Brain Science of Language based on Generative Grammar

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One of the most fundamental and universal properties of human language is a phenomenon called displacement. We used multi-channel event-related potentials (ERPs) to identify the nature of this phenomenon with Japanese, an SOV language of relatively free word order. The ERPs of sentences of canonical word order (CC) were compared with those of non-canonical word order in two types of Japanese complex sentences ; namely in those which can be described as being in a middle-scrambled condition (MSC) and in those in a long-scrambled condition (LSC). The sustained anterior negativity (SAN) and the P600 in the pre-gap position were observed in the LSC, compared to the CC, and they are consistent with previous findings. The SAN, exhibiting a tripartite nature in morphology and scalp distribution, mainly reflected a storage cost of scrambled elements in sentence comprehension. The subsequent P600 had a left front-temporal maximum, distinguished from a posterior P600, taken as a reflector of the thematic role assignment in previous related studies. It is argued that the P600 in the present study reflects a cost of structural integration intensively depending on the case marker information. A compositional interpretation of sentence meanings was also observed, reflected in an anterior negativity at the post-gap verbal position, which cannot be differentiated at the pre-gap verbal position in the languages of SVO word order. The ERPs of sentences of right dislocated arguments were compared with those of the right dislocated adjuncts. It was found that right dislocated arguments elicited a left dominant positivity, reflecting a syntactic integration in sentence comprehension. The ERPs and the MEG investigated the processing of middle scrambled sentences. The large positivity with a left temporal maximum was elicited at the time window of 300-500ms, and the MEG also elicited an activation at around this time period.