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An ERP study on the processing of Syntactic and lexical negation in Korean

부정문 처리와 문장 진리치 판단의 인지신경기제: 한국어 통사적 부정문과 어휘적 부정문에 대한 ERP 연구

  • Nam, Yunju (Department of Media and Communication, Konkuk University)
  • 남윤주 (건국대학교 미디어커뮤니케이션학과)
  • Received : 2016.09.16
  • Accepted : 2016.09.30
  • Published : 2016.09.30

Abstract

The present study investigated the cognitive mechanism underlying online processing of Korean syntactic (for example, A bed/a clock belongs to/doesn't belong to the furniture "침대는/시계는 가구에 속한다/속하지 않는다") and lexical negation (for example, A tiger/a butterfly has/doesn't have a tail "호랑이는/나비는 꼬리가 있다/없다") using an ERP(Event-related potentials) technique and a truth-value verification task. 23 Korean native speakers were employed for the whole experiment and 15's brain responses (out of 23) were recorded for the ERP analysis. The behavioral results (i.e. verification task scores) show that there is universal pattern of the accuracy and response time for verification process: True-Affirmative (high accuracy and short latency) > False-Affirmative > False-Negated > True-Negated. However, the components (early N400 & P600) reflecting the immediate processing of a negation operator were observed only in lexical negation. Moreover, the ERP patterns reflecting an effect of truth value were not identical: N400 effect was observed in the true condition compared to the false condition in the lexically negated sentences, whereas Positivity effect (like early P600) was observed in the false condition compared to the true condition in the syntactically negated sentences. In conclusion, the form and location of negation operator varied by languages and negation types influences the strategy and pattern of online negation processing, however, the final representation resulting from different computational processing of negation appears to be language universal and is not directly affected by negation types.

본 논문에서는 한국어의 통사적 부정문(예를 들면, 침대는/시계는 가구에 속한다/속하지 않는다)과 어휘적 부정문(예를 들면, 호랑이는/나비는 꼬리가 있다/없다)을 이용하여 부정어 처리의 인지신경기제를 확인하고 부정문 처리의 언어 보편적/특수적 기제를 밝히기 위한 진리치 판단과제 및 ERP(Event-related potentials) 실험연구를 진행하였다. 총 23명의 피험자가 전체 실험에 참여하였고 이들 중 15명의 뇌파 반응 데이터를 ERP 분석을 위하여 사용하였다. 실험 결과, 진리치 판단과제에 있어서는 영어를 이용한 선행연구들과 동일하게 긍정-참 >긍정-거짓>부정-거짓>부정-참의 순서를 확인할 수 있었다(높은 정확도, 짧은 반응 시간 순서). 그러나 ERP 결과에서는 선행 연구와는 다른 몇 가지 점을 발견하였다. 우선 어휘적 부정문의 경우 이른 시간 구간(250-350ms)에서의 N400효과를 확인할 수 있었지만 긍정문과 부정문을 아우르는 진리치 요인의 주 효과는 나타나지 않았다. 그러나 통사적 부정문의 경우 부정-참에 비하여 부정 거짓문장에서 P600 효과를 발견하였다. 이러한 결과는 표층적으로 나타나는 부정의 형태 및 위치와 같은 언어 특수적 요인에 대한 처리 전략은 각 언어별, 부정 종류별로 달라질 수 있지만 부정 처리의 결과로 얻어지는 문장의 최종 표상 및 이에 대한 진리치 판단의 기제는 언어 및 부정어 종류의 영향을 받지 않는 보편적인 특성을 지닌다는 것을 보여준다.

Keywords

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