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Research themes

Syntax, Sentence Processing, and the Brain

One of the ‘big questions’ in the cognitive neuroscience of language is how grammatical structure is represented, processed, and reflected in the brain. In my research, I focus on how psycholinguistic mechanisms and their neural correlates, such as prediction and memory retrieval, reflect principles of syntax and semantics. More recently, I'm interested in how the modality that language is presented affects the mechanisms used to process language. Can we identify an amodal reflex of syntax by comparing careful word-by-word reading vs. ‘at-a-glance’ reading? How similar are the processes engaged in reading complex words vs. short sentences? How might these processes differ in L1 vs. L2 speakers? How might these processes vary across different language structures? How can we relate grammatical description, theoretical linguistics, psycholinguistic models, and neuroanatomy?

Relevant Publications:

  • Simonsen, R., Chacón, D.A. (2024). Using word order cues to predict verb class in L2 Spanish. Accepted at Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. [link]

  • Chacón, D.A. (2022). Default is different: Relations and representations in agreement processing. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience 37(6), 785–804. [link]

  • Chacón, D.A. (2019). Minding the gap? Mechanisms underlying resumption in English. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics 4(1), 68. [link]

  • Chacón, D.A., Momma, S., Phillips, C. (2016). Linguistic representations and memory architectures: The devil is in the details. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 39, e68. [link]

  • Pakhomov, S.V.S., Smith, G.E., Chacón, D., Feliciano, Y., Graff-Radford, N., Caselli, R., Knopman, D.S. (2010). Computerized analysis of speech and language to identify psycholinguistic correlates of frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology 23(3), 165–177. [link]

  • Pakhomov, S.V.S., Chacón, D., Wicklund, M., Gundel, J. (2010). Computerized assessment of syntactic complexity in Alzheimer's disease: a case study of Iris Murdoch's writing. Behavioral Research Methods 43(1), 136–144. [link]

  • Kohrt, A., Sorensen, T., O’Neill, P., Chacón, D.A. (2020). Inactive gap formation: An ERP study on the processing of extraction from adjunct clauses. Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America. [link]

  • Kohrt, A., Sorensen, T., Chacón, D.A. (2018). The real-time status of semantic exceptions to the adjunct island constraint. Proceedings of the 54th Chicago Linguistics Society. [proof]

  • Kraft, A., Coltz, J., Chacón, D.A. (2018). Testing the real-time status of covert movement of wh-operators and QPs in English. [proof]

  • Chacón, D.A. (2018). How to make a pronoun resumptive. Proceedings of the West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics. [link]

  • Dunagan, D.G., McLendon, J., Jordan, T., Chacón, D.A. Rapid parallel visual presentation provides a new perspective on relative clauses processing in Mandarin Chinese. Submitted to Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition. [submitted draft]

  • Dunagan, D.G., Jordan, T., Hale, J., Pylkkänen, L., Chacón, D.A. Rapid visual form-based processing of (some) grammatical features in parallel reading: An EEG study in English. Submitted to Cognition. [submitted draft]

  • Chacón, D.A., Pylkkänen, L. Disentangling semantic prediction and association in processing filler-gap dependencies: An MEG study in English. Submitted to Language, Cognition and Neuroscience. [submitted draft]

  • Chacón, D.A., Pylkkänen, L. Disentangling semantic prediction and association in processing filler-gap dependencies: An MEG study in English. [link]

  • Chacón, D.A., Kohrt, A., O’Neill, P., Sorensen, T. Limits on semantic prediction in the processing of extraction from adjunct clauses. [draft]

Language and Languages in the Brain

At heart, I'm a language nerd. I got interested in Linguistics because I started learning Japanese and Bengali as a teenager for fun, and learning about linguistic phenomena across languages is still a major drive in my research. I've had the privilege of teaching courses in Field Methods, and collaborating on projects in psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics of under-studied languages. More broadly, I'm interested in how our theories of grammar can characterize universal principles shared across all languages, the unique properties of individual languages, and what comparing languages might reveal about language acquisition and psycho/neurolinguistics across languages. Generative grammar gives us tools for analyzing language and languages; but this distinction is very blurry in language processing research. How can we bridge this gap? What can we learn by careful, detailed analysis and experimentation in less commonly-studied languages, and what can we gain by comparing across multiple languages? Lots, I think!

Key Languages: American Sign Language (ASL), Amharic, Arabic, Basque, Bengali (Bangla), English, Greenlandic (Kalaallisut), Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong, Italian, Japanese, Khodmooni (Ajami), Lakota, Nepali, Newari (Nepal Bhasa), Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Zazaki

Relevant Publications:

  • Cayado, D.K.T., Wray, S., Chacón, D.A., Lai, M. C.-H., Matar, S., Stockall, L. (2024). MEG evidence for left temporal and orbitofrontal involvement in breaking down inflected words and putting the pieces back together. Cortex 181, 101–118. [link]

  • Moitra, S., Chacón, D.A., Stockall, L. (2024). How long is long?: Word length effects in reading correspond to minimal graphemic units: An MEG Study in Bangla. PLOS One 19(4), e0292979. [link]

  • Chacón, D.A., Imtiaz, M., Dasgupta, S., Murshed, S.M., Dan, M., Phillips, C. (2016). Locality and word order in active dependency formation in Bangla. Frontiers in Psychology 7, 1235. [link]

  • Chacón, D.A. (2011). Head movement in the Bangla DP. Journal of South Asian Linguistics 4(4). [link]

  • Chacón, D.A. (2024, to appear). It's about time!: Relating structure, the brain, and comparative syntax. Journal of South Asian Languages. [preproof]

  • Chacón, D.A. (2021). Acceptability judgments (and other) experiments for studying comparative syntax. In G. Goodall (ed.), Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Syntax. [proof]

  • Zhang, B., Chacón, D.A. (2018). Embedding, covert movement, and intervention in Kathmandu Newari. Proceedings of the Chicago Linguistics Society. [link]

  • Chacón, D.A. (2015). Comparative Psychosyntax. PhD Thesis, University of Maryland. [link]

  • LaTerza, C., Kramer, R., Rood, M., Chacón, D., Johnson, J. (2015). Plural shifted indexicals are plural: Evidence from Amharic. Proceedings of the Northeast Linguistic Society [preproof].

  • LaTerza, C., Rood, M., Chacón, D., Kramer, R., Johnson, J. (2015). New puzzles for shifting indexicals: An Amharic case study. Proceedings of the Annual Conference on African Linguistics. [preproof]

  • David, A.B. (2015). Descriptive Grammar of Bangla. T. Conners & D.A. Chacón (eds.). de Gruyter. [link]

  • Khokhar, H., Hoque, Z., McLendon, J., Dunagan, D.G., Chacón, D.A. Seeking universal visual word form area: An EEG investigation into word-specific responses to occipito-temporal cortex in English, Chinese, and Urdu using sLORETA. (in preparation).

  • Chacón, D.A., Dunagan, D.G., McLendon, J., Khokhar, H., Hoque, Z. Quick, don't move!: Wh-movement and wh-in-situ in rapid parallel reading – EEG studies in English, Urdu, and Mandarin Chinese. Submitted to Glossa: Psycholinguistics. [submitted draft]

  • Chacón, D.A., Shrestha, S., Dillon, B.W., Bhatt, R., Almeida, D., Marantz, A. Same sentences, different grammars, different brain responses: An MEG study on case and agreement encoding in Hindi and Nepali split-ergative structures. Submitted to Journal of Neurobiology of Language. [submitted draft]

  • Chacón, D.A., Albastaki, A., Lang, B., Marantz, A. Split ergative agreement in Khaleeji Bastaki. [draft]