Three conceptual clarifications about syntax and the brain

Author:

Coopmans Cas W.,Zaccarella Emiliano

Abstract

Linguistic theories offer empirical hypotheses about the architecture of human language, which provide the basis for neurobiological investigations into the study of language use. Unfortunately, progress in linking the two fields of inquiry is hampered because core concepts and ideas from linguistics are not seldom misunderstood, making them controversial and seemingly irrelevant to the neurobiology of language. Here we identify three such proposals: the distinction between competence and performance, the autonomy of syntax, and the abstract nature of syntactic representations. In our view, confusion about these concepts stems from the fact that they are interpreted at a level of analysis different from the level at which they were originally described. We clarify the intended interpretation of these concepts and discuss how they might be contextualized in the cognitive neuroscience of language. By doing so, the discussion about the integration of linguistics and neurobiology of language can move toward a fruitful exploration of linking hypotheses within a multi-level theory of syntax in the brain.

Publisher

Frontiers Media SA

Cited by 2 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

1. Neural dynamics express syntax in the time domain during natural story listening;2024-03-22

2. Processing syntax;Reference Module in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Psychology;2024

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