On word class-specification: evidence from linguistics and cognitive neuroscience

The aim of the present paper is to provide a clear answer to critical aspects of the following key questions: 1) is word class-specification necessarily incorporated into lexical items? 2) does the organization of word knowledge in the brain rely on word class-specific information? To do this we combine diachronic evidence and typological observations on word classes with data on the noun/verb processing in aphasia and neuroimaging findings on the representation of verbs, adjectives and nouns and, consequently, show how linguistics and cognitive neuroscience crucially benefit from each other.