Syntactic Processing Research Articles

Fast structural priming of grammatical decisions during reading

ABSTRACTIn two grammatical decision experiments, we used fast-priming as a novel method for uncovering the syntactic processes involved in written sentence comprehension while limiting the influence of strategic processes. Targets were sequences of four words that could be grammatically correct or not. Targets (e.g. they see the moon) were preceded by the brief (170 ms) presentation of four types of prime: (1) same syntactic structure / same verb (you see a friend); (2) same structure / different verb (she writes a book); (3) different structure / same verb (he sees him now); or (4) different structure / different verb (stay in our hotel). Same structure primes facilitated decisions to grammatical targets in error rates, and this effect did not significantly interact with the facilitatory effect of a shared verb. These results provide evidence for structural priming of sentence reading in conditions that greatly limit any role for strategic processing.

Morphological evolution of language-relevant brain areas.

Human language is supported by a cortical network involving Broca's area, which comprises Brodmann Areas 44 and 45 (BA44 and BA45). While cytoarchitectonic homolog areas have been identified in nonhuman primates, it remains unknown how these regions evolved to support human language. Here, we use histological data and advanced cortical registration methods to precisely compare the morphology of BA44 and BA45 in humans and chimpanzees. We found a general expansion of Broca's areas in humans, with the left BA44 enlarging the most, growing anteriorly into a region known to process syntax. Together with recent functional and receptorarchitectural studies, our findings support the conclusion that BA44 evolved from an action-related region to a bipartite system, with a posterior portion supporting action and an anterior portion supporting syntactic processes. Our findings add novel insights to the longstanding debate on the relationship between language and action, and the evolution of Broca's area.

Age-related differences in understanding pronominal reference in sentence comprehension: An electrophysiological investigation.

This study aimed to investigate how age affects the ability to comprehend sentence meaning, specifically how individuals resolve pronouns to their corresponding nouns. The study included 34 young participants (20-29 years old) and 34 older participants (60-81 years old). The participants were presented with sentences containing two characters and a third-person singular pronoun. Stereotypical genders associated with character names were manipulated such that the pronoun had either one, two, or no possible antecedents, rendering the pronoun referentially unambiguous, ambiguous, or mismatched, respectively. Consistent with the prior findings on preserved syntactic processing with advanced age, event-related potential data time-locked to the critical pronouns showed a P600 effect to mismatched pronouns regardless of age. These results indicate that older adults, like their younger counterparts, have a strong preference for readily available antecedents. When the pronoun was ambiguous, younger adults showed a typical Nref effect-a sustained anterior negativity associated with elaborative inferencing to search for the referent. Older adults did not exhibit this effect, suggesting a reduction in elaborative processes for establishing coherence. Nevertheless, the Nref response to ambiguous pronouns was observed in a subset of older adults, who also showed a Nref instead of P600 response to mismatched pronouns. Overall, individuals who elicited the Nref response to ambiguous pronouns were associated with a higher level of print exposure, suggesting that life-long reading experience may help to counteract age-related decline. Together, these findings help characterize the differential effects of aging on pronominal understanding and provide initial electrophysiological evidence of the protective benefit of print exposure on language processing in the aging population. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

No influence of regular rhythmic priming on grammaticality judgment and sentence comprehension in English-speaking children

A growing body of research has demonstrated the association between music and language, particularly between rhythm and grammar skills in children. A compelling piece of evidence for the influence of music on language comes from findings that a brief exposure to regular musical rhythm improved subsequent syntactic language performance in children. Nevertheless, those observations were made on one particular task, i.e., grammaticality judgment, mostly with French-speaking children. Here, we sought to corroborate and extend the rhythmic priming effect with English-speaking children aged 7 to 12 years who underwent two different syntactic tasks on spoken sentences: one involving judgment on morphosyntactic well-formedness (grammaticality judgment) and the other requiring noun–verb relation analysis (sentence comprehension), both following either regular or irregular rhythmic priming. Half of the children were administered synthetic speech stimuli (Experiment 1), and the other half were presented with natural speech (Experiment 2). Across the two experiments, we did not find any rhythmic priming effect; children’s performance on both the grammaticality judgment and sentence comprehension tasks was comparable irrespective of the regularity in prior rhythms. These results imply that the positive influence of regular rhythmic priming on syntactic processing may be confined to specific language or age populations, warranting further investigation.

The effect of time on lexical and syntactic processing in aphasia.

Processing deficits at the lexical level, such as delayed and reduced lexical activation, have been theorized as the source of breakdowns in syntactic operations and thus contribute to sentence comprehension deficits in individuals with aphasia (IWA). In the current study, we investigate the relationship between lexical and syntactic processing in object-relative sentences using eye-tracking while listening in IWA. We explore whether manipulating the time available to process a critical lexical item (the direct-object noun) when it is initially heard in a sentence has an immediate effect on lexical access as well as a downstream effect on syntactic processing. To achieve this aim, we use novel temporal manipulations to provide additional time for lexical processing to occur. In addition to exploring these temporal effects in IWA, we also seek to understand the effect that additional time has on sentence processing in neurotypical age-matched adults (AMC). We predict that the temporal manipulations designed to provide increased processing time for critical lexical items will 1) enhance lexical processing of the target noun, 2) facilitate syntactic integration, and 3) improve sentence comprehension for both IWA and AMC. We demonstrate that strengthening lexical processing via the addition of time can affect lexical processing and facilitate syntactic retrieval of the target noun and lead to enhanced interference resolution in both unimpaired and impaired systems. In aphasia, additional time can mitigate impairments in spreading activation thereby improving lexical access and reducing interference during downstream dependency linking. However, individuals with aphasia may require longer additions of time to fully realize these benefits.

Effect of Healthy Aging and Gender on Syntactic Input Processing: A P600 Event-Related Potential Study.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of healthy aging and gender, as well as the interaction, thereof, on syntactic input processing during sentence comprehension. This was achieved through the recording of the P600 event-related potential. Sixty Flemish (native speakers of Dutch) participants (30 men and 30 women), equally distributed into three age groups (young, middle-aged, and older adults), were subjected to a visually presented word order violation task under simultaneous electro-encephalography recording. The task contained 60 sentences, of which half were grammatical and half contained a word order violation. P600 responses were analyzed for amplitude, latency, topographical distribution, and source localization. Regarding the effect of healthy aging, no age-related differences were found for the amplitude, onset latency, and topographical distribution of the P600 effect (difference wave). Although aging effects on the P600 effect amplitude were absent, a reduced P600 amplitude in response to both the grammatical and ungrammatical sentences was found, next to a reduced overall degree of source activation in linguistic regions of interest. Also, a reduced behavioral accuracy in response to the word order violation was observed in the older adults group. Regarding the effect of gender, females exhibited a larger P600 effect amplitude and a reduced behavioral accuracy compared to males. No gender-related differences were found for P600 effect onset latency, topographical distribution, and source activation. While this study demonstrates no effect of aging on the P600 effect, the lower behavioral response and absence of any activation shift argues against functional compensation. Moreover, although increased neural activation in women combined with their reduced behavioral accuracy may indicate the use of different cognitive strategies in men and women, source localization analysis could not objectify this hypothesis.

The Role of Explicit Memory Across Second Language Syntactic Development: A Structural Priming Study

AbstractWe tested whether second language (L2) learners rely more on explicit memory during structural priming at lower than at higher proficiency levels (Hartsuiker & Bernolet, 2017). We compared within‐L2 priming with lexical overlap in 100 low and 100 high proficiency French L2 speakers under low versus high working memory load conditions induced with a letter series recall task presented between primes and targets. The high load condition would prevent explicit recall of primes during target production. Both groups primed more under low than high load. The effect of load was similar across groups, but exploratory analyses with proficiency as a continuous variable suggested that, with increasing proficiency, participants primed less under high load. We discuss how these findings support the idea that learners exploit explicit memory more during priming in early versus later stages of acquisition. Overall, this study showed that explicit memory influences syntactic processing across the L2 learning trajectory.

A Largely Unsupervised Domain-Independent Qualitative Data Extraction Approach for Empirical Agent-Based Model Development

Agent-based model (ABM) development needs information on system components and interactions. Qualitative narratives contain contextually rich system information beneficial for ABM conceptualization. Traditional qualitative data extraction is manual, complex, and time- and resource-consuming. Moreover, manual data extraction is often biased and may produce questionable and unreliable models. A possible alternative is to employ automated approaches borrowed from Artificial Intelligence. This study presents a largely unsupervised qualitative data extraction framework for ABM development. Using semantic and syntactic Natural Language Processing tools, our methodology extracts information on system agents, their attributes, and actions and interactions. In addition to expediting information extraction for ABM, the largely unsupervised approach also minimizes biases arising from modelers’ preconceptions about target systems. We also introduce automatic and manual noise-reduction stages to make the framework usable on large semi-structured datasets. We demonstrate the approach by developing a conceptual ABM of household food security in rural Mali. The data for the model contain a large set of semi-structured qualitative field interviews. The data extraction is swift, predominantly automatic, and devoid of human manipulation. We contextualize the model manually using the extracted information. We also put the conceptual model to stakeholder evaluation for added credibility and validity.

Limited Benefits of Technological Advances in Human Service Organizations: Going beyond the Hype Using Sociotechnical Knowledge Management System

This study investigates the issue of underwhelming effectiveness in Information Communication Technology (ICT) by employing a sociotechnical knowledge management system (KMS) framework. The conceptual model highlights the combined contributions of the Technical KMS representing ICT, and the Sociocultural KMS in facilitating the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic processes of Knowledge Integration, ultimately enhancing Organizational Effectiveness. This cross-sectional survey explores the role of ICT in supporting practitioners within human services organizations as they navigate the complexities of addressing their clients’ diverse needs. The study involves a sample of 1,708 frontline caseworkers who participated in the 2022 Survey of Employee Engagement (SEE). Results demonstrate that both Technological KMS and Sociocultural KMS contribute to enhancing Organizational Effectiveness through improved Knowledge Integration. While caseworkers are more satisfied with Technological KMS, Sociocultural KMS yields greater benefits. Additional analyses comparing the 2008 and current survey data reveal ongoing underwhelming effectiveness despite technological advancements. These findings highlight the importance of integrating advanced technology and business processes, advocating for a paradigm shift toward a knowledge-based and sociotechnical perspective. The potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is discussed, contingent on addressing ethical concerns, cybersecurity, and privacy. Future research should explore the sociotechnical KMS applications and examine their impact on organizational effectiveness.

Non-local syntactic interactions across an NP/DP boundary: Negative concord and wh-movement

The paper reports the results of a syntactic experiment which was aimed at comparing locality conditions imposed on two well-known longdistance syntactic processes: intra-clausal negative concord (licensing of negative pronouns by sentential negation) and wh-movement in matrix constituent questions (placement of interrogative pronouns at the beginning of the clause). Since only the latter non-local interaction nearly always results in overt displacement (while negative pronouns may remain in their base position upon agreeing with the Neg0 head), we hypothesized that sentences exemplifying negative concord should receive higher scores than sentences with wh-movement. Two structural configurations were investigated: the negative pronoun or the interrogative pronoun was (i) either (the head of) the direct object of the verb, (ii) or it was embedded inside a nominal (NP/DP). In addition to sentences with negative concord and wh-movement, our materials also included those without any such long-distance interactions. Thus, we asked 60 native speakers of Russian to judge such sentences (as well as some fillers) on a 7-point Likert scale. The results, somewhat surprisingly, did not bear out our expectations. Encapsulating the Goal of an Agree relationship inside a nominal does not lead to a significant change in mean scores (except for sentences with negative concord), while there is a statistically significant difference between sentences with negative concord on the one hand and other types of sentences (those containing wh-movement and those without any non-local dependencies) on the other. Such a stark contrast between negative concord and wh-movement casts doubt on approaches trying to assimilate them (and eventually aiming to reduce negative concord to Aʹ-movement of negative pronouns to their licensor).

Stimulus-elicited involuntary insights and syntactic processing.

Stimulus-elicited involuntary insights and syntactic processing.

Syntactic and semantic interference in sentence comprehension: Support from English and German eye-tracking data

A long-standing debate in the sentence processing literature concerns the time course of syntactic and semantic information processing in online sentence comprehension. The default assumption in cue-based models of parsing is that syntactic and semantic retrieval cues simultaneously guide dependency resolution. When retrieval cues match multiple items in memory, this leads to similarity-based interference. Both semantic and syntactic interference have been shown to occur in English. However, the relative timing of syntactic vs. semantic interference remains unclear. In this cross-linguistic investigation of the time course of syntactic vs. semantic interference, the data from two eye-tracking during reading experiments (English and German) suggest that the two types of interference can in principle arise simultaneously during retrieval. However, the data also indicate that semantic cues are evaluated with a small timing lag in German compared to English. This cross-linguistic difference between English and German may be due to German having richer morphosyntactic marking than English, resulting in syntactic cues dominating over semantic cues during dependency resolution. More broadly, our cross-linguistic results pose a challenge for the cue-based retrieval model’s default assumption that syntactic and semantic cues are used simultaneously during long-distance dependency formation. Our work also highlights the importance of collecting cross-linguistic data on psycholinguistic phenomena which can potentially advance theory development.

Sensitivity to syntactic dependency formation in child second language processing: a study of numeral quantifiers in Korean

AbstractThis study investigates whether child second language (L2) learners can use syntactic information during the processing of sentences involving unbounded dependencies and how their processing patterns compare to those of child monolinguals and adult L2 learners. Through a self-paced reading experiment involving the numeral quantifier (NQ) construction in Korean, we tested participants’ sensitivity to agreement violations between a noun phrase (NP) and an NQ in local and nonlocal conditions. The results showed that a subset of child L2 learners who demonstrated target-like knowledge of NP-NQ agreement in an offline task spent a longer processing time in the NP-NQ mismatch than in the NP-NQ match condition, in both local and nonlocal contexts. These child L2 learners’ processing patterns were comparable to those observed in child monolinguals and adult L2 learners. These findings suggest that child and adult L2 learners rely on the same system of syntactic representations and processing mechanisms that guide first language processing.

Code-switching costs from Chinese-English relative clauses processing.

The source of costs is a primary concern in code-switching, yet a consensus has not yet been reached. This study investigates whether code-switching during syntactic processing in Chinese-English dual languages results in a cost. We use Chinese and English relative clauses in either object (Experiment 1) or subject (Experiment 2, which has a more complex structure) positions to test the costs in syntactic processing. Forty-seven Chinese-English bilinguals and 17 English-Chinese bilinguals participated in acceptability judgment tests and self-paced reading experiments. The statistical findings indicate that syntactic processing is a source of the costs incurred in code-switching, as evidenced by the code-switching costs observed in the head movement during relative clause comprehension. The outcomes are consistent with the implications of the 4-Morpheme Model and the Matrix Language Framework. Additionally, the experiment shows that the processing of relative clauses depends on the underlying structures, which is consistent with the Dependency Locality Theory.

The neurofunctional network of syntactic processing: cognitive systematicity and representational specializations of objects, actions, and events

Theoretical accounts of syntax are broadly divided into lexicalist or construction-based viewpoints, where lexicalist traditions argue that a great deal of syntactic information is stored in lexical representations, while construction-based views argue for separate representations of multiword syntactic structures. Moreover, a strict autonomy between syntactic and semantic processing has been posited based on the grammatical well-formedness of non-sense sentences such as This round table is square. In this paper, we provide an overview of these competing conceptions of syntactic structure and the role of syntax in grammar. We review converging neuroimaging, electrophysiological, behavioral, electrocorticographic, and computational modeling evidence that challenge these views. In particular, we show that a temporal lobe ventral stream is crucial in processing phrases involving nouns and attributive adjectives, while a dorsal stream involving left parietal regions, including the angular gyrus, is crucial in processing constructions involving verbs and relational adjectives. We additionally support this interpretation by examining divergent pathways in the visual system for processing object information and event/spatial information, on the basis of integration across visual and auditory modalities. Our interpretation suggests that combinatorial operations which combine words into phrases cannot be isolated to a single anatomical location, as has been previously proposed—instead, it is an instantiation of a more general neural computation, one that is implemented across various brain regions and can be utilized in service of constructing linguistic phrases. Based on this orientation, we explore how abstract syntactic constructions, such as the transitive construction, both mirror and could emerge from semantics. These abstract construction representations are argued to be distinct from, and stored in regions functionally downstream from, lexical representations of verbs. Comprehension therefore involves the integration of both representations via feedforward and feedback connections. We implicate the IFG in communicating across the language network, including correctly integrating nominal phrases with the overall event representation and serving as one interface between processing streams. Overall, this approach accords more generally with conceptions of the development of cognitive systematicity, and further draws attention to a potential role for the medial temporal lobe in syntactic behaviors, often overlooked in current neurofunctional accounts of syntactic processing.

Parafoveal syntactic processing from word N + 2 during reading: the case of gender-specific German articles

Previous research has suggested that some syntactic information such as word class can be processed parafoveally during reading. However, it is still unclear to what extent early syntactic cueing within noun phrases can facilitate word processing during dynamic reading. Two experiments (total N = 72) were designed to address this question using a gaze-contingent boundary change paradigm to manipulate the syntactic fit within a nominal phrase. Either the article (Experiment 1) or the noun (Experiment 2) was manipulated in the parafovea, resulting in a syntactic mismatch, depending on the condition. Results indicated a substantial elevation of viewing times on both parts of the noun phrase when conflicting syntactic information had been present in the parafovea. In Experiment 1, the article was also fixated more often in the syntactic mismatch condition. These results provide direct evidence of parafoveal syntactic processing. Based on the early time-course of this effect, it can be concluded that grammatical gender is used to generate constraints for the processing of upcoming nouns. To our knowledge, these results also provide the first evidence that syntactic information can be extracted from a parafoveal word N + 2.

The Effects of Syntactic Priming on Language Processing and Learning

Priming can facilitate the language processing and learning by affecting speakers response to the subsequent stimulus after introducing the new language form, for both comprehension and production. Syntactic priming, as a new branch of priming, is the main focus of this research as it is more practically applicable under psycholinguistic background. In this review, the effects of syntactic priming on language learning and the effects of syntactic priming on the link between language comprehension and production were both explored. It is assumed that there is a common lexical-boost effect as a mediator during the syntactic priming process through the implicit language learning. However, such effect can be somehow independent to the language comprehension based on the current research. Moreover, some neurological measures are applicable when investigating the neuronal correlates of the syntactic priming and lexical boost effect during sentence comprehension and production. In general, this study discussed the non-linear relationship between implicit language learning and syntactic priming highlighted with the lexical mediator effect, the independent effect between lexical and structural content on language comprehension, as well as the similar mechanism shared by language comprehension and production. The previous experiments still lacked the reliability and validity as the variables are difficult, and the tools or strategies used may not be appropriate to accurately measure the result. Hence, causations cannot be formed in a solid state even if some correlations are well evolved with research findings. The future direction, naturally, should keep track of how syntactic priming can better intervene on the language processing and learning program, which in turn reduce the overload of the computational brain and boost the language learning. This review can provide some guidance for the design of educaitonal programs using syntactic priming as well as relevant research.

The syntax of wh-phrases, narrow foci, and neg-words in Georgian

AbstractThis paper demonstrates that narrow foci and wh-phrases, even in a language where they have (nearly-)identical surface distributions, do not have the same syntax – and, as such, are not a uniform category. Specifically, it shows that foci and wh-phrases in Georgian appear immediately preverbally but are derived differently. The evidence comes from standard syntactic tests and language-specific ones: I show that, in Georgian, neg-words can serve as a tool for determining the structural positions of other constituents, and foci and wh-phrases have different distributional properties with respect to neg-words. Based on this, I demonstrate that wh-phrases in Georgian undergo A-bar movement to the specifier of a dedicated projection, accompanied by verb raising. Preverbal foci remain in situ, while the material intervening between the narrow focus and the verb undergoes displacement. This demonstrates that what looks like unified preverbal placement of foci and wh-phrases corresponds to the outcomes of two independent syntactic processes. Additional support for this approach is provided by the analysis of the distribution of postverbal foci, also allowed in Georgian. The Georgian facts, I argue, support the hypothesis that syntactic/semantic notions (e.g., [+Q]) are encoded as syntactic features that drive movement. On the other hand, purely information-structural notions (e.g., semantically non-exhaustive focus) are not encoded syntactically, and, as such, cannot trigger syntactic movement – but can impose their own syntax-prosody mapping requirements onto the syntactic structure.

Mandarin Chinese L1 and L2 complex sentence reading reveals a consistent electrophysiological pattern of highly interactive syntactic and semantic processing: An ERP study.

A hallmark of the human language faculty is processing complex hierarchical syntactic structures across languages. However, for Mandarin Chinese, a language typically dependent on semantic combinations and free of morphosyntactic information, the relationship between syntactic and semantic processing during Chinese complex sentence reading is unclear. From the neuropsychological perspective of bilingual studies, whether second language (L2) learners can develop a consistent pattern of target language (i.e., L2) comprehension regarding the interplay of syntactic and semantic processing, especially when their first language (L1) and L2 are typologically distinct, remains to be determined. In this study, Chinese complex sentences with center-embedded relative clauses were generated. By utilizing the high-time-resolution technique of event-related potentials (ERPs), this study aimed to investigate the processing relationships between syntactic and semantic information during Chinese complex sentence reading in both Chinese L1 speakers and highly proficient L2 learners from South Korea. Normal, semantically violated (SEM), and double-violated (containing both semantic and syntactic violations, SEM + SYN) conditions were set with regard to the nonadjacent dependencies of the Chinese complex sentence, and participants were required to judge whether the sentences they read were acceptable. The ERP results showed that sentences with "SEM + SYN" did not elicit early left anterior negativity (ELAN), a component assumed to signal initial syntactic processing, but evoked larger components in the N400 and P600 windows than those of the "SEM" condition, thus exhibiting a biphasic waveform pattern consistent for both groups and in line with previous studies using simpler Chinese syntactic structures. The only difference between the L1 and L2 groups was that L2 learners presented later latencies of the corresponding ERP components. Taken together, these results do not support the temporal and functional priorities of syntactic processing as identified in morphologically rich languages (e.g., German) and converge on the notion that even for Chinese complex sentence reading, syntactic and semantic processing are highly interactive. This is consistent across L1 speakers and high-proficiency L2 learners with typologically different language backgrounds.

Event-related causality in stereo-EEG discriminates syntactic processing of noun phrases and verb phrases

Objective. Syntax involves complex neurobiological mechanisms, which are difficult to disentangle for multiple reasons. Using a protocol able to separate syntactic information from sound information we investigated the neural causal connections evoked by the processing of homophonous phrases, i.e. with the same acoustic information but with different syntactic content. These could be either verb phrases (VP) or noun phrases. Approach. We used event-related causality from stereo-electroencephalographic recordings in ten epileptic patients in multiple cortical and subcortical areas, including language areas and their homologous in the non-dominant hemisphere. The recordings were made while the subjects were listening to the homophonous phrases. Main results. We identified the different networks involved in the processing of these syntactic operations (faster in the dominant hemisphere) showing that VPs engage a wider cortical and subcortical network. We also present a proof-of-concept for the decoding of the syntactic category of a perceived phrase based on causality measures. Significance. Our findings help unravel the neural correlates of syntactic elaboration and show how a decoding based on multiple cortical and subcortical areas could contribute to the development of speech prostheses for speech impairment mitigation.