Aleria Cavalcante Lage

ANÁLISE DE NOVOS DADOS LINGUÍSTICOS: A ELETROENCEFALOGRAFIA EM NEUROCIÊNCIA DA LINGUAGEM

This article is about data analysis of Neuroscience of Language experiments that use the electroencephalographer (EEG) as the data acquisition device. The data acquired in these tests are the electric signals. We explain the natural discretization of analogical signals into digital ones in the brain. In order to do that, we present the brain structures directly related to this phenomenon, especially when the signals involve language: speech sounds, reading, reading in Braille, and sign language. Besides special Broadmann’s areas, Broca’s and Wernicke’s Areas are introduced with their respective aphasias. Another important issue is the propagation of electricity in the brain, through synapses. Then, the focus turns to research in Neuroscience of Language that treats EEG signals into ERP (event-related brain potential), which have a precise time resolution. Other kinds of tests within the realm of the hemodynamic research techniques in Neuroscience of Language, fMRI and PET, are also mentioned. Lastly, an ERP experiment is presented from its hypothesis, based on the Linguistic Theory, to the moment of acquisition and storage of the electrical signals. We establish the differences among the experimental stimuli; the electrocortical data evoked by the stimuli; the results, in wave form, that is, the ERPs; the classic ERPs, like N400 and P600, which come from mathematic treatment of the data, through a grand-averaging technique; and the linguistic analysis of the results, in a perspective of bringing a contribution to Linguistic Theory.

Recursividade e coordenação em português a partir de sintagmas preposicionais: da prosódia à sintaxe em estudos psicolinguísticos

A partir de pistas prosodicas, verificadas com experimentos psicolinguisticos de leitura, tem-se aqui o proposito original, por meio dos postulados da Gramatica Gerativa, de se mostrar se a prosodia marca a estrutura sintatica relativa a Recursividade ou a Coordenacao, presente em sintagmas preposicionais (PPs) seguintes a um sintagma verbal no portugues do Brasil. A curva de pitch, detectada pelo uso da plataforma Praat, permite a analise de sintagmas intonacionais, que possuem caracteristicas acusticas, como fronteiras, e caracteristicas linguisticas, como pistas sintaticas (cf. LADD, 1986, 1988). As hipoteses sao as de que em frases intonacionais em construcoes com PPs-adjunto coordenados haja o reset, e em construcoes com PPs-adjunto recursivos nao haja o reset. A ausencia do reset corresponde a uma pista prosodica do mecanismo de Recursividade. ************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************ Recursion and coordination in Portuguese from prepositional phrases: from prosody to syntax in psycholinguistic studies From prosodic clues, verified with psycholinguistic reading experiments, we have here the original proposal, under the postulates of Generative Grammar, to show whether the prosody marks syntactic structure related to Recursion or to Coordination, presented in the Prepositional Phrases (PPs) following a Verbal Phrase in Brazilian Portuguese. The pitch curve, detected by the use of the Praat platform, allows an analysis of Intonational Phrases, which have acoustic features, like frontier, and linguistic features, like syntactic clues (cf. LADD, 1986, 1988). The hypotheses are that there is a reset in intonational sentences of constructions with coordinated adjunct PPs and no reset in intonational sentences of constructions with recursive adjunct PPs. The absence of this reset corresponds to a prosodic clue of the recursive mechanism. Keywords: Recursion; Generative Grammar; Prepositional phrase; Prosody; Coordination