Merge-based syntax is mediated by distinct neurocognitive mechanisms: A clustering analysis of comprehension abilities in 84,000 individuals with language deficits across nine languages

TL;DR

This study analyzes how different neurocognitive mechanisms support various Merge-based syntactic structures, revealing three distinct processing types in a large, diverse population, with implications for language development and impairments.

Contribution

It provides evidence for multiple neurocognitive mechanisms underlying Merge-based syntax, challenging the idea of a single, elementary operation in language processing.

Findings

Identified three distinct structural types in comprehension abilities

Behavioral evidence suggests different mechanisms support different Merge types

Implications for language development and neurocognitive models

Abstract

In the modern language sciences, the core computational operation of syntax, 'Merge', is defined as an operation that combines two linguistic units (e.g., 'brown', 'cat') to form a categorized structure ('brown cat', a Noun Phrase). This can then be further combined with additional linguistic units based on this categorial information, respecting non-associativity such that abstract grouping is respected. Some linguists have embraced the view that Merge is an elementary, indivisible operation that emerged in a single evolutionary step. From a neurocognitive standpoint, different mental objects constructed by Merge may be supported by distinct mechanisms: (1) simple command constructions (e.g., "eat apples"); (2) the merging of adjectives and nouns ("red boat"); and (3) the merging of nouns with spatial prepositions ("laptop behind the sofa"). Here, we systematically investigate participants' comprehension of sentences with increasing levels of syntactic complexity. Clustering analyses revealed behavioral evidence for three distinct structural types, which we discuss as potentially emerging at different developmental stages and subject to selective impairment. While a Merge-based syntax may still have emerged suddenly in evolutionary time, responsible for the structured symbolic turn our species took, different cognitive mechanisms seem to underwrite the processing of various types of Merge-based objects.