Seminar on Neurolinguistics, Dec. 4-6, 2007
On the interface between pragmatics and brain science
Both pragmatics and processing studies take language in use, that is, linguistic performance, as their object of study. Pragmatics deals with information structure, discourse linking, inference, etc., whereas processing studies is the study of the processing components used in language processing, information integration, processing load, reaction times, etc. Rules of pragmatics influence e.g. what information is given at the very beginning and/or end of a clause under the structural constraints of non-pragmatic linguistic computational systems, such as syntax and phonology. Pragmatics may thus be able to provide the 'right' type of questions for processing studies. In return, processing studies, using brain imaging techniques such as ERP and fMRI, may provide answers to questions about linguistic performance and thus provide pragmatics with answers / behavioural data needed to refine and/or falsify pragmatic theory. Studies of how the brain operates, e.g. in terms of predictive coding and structure dependency, are also relevant to models of both pragmatics and processing studies.
Both interpretation of pragmatic information and the linguistic information integration take place in the minds of language-users, i.e. in the mind/brain. When used for interpersonal communication pragmatics and processing studies take place inside interacting minds. Autistics lack a theory of mind and in severe cases also communicative intent. Language is often assumed to be dependent on theory of mind. However, it has been shown that in rare cases, even extraordinary linguistic skills can co-occur with autism, which adds to the growing evidence against interdependency and/or equivalence between communication, language, and theory of mind. At the interface between brain studies, pragmatics (or, rather, linguistics in general), and cognition studies (incl. theory of mind), the different approaches may gain valuable insight from each other that may help advance our understanding of the properties of language and the mind/brain.