Abstract/Summary

The study of language, its processing and its bearing on human cortical processes are all extensive domains of investigation in their own right. In this overview tutorial we limit ourselves to a sample of core illustrative issues. Our central aim is to demonstrate how complexity within the language faculty arises from two a priori distinct sources: the computational complexity inherent in the grammar of the language system itself and the procedural complexity resulting from marshalling processing resources in order to produce or interpret utterances that correspond to the grammar. Distinguishing between these two sources of complexity is a current goal in investigations of the human language faculty. The combination of quantitative approaches with newer qualitative approaches to the analysis of electro-cortical behaviour associated with carefully controlled language paradigms represents a new approach to clarifying this central issue.