Common and distinct ERP responses to violations of two different types of politeness maxims during sentence comprehension

An ERP experiment was conducted to investigate the common and distinct neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the on-line processing of two types of politeness maxims (self-depreciation and other-elevation) and the individual differences during sentence reading. Electroencephalograms were recorded while participants read sentences containing pragmatically appropriate or inappropriate honorific or humble terms. When collapsing all participants’ data, inappropriate humble and honorific terms elicited N400 and P600 effects, respectively, which could reflect semantic processing costs and rechecking processes, respectively. More importantly, communication abilities modulated N400 and late negativity effects for appropriateness for humble but not honorific terms. In contrast, perspective-taking and emphatic concern modulated N400 and late positivity effects, respectively, for honorific but not humble terms. Moreover, some commonness of the appropriateness effect modulation by individual variables was also observed. These results are discussed in terms of the commonness and individuality of neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the processing of different politeness maxims during sentence comprehension.