The main objective of this study is to discuss the possibility of investigating the neurophysiology of the natural languages syntax. In order to develop this kind of analysis, linguists and neuroscientists would have to find a common epistemological basis. However, nowadays, the prevalent view in neuroscience, which assumes associative learning by correlation, does not mesh well with the internalist view of syntax assumed by generative linguists. For that reason, this research discusses the epistemological bases of the most accepted linguistic theories, that perform as a guide for neuroscientists wanting to investigate language processing by the brain. On the other hand, this article also discusses experiments within the neuroscience of language in order to evaluate the kind of problems concerning the intersection of these two areas. The main conclusion is that any researcher who is willing to investigate such problems must have a clear understanding of those epistemological questions before setting up any kind of experiment; and that any conclusion with respect to the neural reality of syntax is, at the present, unwarranted.
Linguistics; Cognition; Neuroscience; Syntax
