Fixed vs. combinatorial constructions: a biolinguistic perspective on combinatorial schemas and the lexicon
Final Report Abstract
This project addressed the mechanisms of construction and combination at the biolinguistic experimental level. By comparing behavioural and brain responses to acceptable and unacceptable constructions – including complex words, phrases and sentences – we obtained clues about their status as either whole-form-stored and -retrieved ‘unitary constructions (UCs)’ or as flexibly-assembled ‘combinatorial schemas (CSs)’. In addition, the influence of semantic and combinatorial properties on construction status was explored. We found brain-physiological pattern indicating a UC status of derived nouns and particle verbs, even in their dissociated, discontinuous form. Brain signatures of UC and CS processing interacted at early latencies, thus supporting interactive psycholinguistic models. Whereas no influence of semantic factors on construction status was found, the mutual information between discontinuous particle verb combinations was reflected in neurophysiology. Applications for the neurophysiological measured exploited in this work could be shown in the rehabilitation of post-stroke aphasia, where a construction processing index reflected the degree of language recovery of these neurological patients, and in individuals learning a second, foreign language, where a construction processing index correlated with the level of grammar proficiency.
Publications
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(2018) Congruency of Separable Affix Verb Combinations Is Linearly Indexed by the N400. Frontiers in human neuroscience 12 219
Hanna, Jeff; Pulvermüller, Friedemann
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(2014). Neurophysiological evidence for whole form retrieval of complex derived words: a mismatch negativity study. Frontiers in Human Neurosciences, 8, 886
Hanna, J., & Pulvermüller, F.
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(2016). Early neurophysiological indices of second language morphosyntax learning. Neuropsychologia, 82, 18-30
Hanna, J., Shtyrov, Y., Williams, J., & Pulvermüller, F.
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(2016). Therapy-induced neuroplasticity of language in chronic post stroke aphasia: A Mismatch Negativity study of (a)grammatical and meaningful/less mini-constructions. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 10, 669
Lucchese, G., Pulvermüller, F., Stahl, B., Dreyer, F. R., & Mohr, B.
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(2017). Electrophysiological evidence for early and interactive symbol access and rule processing in retrieving and combining language constructions. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 29(2), 254-266
Lucchese, G., Hanna, J., Autenrieb, A., Miller, T. M., & Pulvermüller, F.
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(2017). Spread the word: MMN brain response reveals whole-form access of discontinuous particle verbs. Brain and Language, 175, 86-98
Hanna, J., Cappelle, B., & Pulvermüller, F.
