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Bridging the Gap Between Formal Semantics and Neurolinguistics: The Case of the N400 and the LPP

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Language, Logic, and Computation (TbiLLC 2019)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 13206))

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Abstract

We outline a formal framework that combines results from neurolinguistic research on two ERP components, the N400 and the LPP, with formal semantics. At the semantic level we combine de Groote’s continuation-based version of Montague semantics with van Eijck’s Incremental Dynamics enriched with frames. We analyze them in terms of complex properties that apply both to the semantic and the discourse level and which combine world knowledge with syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships. DPs and common nouns are interpreted as sequences of update operations which are related to these properties. In turn, each ERP component is correlated to at least one update operation. Whereas the N400 is related to success of these operations and the way they reduce uncertainty about the situation described by a discourse, the LPP is correlated to the failure to execute these updates.

The research was supported by the German Science Foundation (DFG) funding the Collaborative Research Center 991.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We do not assume that there is a monophasic N400 activity. Rather, semantic processing in the brain is always biphasic with the first phase indexed by the N400 and the second phase indexed by late positivities like the LPP. Whereas N400 activity is always related to the situation model, late positivities are related to the situation model and the event model. Hence, integration at the (local) event model is not captured by N400 activity but only by the late positivities like the LPP. Thus, there will always be activity in the post N400 time window related to this kind of integration. We are indebted to one reviewer for stressing this relation between activity in the N400 time window and post-N400 time window.

  2. 2.

    For verbs, we assume a decompositional structure that is strictly similar to that for DPs.

  3. 3.

    To ease readability, we use a simplified notation. For a detailed analysis of this ‘tropical resort’ example refer to [NP17].

  4. 4.

    Though late positivities like the LPP are not captured in this model.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Ralf Naumann & Wiebke Petersen

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  1. Ralf Naumann
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Correspondence to Ralf Naumann .

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  1. University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Aybüke Özgün

  2. Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Yulia Zinova

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Naumann, R., Petersen, W. (2022). Bridging the Gap Between Formal Semantics and Neurolinguistics: The Case of the N400 and the LPP. In: Özgün, A., Zinova, Y. (eds) Language, Logic, and Computation. TbiLLC 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13206. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98479-3_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98479-3_5

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