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Here, we aim to bridge this gap in the context of semantic composition in language processing, which is typically examined using a \u201cminimal\u201d two-word paradigm. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we investigated whether the neural signatures of semantic composition observed in an auditory two-word paradigm can extend to naturalistic story listening, and vice versa. Our results demonstrate consistent differentiation between phrases and single nouns in the left anterior and middle temporal lobe, regardless of the context. Notably, this distinction emerged later during naturalistic listening. Yet this latency difference disappeared when accounting for various factors in the naturalistic data, such as prosody, word rate, word frequency, surprisal, and emotional content. These findings suggest the presence of a unified compositional process underlying both isolated and connected speech comprehension.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1162\/imag_a_00072","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,1,4]],"date-time":"2024-01-04T16:05:38Z","timestamp":1704384338000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1162\/mitpressjournals.corrections.policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":19,"title":["Semantic composition in experimental and naturalistic paradigms"],"prefix":"10.1162","volume":"2","author":[{"given":"Jixing","family":"Li","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Linguistics and Translation, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Marco","family":"Lai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Linguistics and Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, 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