Event-related potential characterisation of the Shakespearean functional shift in narrative sentence structure
Event-related potential characterisation of the Shakespearean functional shift in narrative sentence structure
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DOI：
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.12.006
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发表时间：
2008-04
期刊：
影响因子：
5.7
通讯作者：
G. Thierry;Clara D. Martin;Victorina González-Díaz;Roozbeh Rezaie;N. Roberts;Philip M. Davis
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
G. Thierry;Clara D. Martin;Victorina González-Díaz;Roozbeh Rezaie;N. Roberts;Philip M. Davis
神经语言学研究仔细研究了由于语义、句法或两者兼而有之而导致的语言理解中断的生理后果。大约400年前，莎士比亚就已经创作了一些改变了单词功能地位的诗句，比如“在安全的沙发上亲吻一个放荡的人”。在这里，我们测试了莎士比亚使用的词类转换——功能转移——对事件相关的脑电波的影响，这些脑电波传统上在神经生理语言学中被报道：左前负性（LAN）、N400和P600。参与者对包含(a)语义不一致，(b)功能转移，(c)双重违反，或(d)既不语义不一致又不句法违反的句子做出有意义的决定。莎翁式功能移位引起了显著的LAN和P600调制，但未能调制N400波。这表明，功能状态发生变化的单词触发了早期的句法评价过程（主要是自动的）和延迟的重新评价/修复过程（更受控制），但语义整合不需要额外的处理。我们认为，这种句法和语义评价之间的分离使莎士比亚能够在不转移公众注意力的情况下创造戏剧效果。
Neurolinguistic studies have scrutinised the physiological consequences of disruptions in the flow of language comprehension produced by violations of meaning, syntax, or both. Some 400 years ago, Shakespeare already crafted verses in which the functional status of words was changed, as in “to lip a wanton in a secure couch”. Here, we tested the effect of word class conversion as used by Shakespeare – the functional shift – on event-related brain potential waves traditionally reported in neurophysiolinguistics: the left anterior negativity (LAN), the N400, and the P600. Participants made meaningfulness decisions to sentences containing (a) a semantic incongruity, (b) a functional shift, (c) a double violation, or (d) neither a semantic incongruity nor a syntactic violation. The Shakespearean functional shift elicited significant LAN and P600 modulations but failed to modulate the N400 wave. This provides evidence that words which had their functional status changed triggered both an early syntactic evaluation process thought to be mainly automatic and a delayed re-evaluation/repair process that is more controlled, but semantic integration required no additional processing. We propose that this dissociation between syntactic and semantic evaluation enabled Shakespeare to create dramatic effects without diverting his public away from meaning.