Parametric effects of syntactic-semantic conflict in Broca's area during sentence processing

The hypothesized role of Broca’s area in sentence processing ranges from domain-general executive function to domain-specific computation that is specific to certain syntactic structures. We examined this issue by manipulating syntactic structure and conflict between syntactic and semantic cues in a sentence processing task. Functional neuroimaging revealed that activation within several Broca’s area regions of interest reflected the parametric variation in syntactic-semantic conflict. These results suggest that Broca’s area supports sentence processing by mediating between multiple incompatible constraints on sentence interpretation, consistent with this area’s well-known role in conflict resolution in other linguistic and non-linguistic tasks.     

句法和语义在汉语简单句理解中的作用

两个实验探讨句法和语义在汉语简单句加工中的作用及其相互关系。实验一采用施事判断任务,发现句法作用与语义可逆性的作用都很显著;实验二采用快速句子判断任务,发现句法作用是主要的,语义可逆性无显著作用;两个实验都发现句法与语义可逆性之间的交互作用不显著。这些结果表明：（１）在汉语简单句理解的过程中句法因素的作用是主要的,语义因素的作用是次要的,只要当实验任务更多地强调语义分析时,语义因素才有显著的作用。     

句子理解的关键——对句法和语义关系的再探讨

对于句子理解中句法和语义的关系,传统的模块化观点认为,句法信息优先于语义信息,句法加工支配着句子的理解过程。近期,这种强调句法优先的理论受到了一系列ERP（Event-related potentials）研究结果的挑战,这些研究从不同角度论证了语义信息对句法加工及句子整合加工的重要作用。基于这些研究发现,研究者提出句子理解过程中句法和语义的关系并非一成不变：一些情况下可能是句法支配语义加工,而另一些情况下则可能是语义引导句法加工     

句子加工中语义关联性和句法歧义性实验研究

采用自定速移动视窗技术,探讨语义关联性和句法歧义性对汉语直接宾语、宾语小句类暂时句法歧义句理解加工的影响。结果发现：语义关联性和句法歧义性对歧义区和解歧区的阅读时间有显著影响,并在解歧区产生了显著的交互作用,表明语义信息即时参与对句子的理解加工并同句法信息一起共同影响句子的认知加工过程。     

Mapping sensorimotor sequences to word sequences: A connectionist model of language acquisition and sentence generation

In this article we present a neural network model of sentence generation. The network has both technical and conceptual innovations. Its main technical novelty is in its semantic representations: the messages which form the input to the network are structured as sequences, so that message elements are delivered to the network one at a time. Rather than learning to linearise a static semantic representation as a sequence of words, our network rehearses a sequence of semantic signals, and learns to generate words from selected signals. Conceptually, the network's use of rehearsed sequences of semantic signals is motivated by work in embodied cognition, which posits that the structure of semantic representations has its origin in the serial structure of sensorimotor processing. The rich sequential structure of the network's semantic inputs also allows it to incorporate certain Chomskyan ideas about innate syntactic knowledge and parameter-setting, as well as a more empiricist account of the acquisition of idiomatic syntactic constructions.     

Discourse Before Gender: An Event-Related Brain Potential Study on the Interplay of Semantic and Syntactic Information During Spoken Language Understanding

A study is presented on the effects of discourse–semantic and lexical–syntactic information during spoken sentence processing. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were registered while subjects listened to discourses that ended in a sentence with a temporary syntactic ambiguity. The prior discourse–semantic information biased toward one analysis of the temporary ambiguity, whereas the lexical-syntactic information allowed only for the alternative analysis. The ERP results show that discourse–semantic information can momentarily take precedence over syntactic information, even if this violates grammatical gender agreement rules.     

句子加工的脑成像研究

近年来句子加工的脑成像研究大量涌现,并集中于揭示句子语义与语法加工的神经机制以及之间的联系。文章首先对这些研究所采用的范式加以分析与比较,从而将句子加工脑成像研究的研究思路与常用范式进行了归纳与总结。其次,讨论了语义加工与语法加工的神经机制,并根据现有的研究结果,对句子语义与语法两个成分在认知加工与神经机制上的共性与特性做出推论。最后,从语言的多样性以及影响句子加工的因素两个角度,对以后的句子加工脑成像研究做了展望。     

句法歧义句理解加工中的语义关联性效应研究

通过实验探讨了汉语直接宾语(DO)/宾语小句(SC)类暂时句法歧义句理解加工中的语义关联性效应。实验采用自定速动窗技术。实验1发现在汉语暂时句法歧义句理解加工中存在语义关联性效应。实验2发现语义关联性与句法歧义性因素在解歧区产生了显著的交互作用。结果表明,语义关联性因素显著影响对句子的理解加工,并且与句法歧义因素共同作用于句子的理解加工过程。     

Differences in the perception and time course of syntactic and semantic violations

A reading time and an ERP experiment conducted in Italian investigated the parser's responses to a syntactic violation (subject-verb number agreement) and to a semantic violation (subject-verb selectional restriction), examining the time course of comprehension processes until sentence end. The reading-time data showed that the syntactic violation was detected earlier than the semantic one and that the two violations differed in the time-course. The ERP data fully supported the reading time data: Syntactic anomalies elicited a left anterior negativity (LAN) and a P600. Semantic anomalies elicited a N400 centred on the parietal sites which started 90 ms later (latency 430 ms) than the LAN. Furthermore, the N400 evoked by the words that followed the target word continued and increased until sentence end. The results are discussed with respect to the hypotheses that the parser constructs distinct syntactic and semantic analyses of a sentence and that this characteristic holds cross-linguistically. The appropriateness of different methodologies to the study of sentence processing is also evaluated.     

Automatic syntactic computation and use of semantic information during sentence comprehension

Summary The paper represents a contribution to the issue of the differential effects of syntactic, semantic and pragmatic information in the process of sentence comprehension. The results of four experiments are reported, in which sentences containing syntactic, semantic and pragmatic violations were presented with different tasks to see how these violations affected language comprehension, how easily they were detected and whether they affected sentence comprehension even when they were not explicitly recognized. The main results can be summarized as follows. First, the most relevant cues used to comprehend a sentence are not so much syntactic, but semantic or pragmatic. Second, with difficult or anomalous linguistic input, syntactic cues become more important. Third, even when the reader is not aware of syntactic violations, these seem to affect his processing of the linguistic input. This suggests the hypothesis of an automatic computation of syntactic information, the output of which is, however, used only when evidence coming from other sources, semantic or pragmatic, is insufficient or not clear enough.     

句子理解过程中句法与语义加工的EEG时频分析

EEG时频分析旨在通过测量单个电极各频段的能量变化, 揭示事件相关振荡活动。采用该技术, 最近的句子加工研究发现, 句法与语义过程均与多个频段(θ、a、b或γ)能量变化相联系。此外, 不同方面的句法(如语法性、数)和语义加工(语义整合或预期)与不同频段振荡活动相联系。将来的研究应该使用多种EEG能量计算方法, 在多种语言中, 探讨时态、词序等句法加工所伴随的振荡活动, 特别是句法和语义过程相互作用在EEG能量变化上的表现。     

句法歧义消解影响因素、认知机制及其神经基础

句法歧义消解主要是指人们在面临多种句法分析可能性的情况下,句法分析器抑制不正确的句法分析而选择正确句法分析的认知过程。研究表明,该过程受到工作记忆、认知控制能力、语言分布频率、语境、韵律等因素的影响。为有效说明人们是如何完成句法歧义消解的,研究者们建构了诸如花园路径模型、约束满意理论、弱交互作用句法分析理论等相关模型。另外,基于脑成像技术研究表明,左侧额下回、左侧颞叶后部、中部和前部在句法消歧任务中都有显著激活。未来研究当围绕着句法消歧中的语义效应、句法和词汇歧义消解机制的异同、句法消歧中抑制能力的效应等方面展开。     

Syntactic and semantic contributions to sentence comprehension in agrammatism

Five aphasic subjects, who demonstrated agrammatic speech, and eight control subjects were presented with a sentence-picture matching task in which the factors of syntactic complexity, semantic reversibility, and sentence plausibility were independently varied. A subset of the sentences was patterned after that presented by A. Caramazza and E. Zurif (1976, Brain and Language, 5, 572-583) who concluded that Broca's aphasics rely on semantic constraints instead of syntactic information for sentence comprehension. Our aphasic subjects showed the same pattern of performance on this subset of sentences. However, the results from the full set of sentence materials we tested show that the aphasic subjects could perform some sentence level syntactic analyses, even when syntactic information conflicted with semantic constraints. The aphasic subjects correctly interpreted most active and passive sentences. They failed, however, to assign thematic roles and adjectives in center-embedded relative sentences, and instead relied on nonsyntactic information. These results show that both semantic and syntactic information contributed to sentence comprehension in the aphasic subjects we tested, in contrast to previous claims that syntactic and semantic processes are completely dissociated in this population.     

The influence of semantic fit on on-line sentence processing

The interactive influence of verb complement preferences and noun phrase semantic fit on resolution of temporary syntactic ambiguity was investigated in an eye movement experiment. The present semantic fit manipulation included noun phrases that fit well as direct objects of the verbs that they followed and noun phrases that were possible but less likely direct objects of the verbs in question. This contrasted with existing research on the use of verb complement preferences and semantic fit during sentence processing, in which processing of noun phrases that are possible direct objects has been compared with processing of noun phrases that are not possible direct objects of the verbs that they follow. Verb complement preference information and noun phrase semantic fit interacted at early stages of on-line sentence processing. Implications of these results for interactive and structural models of sentence processing are discussed.     

句子加工中的语义P600效应

句子加工领域的研究中,一般认为,N400效应与语义加工有关,句法违反通常引发P600效应。然而近年来一些研究发现,句子语义违反时也引发了P600效应,即语义P600效应。对语义P600效应的诱发原因及其功能意义,目前有三种代表性的解释:监控说认为,P600效应是由语言理解过程中的认知冲突引发的,反映了认知监控系统对可能出现的加工错误的检测与解决;而非句法中心动态模型认为语义P600效应反映的是句子理解过程中两条通路之间出现冲突时的持续分析;扩展的论元依赖模型则用新的句子加工模型来解释语义P600效应,认为语义P600效应与句法违反引发的P600效应产生于句子加工的不同过程。     

Broken agreement

The subjects and verbs of English sentences agree in number. This superficially simple syntactic operation is regularly implemented by speakers, but occasionally derails in sentences such as The cost of the improvements have not yet been estimated. We examined whether the incidence of such errors was related to the presence of subject-like semantic features in the immediate preverbal nouns, in light of current questions about the semantic versus syntactic nature of sentence subjects and the interactivity of language processing. In three experiments, speakers completed sentence fragments designed to elicit erroneous agreement. We varied the number and animacy of the head noun and the immediate preverbal (local) noun, as well as the amount of material separating the head noun from the verb. The plurality of the local noun phrase had a large and reliable effect on the incidence of agreement errors, but neither its animacy nor its length affected their occurrence. The latter findings suggest, respectively, that the semantic features of sentence subjects are of minimal relevance to the syntactic and morphological processes that implement agreement, and that agreement features are specified at a point in processing where the eventual length of sentential constituents has little effect on syntactic planning. Both results follow naturally from explanations of language production that emphasize the segregation of sentence formulation processes into relatively autonomous components.     

基于ERP的二语句子加工过程的认知神经机制研究进展及其启示

二语句子加工认知神经机制的研究尚处于验证和探索阶段,基本上还集中于对一语和二语的语义违例与句法违例反应的比较,更缺乏动态的二语句子加工认知神经机制的研究。仅就二语语义加工而言,所得结果充满矛盾,这可能与二语习得年龄有关。就二语句法加工研究而言,二语学习者显示出依赖于二语学习年龄的不同模式。同时,二语的句法加工过程依赖于二语和一语的相似性与相异性。其深层原因可能意味着存在一语和二语之间的句法通达问题。为此,应当系统考察语义通达程度和句法通达程度的系统变化对二语加工加工可能会造成怎样的影响,同时应开展以某种语言（如汉语）的母语者其二语（如英语）句子加工认知神经机制和以前者的二语（如英语）母语者为被试开展以前者的母语（如汉语）为二语的句子加工认知神经机制的比较研究。     

Priming prepositional phrase attachment: Evidence from eye-tracking and event-related potentials

Three syntactic-priming experiments investigated the effect of structurally similar or dissimilar prime sentences on the processing of target sentences, using eye tracking (Experiment 1) and event-related potentials (ERPs) (Experiments 2 and 3) All three experiments tested readers' response to sentences containing a temporary syntactic ambiguity. The ambiguity occurred because a prepositional phrase modifier (PP-modifier) could attach either to a preceding verb or to a preceding noun. Previous experiments have established that (a) noun-modifying expressions are harder to process than verb-modifying expressions (when test sentences are presented in isolation); and (b) for other kinds of sentences, processing a structurally similar prime sentence can facilitate processing a target sentence. The experiments reported here were designed to determine whether a structurally similar prime could facilitate processing of noun-attached modifiers and whether such facilitation reflected syntactic-structure-building or semantic processes. These findings have implications for accounts of structural priming during online comprehension and for accounts of syntactic representation and processing in comprehension.     

Semantic heuristics,syntactic analysis,and case-role assignment

Forster's (1979) proposals regarding the autonomy of syntax and his explanation of experiments that support the alternative interactive theory of syntactic analysis are briefly reviewed. It is argued that a slightly different account is consistent with evidence from neuropsychology. On the basis of the work of Linebarger, Schwartz, and Saffran (1983) with agrammatics, a distinction is drawn between a sentence's syntactic representation and its propositional representation. The suggestion is that the processor responsible for assigning case roles within a proposition has access to semantic and pragmatic information as well as to a purely syntatic representation. In this way, certain top-down effects in sentence processing can be comfortably accommodated without violating the autonomy of the syntactic representation.     

汉语句子加工中句法信息与语义信息的交互作用：来自ERP的证据

采用ERP技术考察句子加工过程中句法信息和语义信息交互作用的时间进程。以汉语“把字句”为实验材料,分别比较句法违例句与双重违例句的LAN和P600效应、语义违例句与双重违例句的N400效应。与句法违例句相比,双重违例句的LAN效应的波幅更负,潜伏期更长,皮层分布更广泛;双重违例句的P600效应出现减弱趋势;双重违例句的N400效应的潜伏期显著长于语义违例句。结果表明,在句子加工的各个阶段,句法信息和语义信息呈持续交互作用,支持句子的平行加工模型。