Pub Date : 2013-04-19DOI: 10.1080/01690965.2012.660169
Suiping Wang, Deyuan Mo, M. Xiang, Ruiping Xu, Hsuan-Chich Chen
The time course of semantic and syntactic processing in reading Chinese was examined by recording event-related brain potentials (ERPs) as native Chinese speakers read individually presented sentences for comprehension and performed semantic plausibility judgments. The transitivity of the verbs in Chinese ba/bei constructions was manipulated to form three types of stimuli: Congruent sentences (CON), sentences with semantic violation (SEM), and sentences with combined semantic and syntactic violation (SEM+SYN). Compared with the critical words in CON, those in SEM and SEM+SYN elicited an N400-P600 biphasic pattern. The N400 effects in both violation conditions were of similar size and distribution, but the P600 in SEM+SYN was bigger than that in SEM. Overall, the lack of a difference between SEM and SEM+SYN in the earlier time window (i.e., N400 window) suggested that syntactic processing in Chinese does not necessarily occur earlier than semantic processing.
{"title":"The time course of semantic and syntactic processing in reading Chinese: Evidence from ERPs","authors":"Suiping Wang, Deyuan Mo, M. Xiang, Ruiping Xu, Hsuan-Chich Chen","doi":"10.1080/01690965.2012.660169","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2012.660169","url":null,"abstract":"The time course of semantic and syntactic processing in reading Chinese was examined by recording event-related brain potentials (ERPs) as native Chinese speakers read individually presented sentences for comprehension and performed semantic plausibility judgments. The transitivity of the verbs in Chinese ba/bei constructions was manipulated to form three types of stimuli: Congruent sentences (CON), sentences with semantic violation (SEM), and sentences with combined semantic and syntactic violation (SEM+SYN). Compared with the critical words in CON, those in SEM and SEM+SYN elicited an N400-P600 biphasic pattern. The N400 effects in both violation conditions were of similar size and distribution, but the P600 in SEM+SYN was bigger than that in SEM. Overall, the lack of a difference between SEM and SEM+SYN in the earlier time window (i.e., N400 window) suggested that syntactic processing in Chinese does not necessarily occur earlier than semantic processing.","PeriodicalId":87410,"journal":{"name":"Language and cognitive processes","volume":"28 1","pages":"577 - 596"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-04-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/01690965.2012.660169","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59135140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2013-04-19DOI: 10.1080/01690965.2011.642267
S. Kramer, A. Lorens, F. Coninx, A. Zekveld, A. Piotrowska, H. Skarżyńśki
This study examined the magnitude of the pupillary response evoked by a number of tasks varying in the nature and complexity of the auditory and linguistic information provided. The tasks comprised passive listening, anticipation to verbally responding to a prompt signal, auditory detection, and the identification of meaningful words. Performance in the auditory detection and identification tasks was matched at 79% correct. In all, 42 normally hearing adults (aged 18–44 years, mean age 25.5 years) from three different sites (Amsterdam, Cologne, and Warsaw) participated. During each condition, the pupil diameter was measured. A Repeated Measures ANOVA was conducted to examine within and between subject (site) differences in the pupil response over 8 time intervals during the four conditions. The maximum mean pupil dilation was largest in the words-in-noise identification task (0.13 mm) and differed significantly from the maximum mean dilation in the noise-in-noise-detection task. The latter did not differ significantly from the pupil response during passive listening to noise and an answer prompt. No significant differences between sites were observed. Task evoked pupillary responses to theory-based measures of linguistic processing are robust, reliable, and sensitive to differences in task demands. Word-in-noise identification requires more processing load than nonspeech detection. To obtain information about within-subject differences in auditory processing, examination of both processing load and behavioural performance is recommended. Methodological implications are discussed.
{"title":"Processing load during listening: The influence of task characteristics on the pupil response","authors":"S. Kramer, A. Lorens, F. Coninx, A. Zekveld, A. Piotrowska, H. Skarżyńśki","doi":"10.1080/01690965.2011.642267","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2011.642267","url":null,"abstract":"This study examined the magnitude of the pupillary response evoked by a number of tasks varying in the nature and complexity of the auditory and linguistic information provided. The tasks comprised passive listening, anticipation to verbally responding to a prompt signal, auditory detection, and the identification of meaningful words. Performance in the auditory detection and identification tasks was matched at 79% correct. In all, 42 normally hearing adults (aged 18–44 years, mean age 25.5 years) from three different sites (Amsterdam, Cologne, and Warsaw) participated. During each condition, the pupil diameter was measured. A Repeated Measures ANOVA was conducted to examine within and between subject (site) differences in the pupil response over 8 time intervals during the four conditions. The maximum mean pupil dilation was largest in the words-in-noise identification task (0.13 mm) and differed significantly from the maximum mean dilation in the noise-in-noise-detection task. The latter did not differ significantly from the pupil response during passive listening to noise and an answer prompt. No significant differences between sites were observed. Task evoked pupillary responses to theory-based measures of linguistic processing are robust, reliable, and sensitive to differences in task demands. Word-in-noise identification requires more processing load than nonspeech detection. To obtain information about within-subject differences in auditory processing, examination of both processing load and behavioural performance is recommended. Methodological implications are discussed.","PeriodicalId":87410,"journal":{"name":"Language and cognitive processes","volume":"75 1","pages":"426 - 442"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-04-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/01690965.2011.642267","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59135346","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2013-04-01DOI: 10.1080/01690965.2011.641744
Sudha Arunachalam, Emily Escovar, Melissa A Hansen, Sandra R Waxman
{"title":"Out of sight, but not out of mind: 21-month-olds use syntactic information to learn verbs even in the absence of a corresponding event.","authors":"Sudha Arunachalam, Emily Escovar, Melissa A Hansen, Sandra R Waxman","doi":"10.1080/01690965.2011.641744","DOIUrl":"10.1080/01690965.2011.641744","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":87410,"journal":{"name":"Language and cognitive processes","volume":"28 4","pages":"417-425"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3805375/pdf/nihms371383.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"40267409","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2013-04-01DOI: 10.1080/01690965.2013.776803
{"title":"Formal vs. Processing Approaches to Syntactic Phenomena: A Special Issue of the journal Language and Cognitive Processes","authors":"","doi":"10.1080/01690965.2013.776803","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2013.776803","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":87410,"journal":{"name":"Language and cognitive processes","volume":"28 1","pages":"221 - 221"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/01690965.2013.776803","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59136187","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2013-03-26DOI: 10.1080/01690965.2011.634179
Michiko Nakamura, E. Miyamoto
We report a fragment-completion questionnaire and a self-paced reading experiment investigating relative clauses in Japanese that contain two extraction sites in the same clause. The results indicate that in such double-gap relative clauses there is a preference to fill the object position before the subject position. Previous factors, especially those related to working memory resources, which have often been implicated in extraction preferences, do not predict the patterns observed. The results support the proposal that the accessibility of extraction sites in relative clauses is inversely correlated to the order in which semantic roles are preferentially assigned. We discuss ways of incorporating such a constraint in previous proposals such as expectation-based models.
{"title":"The object before subject bias and the processing of double-gap relative clauses in Japanese","authors":"Michiko Nakamura, E. Miyamoto","doi":"10.1080/01690965.2011.634179","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2011.634179","url":null,"abstract":"We report a fragment-completion questionnaire and a self-paced reading experiment investigating relative clauses in Japanese that contain two extraction sites in the same clause. The results indicate that in such double-gap relative clauses there is a preference to fill the object position before the subject position. Previous factors, especially those related to working memory resources, which have often been implicated in extraction preferences, do not predict the patterns observed. The results support the proposal that the accessibility of extraction sites in relative clauses is inversely correlated to the order in which semantic roles are preferentially assigned. We discuss ways of incorporating such a constraint in previous proposals such as expectation-based models.","PeriodicalId":87410,"journal":{"name":"Language and cognitive processes","volume":"28 1","pages":"303 - 334"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/01690965.2011.634179","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59135229","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2013-03-26DOI: 10.1080/01690965.2011.641386
C. Perry
In two experiments, whether people use an orthographic syllable structure based on phonology when reading multi-syllabic words or a structure based on an orthographic scheme first proposed by Taft (1979, Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 18, 21–39) was investigated. This was done by presenting words disrupted by a space based on the particular structures being investigated and examining the extent that the spaces affected responses. Results from the first experiment showed that participants were slower to process words when consonant clusters were disrupted by a space compared to when the space occurred after the consonants and before a vowel. This occurred even though the space that did not disrupt the consonants caused the words to be segmented in a way that was not congruent with either of the orthographic structures being examined. Participants also appeared to display a weak preference for processing words as syllabic units, phonologically defined. The second experiment provided further evidence that people use an orthographic syllable structure based on phonological syllables and not just orthographic regularities. It is argued that these results are best interpreted in terms of a graphemic parsing process that uses two stages, one which is sensitive to consonant and vowel status but not syllable boundaries and a second which is sensitive to syllable boundaries initially derived from phonology.
在两个实验中，研究了人们在阅读多音节单词时是使用基于音系的正字法音节结构，还是使用Taft (1979, Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 18, 21-39)首先提出的正字法音节结构。这是通过在被调查的特定结构的基础上呈现被空间打乱的单词，并检查空间影响反应的程度来完成的。第一个实验的结果表明，当辅音集群被空格打断时，参与者处理单词的速度要慢于辅音集群后面和元音集群前面的空格。即使没有打乱辅音的空格导致单词以一种与被检查的正字法结构不一致的方式被分割，这种情况也会发生。参与者似乎也表现出一种微弱的偏好，即把单词当作音节单位来处理，按照音系来定义。第二个实验提供了进一步的证据，证明人们使用基于语音音节的正字法音节结构，而不仅仅是正字法规则。有人认为，这些结果是最好的解释，在文字分析过程中，使用两个阶段，一个是敏感的辅音和元音状态，但不音节边界，第二个是敏感的音节边界最初来源于音系。
{"title":"Graphemic parsing and the basic orthographic syllable structure","authors":"C. Perry","doi":"10.1080/01690965.2011.641386","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2011.641386","url":null,"abstract":"In two experiments, whether people use an orthographic syllable structure based on phonology when reading multi-syllabic words or a structure based on an orthographic scheme first proposed by Taft (1979, Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 18, 21–39) was investigated. This was done by presenting words disrupted by a space based on the particular structures being investigated and examining the extent that the spaces affected responses. Results from the first experiment showed that participants were slower to process words when consonant clusters were disrupted by a space compared to when the space occurred after the consonants and before a vowel. This occurred even though the space that did not disrupt the consonants caused the words to be segmented in a way that was not congruent with either of the orthographic structures being examined. Participants also appeared to display a weak preference for processing words as syllabic units, phonologically defined. The second experiment provided further evidence that people use an orthographic syllable structure based on phonological syllables and not just orthographic regularities. It is argued that these results are best interpreted in terms of a graphemic parsing process that uses two stages, one which is sensitive to consonant and vowel status but not syllable boundaries and a second which is sensitive to syllable boundaries initially derived from phonology.","PeriodicalId":87410,"journal":{"name":"Language and cognitive processes","volume":"28 1","pages":"355 - 376"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/01690965.2011.641386","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59135301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The empirical status of data in syntax: A reply to Gibson and Fedorenko","authors":"Jon Sprouse, Diogo Almeida","doi":"10.1080/01690965.2012.703782","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2012.703782","url":null,"abstract":"This is a commentary in response to The need for quantitative methods in syntax and semantics research, by Edward Gibson and Evelina Fedorenko.","PeriodicalId":87410,"journal":{"name":"Language and cognitive processes","volume":"28 1","pages":"222 - 228"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/01690965.2012.703782","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59135706","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2013-03-26DOI: 10.1080/01690965.2011.634590
Ulrike Domahs, Safiye Genç, Johannes Knaus, Richard Wiese, Baris Kabak
This paper investigates the way the predictability of prosodic patterns in a particular language influences the processing of stress information by native speakers of that language. We extend previous findings where speakers of languages with predictable stress had difficulties to process and represent stress information when confronted with a language with distinctive stress and investigate how the co-existence of a predictable stress pattern and exceptions to that regularity within a single language influences prosodic processing. The stress system of Turkish constitutes an instructive test case since it employs predictable stress on the final syllable of a prosodic word (e.g., mısır “corn”) and some exceptional nonfinal stress (e.g., mısır “Egypt”). Results from an event-related potential (ERP) study on stress violations in Turkish trisyllabic words showed asymmetrical ERP responses for different stress violations: Stress violations with final stress produced an N400 effect whereas violations with nonfinal stress produced a P300 effect. The application of the predictable pattern to words with lexical stress led to lexical costs and the application of exceptional stress to words with default stress to effects reflecting the evaluation of this pattern. Although final stress constitutes no alternative pattern for words with exceptional stress, participants have difficulties to judge this pattern as incorrect. In contrast, exceptional stress patterns are detected easily when applied incorrectly to words that normally receive final stress. These findings demonstrate nicely the co-existence of two phonological processing routines in Turkish speakers. Furthermore, the variability of stress patterns does not affect prosodic processing in general but instead leads to differential effects in stress perception. We conclude that stress predictability does not homogenously result in the so-called “stress deafness” effects in stress processing, but that it rather emerges only for the default stress pattern.
{"title":"Processing (un-)predictable word stress: ERP evidence from Turkish","authors":"Ulrike Domahs, Safiye Genç, Johannes Knaus, Richard Wiese, Baris Kabak","doi":"10.1080/01690965.2011.634590","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2011.634590","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates the way the predictability of prosodic patterns in a particular language influences the processing of stress information by native speakers of that language. We extend previous findings where speakers of languages with predictable stress had difficulties to process and represent stress information when confronted with a language with distinctive stress and investigate how the co-existence of a predictable stress pattern and exceptions to that regularity within a single language influences prosodic processing. The stress system of Turkish constitutes an instructive test case since it employs predictable stress on the final syllable of a prosodic word (e.g., mısır “corn”) and some exceptional nonfinal stress (e.g., mısır “Egypt”). Results from an event-related potential (ERP) study on stress violations in Turkish trisyllabic words showed asymmetrical ERP responses for different stress violations: Stress violations with final stress produced an N400 effect whereas violations with nonfinal stress produced a P300 effect. The application of the predictable pattern to words with lexical stress led to lexical costs and the application of exceptional stress to words with default stress to effects reflecting the evaluation of this pattern. Although final stress constitutes no alternative pattern for words with exceptional stress, participants have difficulties to judge this pattern as incorrect. In contrast, exceptional stress patterns are detected easily when applied incorrectly to words that normally receive final stress. These findings demonstrate nicely the co-existence of two phonological processing routines in Turkish speakers. Furthermore, the variability of stress patterns does not affect prosodic processing in general but instead leads to differential effects in stress perception. We conclude that stress predictability does not homogenously result in the so-called “stress deafness” effects in stress processing, but that it rather emerges only for the default stress pattern.","PeriodicalId":87410,"journal":{"name":"Language and cognitive processes","volume":"28 1","pages":"335 - 354"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/01690965.2011.634590","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59135292","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2013-03-26DOI: 10.1080/01690965.2011.645314
Nayoung Kwon, P. Sturt
We report a self-paced reading experiment examining the effect of morpho-syntactic and discourse cues on the resolution of null pronominals in Korean. Unlike many other languages, Korean does not have many morphological cues that could aid reference assignment for null pronominals. Indeed, work in theoretical linguistics has classified Korean as a “discourse oriented language”, in which empty arguments can be identified through discourse topics, with less reliance on sentence-internal cues than is the case for “sentence oriented” languages such as English. The experiment used a person-mismatch paradigm to test whether, once assigned to a discourse topic, the reference of the null pronominal could be shifted to a new intra-sentential antecedent, on the basis of morpho-syntactic cues, as has been shown in work in English on overt pronouns. The findings show that the null pronominal was assigned to the discourse topic on-line during the reading of the sentence, but that the re-assignment to the intra-sentential antecedent did not take place, despite the morpho-syntactic cues. Instead, co-reference with the intra-sentential subject was attempted only when there was no antecedent in the context. We interpret these findings in terms of the relatively high priority that Korean places on discourse cues.
{"title":"Null pronominal (pro) resolution in Korean, a discourse-oriented language","authors":"Nayoung Kwon, P. Sturt","doi":"10.1080/01690965.2011.645314","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2011.645314","url":null,"abstract":"We report a self-paced reading experiment examining the effect of morpho-syntactic and discourse cues on the resolution of null pronominals in Korean. Unlike many other languages, Korean does not have many morphological cues that could aid reference assignment for null pronominals. Indeed, work in theoretical linguistics has classified Korean as a “discourse oriented language”, in which empty arguments can be identified through discourse topics, with less reliance on sentence-internal cues than is the case for “sentence oriented” languages such as English. The experiment used a person-mismatch paradigm to test whether, once assigned to a discourse topic, the reference of the null pronominal could be shifted to a new intra-sentential antecedent, on the basis of morpho-syntactic cues, as has been shown in work in English on overt pronouns. The findings show that the null pronominal was assigned to the discourse topic on-line during the reading of the sentence, but that the re-assignment to the intra-sentential antecedent did not take place, despite the morpho-syntactic cues. Instead, co-reference with the intra-sentential subject was attempted only when there was no antecedent in the context. We interpret these findings in terms of the relatively high priority that Korean places on discourse cues.","PeriodicalId":87410,"journal":{"name":"Language and cognitive processes","volume":"28 1","pages":"377 - 387"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/01690965.2011.645314","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59135394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2013-03-26DOI: 10.1080/01690965.2012.704385
E. Gibson, S. Piantadosi, Evelina Fedorenko
Sprouse and Almeida (S&A) present quantitative results that suggest that intuitive judgments utilised in syntax research are generally correct in two-condition comparisons: the sentence type that is presented as “good/grammatical” is usually rated better than the sentence type that is presented as “bad/ungrammatical” in controlled experiments. Although these evaluations of intuitive relative judgments are valuable, they do not justify the use of nonquantitative linguistic methods. We argue that objectivity is a universal value in science that should be adopted by linguistics. In addition, the reliability measures that S&A report are not sufficient for developing sophisticated linguistic theories. Furthermore, quantitative methods yield two additional benefits: consistency of judgments across many pairs of judgments; and an understanding of the relative effect sizes across sets of judgments. We illustrate these points with an experiment that demonstrates five clear levels of acceptability. Finally, we observe that S&A's experiments—where only two authors evaluated 10 years' worth of journal articles and one standard textbook within a few months—further emphasise one of our critical original points: conducting behavioural experiments is in many respects easy and fast with the advent of online research tools like Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Given the current ease of performing quantitative experiments (using a platform like Mechanical Turk) and the clear limitations of not doing so, linguistic hypotheses should be evaluated quantitatively whenever it is feasible.
{"title":"Quantitative methods in syntax/semantics research: A response to Sprouse and Almeida (2013)","authors":"E. Gibson, S. Piantadosi, Evelina Fedorenko","doi":"10.1080/01690965.2012.704385","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2012.704385","url":null,"abstract":"Sprouse and Almeida (S&A) present quantitative results that suggest that intuitive judgments utilised in syntax research are generally correct in two-condition comparisons: the sentence type that is presented as “good/grammatical” is usually rated better than the sentence type that is presented as “bad/ungrammatical” in controlled experiments. Although these evaluations of intuitive relative judgments are valuable, they do not justify the use of nonquantitative linguistic methods. We argue that objectivity is a universal value in science that should be adopted by linguistics. In addition, the reliability measures that S&A report are not sufficient for developing sophisticated linguistic theories. Furthermore, quantitative methods yield two additional benefits: consistency of judgments across many pairs of judgments; and an understanding of the relative effect sizes across sets of judgments. We illustrate these points with an experiment that demonstrates five clear levels of acceptability. Finally, we observe that S&A's experiments—where only two authors evaluated 10 years' worth of journal articles and one standard textbook within a few months—further emphasise one of our critical original points: conducting behavioural experiments is in many respects easy and fast with the advent of online research tools like Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Given the current ease of performing quantitative experiments (using a platform like Mechanical Turk) and the clear limitations of not doing so, linguistic hypotheses should be evaluated quantitatively whenever it is feasible.","PeriodicalId":87410,"journal":{"name":"Language and cognitive processes","volume":"77 1","pages":"229 - 240"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/01690965.2012.704385","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59135713","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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