Neuronal differences of linguistic statements Assuming that the brain (structure) is only constructed using neurons and synapses, then what is the difference between the following linguistic statements from a 'mechanical point of view'?


Bob is a builder.
Bob should be a builder.
Bob must be a builder.


In each statement, there are the same "neurons" involved: "Bob" and "builder". I am trying to understand how both neurons could be connected/modelled in each statement in order to differentiate between the semantics.
Your question reduces to "what are the neural mechanisms behind language?", which is very much a work in progress.

The only neural model of language that I currently know of is the Semantic Pointer Architecture (SPA), which is largely theoretical and only has some super basic examples.

Basically, the SPA represents language as vector manipulation. The vectors are represented in neurons using the Neural Engineering Framework.

For more details on how this is done, check out "How to Build a Brain" by Chris Eliasmith and the work by Peter Blouw who is trying to solve part of this problem with his PhD thesis.