Abstract: With respect to syntactic and semantic processing in sentence comprehension, traditional modular models assume that syntactic processes appear prior to semantic processes and dominate the process of sentence comprehension. However, this point of view has been recently challenged by a number of ERP studies, which demonstrate that semantic information plays an important role in both syntax and sentence integration processes. In light of these findings, researchers propose that the relation between semantics and syntax is not invariable: on one hand, syntactic processing might guide semantic processing, on the other hand, semantic processing might guide syntactic processing.

Key words: syntax, semantics, ERP, integration processing