Brain potentials indicate differences between regular and irregular German plurals.
Event-related brain potentials were recorded as 18 German-speaking subjects read sentences that contained as critical words German nouns in correct and incorrect plural forms. Two types of plurals were investigated: regular -s plurals (e.g. Karussell-s 'roundabouts') and irregular -(e)n plurals (Muskel-n "muscles'). We compared correct regular and irregular plurals with incorrect ones; the latter had -(e)n on nouns that actually take -s plurals (*Karussell-en), or -s on nouns that require -(e)n (*Muskel-s). ERPs showed different responses to regular and irregular plurals: incorrect irregular plurals (*Muskel-s) elicited a ramp-shaped left frontotemporal negativity, whereas incorrect regulars (*Karussell-en) produced a central phasic negativity with a maximum at 380 ms. This dissociation supports the view that regularly inflected words are processed differently from irregularly inflected ones.
Weyerts
H
H
Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Otto-von-Guericke Universität, Magdeburg, Germany.
Penke
M
M
Dohrn
U
U
Clahsen
H
H
Münte
T F
TF
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics