Commentary Cognitive neuroscience and the English past tense : Comments on the paper by Ullman et al . q
نویسندگان
چکیده
We will devote our commentary to two topics from Ullman et al. s study: (1) the linguistic assumptions that underlie the Ullman et al. investigation, and (2) the implications of the study for linguistic theory. The paper is a detailed study of the English past tense in aphasia, and is couched in the context of the larger debate between connectionist and non-connectionist models of human linguistic competence. From the perspective of linguistic theory, the attention devoted to arguing against connectionist models is regrettable, however necessary it may be in the larger context of cognitive neuroscience. Research in connectionist frameworks in the past has revealed nothing new about the nature of the human language faculty, and the current research program is based more on vague and unsatisfying promissory notes than on results that have consequences for our understanding of language (McClelland & Seidenberg, 2000). The results of the Ullman et al. study indicate yet again that there are fundamental problems with the connectionist research program, about which we have nothing further to say. The study is an important and positive contribution to the study of language and cognition because it applies linguistic categories seriously to neuroscientific questions. Ultimately, however, the study of language and cognition will have to acknowledge complexities that are not recognized in extant discussions of the English
منابع مشابه
Cognitive neuroscience and the English past tense : Comments on the paper by Ullman et al . q
We will devote our commentary to two topics from Ullman et al. s study: (1) the linguistic assumptions that underlie the Ullman et al. investigation, and (2) the implications of the study for linguistic theory. The paper is a detailed study of the English past tense in aphasia, and is couched in the context of the larger debate between connectionist and non-connectionist models of human linguis...
متن کاملCognitive neuroscience and the English past tense: comments on the paper by Ullman et al.
features like [past] are provided with phonological material is called Vocabulary Insertion. In the case of Irregular verbs, the choice of affix, either -Ø or -t, is determined by the identity of the verb. That is, the affixes -Ø and -t, for e.g. hit hit-Ø and bend ben-t, are each specified for a list of the verbs on which they will appear. The insertion of the particular affixes -ed, -t, -Ø fo...
متن کاملInflectional morphology in a family with inherited specific language impairment
The production of regular and irregular past tense forms was investigated among the members of an English-speaking family with a hereditary disorder of language. Unlike the control subjects, the family members affected by the disorder failed to generate overregularizations (e.g., digged) or novel regular forms (plammed, crived), whereas they did produce novel irregularizations (crive– crove). T...
متن کاملDual-route processing of complex words: new fMRI evidence from derivational suffixation.
Many behavioral models of the comprehension of suffixed words assume a dual-route mechanism in which these words are accessed sometimes from the mental lexicon as whole units and sometimes in terms of their component morphemes (such as happi+ness). In related neuropsychological work, Ullman et al. (1997) proposed a dual-route model for past tense processing, in which the lexicon (used for acces...
متن کاملA challenge to current models of past tense inflection: the impact of phonotactics.
Is past tense production better modelled by a Single Mechanism or a Words and Rules model? We present data concerning a phenomenon that has not been considered by either model-regular past tense verbs with contrasting phonotactics. One set of verbs contains clusters at the inflected verb end that also occur in monomorphemic words ('monomorphemically legal clusters', MLC) whereas the other has c...
متن کامل