Speeding Up Syntax: On the Relative Timing and Automaticity of Local Phrase Structure and Morphosyntactic Processing as Reflected in Event-related Brain Potentials

Abstract

Neurolinguistic research utilizing event-related brain potentials (ERPs) typically relates syntactic phrase structure processing to an early automatic processing stage around 150 to 200 msec, whereas morphosyntactic processing is associated with a later and somewhat more attention-dependent processing stage between 300 and 500 msec. However, recent studies have challenged this position by reporting highly automatic ERP effects for morphosyntax in the 100 to 200 msec time range. The present study aimed at determining the factors that could contribute to such shifts in latency and automaticity. In two experiments varying the degree of attention, German phrase structure and morphosyntactic violations were compared in conditions in which the locality of the violated syntactic relation, as well as the violation point and the acoustic properties of the speech stimuli, were strictly controlled for. A negativity between 100 and 300 msec after the violation point occurred in response to both types of syntactic violations and independently of the allocation of attentional resources. These findings suggest that the timing and automaticity of ERP effects reflecting specific syntactic subprocesses are influenced to a larger degree by methodological than by linguistic factors, and thus, need to be regarded as relative rather than fixed to temporally successive processing stages.

Dissociable neural imprints of perception and grammar in auditory functional imaging

“…Regarding syntactic processing, in their EEG study on similar two-word utterances containing a syntactic phrase structure violation, Hasting and Kotz [2008] only found an early syntactic effect (between 100 and 300 ms) but no additional effect in a later time window. If their interpretation that these stimuli do not lead to P600 assigned revision processes is correct in principle, then for the current study, this implies that although fMRI lacks the fine-grained temporal resolution in the range of milliseconds, the observed activations can be attributed to early automatic processes reflecting phrase structure building (difficulties) alone [Friederici et al, 1993;Friederici, 1999, 2002], rather than to both early processes and processes associated with revision/repair [Friederici, 2002;Friederici and Kotz, 2003].…”

“…The ELAN is considered to be strongly automatic, whereas the P600 can be modulated by task or expectation of a violation Friederici, 1999, 2002]. Recently, Hasting and Kotz [2008] observed an early negativity, but no P600 when two-word utterances that included a syntactic phrase structure violation were presented (e.g., ''ein kegelt'', Engl. ''a bowls [verb] '').…”

“…''a bowls [verb] ''). The authors argued that revision/repair processes were not initialized for these two-word utterances, as they do not suffice to form a sentence [Hasting and Kotz, 2008].…”

“…Previous fMRI studies on syntactic processing were not able to differentiate between initial syntactic processes and processes of revision/repair due to the time-insensitive hemodynamic response measured with fMRI. In order to gain from the high spatial resolution of fMRI but circumvent the overlap of responses to the two different processes, two-word utterances that have previously been shown to lead to initial syntactic processes only [Hasting and Kotz, 2008] were presented in a 2 Â 2 stimulus design. Within one factor the grammaticality of the utterances was varied (either syntactically correct or syntactically incorrect), whereas the second factor varied the overt perceptual markedness of the utterances (either with or without a suffix ''-t'' marking the word category of the second word).…”

Effects of Selective Attention on Syntax Processing in Music and Language

“…The LAN is associated with syntactical-relational processes, and is elicited around 300-500 msec after morphosyntactic violation of tense, number or gender agreement, and verb inflection errors (Gunter, Friederici, & Schriefers, 2000;Osterhout & Mobley, 1995;Friederici et al, 1993;Kutas & Hillyard, 1983). In contrast, the ELAN is an index of initial syntactic structure building (based on word category information; see Friederici, 2002), usually preceding syntactic-relational processes (but see also Hastings & Kotz, 2008, showing that in two-word utterances, phrase structure and morphosyntactic processes do not necessarily operate sequentially). The present study tested directly whether the processing of musical syntax (as reflected in the ERAN) interacts also with these early stages of syntactic language processing (as reflected in the ELAN).…”