ISSN 1671-3710
CN 11-4766/R
主办:中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

›› 2008, Vol. 16 ›› Issue (4): 532-540.

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The Key Respect of Sentence Comprehension: A Further Review on the Relation between Syntax and Semantics

XU Xiao-Dong;LIU Chang   

  1. School of Foreign Languages & Cultures, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097, China
    2Lab of Cognitive Neuroscience, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097, China
  • Received:2007-08-24 Revised:1900-01-01 Online:2008-07-15 Published:2008-07-15
  • Contact: LIU Chang

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

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