Discourse markers and brain lateralization

Abstract

Abstract This chapter contributes to recent lines of research proposing right-hemisphere dominance of discourse-related language tasks using neurolinguistic data on the incidence of discourse markers in the speech of unilaterally brain-damaged speakers (left- and right-hemispheric damage) compared to data produced by control (unimpaired) speakers. From a more general language-theoretic perspective these data will serve as the basis for the exploration of processing differences between two domains of language structure, one encompassing grammar and semantics, the other one the organization of discourse and interaction, which has important implications for linguistic modeling.

Topics & Concepts