Presidential address, 1996 - Views on how the electrical activity that the brain generates reflects the functions of different language structures

Human language is what it is because of its function and its implementation. We are far from understanding how language comprehension is carried out by the human brain. This task can be made easier by considering that evidence for the what and how of language comes from the study of linguistics, psychology, and neuroscience. The approach outlined herein describes how these different sources of evidence can be combined in studies of written and spoken sentence processing by using a measure of the brain's electrical activity. The outcome is a more temporally precise view of the analysis of language structures in our minds and brains.