Multiple semantic processes at different levels of syntactic hierarchy: does the higher-level process proceed in face of a lower-level failure?
Abstract
Humans have special abilities in processing hierarchical, recursive structures. Here we investigated how an upcoming word embedded in a hierarchical structure is semantically integrated into the prior representation during sentence comprehension. Participants read Chinese sentences with a complex verb argument structure "subject noun+verb+numeral+classifier+object noun", in which the object noun was constrained by the classifier in a local structure and by the verb in a higher-level structure. The semantic congruence between the classifier and the noun, between the verb and the noun, and between the verb and the classifier was manipulated individually or simultaneously to create a local mismatch (i.e., with classifier-noun mismatch), a sequential mismatch (with verb-classifier and classifier-noun mismatches) or a triple mismatch (with verb-classifier, classifier-noun, and verb-classifier mismatches) condition. Event-related potentials locked to the object noun showed increased N400 and late negativity responses over the local mismatch, the sequential mismatch and the triple mismatch conditions. The local mismatch additionally elicited a posterior positivity effect on the object noun. The verb-classifier mismatch elicited a righ...Continue Reading
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