How the brain processes violations of the grammatical norm: An fMRI study

- We studied the processing of grammatical norm violations (GNVs) in language purists.
- GNV processing overlapped with the processing of grammatical (GCs) sentences.
- The processing of GNVs also overlapped with that of ungrammatical (UGs) sentences.
- Just like GCs, GNVs can be interpreted perfectly well.
- However, GNVs elicit difficulties in processing, which is similar for UGs.

Native speakers of Dutch do not always adhere to prescriptive grammar rules in their daily speech. These grammatical norm violations can elicit emotional reactions in language purists, mostly high-educated people, who claim that for them these constructions are truly ungrammatical. However, linguists generally assume that grammatical norm violations are in fact truly grammatical, especially when they occur frequently in a language. In an fMRI study we investigated the processing of grammatical norm violations in the brains of language purists, and compared them with truly grammatical and truly ungrammatical sentences. Grammatical norm violations were found to be unique in that their processing resembled not only the processing of truly grammatical sentences (in left medial Superior Frontal Gyrus and Angular Gyrus), but also that of truly ungrammatical sentences (in Inferior Frontal Gyrus), despite what theories of grammar would usually lead us to believe.