Organization and Independence or Interdependence? Study of the Neurophysiological Dynamics of Syntactic and Semantic Processing

TL;DR

This study introduces a multivariate EEG-based model revealing hierarchical neurophysiological processes in phrase comprehension, emphasizing form, syntax, and semantics, with specific insights into verb processing and syntactic-semantic interactions.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel multivariate approach to disentangle syntactic, semantic, and form processes in EEG signals during language comprehension.

Findings

Hierarchical precedence: form, then syntax, then semantics

Verbs are central to syntactic processing

Interaction between syntactic movement and semantic reference frames

Abstract

In this article we present a multivariate model for determining the different syntactic, semantic, and form (surface-structure) processes underlying the comprehension of simple phrases. This model is applied to EEG signals recorded during a reading task. The results show a hierarchical precedence of the neurolinguistic processes : form, then syntactic and lastly semantic processes. We also found (a) that verbs are at the heart of phrase syntax processing, (b) an interaction between syntactic movement within the phrase, and semantic processes derived from a person-centered reference frame. Eigenvectors of the multivariate model provide electrode-times profiles that separate the distinctive linguistic processes and/or highlight their interaction. The accordance of these findings with different linguistic theories are discussed.