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Chomskywasright:Wedohavea'grammar'inourheadScienceDaily

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Chomskywasright:Wedohavea'grammar'inourhead
Date:
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Summary:

December7,2015
NewYorkUniversity
AteamofneuroscientistshasfoundnewsupportforlinguistNoamChomsky'sdecades
oldtheorythatwepossessan'internalgrammar'thatallowsustocomprehendeven
nonsensicalphrases.

FULLSTORY

AteamofneuroscientistshasfoundnewsupportforMITlinguistNoamChomsky'sdecades
oldtheorythatwepossessan"internalgrammar"thatallowsustocomprehendeven
nonsensicalphrases.
"OneofthefoundationalelementsofChomsky'sworkisthatwehaveagrammarinourhead,which
underliesourprocessingoflanguage,"explainsDavidPoeppel,thestudy'sseniorresearcheranda
professorinNewYorkUniversity'sDepartmentofPsychology."Ourneurophysiologicalfindingssupport
thistheory:wemakesenseofstringsofwordsbecauseourbrainscombinewordsintoconstituentsina
hierarchicalmanneraprocessthatreflectsan'internalgrammar'mechanism."
Theresearch,whichappearsinthelatestissueofthejournalNatureNeuroscience,buildsonChomsky's
1957work,SyntacticStructures(1957).Itpositedthatwecanrecognizeaphrasesuchas"Colorless
greenideassleepfuriously"asbothnonsensicalandgrammaticallycorrectbecausewehaveanabstract
knowledgebasethatallowsustomakesuchdistinctionseventhoughthestatisticalrelationsbetween
wordsarenonexistent.
Neuroscientistsandpsychologistspredominantlyrejectthisviewpoint,contendingthatour
comprehensiondoesnotresultfromaninternalgrammarrather,itisbasedonbothstatistical
calculationsbetweenwordsandsoundcuestostructure.Thatis,weknowfromexperiencehow
sentencesshouldbeproperlyconstructedareservoirofinformationweemployuponhearingwords
andphrases.Manylinguists,incontrast,arguethathierarchicalstructurebuildingisacentralfeatureof
languageprocessing.
Inanefforttoilluminatethisdebate,theresearchersexploredwhetherandhowlinguisticunitsare
representedinthebrainduringspeechcomprehension.
Todoso,Poeppel,whoisalsodirectoroftheMaxPlanckInstituteforEmpiricalAestheticsinFrankfurt,
andhiscolleaguesconductedaseriesofexperimentsusingmagnetoencephalography(MEG),which
allowsmeasurementsofthetinymagneticfieldsgeneratedbybrainactivity,andelectrocorticography
(ECoG),aclinicaltechniqueusedtomeasurebrainactivityinpatientsbeingmonitoredforneurosurgery.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151207113730.htm

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Chomskywasright:Wedohavea'grammar'inourheadScienceDaily

Thestudy'ssubjectslistenedtosentencesinbothEnglishandMandarinChineseinwhichthe
hierarchicalstructurebetweenwords,phrases,andsentenceswasdissociatedfromintonationalspeech
cuestheriseandfallofthevoiceaswellasstatisticalwordcues.Thesentenceswerepresentedinan
isochronousfashionidenticaltimingbetweenwordsandparticipantslistenedtobothpredictable
sentences(e.g.,"NewYorkneversleeps,""Coffeekeepsmeawake"),grammaticallycorrect,butless
predictablesentences(e.g.,"Pinktoyshurtgirls"),orwordlists("eggsjellypinkawake")andvarious
othermanipulatedsequences.
Thedesignallowedtheresearcherstoisolatehowthebrainconcurrentlytracksdifferentlevelsof
linguisticabstractionsequencesofwords("furiouslygreensleepcolorless"),phrases("sleepfuriously"
"greenideas"),orsentences("Colorlessgreenideassleepfuriously")whileremovingintonational
speechcuesandstatisticalwordinformation,whichmanysayarenecessaryinbuildingsentences.
Theirresultsshowedthatthesubjects'brainsdistinctlytrackedthreecomponentsofthephrasesthey
heard,reflectingahierarchyinourneuralprocessingoflinguisticstructures:words,phrases,andthen
sentencesatthesametime.
"Becausewewenttogreatlengthstodesignexperimentalconditionsthatcontrolforstatisticalorsound
cuecontributionstoprocessing,ourfindingsshowthatwemustusethegrammarinourhead,"explains
Poeppel."Ourbrainslockontoeverywordbeforeworkingtocomprehendphrasesandsentences.The
dynamicsrevealthatweundergoagrammarbasedconstructionintheprocessingoflanguage."
Thisisacontroversialconclusionfromtheperspectiveofcurrentresearch,theresearchersnote,
becausethenotionofabstract,hierarchical,grammarbasedstructurebuildingisratherunpopular.

StorySource:
TheabovepostisreprintedfrommaterialsprovidedbyNewYorkUniversity.Note:Materialsmaybe
editedforcontentandlength.

JournalReference:
1. NaiDing,LuciaMelloni,HangZhang,XingTian,DavidPoeppel.Corticaltrackingofhierarchical
linguisticstructuresinconnectedspeech.NatureNeuroscience,2015DOI:10.1038/nn.4186

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NewYorkUniversity.(2015,December7).Chomskywasright:Wedohavea'grammar'inourhead.
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