Neurocomputational Mechanisms of Syntactic Transfer in Bilingual Sentence Production

TL;DR

This paper explores how oscillatory neural signatures can inform theories of bilingual sentence production, using the ROSE model to explain syntactic transfer and cross-linguistic influence during L2 planning.

Contribution

It introduces a neurocomputational account of syntactic transfer in bilinguals using the ROSE model, linking oscillatory failure modes to cross-linguistic influence.

Findings

Oscillatory signatures can constrain bilingual language theories.

ROSE model captures properties of syntactic transfer.

Model links neural failure modes to language dysfunction biomarkers.

Abstract

We discuss the benefits of incorporating into the study of bilingual production errors and their traditionally documented timing signatures (e.g., event-related potentials) certain types of oscillatory signatures, which can offer new implementational-level constraints for theories of bilingualism. We argue that a recent neural model of language, ROSE, can offer a neurocomputational account of syntactic transfer in bilingual production, capturing some of its formal properties and the scope of morphosyntactic sequencing failure modes. We take as a case study cross-linguistic influence (CLI) and attendant theories of functional inhibition/competition, and present these as being driven by specific oscillatory failure modes during L2 sentence planning. We argue that modeling CLI in this way not only offers the kind of linking hypothesis ROSE was built to encourage, but also licenses the exploration of more spatiotemporally complex biomarkers of language dysfunction than more commonly discussed neural signatures.