Semantic combinatorial processing of non-anomalous expressions

In this study, semantic meaning composition is investigated focusing on the ERP correlates of reading of minimal Spanish noun-adjective pairs. Comprehending these constructs requires combining the concepts expressed by nouns with the - not contextually expected - semantic feature expressed by the adjectives. Previous studies have mainly focused on the processing of either semantic anomalies or contextually expected target words; we focus on the comprehension of more natural expressions, manipulating the typicality of the noun-adjective relation. In two different ERP experiments, compared to neutral pairs (monstruo solitario, lonely monster), only anomalous adjectives (monstruo geográfico, geographic monster) elicited increased N400, the effect classically associated with lexical/semantic processing. Low-typicality adjectives that apparently contrasted with the inherent prototypical features associated with the noun (monstruo hermoso, lovely monster) elicited a long-lasting frontal late positive effect (LPC, 550-750 ms) in Experiment 1; high-typicality adjectives that expressed redundant information (monstruo horrible, horrible monster) elicited a similar, but shorter, positivity (550-650 ms) in Experiment 2. These findings suggest that the combination of non-anomalous noun-adjective pairs involves additional neurocognitive resources to the ones represented by the N400. Correlation analyses indicate that the LPC is associated with a meta-linguistic analysis of the expressions: a significant inverse correlation was found between the stimuli's naturality and the amplitude of the LPC.