Syntax and Semantic Processing across life span - Thesis Project

This project seeks to systematically investigate the processing of syntactically and semantically deviant structures, including topicalization, passive constructions, and relative clauses, as well as narrative competence across the lifespan. The research will recruit a complementary set of populations, such as healthy adults, typical developing children, children with developmental disorders, and patients with post-stroke aphasias, aiming to capture the developmental trajectories and breakdown patterns of syntax-semantics interaction. The project employs a multi-method approach to data collection, integrating behavioral measurement, eye-tracking, electroencephalography (EEG), and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to capture both online real-time processing and its underlying neural substrates. Research is expected to advances theoretical models of syntax-semantics interaction and narrative processing across the lifespan, also to yield diagnostic markers and intervention targets for developmental and acquired language disorders.