The Neural Architecture of Grammar

Linguists have mapped the topography of language behavior in many languages inintricate detail. To understand how the brain supports language function, however, we must take intoaccount the principles and regularities of neural function. Mechanisms of neurolinguistic functioncannot be inferred solely from observations of normal and impaired language. In The NeuralArchitecture of Grammar, Stephen Nadeau develops a neurologically plausible theory ofgrammatic function. He brings together principles of neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and paralleldistributed processing and draws on literature on language function from cognitive psychology,cognitive neuropsychology, psycholinguistics, and functional imaging to develop a comprehensiveneurally based theory of language function.

Nadeau reviews the aphasialiterature, including cross-linguistic aphasia research, to test the model's ability to account forthe findings of these empirical studies. Nadeau finds that the model readily accounts for a crucialfinding in cross-linguistic studies--that the most powerful determinant of patterns of languagebreakdown in aphasia is the predisorder language spoken by the subject--and that it does so byconceptualizing grammatic function in terms of the statistical regularities of particular languagesthat are encoded in network connectivity. He shows that the model provides a surprisingly goodaccount for many findings and offers solutions for a number of controversial problems. Moreover,aphasia studies provide the basis for elaborating the model in interesting and importantways.

Stephen E. Nadeau is Professor of Neurology and Clinical Health and Psychology at the University of Florida and Medical Director of the Brain Rehabilitation Research Center at the Malcolm Randall VA Medical Center.