Neural Basis of Semantic Constraints on Adjective Order

描述(申请人提供)：人们对名词前的形容词序列的语法有很强的直觉--例如，漂亮的棕色小鸟听起来很自然，但*棕色漂亮的小鸟听起来很奇怪。这些直觉反映了形容词顺序的语义限制，这种限制不仅适用于英语，也适用于世界各地的许多不同语言。具体地说，表示实体的客观、绝对、固有属性的形容词(如棕色)通常比表示主观的、相对论的、上下文敏感的属性(如漂亮)的形容词更接近名词。形容词的顺序是“语法语义”的一种表现形式，语法语义是一种专门术语，指的是一小部分语义特征，这些特征往往与语言的形态语法密切相关。语言学家提出，意义的语法相关成分和语法无关成分在心理上是相互独立地表征的，这一心理学假设有一个神经生物学的推论，即意义的两个成分也有不同的神经基础。然而，认知神经科学方面的工作很少涉及这一主题。本课题的目的是通过从神经心理学、神经解剖学和电生理学的角度研究形容词的语序来探索语法语义学的神经基础。有三个具体目标。目的1是为了验证这样一种假设，即局灶性脑损伤会导致以下类型的分离：对形容词顺序的语义约束的认识受损，但对形容词的独特、特殊意义的认识完好无损。患有这种分离的患者将不再能够判断漂亮的棕色鸟听起来比棕色漂亮的鸟听起来更自然，但仍然能够将漂亮和棕色与适当的图片相匹配，以显示形容词的含义。目的2是确定在对形容词顺序的语义约束认识受损的患者中，是否存在大脑受损的区域，而在对这些约束的正常知识的患者中，是否存在保留的大脑区域。最后，目标3是识别由感知到的对形容词顺序的语义约束的违反而触发的电生理反应。这将通过记录正常成年人阅读自然和非自然形容词顺序的例子时的事件相关电位来完成。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): People have strong intuitions about the grammaticality of adjective sequences that precede nouns - e.g., pretty brown bird sounds natural, but *brown pretty bird sounds odd. These intuitions reflect semantic constraints on adjective order that apply not just in English but in many diverse languages around the world. Specifically, adjectives that denote objective, absolute, inherent properties of entities (like brown) usually occur closer to the noun than adjectives that denote subjective, relativistic, context-sensitive properties (like pretty). Adjective order is one manifestation of 'grammatical semantics,' the technical term for a small set of semantic features that tend to interact closely with the morphosyntax of languages. Linguists have proposed that grammatically relevant and grammatically irrelevant components of meaning are mentally represented independently of each other, and this psychological hypothesis has a neurobiological corollary, which is that the two components of meaning also have distinct neural substrates. However, very little work in cognitive neuroscience has addressed this topic. The goal of this project is to explore the neural basis of grammatical semantics by investigating adjective order from the perspectives of neuropsychology, neuroanatomy, and electrophysiology. There are three specific aims. Aim 1 is to test the hypothesis that focal brain damage can cause the following type of dissociation: impaired knowledge of the semantic constraints on adjective order, but intact knowledge of the unique, idiosyncratic meanings of adjectives. Patients with this dissociation would no longer be able to judge pretty brown bird as sounding more natural than *brown pretty bird, but would still be able to match pretty and brown with appropriate pictures showing the meanings of the adjectives. Aim 2 is to determine whether there is a brain area that is lesioned in patients with impaired knowledge of the semantic constraints on adjective order, and preserved in patients with normal knowledge of these constraints. Finally, Aim 3 is to identify the kind of electrophysiological response that is triggered by perceived violations of the semantic constraints on adjective order. This will be done by recording event-related potentials in normal adults while they read examples of natural and unnatural adjective orders.