The importance of anomaly in neurolinguistic research

Anomaly has always attracted the interest of language scholars, either as a possible mechanism for language change or as a window into speakers’ judgments and competence. Here I will discuss the use of errors in neurolinguistics, focusing on Moro’s prolific ideas to disentangle grammar in the brain by presenting selective anomalies to neurotypical individuals as well as clinical groups. This prompts further considerations of the nature of anomaly for the study of language as a whole, from its core structures to its most creative nuances.