SYNTAX 9
AGRAMMATISM
DAY 38 – NOV 25, 2013
Brain & Language
LING 4110-4890-5110-7960
NSCI 4110-4891-6110
Harry Howard
Tulane University
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
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Course organization
• The syllabus, these slides and my recordings are
available at http://www.tulane.edu/~howard/LING4110/.
• If you want to learn more about EEG and neurolinguistics,
you are welcome to participate in my lab. This is also a
good way to get started on an honor's thesis.
• The grades are posted to Blackboard.
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REVIEW
Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
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Modular vs. interactive processing
Table 13.1. adapted from Frisch et al. (2004)
Modular: an error found early could turn off additional processing.
Interactive: errors should add up.
English example
(orig. German)
Phrase
structure
obeyed
Argument
structure
obeyed
N150
N400
P600
The old cat slept in
the garden and …
✔
✔
--
--
--
The cat old slept in
the garden and …
✖
✔
✔
✖
✔
The old cat slept
the garden and …
✔
✖
✖
✔
✔
The cat old slept
the garden and …
✖
✖
✔
✖
✔
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SENTENCE
COMPREHENSION AND
SYNTACTIC PARSING
Ingram I, §13 On-line processing, working memory and
modularity
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
What is this?
`Twas brillig, and the
slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in
the wabe:
All mimsy were the
borogoves,
And the mome raths
outgrabe.
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Jabberwocky sentences
Table 13.2, adapted from Hahne & Jescheniak (2001)
Modular: an error found early could turn off additional processing.
Interactive: errors should add up.
English example
(orig. German)
Phrase
structure
obeyed
Real
words
N150
N400
P600
The old cat slept in
the garden.
✔
✔
--
✔*
--
The lon garp frept in
the kayton.
✔
✖
✖
✖*
✔
The old cat slept the
in garden.
✖
✔
✔
✖*
✔
The lon garp frept
the in kayton.
✖
✖
✔
✖*
✔
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Deep vs. surface anaphora
• What is anaphora?
• The ability of one expression to refer to another.
• Surface anaphora
• The ring that John gave to Mary was made of gold.
• The ring that John gave __ to Mary was made of gold.
• How do we know what the gap/trace after gave refers to?
• Its reference is resolved by syntax.
• Deep anaphora
• He gave a ring to her.
• How do we know what he or she refers to?
• Their reference is resolved by semantics/pragmatics, which is
somehow ‘deeper’ than syntax.
• In particular, pragmatics may consult a model of the discourse, that is,
a way of keeping track of what is being/has been talked about.
• Lisa spoke to Bill, and Lisa spoke to John.
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Differences in ERPs between kinds of anaphora
See examples p. 292, translated from German; Fig. 13.5
• Surface/ellipsis
• Werner gave Lisa a
ring and Joseph …
Lisa a necklace.
• Deep/discourse model
• Werner gave Lisa a
ring and Joseph gave
Lisa a necklace.
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Summary
• Read Ingram’s summary
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AGRAMMATISM
REVISITED
Ingram IV, §14 On-line processing, working memory
and modularity
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OFF-LINE METHODS OF
LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT
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A test
Zurif et al. (1972)
• Which pair of words (A or B) goes best together?
•
A
|
B
i.
the – baby | the – cries
ii.
the – baby | baby – cries
iii. the – cries | baby – cries
• These pairwise comparisons can be summarized in a tree
structure called a dendrogram.
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Brain & Language - Harry Howard - Tulane University
Dendrograms for The baby cries
Fig. 14.1
control
the baby cries
aphasia
the baby cries
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Dendrograms for other sentences
Fig. 14.2
control
aphasia
the dog chases a cat
the dog chases a cat
the man was hurt
the man was hurt
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Conclusions
• What shall we conclude?
• Agrammatic aphasics can process content words,
• but not grammatical or function words.
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NEXT TIME
P11
Part IV. Discourse §15, Discourse processing
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