Cross-linguistic differences in case marking shape neural power dynamics and gaze behavior during sentence planning

Aitor Egurtzegi; Damián E Blasi; Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky; Itziar Laka; Martin Meyer; Balthasar Bickel; Sebastian Sauppe

doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2022.105127

Cross-linguistic differences in case marking shape neural power dynamics and gaze behavior during sentence planning

Brain Lang. 2022 Jul:230:105127. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2022.105127. Epub 2022 May 20.

Authors

Aitor Egurtzegi¹, Damián E Blasi², Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky³, Itziar Laka⁴, Martin Meyer⁵, Balthasar Bickel⁶, Sebastian Sauppe⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution, University of Zurich, Switzerland; English Department, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
² Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, United States; Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany.
³ School of Psychology, Social Work and Social Policy, University of South Australia, Australia; Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience Research Hub, University of South Australia, Australia.
⁴ Department of Linguistics and Basque Studies, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain.
⁵ Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Cognitive Psychology Unit, Psychological Institute, University of Klagenfurt, Austria.
⁶ Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
⁷ Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution, University of Zurich, Switzerland. Electronic address: sebastian.sauppe@uzh.ch.

PMID: 35605312
DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2022.105127

Abstract

Languages differ in how they mark the dependencies between verbs and arguments, e.g., by case. An eye tracking and EEG picture description study examined the influence of case marking on the time course of sentence planning in Basque and Swiss German. While German assigns an unmarked (nominative) case to subjects, Basque specifically marks agent arguments through ergative case. Fixations to agents and event-related synchronization (ERS) in the theta and alpha frequency bands, as well as desynchronization (ERD) in the alpha and beta bands revealed multiple effects of case marking on the time course of early sentence planning. Speakers decided on case marking under planning early when preparing sentences with ergative-marked agents in Basque, whereas sentences with unmarked agents allowed delaying structural commitment across languages. These findings support hierarchically incremental accounts of sentence planning and highlight how cross-linguistic differences shape the neural dynamics underpinning language use.

Keywords: Alpha; Beta; Case marking; Event-related synchronization/desynchronization; Eye tracking; Sentence planning; Syntactic dependencies; Theta.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Comprehension*
Humans
Language*
Linguistics