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Final Thesis The Effect of Meter-Syntax Alignment on Sentence Comprehension, Sensorimotor Synchronisation, and Neural Entrainment Courtney Bryce Hilton The University of Sydney Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences A thesis submitted to fulfil requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Abstract Why rhythm in language? And why is linguistic rhythm grasped by means of meter (a temporal grid structure) in the human mind? And specifically, why does the human mind prefer to align meter to language in certain ways and not others? This thesis examines the alignment of meter to syntactic phrase structure and its effect on language comprehension. This is investigated empirically in four experiments, whose results are situated within the relevant linguistic, musicological, cognitive, and neuroscientific literatures. The first two experiments show that meter-syntax alignment indeed affects sentence comprehension, and the second also shows an effect on sensorimotor synchronisation. The third experiment behaviourally replicates the comprehension result while also recording electroencephalography (EEG). This neural measurement shows how delta oscillations track the perceived meter rather than syntactic phrase structure: contradicting some recent theories. The final experiment applies meter-syntax alignment to an algebraic grouping task. By using simpler (better controlled) non-linguistic stimuli, the results in this experiment better constrain the mechanistic interpretation of the results so far. Specifically, I suggest that the effect of meter (and its alignment to syntax) on comprehension is mediated by an effect on short-term/working memory. The broader theoretical and practical implications of these experiments is finally discussed, especially with regard to theories of language processing, music-language parallels, and education. i 1. Introduction 1 1.1. Personal motivation 1 1.2. Acknowledgements 2 1.3. Chapter Outline 3 2. From signal to meaning: Two tales to tell of how to get there 5 2.1. The problem of sentence comprehension 5 2.2. View one: Chomsky’s infinity machine 6 2.2.1. Defining language 6 2.2.2. Falsifying linguistic infinities 8 2.2.3. The competence-performance distinction 9 2.2.4. Minimalism 11 2.2.5. Summary 11 2.3. Some criticisms 11 2.3.1. Language from the top-down 21 2.3.2. Evolutionary design for noisy pragmatic communication 21 2.3.3. Redundancy and robustness 24 2.4. View two: All roads lead to Rome (meaning) 24 2.4.1. Parallel Architecture 25 2.4.2. Syntax not necessary 25 2.4.3. Its lexical all the way down 26 2.4.4. Is phonology for externalisation? 27 2.5. Summary 29 3. Prosodic groups and grids and their alignment to syntax 30 3.1. Introduction 30 3.2. Constituent Structure 31 3.2.1. Syntax-prosody correspondence 31 3.2.2. How are prosodic boundaries determined? 33 3.2.3. Current debates in syntax-prosody correspondence 33 3.2.4. Prosodic packaging 34 3.2.5. Summary of prosodic constituency 36 3.3. Metrical structure 36 3.3.1. Meter and segmentation 37 ii 3.3.2. Metrical timing and isochrony 39 3.3.3. Summary of metrical structure 45 3.4. Summary 45 4. Study 1: Linguistic syncopation 46 4.1. Introduction 46 4.1.1 Cognitive consequences of meter 46 4.1.2 Meter-syntax alignment 47 4.1.3 Evidence 48 4.1.4 Metrical timing and grammar 49 4.1.5 The present study 50 4.2 Experiment 1 50 4.3.1 Experimental design 50 4.2.1.1 Manipulating syntactic complexity 51 4.2.1.2 Sentence materials 51 4.2.1.3 Syncopating meter-syntax alignment 51 4.2.1.5 Auditory materials 52 4.2.1.5 Experimental procedure 53 4.2.1.6 Participants 53 4.2.1.7 Predictions 54 4.2.2 Results 54 4.2.3 Discussion 57 4.3. Experiment 2 58 4.3.1 Experimental design 58 4.3.1.1 Meter-syntax alignment 58 4.3.1.2 Sentence materials and speech synthesis 59 4.3.1.3 Sensorimotor synchronisation 59 4.3.1.4 Experimental procedure 60 4.3.1.5 Participants 61 4.3.1.6 Predictions 61 4.3.2 Results 61 4.3.3 Discussion 66 4.4 General discussion 67 5. Tuning the inside to the outside: The neural dynamics of music and language 71 iii 5.1. Dynamic Attending Theory 71 5.1.1. Dynamic attending and speech 72 5.1.2. Dynamic attending in the brain 73 5.2. Neural entrainment and speech 74 5.2.1. Phrasal segmentation with delta rhythms? 75 5.3. Neural entrainment and rhythmic timing 77 5.3.1. Musical meter and neural resonance 78 5.3.2. Periodic and nonperiodic timing 80 5.4. Motor contributions to flexible aperiodic timing 81 5.4.1. Impairments to motor control impair syntax? 82 5.4.2. Developmental language disorders and oscillations 83 5.5. Summary 85 6. Study 2: Neural syncopation 86 6.1. Introduction 86 6.1.1. Does delta track syntax or meter? 86 6.1.2. Is a lack of meter worse or neutral? 90 6.1.3. High-frequency oscillatory correlates of memory 91 6.2. Experiment 3 92 6.2.1. Experimental design 92 6.2.1.1. Syntactic complexity and meter-syntax alignment 92 6.2.1.2. Linguistic materials 93 6.2.1.3. Auditory materials 93 6.2.1.4. Experimental procedure 93 6.2.1.5. EEG Recording 94 6.2.1.6. Participants 94 6.2.2. Predictions 94 6.3. Behavioural results 95 6.4. Neural results 97 6.4.1. Metrical entrainment source 98 6.4.1.1. Spectral analysis 98 6.4.1.2. Time-frequency analysis 102 6.4.2. Language network source 103 6.5. Discussion 104 iv 6.6. Conclusion 107 7. Study 3: Algebraic syncopation 108 7.1. Introduction 108 7.1.1. Metrical modulations of serial order memory 109 7.1.2. Summary 111 7.2. Experiment 4 111 7.2.1. Method 111 7.2.1.1. Syntactic complexity 113 7.2.1.2. Metrical alignment 113 7.2.1.3. Auditory materials 114 7.2.1.4. Sensitivity and probes 114 7.2.1.5. Algebra materials 116 7.2.1.6. Experimental procedure 116 7.2.1.7. Participants 117 7.2.1.8. Predictions 117 7.2.2. Results 118 7.2.3. Discussion 124 7.3. Conclusion 127 8. General discussion 128 8.1. Theoretical implications 128 8.1.1 Perceptual representations and conscious awareness 129 8.1.2 Meter-syntax alignment as embodied linguistic skill 130 8.1.3 An evolutionary perspective 132 8.2. Practical implications 133 8.3 Conclusion 136 References 138 Appendix A 168 v 1. Introduction It is easy to overlook how rhythm shapes the comprehension of language. In contrast to music, in which rhythm is often a prominent feature, rhythm in language mostly does its work without calling attention to itself. This thesis joins a growing many in turning the spotlight onto rhythm and its historically overlooked role in the cognition of language. An experimental exploration is presented of metrical rhythm and what happens when its alignment to syntactic phrase structure is varied. This alignment turns out to influence the ability to correctly comprehend the meaning of syntactically complex sentences (such as this one), with accompanying effects on sensorimotor coordination and neural entrainment. Making sense of this turns out to be theoretically informative and to have meaningful real-world implications. The title of this thesis alludes to ‘syncopating comprehension’—what does this mean? In music, syncopation is a concept for describing a certain quality of metrical rhythm (i.e., music we might want to tap our foot along to) wherein a syncopated rhythm has conflicting cues to the alignment of a metrical grid (‘tripping up’ our attempts at foot tapping). By ‘syncopating comprehension’ I analogise between this alignment conflict in music and that between meter and syntax in language, while invoking consequences for comprehension. As will be seen, analogy between music and language figures prominently in my own thinking, and indeed has long historical roots which I hope this thesis can extend in some small way. 1.1. Personal motivation Before providing a chapter summary, I will briefly motivate this research, not by reference to the scientific literature (which will come shortly) but with reference to my own personal experience. I have had the privilege of studying to be a performer on the classical guitar. Reflections on this experience provided the principal motivation for the following scientific inquiry and this experience in many ways continues to ground my thinking now. More than just an exercise in navel gazing, I hope this brief personal reflection provides context as to why the forthcoming research questions struck me as being important, and indeed, why they struck me at all in the first place. The crucial reflection comes by way of my friend and former musical mentor Timothy Kain and the things I learned from him while studying musical performance at the Australian National University in Canberra. Tim is a wonderful musician and an inspiring teacher. One of the simple but revolutionary ideas he imparted was an active mindset with regards to rhythm. As a classical musician it is easy to sometimes ‘just play the notes’ on the page. That is, to try to reproduce the given sequence of pitches and rhythms that comprise the composed piece of music, and to do this by whatever means. But this is misguided. This mindset fails for the same reason that trying to speak a foreign language by reproducing a memorised sequence of syllables fails.
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