Neurophysiological correlates of zero morpheme processing: ERP data

Maria Alekseeva; Andriy Myachykov; Yury Shtyrov

doi:10.31857/S0044467722050033

Neurophysiological correlates of zero morpheme processing: ERP data

Maria Alekseeva^*, Andriy Myachykov, Yury Shtyrov

^*Corresponding author for this work

Psychology Department

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Language functioning as a communicative system is described by a multitude of linguistic theories, which are not always consistent with each other and do not have strong cognitive and/or neurobi-ological bases. One of the most striking examples is the "zero morpheme" proposed by the Universal Grammar theory, which has only an abstract meaning and no phonological representation (for example, null case affix: stol-Ø (Nominative; table_NOM) vs. stol-a (Accusative; table_ACC)). To address the question of neurocognitive processing of the zero morpheme, we ran an EEG experiment with passive non-attend design. Experimental stimuli included phrases with correct and incorrect pronoun-verb gender agreement (null: he bought-Ø, filled: The bought-FEM) and single verbs as a control. During the ERP analysis we found higher activation for the conditions of zero morpheme agreement violations (p = 0.036) started from ∼200 ms (ELAN), reflecting an early automatic syntactic processing of the zero morpheme. Results support the priming hypothesis for conditions with zero morpheme and its activation during language processing.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	666-677
Number of pages	12
Journal	Zhurnal Vysshei Nervnoi Deyatelnosti Imeni I.P. Pavlova
Volume	72
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.31857/S0044467722050033
Publication status	Published - 2022

Keywords

EEG
language theories
neurolinguistics
speech processing
zero morpheme

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title = "Neurophysiological correlates of zero morpheme processing: ERP data",

abstract = "Language functioning as a communicative system is described by a multitude of linguistic theories, which are not always consistent with each other and do not have strong cognitive and/or neurobi-ological bases. One of the most striking examples is the {"}zero morpheme{"} proposed by the Universal Grammar theory, which has only an abstract meaning and no phonological representation (for example, null case affix: stol-{\O} (Nominative; tableNOM) vs. stol-a (Accusative; tableACC)). To address the question of neurocognitive processing of the zero morpheme, we ran an EEG experiment with passive non-attend design. Experimental stimuli included phrases with correct and incorrect pronoun-verb gender agreement (null: he bought-{\O}, filled: The bought-FEM) and single verbs as a control. During the ERP analysis we found higher activation for the conditions of zero morpheme agreement violations (p = 0.036) started from ∼200 ms (ELAN), reflecting an early automatic syntactic processing of the zero morpheme. Results support the priming hypothesis for conditions with zero morpheme and its activation during language processing.",

keywords = "EEG, language theories, neurolinguistics, speech processing, zero morpheme",

author = "Maria Alekseeva and Andriy Myachykov and Yury Shtyrov",

year = "2022",

doi = "10.31857/S0044467722050033",

language = "English",

volume = "72",

pages = "666--677",

journal = "Zhurnal Vysshei Nervnoi Deyatelnosti Imeni I.P. Pavlova",

issn = "0044-4677",

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number = "5",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Neurophysiological correlates of zero morpheme processing

T2 - ERP data

AU - Alekseeva, Maria

AU - Myachykov, Andriy

AU - Shtyrov, Yury

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Language functioning as a communicative system is described by a multitude of linguistic theories, which are not always consistent with each other and do not have strong cognitive and/or neurobi-ological bases. One of the most striking examples is the "zero morpheme" proposed by the Universal Grammar theory, which has only an abstract meaning and no phonological representation (for example, null case affix: stol-Ø (Nominative; tableNOM) vs. stol-a (Accusative; tableACC)). To address the question of neurocognitive processing of the zero morpheme, we ran an EEG experiment with passive non-attend design. Experimental stimuli included phrases with correct and incorrect pronoun-verb gender agreement (null: he bought-Ø, filled: The bought-FEM) and single verbs as a control. During the ERP analysis we found higher activation for the conditions of zero morpheme agreement violations (p = 0.036) started from ∼200 ms (ELAN), reflecting an early automatic syntactic processing of the zero morpheme. Results support the priming hypothesis for conditions with zero morpheme and its activation during language processing.

AB - Language functioning as a communicative system is described by a multitude of linguistic theories, which are not always consistent with each other and do not have strong cognitive and/or neurobi-ological bases. One of the most striking examples is the "zero morpheme" proposed by the Universal Grammar theory, which has only an abstract meaning and no phonological representation (for example, null case affix: stol-Ø (Nominative; tableNOM) vs. stol-a (Accusative; tableACC)). To address the question of neurocognitive processing of the zero morpheme, we ran an EEG experiment with passive non-attend design. Experimental stimuli included phrases with correct and incorrect pronoun-verb gender agreement (null: he bought-Ø, filled: The bought-FEM) and single verbs as a control. During the ERP analysis we found higher activation for the conditions of zero morpheme agreement violations (p = 0.036) started from ∼200 ms (ELAN), reflecting an early automatic syntactic processing of the zero morpheme. Results support the priming hypothesis for conditions with zero morpheme and its activation during language processing.

KW - EEG

KW - language theories

KW - neurolinguistics

KW - speech processing

KW - zero morpheme

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Neurophysiological correlates of zero morpheme processing: ERP data

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