kill me

Morpheme

The smallest unit of meaning that is connected to sound.

Morphosyntax

the content and distributional agreement (i.e., between-word consistency) of various features that are expressed by inflection such as number and tense EX. those annoying dog(s) bark(ed) all night long

Morphophonology

the encoding of inflections features in sound patterns that may be regular (e.g. dogs, barked) irregular (mice, held) or null (one car-o, they run-o)

Compounding

putting two root words to form a complex word, hot-dog

Neural correlates of morphosyntax and morphophonology

Null Inflection

morphosyntax. “Everyday they ___” (walk)

Overt inflection

morphophonology + morphosyntax “yesterday they ___” (walked)

Verb Inflection

Yesterday they walked.

Noun inflection

Those are rocks.

Overt Inflection - Null Inflection

Morphophonology

Sahin (2009) Electrophysiological study

two aspects of inflection are processed sequentially in Broca’s area. Left IFG

Morphosyntactic Noun features

number, gender, possession, definiteness, case

Morphosyntactic Verb features

tense, aspect, mood, negation, voice

Do the different morphosyntactic processes associated with nouns and Verbs depend on shared or segregated neural systems in the brain?

Recent findings don’t really favor one of these alternative possibilities over the other, but instead suggest that both of them have some merit, since the relevant neural systems appear to be partly shared and partly segregated.

Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus

Common pathway for the production of words with morphemes that specify grammatical information. Shapiro and Caramazza (2009) “May be important for converting morphemes to phonemes”

Selecting syntactically appropriate morphemes may be handled by different upstream regions

Noun-Specific morphosyntactic processing

Circuitry for selecting features like singular v plural. Superior part of Broca's area? Not yet known.

Verb-Specific morphosyntactic processing

Circuitry for selecting features like present v past tense, posterior part of left middle frontal gyrus? Anterior part of left middle frontal gyrus?

Two types of morphophonology

regular, irregular (and null but who cares)

Regular inflection

Predictable attachment of a suffix to a stem - e.g. hawk-hawks, walk-walked

Irregular inflection

Idiosyncratic sound change - e.g., goose-geese, run-ran

Some “family resemblances”

keep-kept, sleep-slept; wear-wore, bear-bore; sting-stung, sling-slung

Single System Models

Try to collapse the regular/irregular distinction by arguing that both types of morphophonology are cognitively processed in the same way.

Rule-based system

regulars can handle irregulars too.

Rule-based system challenges

this approach has trouble accommodating “family resemblances” since they reflect statistical tendencies and have numbers exceptions

Associative memory

irregulars can handle regulars too.

Associative memory system challenges

this approach has trouble accommodating situations in which regular inflection applies by default.

Dual System model

Irregulars are retrieved from an associatively organized lexical system like monomorphemic words, regulars are computed through a suffixation process in a rule-based grammatical system.

Neurobiological predictions

Single System Models Neurobiologically

predict largely overlapping brain regions for regular and irregulars, Brocas area, other shared areas?

Dual System Model neurobiologically

predicts substantially separate brain regions

Regular inflection location

Broca’s area and adjacent left frontal regions

Irregular inflection location

Temporal and temporoparietal cortices.

Syntax

A set of rules. principles. and patterns that determine how words can be strung together in sequences so that their separate meanings can be integrated into composite, distinctive messages. Exact nature is under heavy debate

Universal Grammar, Chomsky

Proposes that we are all born with innate grammar, Uniquely human, Not true, really.

Open class elements

nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, Semantic content, semantic meaning, vocabulary, ability to change

Closed class

affixes (a prefix or suffix; e.g. -ed), articles (a, the), demonstratives (this, that), auxiliary and model verbs (can, could), prepositions (inn), and connections (and, or) Syntactic content, stable over time

Verb Argument structure

The interaction between participant roles, such as actor and undergoers, and the expression of those roles in grammar, such as subject and object. Mapping between semantics and syntax is not simple (ate vs. dine)

Transitive schematic meaning

Subject Verb Object - X acts on Y - Bill kicked the ball

Ditransitive schematic meaning

Subject Verb Indirect object Direct object - X causes Y to receive Z - Bill kicked Bob the ball.

Hierarchical structure

Words can be grouped together to encode increasingly complex meaning

Phrase structure rules

Syntactic rules that specify how adjacent words can be grouped together to form hierarchically organized units e.g. in English, adjectives precede the nouns they modify

Agreement rules

syntactic rules that specify how words that can concordantly marked for certain features (e.g. case, number, gender) can be grouped tougher to form hierarchically organized units E.g. polish, adjectives take the ending of the noun case

Complex sentences features

coordination, subordination

Coordination

Clauses have equal syntactic status(e.g. “she saw the robber, and he saw her”)

Subordination

Clauses are syntactically asymmetrical, Adverbial clauses (e.g. “she was shocked when the robber suddenly emerged”), Complement clauses (e.g. “everyone know that a robber had been prowling”), Relative clauses (e.g. “a policeman caught the robber who frightened her”)

Garretts Model

language model

Garretts model stage one

Functional Processing

Functional Processing

Lexical Selection and Function Agreement

Lexical Selection

Select Lemmas for actor, undergoer, and verb

Function assignment

assign the actor role to subject function and the undergoes role to object function.

Garretts model stage 2

Positional Processing

Positional Processing

Constituent assembly, inflection

Constituent assembly

Assemble hierarchical sequential constituents for the phrases comprising the sentence

Inflection

Insert free-standing and bound closed-class items in the proper places

Agrammatism

deficit involving reduced syntactic complexity and impaired production of closed-class elements

Agrammatism symptoms

Paucity of main verbs, syntactic simplification, omission of free-standing closed-class elements (inflections), reliance on canonical word order. All dissociate from each other.

Agrammatism functional level deficits, lexical selection

suggests that accessing argument structure can be selectively impaired.

Agrammatism functional level deficits, function assignment

reversal errors, if describing a boy getting hit in the head by a ball, “the boy hits the ball”

Agrammatism Positional level deficits, Constituent assembly

patients who are deficient at generating syntactically complex expressions, but are nevertheless capable of supplying the correct closed-class elements.

Agrammatism Positional level deficits, inflection

can be disproportionately impaired, Patients who can still formulate sentences of normal complexity, but are deficient at providing the appropriate close-class elements

Progressive nonfluent/agrammatic aphasia

Deficits in PPA-G, impairment of grammar, Atrophy in left ventrolateral prefrontal region, including Broca’s area.

Sentence processing operations

Access lexical properties, assemble constituent structures, Link noun phrases with participant roles, short-term memory, cognitive control

Access lexical properties

As each word is heard, it’s phonological, semantic and grammatical properties must be accessed

Assemble constituent structures

Group words into hierarchically organized phrases and clauses

Link NPs with participant roles

Determine which NP is the actor and which NP is the undergoes in each clause

Short-term memory

Keep linguistic material in an activated state until the whole utterance has been understood

Cognitive control

Deliberately reflect on the structure of the utterance to make sure it is processed correctly

pMTG (Dronkers)

worse performance, may be necessary for accessing semantic and syntactic properties.

Dronkers sentence comprehension areas

pMTG, aSTG, pSTS/BA39(AG), BA47 (IFGorb), part of BA46(MFG), Broca’s area (44&45)

pMTG from Dronkers

Maps phonological forms of words onto semantic and syntactic features.

pMTG from Hickik and Poeppel (2007)

“lexical interface” of Dual Stream Model of speech percetiopn

pMTG

This may be the earliest stage of sentence comprehension, Lexical access

Syntactic features of pMTG

Category ambiguous words(light, train, etc), Unambiguous verbs and nouns, Sentences resolved or didn’t, Syntactic properties of sequentially perceived words appear to be accessed by the LpMTG, LIFG may assist with resolving syntactic ambiguities

Possible Contributions of the aSTG and Adjacent Regions

aSTG contributions from Dronkers et al. (2004)

The aSTG is essential for basic syntactic processing, grouping words into hierarchically organized phrases and clauses. “Syntax only hypothesis”

aSTG contributions from Hickok and Peoppel (2007)

The immediately inferior region implements the “combinatorial network” of the Dual Stream Model of speech perception; contracts the integrated meanings of multi-word utterances, drawing upon both semantic and syntactic information.“Syntax and semantics hypothesis”

Semantics-only?

Red boat vs cup boat (vs. boat), red boat > red canoe semantically relevant

Congruent sentences

the man on a vacation lost a bag and a wallet

Congruent word lists

on vacation lost then a bag and wallet man then a

Random sentences

the freeway on a pie watched a house and a window

Random word lists

the ball the a the spilled librarian in sign through fire

Syntax-Only? Obleser et al. (2011)

3 levels of syntactic complexity, Same semantic meaning E.g. the boy kissed the girl vs. the girl was kissed by the boy, ATL (and other areas) sensitive to this manipulation

[more semantic activity to the syntactic activity] maybe ATLs are the syntax-only

Challenging Data from Neuropsychology Semantic Dementia (SD)

Atrophy in the ATL, but retention of most grammatical rules utilizing late in the course of the illness. Semantics-only? sentence comprehension comes more from the posterior temporal lobe]

Contributions of the pSTS/BA39 (AG) and Adjacent Regions Dronkers et al (2004) AND Hickok and Poeppel (2007)

Storage component of auditory-verbal short-term memory (STM), may also be essential for linking noun phrases with participant roles in “hard to understand” (semantically reversible and syntactically noncanonical” sentences.

What is the role of pMTG in sentence comprehension?

retrieving semantic and syntactic properties of incoming words.

How does Broca’s Area Contribute to Sentence Comprehension?

Hierarchical syntactic processing of multiword expressions, Strategic cognitive control

Strategic cognitive control involve what

resolving ambiguities, enhancing certain parts of sentences, Maintaining phonological forms, Thematic role assignment

Broca’s Complex Hagoort, 2005

phonological processing, syntactic processing, semantic processing. IN CHARGE OF UNIFICATION.

BC - BA44 (IFGop) and parts of BA6 (premotor)

role in phonological processing.

BC - BA45 (IFGtri) and BA44 (IFGop)

syntactic processing

BC - BA46 (IFGorb) and BA45 (IFGtri)

involved in semantic processing

The Merge Hypothesis

BA44 binds together 2 elements to form a hierarchical stricture, Words in phrases (this flirk) vs. words in lists (apple flirk), Friederici and colleagues. Pseudo words like flirk

What is the merge hypothesis?

IFG binds together elements to form a hierarchical structure

Executive Functions of Broca’s area

part of the prefrontal cortex, and the prefrontal cortex is known to subserve so-called “executive” or “supervisory” functions, like reasoning, planning, troubleshooting, multi-tasking, etc.

Auditory-Verbal STM

the phonological loop

Two components of auditory-verbal STM (aka the phonological loop)

storage and rehearsal

Storage of a-v STM

this is the auditory part, which depends on the pSTS and some adjacent regions

Rehearsal of av STM

this is the articulatory part, which depends mainly on Broca’s area