{"pk":29167,"title":"No Morphological Markers, No Problem: ERP Study Reveals Semantic\nFactors Differentiating Neural Mechanisms of Noun and Verb Processing","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Neural mechanisms behind noun and verb processing are ubiquitously separate, yet it remains controversial which factor, syntax\nor semantics, is behind such separation. We conducted an ERP study using Chinese sentences with a specific construction, noun\nphrase + mei (“not/no”) + noun/verb/noun-verb-ambiguous-word, and excluding other grammatical or syntactic factors that\ncould hint at the target words’ part-of-speech. Results showed significantly distinct P200, N400 and P600 between noun and\nverb processing in native speakers, indicating that semantic factors are essential for the differentiated neural mechanisms behind\nnoun and verb processing. Similar results were also found between noun-verb-ambiguous-word and noun processing, but not\nbetween noun-verb-ambiguous-word and verb processing, suggesting that lacking clues on part-of-speech makes the dynamic\nproperties of the ambiguous words more salient than the static ones, thus causing interpretation of such words more likely as\nverbs. This further elaborates the crucial role of semantic factors in noun and verb processing.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[],"section":"Member Abstracts","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5hj6180d","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Jun","middle_name":"","last_name":"Feng","name_suffix":"","institution":"Hangzhou Normal University","department":""},{"first_name":"Tao","middle_name":"","last_name":"Gong","name_suffix":"","institution":"Educational Testing Service","department":""},{"first_name":"Lan","middle_name":"","last_name":"Shuai","name_suffix":"","institution":"Educational Testing Service","department":""},{"first_name":"Yicheng","middle_name":"","last_name":"Wu","name_suffix":"","institution":"Zhejiang University","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2019-01-01T18:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/29167/galley/19038/download/"}]}