Kim Songhee, Pylkkänen Liina
Department of Linguistics, New York University, New York, NY, USA.
Department of Linguistics, New York University, New York, NY, USA; Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA; NYUAD Institute, New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Brain Lang. 2019 Jan;188:18-27. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2018.11.003. Epub 2018 Dec 7.
Characterizing the precise computations carried out by the various nodes of the semantic network remains a central challenge. One of the better understood nodes within this system is the left anterior temporal lobe (LATL), which shows an early (∼250 ms) amplitude increase if the semantic composition between the current word and its context is in some ways "simple." As this type of effect has only been demonstrated for noun-modifier composition, we asked if a similar pattern is elicited for verb phrase composition. Agentive, resultative, and eventive adverbs were employed to vary whether the meaning of the adverb directly applies to the verb or not, with only eventives exemplifying direct and straightforward composition. Results showed that eventives, but not agentives or resultatives, elicited a significant increase in the LATL at 250 ms. The RATL showed a sharply contrasting pattern, with agentives showing the largest activity, suggesting a distinct role in semantic composition.
表征语义网络中各个节点所执行的精确计算仍然是一个核心挑战。该系统中一个得到较好理解的节点是左前颞叶（LATL），如果当前单词与其上下文之间的语义组合在某种程度上“简单”，它会显示出早期（约250毫秒）的振幅增加。由于这种效应仅在名词修饰语组合中得到证实，我们询问动词短语组合是否会引发类似的模式。施事性、结果性和事件性副词被用来改变副词的含义是否直接适用于动词，只有事件性副词体现了直接和简单的组合。结果表明，事件性副词而非施事性或结果性副词在250毫秒时引发了LATL的显著增加。右前颞叶（RATL）呈现出截然不同的模式，施事性副词显示出最大的活动，表明在语义组合中具有独特作用。
