Divjak, D.S. (2017) The role of lexical frequency in the acceptability of syntactic variants: evidence from that-clauses in Polish. Cognitive Science, 41 (2). pp. 354-382. ISSN 1551-6709
Abstract
A number of studies report that frequency is a poor predictor of acceptability, in particular at the lower end of the frequency spectrum. Because acceptability judgments provide a substantial part of the empirical foundation of dominant linguistic traditions, understanding how acceptability relates to frequency, one of the most robust predictors of human performance, is crucial. The relation between low frequency and acceptability is investigated using corpus- and behavioral data on the distribution of infinitival and finite that-complements in Polish. Polish verbs exhibit substantial subordination variation and for the majority of verbs taking an infinitival complement, the that-complement occurs with low frequency (<0.66 ipm). These low-frequency that-clauses, in turn, exhibit large differences in how acceptable they are to native speakers. It is argued that acceptability judgments are based on configurations of internally structured exemplars, the acceptability of which cannot reliably be assessed until sufficient evidence about the core component has accumulated.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Cognitive Science. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Acceptability ratings; Association measures; Conditional probability; Frequency effects; Probabilistic grammar; Reliance; Surprisal; Usage-based theories of language |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Sheffield) > School of Languages and Cultures (Sheffield) > Russian Studies (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 08 Oct 2015 12:58 |
Last Modified: | 10 Mar 2018 01:38 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12335 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/cogs.12335 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:90141 |