Re-examination of the structure of syntactic knowledge by the time-frequency and the connectivity analyses of the electroencephalogram elicited by Japanese sentences.

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26580076
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Mejiro University
• Principal Investigator: Tokimoto Shingo 目白大学, 外国語学部, 教授 (00291849)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): MIYAOKA Yayoi 広島経済大学, 経済学部, 教授 (10351975) ; TOKIMOTO Naoko 尚美学園大学, 総合政策学部, 講師 (10435662)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 事象関連電位 / 事象関連スペクトル摂動 / P600 / 数量詞遊離 / 島の制約 / 大域的同期

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study tried to re-examine the present syntactic theories by electroencephalogram (EEG) experiments paying special attention to P600. Recent studies have revealed that an event-related potential (ERP) can be elicited by various linguistic phenomena. We performed an EEG experiment with Japanese sentences including quantifier floats as the experimental stimuli and discussed the correspondence between structural property and the ERPs. Our results indicated that the positivity by syntactic violation and that by integration were different in topography, and that the syntactic predictions made by the preceding input determined the spaciotemporal distribution of ERPs. This means that linguistic ERPs deeply depend on language processing in real time.

Free Research Field

神経言語学