 learning, whereas the development of syntactic processing is more dependent on proficiency as evidenced by the lack of the left-lateralized negativity in J-Low. Because early maturation and stability of semantic processing as opposed to syntactic processing are also a feature of L1 processing, postchildhood L2 learning may be governed by the same brain properties as those which govern childhood L1 learning. We argue that these processes are qualitatively similar in many respects, with only restricted domains of language processing being subject to absolute critical period effects.

scholarly journals The left posterior inferior frontal gyrus is functionally relevant for grammatical processing guided by intonation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constantijn L van der Burght ◽  
Ole Numssen ◽  
Benito Schlaak ◽  
Tomás Goucha ◽  
Gesa Hartwigsen
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Inhibitory Effect ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Sentence Completion ◽  
Facilitation Effect ◽  
Prosodic Cues ◽  
Functional Relevance

Auditory language comprehension involves processing the content (semantics), grammar (syntax), and intonation (prosody) of a sentence. Sentence processing guided by prosody has been shown to involve the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Prosodic cues are known to interact closely with both syntax and semantics, yet, whether these two processing domains can be attributed to separate subregions within the left IFG is highly debated. We probed the causal role of the posterior IFG (pIFG) for syntactic processing and the anterior IFG (aIFG) for semantic processing in a task that required the interpretation of the sentence’s prosodic realisation. Healthy participants performed a sentence completion task with syntactic and semantic decisions, while receiving 10 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over either left aIFG, pIFG, or vertex (control). Although the behavioural analysis showed no significant interaction between rTMS site and decision, electrical field simulations revealed a task-specific facilitation effect: stronger pIFG stimulation led to faster syntactic processing without significantly modulating semantic decisions. In contrast, aIFG stimulation had an unspecific inhibitory effect. These results provide evidence for the functional relevance of left pIFG in grammatical processing guided by intonation. The unspecific inhibitory effect of aIFG rTMS highlights this subregion’s role in domain-general processes.

scholarly journals Processing Aspectual Agreement in an Inflexionless Language: An ERP Study of Mandarin Chinese

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1236
Author(s):  
Yuxin Hao ◽  
Xun Duan ◽  
Lu Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Progressive Aspect ◽  
Lexical Aspect ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Aspect Marker ◽  
Aspect Markers

This is a study of the collocation of Chinese verbs with different lexical aspects and aspect markers. Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we explored the processing of aspect violation sentences. In the experiment, we combined verbs of various lexical aspect types with the progressive aspect marker zhe, and the combination of the achievement verbs and the progressive aspect marker zhe constituted the sentence’s aspect violation. The participants needed to judge whether a sentence was correct after it was presented. Finally, we observed and analyzed the components of ERPs. The results suggest that when the collocation of aspect markers and lexical aspect is ungrammatical, the N400-like and P600 are elicited on aspect markers, while the late AN is elicited by the word after the aspect marker. P600 and N400-like show that the collocation of Chinese verbs with various lexical aspects and aspect markers involve not only syntactic processing, but also the semantic processing; and the late AN may have been due to the syntax revision and the conclusion at the end of sentences.

scholarly journals Evidence against preserved syntactic comprehension in healthy aging

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Poulisse ◽  
Linda Wheeldon ◽  
Katrien Segaert
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Semantic Information ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Processing Abilities ◽  
Speed And Accuracy

AbstractWe investigated age-related differences in syntactic comprehension in young and older adults. Most previous research found no evidence of age-related decline in syntactic processing. We investigated elementary syntactic comprehension of minimal sentences (e.g. I cook), minimizing the influence of working memory. We also investigated the contribution of semantic processing by comparing sentences containing real verbs (e.g. I cook) versus pseudoverbs (e.g. I spuff). We measured the speed and accuracy of detecting syntactic agreement errors (e.g. I cooks, I spuffs). We found that older adults were slower and less accurate than younger adults in detecting syntactic agreement errors for both real and pseudoverb sentences, suggesting there is age-related decline in syntactic comprehension. The age-related decline in accuracy was smaller for the pseudoverb sentences, and the decline in speed was larger for the pseudoverb sentences, compared to real verb sentences. We suggest that syntactic comprehension decline is stronger in the absence of semantic information, which causes older adults to produce slower responses in order to make more accurate decisions. In line with these findings, performance for older adults was positively related to a measure of processing speed capacity. Taken together, we found evidence that elementary syntactic processing abilities decline in healthy ageing.

scholarly journals Might language be telepathy?

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Juliana Novo Gomes ◽  
Julia Cataldo Lopes
Keyword(s):  
Brain Imaging ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Sufficient Evidence ◽  
Semantic Composition ◽  
Primary Driver ◽  
Language Region ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Language Network

Seeking to decipher the process of understanding and producing language, Fedorenko reports three discoveries made by her laboratory during the last decade, achieved through behavioral, computational and brain imaging methodologies. First, Fedorenko proposes that regions that support the language are selective only to it. She then argues that regions that support syntactic processing are the same ones that support semantic processing. Finally, Fedorenko suggests that the primary driver for activation in the language region is semantic composition and not syntax, as the literature had been indicating: if a syntactically messed up input provides sufficient evidence for the semantic composition, the language network maximum response is achieved. Thus, syntactic properties could be constrained by communicative pressures. She concludes that, interpreted together, these results point to a strong integration between lexicon and syntax, approaching theoretical models such as construction and usage-based grammars.

Bilingual sentence processing

2007 ◽  
pp. 370-384
Author(s):  
Arturo E. Hernández ◽  
Eva M. Fernández ◽  
Noemí Aznar-besé
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Processing Effects

Bilinguals live in two linguistic worlds. Given the different demands of each language, one might think that each system functions independently. However, bilinguals do not behave like two monolingual speaker/listeners housed in a single brain. Instead, the evidence to date suggests that the characteristics of bilingual language processing may appear to be “in between” the individual's two codes. Studies in bilingual sentence processing have focused on phenomena related to how semantic or syntactic representations are built. This article reviews data consistent with the view of interdependence between the two languages of the bilingual, using evidence from the literature on bilingual sentence processing. Studies of both semantic processing and syntactic processing show that bilinguals almost always use a unitary mechanism which accesses two separately represented grammars. The study of bilingual sentence processing can also offer insights into our understanding of human language processing in general, because bilinguals offer opportunities to examine sentence processing effects in within-participant designs, impossible to carry out with monolinguals. In addition to the above, this article explores parsing, the age of language acquisition, and language proficiency.

scholarly journals An Event-related Potential Study of Second Language Semantic and Syntactic Processing: Evidence From the Declarative/Procedural Model

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 841-854
Author(s):  
Laleh Esfandiari ◽  
◽  
Reza Nilipour ◽  
Vahid Nejati ◽  
Parviz Maftoon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Declarative Memory ◽  
Memory System ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
N400 Amplitude ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Past Conditions

Introduction: This study examined the effect of proficiency level on the second Language (L2) syntactic and semantic processing by addressing the role of procedural and declarative memory systems in light of the Declarative/Procedural (DP) model. The primary purpose was to determine to what extent proficiency accounts for native-like language processing in L2 in adult bilinguals who learned English (L2) after the age of 15 under explicit instruction. Methods: Using a mixed-method design and an oddball violation paradigm, we examined the functional neural correlates of syntactic and semantic processing in two groups of Persian-English bilinguals (L1=Persian, L2=English; N=10 high-proficient, N=10 pre-intermediate levels; Gender= Female; mean age=25.50 years, SD = 5.09 years, age range = 19-35 years of age) across 6 different conditions. They included a visual stimulus task of 240 English sentences with three different experimental conditions (violated regular past forms or phrase structure rules or final-word semantic violation) and three control conditions (sets of correct sentences for each experimental condition). Both groups started learning English late (age of onset=15+) and under an explicit learning context. To evaluate the effect of L2 proficiency, Event-related potentials (ERPs) to target words in each condition were elicited across the N400 time window (300-500 ms) and the P600 time window (500-700 ms). Results: Results showed different cortical responses in the two groups. Upon processing the violated forms, high-proficient subjects showed more native-like patterns of scalp activity in both lexical-semantic and syntactic processing. In contrast, less proficient learners have shown delayed onsets and or peaks of components, reduced amplitudes, or absent components in some regions. For instance, the difference in N400 amplitude for the incorrect regular past conditions was observed only in the pre-intermediate (PI) subjects in the O1 channel. This finding is compatible with the DP Model in that at lower levels of L2 proficiency, the participants show N400s or N400-like posterior negativities instead of Anterior Negativities (ANs). This finding shows the initial reliance on the declarative memory system for syntactic processing at lower levels of L2. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that attained proficiency was a more determinant factor in the L1-like cortical representation of L2 than the age of acquisition and or the type of instruction/context. Several brain areas, similar to those observed for L1, were activated during L2 syntactic processing in high-proficient subjects addressing their reliance on the procedural memory system for syntactic processing to gain more proficiency. For instance, our results showed a significant difference in N400 amplitude for the incorrect regular past conditions in O1 for the PI subjects, which shows the initial reliance on the declarative memory system for syntactic processing at lower levels of L2.

Association and cognitive processing

2020 ◽  
pp. 43-73
Author(s):  
Hans-Jörg Schmid
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Predictive Coding ◽  
Cognitive Activity ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Associative Model ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Associative Network ◽  
Cognitive Activities

The chapter discusses the cognitive activities which are performed in usage events and entrenched, if repeated. The key cognitive activity is association in the associative network, with four types of associations (symbolic, paradigmatic, syntagmatic, paradigmatic) being activated in predictive and probabilistic lexical and syntactic processing. Processing and representation take place in the form of entrenched patterns of associations. Language processing is explained in terms of the activation of associations. This activation is probabilistic and follows the principle of predictive coding. Lexical-semantic processing is understood in terms of dynamic and transient multidimensional activation patterns in the associative network targeting attractors in the network. A highly dynamic and flexible associative model of syntactic processing is proposed. It is first developed with reference to two examples and then described in general form. The model is very important for the understanding of entrenchment to be discussed in Part III.

scholarly journals On-line syntactic and semantic influences in reading revisited

2009 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Pynte ◽  
Boris New ◽  
Alan Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Regression ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Syntactic Processing ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Function Words ◽  
On Line

This study is a follow-up to Pynte, New and Kennedy (2008), Journal of Eye Movement Research . 2(1):4, 1-11. A new series of multiple regression analyses were conducted on the French part of the Dundee corpus, using a new set of syntactic and semantic predictors. In line with our prior study, quite different patterns of results were obtained for function and content words. We conclude that syntactic processing operations during reading mainly concern function words and are carried out ahead of semantic processing.

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