In order to investigate how linguistic distinctions are captured in the brain, we begin by asking how the architecture of grammar mirrors the organization of concepts, and what kind of patterns can account for lexical/morphosyntactic processes in the brain. We focus on the distinction between nouns and verbs: at once they are basic units for both morphological patterns and syntactic operations and elemental building blocks for the grammaticalization of cognitive constructs. The investigation of the noun/verb distinction offers a unique opportunity to study the neural circuits engaged in lexical and morphosyntactic processing. Here we discuss neuropsychological and neuroimaging data indicating that the distinction between nouns and verbs is neither referential semantics-based nor form-based. Tests including either real words or pseudowords gave the same indications, with both patients and healthy people. Cases of patients with semantic dementia show that the access to referential semantics is independent of the access to grammatical category-specific information. Moreover, when operation-specific fMRI adaptation is used to identify brain areas selectively involved in the morphosyntactic processing of nouns and verbs, adaptation is found to apply to words, independently of their meaning or concrete form. Also, areas involved in the processing of word referential meaning do not exhibit adaptation across stimuli. In addition, neuropsychological and neuroimaging data reveal grammatical category-specific dissociations even when the stimuli consist of homophones, that is, formally identical words in both categories. To conclude, the combination of neurospychological and neuroimaging studies supports the idea that the distinction between nouns and verbs occurs in the actualization of a language as a functional system: morphosyntactic processing seems to be independent of both the neural circuits that subserve referential semantics and the neural circuits that subserve the realization of concrete linguistic units, that is, the conversion of lexemes and morphemes into phonological elements and phonetic strings. This hypothesis of distinct neurobiological mechanisms operating in language processing offers an alternative perspective to address a question that has long baffled linguists: namely, the difficulty in finding a universally valid set of formal vs. semantic criteria for establishing grammatical categories. The principle governing the distinction between two (or more) grammatical classes is independent of both the semantic representation and the concrete form of words. Noun and verb operate as distinct functional categories in so far as grammatical category-specific information is crucial to process morphosyntactic patterns.

The architecture of language in the brain: the case of noun/verb distinction

ROMAGNO, DOMENICA
Co-primo
2012-01-01

Abstract

In order to investigate how linguistic distinctions are captured in the brain, we begin by asking how the architecture of grammar mirrors the organization of concepts, and what kind of patterns can account for lexical/morphosyntactic processes in the brain. We focus on the distinction between nouns and verbs: at once they are basic units for both morphological patterns and syntactic operations and elemental building blocks for the grammaticalization of cognitive constructs. The investigation of the noun/verb distinction offers a unique opportunity to study the neural circuits engaged in lexical and morphosyntactic processing. Here we discuss neuropsychological and neuroimaging data indicating that the distinction between nouns and verbs is neither referential semantics-based nor form-based. Tests including either real words or pseudowords gave the same indications, with both patients and healthy people. Cases of patients with semantic dementia show that the access to referential semantics is independent of the access to grammatical category-specific information. Moreover, when operation-specific fMRI adaptation is used to identify brain areas selectively involved in the morphosyntactic processing of nouns and verbs, adaptation is found to apply to words, independently of their meaning or concrete form. Also, areas involved in the processing of word referential meaning do not exhibit adaptation across stimuli. In addition, neuropsychological and neuroimaging data reveal grammatical category-specific dissociations even when the stimuli consist of homophones, that is, formally identical words in both categories. To conclude, the combination of neurospychological and neuroimaging studies supports the idea that the distinction between nouns and verbs occurs in the actualization of a language as a functional system: morphosyntactic processing seems to be independent of both the neural circuits that subserve referential semantics and the neural circuits that subserve the realization of concrete linguistic units, that is, the conversion of lexemes and morphemes into phonological elements and phonetic strings. This hypothesis of distinct neurobiological mechanisms operating in language processing offers an alternative perspective to address a question that has long baffled linguists: namely, the difficulty in finding a universally valid set of formal vs. semantic criteria for establishing grammatical categories. The principle governing the distinction between two (or more) grammatical classes is independent of both the semantic representation and the concrete form of words. Noun and verb operate as distinct functional categories in so far as grammatical category-specific information is crucial to process morphosyntactic patterns.
2012
Caramazza, A.; Romagno, Domenica
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11568/153480
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