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Neural Correlates of Dutch Verb Second in Speech Production
- Source :
-
Brain and Language . Feb 2008 104(2):122-131. - Publication Year :
- 2008
-
Abstract
- Dutch speakers with agrammatic Broca's aphasia are known to have problems with the production of finite verbs in main clauses. This performance pattern has been accounted for in terms of the specific syntactic complexity of the Dutch main clause structure, which requires an extra syntactic operation (Verb Second), relative to the basic Subject-Object-Verb order surfacing in Dutch subordinate clauses. We report an fMRI study into the question whether this syntactic complexity is reflected in increased brain activation correlated with the production of Dutch main clause word order, in speakers without language impairment. Nineteen healthy subjects performed a covert sentence completion task, during which main and subordinate clauses were alternately elicited in a block design. Results show a left middle to superior frontal cluster of activation correlated to production of Verb-Second over Verb-Final clauses, with no activation in the opposite contrast. This activation pattern is counter to what might be expected from the frequency distribution of main and subordinate clauses. We conclude that the Verb-Second deviation from the basic Dutch SOV word order costs extra neural resources and that this also underlies the agrammatic problems with the production of finite verbs in Dutch main clauses.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0093-934X
- Volume :
- 104
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- ERIC
- Journal :
- Brain and Language
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- EJ784465
- Document Type :
- Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2007.05.001