Kemmerer David, Tranel Daniel, Zdanczyk Cynthia
Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Purdue University.
J Neurolinguistics. 2009 Jan 1;22(1):91-108. doi: 10.1016/j.jneuroling.2008.07.001.
When multiple adjectives are used to modify a noun, they tend to be sequenced in the following way according to semantic class: value > size > dimension > various physical properties > color. To investigate the neural substrates of these semantic constraints on adjective order, we administered a battery of three tests to 34 brain-damaged patients and 19 healthy participants. Six patients manifested the following performance profile. First, they failed a test that required them to discriminate between semantically determined correct and incorrect sequences of adjectives-e.g., thick blue towel vs. *blue thick towel. Second, they passed a test that assessed their knowledge of two purely syntactic aspects of adjective order-specifically, that adjectives can precede nouns, and that adjectives can precede other adjectives. Finally, they also passed a test that assessed their knowledge of the categorical (i.e., class-level) features of adjective meanings that interact with the semantic constraints underlying adjective order-e.g., that thick is a dimensional adjective and that blue is a color adjective. Taken together, these behavioral findings suggest that the six patients have selectively impaired knowledge of the abstract principles that determine how different semantic classes of adjectives are typically mapped onto different syntactic positions in NPs. To identify the neuroanatomical lesion patterns that tend to correlate with defective processing of adjective order, we combined lesion data from the six patients just described with lesion data from six other patients who we reported in a previous study as having similar impairments [Kemmerer, D. (2000). Selective impairment of knowledge underlying adjective order: Evidence for the autonomy of grammatical semantics. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 13, 57-82.] We found that the most common areas of damage included the left posterior inferior frontal gyrus and the left inferior parietal lobule. Overall, these results shed new light on the neural substrates of the syntax-semantics interface.
当多个形容词用于修饰一个名词时，它们往往会根据语义类别按以下方式排序：评价性形容词>大小>维度>各种物理属性>颜色。为了研究这些关于形容词顺序的语义限制的神经基础，我们对34名脑损伤患者和19名健康参与者进行了一系列三项测试。六名患者表现出以下行为特征。首先，他们在一项要求他们区分语义确定的正确和不正确形容词顺序的测试中失败了，例如，厚蓝色毛巾与*蓝色厚毛巾。其次，他们通过了一项评估他们对形容词顺序两个纯句法方面知识的测试，具体来说，形容词可以位于名词之前，并且形容词可以位于其他形容词之前。最后，他们还通过了一项评估他们对与形容词顺序背后的语义限制相互作用的形容词意义的类别（即类别层面）特征的知识的测试，例如，厚是一个维度形容词，蓝色是一个颜色形容词。综合起来，这些行为结果表明，这六名患者选择性地受损了关于决定不同语义类别的形容词通常如何映射到名词短语中不同句法位置的抽象原则的知识。为了确定往往与形容词顺序处理缺陷相关的神经解剖损伤模式，我们将刚刚描述的六名患者的损伤数据与我们在之前一项研究中报告的另外六名有类似损伤的患者的损伤数据相结合[凯默勒，D.（2000年）。形容词顺序背后知识的选择性损伤：语法语义自主性的证据。《神经语言学杂志》，13，57 - 82]。我们发现最常见的损伤区域包括左后下额叶回和左下顶叶小叶。总体而言，这些结果为句法 - 语义界面的神经基础提供了新的见解。
