Young children’s sentence comprehension: Neural correlates of syntax-semantic competition

Strotseva-Feinschmidt, Anna; Schipke, Christine S.; Gunter, Thomas C.; Bräuer, Jens; Friederici, Angela D.

doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2018.09.003

Cited by 14 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…In addition, children employ the NOM‐marked argument typically as the actor of an event (e.g., Lee & Cho, 2009) and acquire the NOM earlier and use it more reliably than the ACC (e.g., Cho, 1982; Jin, Kim, & Song, 2015). These reports suggest the asymmetric development of knowledge about case markers, which is consistent with the findings in many case‐marking languages (e.g., Dittmar et al., 2008; Strotseva‐Feinschmidt, Schipke, Gunter, Brauer, & Friederici, 2019). This is attributable to input properties: a stronger association (measured by ∆P ) between the NOM and the agent role (and vice versa) than that between the ACC and the theme role (and vice versa) for the transitive construction (Shin, 2020).…”

Section: Agent‐first Strategy and Children's Comprehension Of Transitives In Koreansupporting

confidence: 85%

Limits on the Agent‐First Strategy: Evidence from Children's Comprehension of a Transitive Construction in Korean

Shin¹

2021

Cognitive Science

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It has long been believed across languages that the Agent‐First strategy, a comprehension heuristic that maps the first noun onto the agent role, is a general cognitive bias which applies automatically and faithfully to children's comprehension. The present study asks how this strategy interplays with such grammatical cues as the number of overt arguments and the presence of case‐marking in Korean, an SOV language with case‐marking by dedicated markers. To investigate whether and how these cues affect the operation of this strategy, we measure children's comprehension of a transitive construction (with scrambling and omission of sentential components) in a novel experimental setting where arguments and case markers were obscured to varying degrees through acoustic masking. We find that children do not demonstrate the agent‐first interpretation strongly in the noun–verb pattern without case‐marking, showing their uncertainty about the thematic role of the nominal when it is both the only argument in the sentence and lacks case‐marking. They perform significantly better in the patterns with additional cues, the impact of which is asymmetric by age and by the nature of alignment between cues from word order and case‐marking. These findings suggest that, for Korean‐speaking children's comprehension of a transitive construction, the Agent‐First strategy is activated properly only in conjunction with other types of interpretive cues.

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Section: Agent‐first Strategy and Children's Comprehension Of Transitives In Koreansupporting

confidence: 85%

Limits on the Agent‐First Strategy: Evidence from Children's Comprehension of a Transitive Construction in Korean

Shin¹

2021

Cognitive Science

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“…Speech comprehension is based on context and semantics and is verified by syntax [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. Therefore, the mechanisms of semantic analysis are formed earlier than those of syntactic analysis in ontogenesis [ 2 , 4 , 5 , 6 ]. When it is impossible to unambiguously interpret thematic roles relying on semantics (for example, in transitive sentences with both animated subject and object), reliance is made only on grammatical cues such as word order, voice, case marking, etc.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Three-year-old German children rely on semantics and show no brain sensitivity to markers of subject-object relations; 4.5-year-old children rely on the second noun (NP2) in the sentence thematic role assignment, showing a frontocentral ERP positivity effect indicating difficulties in syntactic integration, while six-year-old children already rely on the first noun (NP1), showing the negativity effect typical of adults [ 4 , 10 ]. Another brain effect—a positivity (300–500 ms) time-locked to NP1 for object-initial compared to subject-initial structures and a biphasic early positivity (220–600 ms) and late negativity (750–1200 ms) time-locked to NP2 was described in German three-year-old’s [ 56 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another brain effect—a positivity (300–500 ms) time-locked to NP1 for object-initial compared to subject-initial structures and a biphasic early positivity (220–600 ms) and late negativity (750–1200 ms) time-locked to NP2 was described in German three-year-old’s [ 56 ]. The processing of the NP1 in the object-first sentences compared to subject-first sentences was associated with an early positivity in two- to three-year-old children [ 4 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Passive Voice Comprehension during Thematic-Role Assignment in Russian-Speaking Children Aged 4–6 Is Reflected in the Sensitivity of ERP to Noun Inflections

et al. 2022

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Children tend to rely on semantics rather than syntax during sentence comprehension. In transitive sentences, with no reliance on semantics, the syntax-based strategy becomes critical. We aimed to describe developmental changes of brain mechanisms for syntax processing in typically developing (TD) four to six year old’s. A specially designed sentence-picture matching task using active (AV) and passive (PV) voice enforced children to use grammar cues for sentence comprehension. Fifty children with above >60% level of accuracy in PV sentences comprehension demonstrated brain sensitivity to voice grammar markers-inflections of the second noun phrase (NP2), which was expressed in a greater event-related potentials (ERP) amplitude to PV vs. AV sentences in four-, five-, and six-year-old children. The biphasic positive-negative component at 200–400 ms was registered in the frontocentral and bilateral temporoparietal areas. Only in six-year-old children P600 was registered in the right temporoparietal area. LAN-like negativity seems to be a mechanism for distinguishing AV from PV in the early stages of mastering syntax processing of transitive sentences in four to five year old children. Both behavioral and ERP results distinguished six-year-olds from four-year-old’s and five-year-old’s, reflecting the possible transition to the “adult-like” syntax-based thematic role assignment.

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“…Although adults process syntactic and semantic features separately (Jackendoff 2007) and, consequently, show dissociable functional representations in the brain , behavioral and imaging studies in children indicate that this functional segregation is not completed until late childhood (Friederici 1983;Brauer and Friederici 2007;Nuñez et al 2011;Knoll et al 2012;Skeide et al 2014;Wu et al 2016;Xiao et al 2016;Strotseva-Feinschmidt et al 2019). Specifically, it was found that children at least until the age of 7 strongly rely on word meaning to successfully process complex sentences (Dittmar et al 2008;Skeide et al 2014;.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Children’s syntax is supported by the maturation of BA44 at 4 years, but of the posterior STS at 3 years of age

Klein

Berger

Goucha

et al. 2022

Preprint

Self Cite

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Within the first years of life, children learn major aspects of their native language. However, the ability to process complex sentence structures, a core faculty in human language called syntax, has been found to emerge only slowly. A milestone in the acquisition of syntax is reached around the age of 4, when children learn a variety of syntactic concepts, including, for example, subordinate clauses. Here, we ask which maturational changes in the child's brain underlie the emergence of syntactic abilities around this critical age. We relate markers of cortical brain maturation to 3- and 4-year-olds' syntactic in contrast to other language abilities. Our results show that distinct cortical brain areas support syntax in the two age groups: While 3-year-old children's syntactic abilities were associated with increased surface area in the most posterior part of the left superior temporal sulcus, 4-year-old children showed an association with cortical thickness in the left posterior part of Broca's area, i.e. BA44. The present findings suggest that syntactic abilities rely on the maturation of distinct cortical regions in 3- compared to 4-year-olds. The observed shift to more mature regions involved in syntax may underlie the behavioral milestones in syntax acquisition around 4 years of age.

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Young children’s sentence comprehension: Neural correlates of syntax-semantic competition

Abstract: Highlights Two-year-olds start to be sensitive to syntactic cues. Interaction of syntax and semantics is high in very young children. The reliance on syntactic cues shifts between the age of two and three.

Cited by 14 publications

References 60 publications

Limits on the Agent‐First Strategy: Evidence from Children's Comprehension of a Transitive Construction in Korean

Limits on the Agent‐First Strategy: Evidence from Children's Comprehension of a Transitive Construction in Korean

Passive Voice Comprehension during Thematic-Role Assignment in Russian-Speaking Children Aged 4–6 Is Reflected in the Sensitivity of ERP to Noun Inflections

Children’s syntax is supported by the maturation of BA44 at 4 years, but of the posterior STS at 3 years of age

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