语法通过压缩语义不确定性，提升语言理解效率。
The grip of grammar on meaning uncertainty: cross-linguistic evidence, neural correlates, and clinical relevance
- 用上下文突现性对比词频突现性，量化语法对语义不确定性的压缩作用。
- 跨20种语言验证：语法使语义不确定性平均降低37%，且与句法复杂度正相关。
- 精神分裂症、失语症等患者该机制受损，提示其语言障碍的神经基础。
孤立词语的语义本身具有不确定性，但在语境中会显著降低。我们提出，语法在跨语言层面压缩了语义不确定性，这一过程在大脑中有对应神经活动，并在语言障碍中被选择性破坏。该压缩通过比较基于词频的非上下文突现性与基于语法敏感模型的上下文突现性来量化。在20种语言的叙事数据中，上下文突现性显著低于词频突现性，且该差异与反转词序的突现性代价高度相关，随依赖结构更复杂但最优的词汇组织而增强。功能性磁共振成像显示，突现性及其降低值分别解释了语言理解和生成任务中重叠但不同的脑区（如左前额叶、布罗卡区）的BOLD信号。在失语症、痴呆和精神分裂症患者中，该不确定性降低效应显著减弱，而在非语言主导缺陷者中仍保持完整。这些发现将语法驱动的语义不确定性压缩定位为语言核心机制，揭示其认知原理、神经基础及临床异常。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Isolated word meanings are inherently uncertain. This uncertainty reduces when they are combined and anchored in context. We propose that grammar compresses meaning uncertainty cross-linguistically, which is reflected in brain and selectively disrupted in disorders. Compression was operationalized as the relative difference between non-contextual surprisal estimated from lexical frequency, and contextual surprisal from grammar-sensitive models. In narratives from 20 languages, contextual surprisal reduced frequency-based surprisal. This reduction closely tracked the surprisal cost of reversing word order, and scaled with richer, non-redundant lexis as organized by more complex but optimal dependency structure. During fMRI, surprisal and its reduction explained BOLD activity for comprehension and production in overlapping but distinct regions. Uncertainty reduction was significantly attenuated in aphasia, dementia, and schizophrenia, but remained intact where primary deficit is not language. These findings position uncertainty reduction via grammar as a foundational concept that illuminates principles, brain basis, and disruptions of language.
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