When Events Change Their Nature: The Neurocognitive Mechanisms Underlying Aspectual Coercion.
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| Title: | When Events Change Their Nature: The Neurocognitive Mechanisms Underlying Aspectual Coercion. |
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| Authors: | Paczynski, Martin, Jackendoff, Ray, Kuperberg, Gina |
| Source: | Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 2014, Vol. 26 Issue 9, p1905-1917. 13p. 1 Diagram, 4 Charts, 1 Graph, 1 Map. |
| Subjects: | Psycholinguistics, Evoked potentials (Electrophysiology), Morphosyntax, Semantics, Verbs, Cognition |
| Abstract: | The verb "pounce" describes a single, near-instantaneous event. Yet, we easily understand that, "For several minutes the cat pounced..." describes a situation in which multiple pounces occurred, although this interpretation is not overtly specified by the sentence's syntactic structure or by any of its individual words--a phenomenon known as "aspectual coercion." Previous psycholinguistic studies have reported processing costs in association with aspectual coercion, but the neurocognitive mechanisms giving rise to these costs remain contentious. Additionally, there is some controversy about whether readers commit to a full interpretation of the event when the aspectual information becomes available, or whether they leave it temporarily underspecified until later in the sentence. Using ERPs, we addressed these questions in a design that fully crossed context type (punctive, durative, frequentative) with verb type (punctive, durative). We found a late, sustained negativity to punctive verbs in durative contexts, but not in frequentative (e.g., explicitly iterative) contexts. This effect was distinct from the N400 in both its time course and scalp distribution, suggesting that it reflected a different underlying neurocognitive mechanism. We also found that ERPs to durative verbs were unaffected by context type. Together, our results provide strong evidence that neural activity associated with aspectual coercion is driven by the engagement of a morphosyntactically unrealized semantic operator rather than by violations of real-world knowledge, more general shifts in event representation, or event iterativity itself. More generally, our results add to a growing body of evidence that a set of late-onset sustained negativities reflect elaborative semantic processing that goes beyond simply combining the meaning of individual words with syntactic structure to arrive at a final representation of meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Copyright of Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience is the property of MIT Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) | |
| Database: | Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection |
| FullText | Links: – Type: pdflink Text: Availability: 0 |
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| Header | DbId: pbh DbLabel: Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection An: 97338977 AccessLevel: 6 PubType: Academic Journal PubTypeId: academicJournal PreciseRelevancyScore: 0 |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: When Events Change Their Nature: The Neurocognitive Mechanisms Underlying Aspectual Coercion. – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Paczynski%2C+Martin%22">Paczynski, Martin</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Jackendoff%2C+Ray%22">Jackendoff, Ray</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Kuperberg%2C+Gina%22">Kuperberg, Gina</searchLink> – Name: TitleSource Label: Source Group: Src Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22Journal+of+Cognitive+Neuroscience%22">Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience</searchLink>. 2014, Vol. 26 Issue 9, p1905-1917. 13p. 1 Diagram, 4 Charts, 1 Graph, 1 Map. – Name: Subject Label: Subjects Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Psycholinguistics%22">Psycholinguistics</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Evoked+potentials+%28Electrophysiology%29%22">Evoked potentials (Electrophysiology)</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Morphosyntax%22">Morphosyntax</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Semantics%22">Semantics</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Verbs%22">Verbs</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Cognition%22">Cognition</searchLink> – Name: Abstract Label: Abstract Group: Ab Data: The verb "pounce" describes a single, near-instantaneous event. Yet, we easily understand that, "For several minutes the cat pounced..." describes a situation in which multiple pounces occurred, although this interpretation is not overtly specified by the sentence's syntactic structure or by any of its individual words--a phenomenon known as "aspectual coercion." Previous psycholinguistic studies have reported processing costs in association with aspectual coercion, but the neurocognitive mechanisms giving rise to these costs remain contentious. Additionally, there is some controversy about whether readers commit to a full interpretation of the event when the aspectual information becomes available, or whether they leave it temporarily underspecified until later in the sentence. Using ERPs, we addressed these questions in a design that fully crossed context type (punctive, durative, frequentative) with verb type (punctive, durative). We found a late, sustained negativity to punctive verbs in durative contexts, but not in frequentative (e.g., explicitly iterative) contexts. This effect was distinct from the N400 in both its time course and scalp distribution, suggesting that it reflected a different underlying neurocognitive mechanism. We also found that ERPs to durative verbs were unaffected by context type. Together, our results provide strong evidence that neural activity associated with aspectual coercion is driven by the engagement of a morphosyntactically unrealized semantic operator rather than by violations of real-world knowledge, more general shifts in event representation, or event iterativity itself. More generally, our results add to a growing body of evidence that a set of late-onset sustained negativities reflect elaborative semantic processing that goes beyond simply combining the meaning of individual words with syntactic structure to arrive at a final representation of meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] – Name: AbstractSuppliedCopyright Label: Group: Ab Data: <i>Copyright of Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience is the property of MIT Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) |
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| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Identifiers: – Type: doi Value: 10.1162/jocn_a_00638 Languages: – Code: eng Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 13 StartPage: 1905 Subjects: – SubjectFull: Psycholinguistics Type: general – SubjectFull: Evoked potentials (Electrophysiology) Type: general – SubjectFull: Morphosyntax Type: general – SubjectFull: Semantics Type: general – SubjectFull: Verbs Type: general – SubjectFull: Cognition Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: When Events Change Their Nature: The Neurocognitive Mechanisms Underlying Aspectual Coercion. Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Paczynski, Martin – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Jackendoff, Ray – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Kuperberg, Gina IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 09 Text: 2014 Type: published Y: 2014 Identifiers: – Type: issn-print Value: 0898929X Numbering: – Type: volume Value: 26 – Type: issue Value: 9 Titles: – TitleFull: Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience Type: main |
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