University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Toward a prenominal syntax? A brief look at statistical alternations

Schenkoske, Laurel A.

Content Files
SLS2014-02Schenkoske.pdf

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/72652

Description

Title
Toward a prenominal syntax? A brief look at statistical alternations
Author(s)
Schenkoske, Laurel A.
Issue Date
2014-12
Keyword(s)
  • Linguistics
  • Syntax
  • Psycholinguistics
  • English
Date of Ingest
2014-12-29T23:03:05Z
Abstract
This pilot study aims to show that people indeed use subconscious statistical processing to aid in the acquisition of constructions, and frequent form-function mappings emerge as structures that work well together. The current study is a modified replication of Wells et.al. (2009), in which frequency distributions of NL-English speakers' relative clauses were manipulated, causing them to more quickly process a less frequent, irregular form. The construction under consideration here is the prenominal clause, rare in English, but attested in many primary languages. The hypothesis was that, given minimal exposure to this construction, subjects would statistically re-categorize their linguistic systems. The infrequent/irregular prenominal phrase was compared with the frequent/regular postnominal RC. Pre- and Post-Tests recorded participants’ self-paced reading times. During two brief Experience Blocks, spaced two days apart, subjects received limited exposure to both target structures. Reading times in the prenominal structure decreased more than that of the RC, for each subject, indicating faster processing. A preliminary analysis of results shows that all subjects reanalyzed the statistical distributions of the prenominal clause.
Publisher
Studies in the Linguistic Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ISSN
0049-2388
Type of Resource
text
Genre of Resource
Article
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/72652
Copyright and License Information
Copyright © 2014 Laurel A. Schenkoske

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Studies in the Linguistic Sciences: Illinois Working Papers PRIMARY
The online working papers of the UIUC Department of Linguistics