How the mass counts: an electrophysiological approach to the processing of lexical features.
Nouns may refer to countable objects such as tables, or to mass entities such as rice. The mass/count distinction has been discussed in terms of both semantic and syntactic features encoded in the mental lexicon. Here we show that event-related potentials (ERPs) can reflect the processing of such lexical features, even in the absence of any feature-related violations. We demonstrate that count (vs mass) nouns elicit a frontal negativity which is independent of the N400 marker for conceptual-semantic processing, but resembles anterior negativities related to grammatical processing. This finding suggests that the brain differentiates between count and mass nouns primarily on a syntactic basis.
Steinhauer
K
K
Georgetown University, Department of Neuroscience, Washington, DC 20007, USA.
Pancheva
R
R
Newman
A J
AJ
Gennari
S
S
Ullman
M T
MT
D000328:Adult; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology*; D012660:Semantics; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*