Neurolinguistic findings on the language lexicon: the special role of proper names

Abstract

Cognitive linguistics proposes the existence of a human language lexicon as a necessary subsystem of language production and comprehension. While the inner structure of the lexicon remains speculative, measures of its function may distinguish separate processing paths for different types of lexical entries. Based upon the presented findings on nomina from reaction time measurements, event-related potentials (ERP) analysis, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the special role of proper names in language--in contrast to common nouns--appears to be grounded in a neurocognitive reality.