Pitch accent type affects the N400 during referential processing.
Discourse processing depends on semantic memory as well as maintaining and updating of a mental model. Using event-related potentials, we investigated how a referent's information status (new, accessible, given) is processed in combination with three different prosodic realizations (an appropriate accent and two inappropriate accents). The data reveal a biphasic N400-late positivity pattern, indicating that prosodic information affects an early discourse linking stage, during which prominence information reflecting a referent's accessibility is computed (N400), and a later discourse updating stage, during which conflicts between prosodic information and a referent's actual information status are detected (late positivity). Crucially, the data show that the N400 is not only sensitive to lexico-semantic relations but also to discourse accessibility induced by prosodic cues.
Schumacher
Petra B
PB
Independent Emmy Noether Research Group, Department of English and Linguistics, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany. petra.schumacher@uni-mainz.de
Baumann
Stefan
S
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010898:Pitch Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013060:Speech; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult