Doctoral Dissertation Research: Pronominal Interpretation and the Syntax-Discourse Interface: An ERP-Study

在Maria M. Pinango博士的指导下，Petra Burkhardt女士将为她的博士论文进行一系列实验。她将研究不同类型的代词元素（例如，“他/她”和“他/她自己”）在句子理解过程中是如何被解释的。实验将记录参与者在听句子时的事件相关脑电位（ERPs），重点是听到代词的时间。该研究探讨了代词如何以及何时确定其所指物。与完整名词（如“苹果”或“狗”）相比，代词元素本身没有完全成熟的含义。例如，在“那个男人说玛丽打电话给他”这样的句子中，“他”可能意味着“那个男人”。这项研究将语言学（关于语言系统的架构）、计算机科学（关于形式系统的动态实现，特别是代词解析）和神经科学（关于语言的皮层分布）中的重要问题联系起来。这项研究将对大脑和认知关系的研究产生影响，因为它解决了这些参照缺陷元素在某些神经疾病（如阿尔茨海默氏症、精神分裂症）和脑血管综合征（如失语症）中特别脆弱的原因。该项目还将为本科生提供接受研究培训的机会，并将促进耶鲁大学认知神经科学社区研究人员之间的互动。

Under the direction of Dr. Maria M. Pinango, Ms. Petra Burkhardt will conduct a series of experiments for her doctoral dissertation. She will investigate how different types of pronominal elements (e.g., "him/her" and "himself/herself") are interpreted during sentence comprehension. The experiments will record event-related brain potentials (ERPs) while participants listen to sentences, focusing on the time when the pronominal is heard. The study explores how and when pronominals determine their referents. In contrast to full nouns (like "apple" or "dog"), pronominal elements do not have fully fledged meaning of their own. For instance, in a sentence like "The man said that Mary called him," "him" may mean "the man." This research connects important questions in linguistics (regarding the architecture of the language system), computer science (regarding dynamic implementation of formal systems, specifically pronominal resolution) and neuroscience (regarding cortical distribution of language). The research will have implications for the study of brain and cognition relations, as it addresses the reasons that the representation of these referentially deficient elements is particularly vulnerable in certain neurological diseases (e.g., Alzheimer's, Schizophrenia) and cerebro-vascular syndromes (e.g., Aphasia). The project will also provide an opportunity for undergraduate students to receive research training, and it will foster interaction between researchers in the cognitive neuroscience community at Yale University.