Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: Linguists build theories of grammar based largely on acceptability contrasts.But these contrasts can reflect grammatical constraints and/or constraints on language processing.How can theorists determine the extent to which the acceptability of an utterance depends on functional constraints?In a series of acceptability experiments, we consider two factors that might indicate processing contributions to acceptability contrasts: (1) the way constraints combine (i.e., additively or super-additively), and (2) the way a comprehender's working memory resources influence acceptability judgments.Results suggest that multiple sources of processing difficulty combine to produce super-additive effects, but multiple grammatical violations do not.Furthermore, when acceptability judgments improve with higher working memory scores, this appears to be due to functional constraints.We conclude that tests of (super)-additivity and of differences in working memory can help to identify the effects of processing difficulty (due to functional constraints).
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W411524346