8/28/2023 0 Comments Simple word vs word linguistics![]() Studies on the brain bases of word combination have traditionally focused on the comparison between sentences (or phrases) and pseudo-sentences vs. Word combination refers to any kind of compositional process between words through which linguistic expressions are organized ( Heim, 1982 Heim and Kratzer, 1998 Partee, 2010). Understanding how different phrases are processed during linguistic combination in the mature brain complements studies on the development of the combinatorial productivity in children ( Yang, 2013), and the potential gap between human and non-human linguistic combinatorial capacities ( Girard-Buttoz et al., 2022). ![]() A basic hypothesis is that the language combinatorial faculty contains a neural computation that is sensitive to these relationships distinguishing different phrases. Linguistic combination, however, is not a process where each word can combine with another at random on the contrary, they are bound by systematic relationships between grammatical categories ( Rizzi, 2012). When processing connected speech, our linguistic combinatorial capacity must be flexible enough to make sense of infinite word combinations ( Ding et al., 2016 Sheng et al., 2019). This supports the hypothesis that the combinatorial power of language consists of some neural computation capturing phrasal differences when processing linguistic input. Our findings provide preliminary answers to the fundamental question of how lexical and grammatical category information interact during simple word combination, with the observation that Broca’s area is sensitive to the recognition of categorical relationships during combinatory processing, based on different demands placed on syntactic and semantic information. The information patterns for adjective + noun were localized in its anterior part (BA45) whereas those for determiner + noun were localized in its posterior part (BA44). The key result is that the distribution of neural populations classifying word combination in Broca’s area seems sensitive to neuroanatomical subdivisions within this area, irrespective of task. ![]() The phrases consisted of a noun (flag) occurring either with a content word, an adjective (green flag), or with a function word, a determiner (that flag). ![]() Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging and multivariate pattern analysis to explore whether distinct neural populations of a known language network hub-Broca’s area-are specialized for recognizing distinct simple word combinations. How the brain recognizes different word combinations remains largely unknown, although this is a necessary condition for combinatorial unboundedness in language. Relations between grammatical categories restrict the way words combine into phrases and sentences. Humans are equipped with the remarkable ability to comprehend an infinite number of utterances. 2Department of Neuroradiology, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany.1Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.Friederici 1† and Emiliano Zaccarella 1*†
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