LINGUIST List 20.2783
Sun Aug 16 2009
Diss: Psycholing/Syntax: Francom: 'Experimental Syntax: Exploring...'
Editor for this issue: Di Wdzenczny
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1. Jerid
Francom,
Experimental Syntax: Exploring the effect of repeated exposure to anomalous syntactic structure --evidence from rating and reading tasks
Message 1: Experimental Syntax: Exploring the effect of repeated exposure to anomalous syntactic structure --evidence from rating and reading tasks
Date: 16-Aug-2009
From: Jerid Francom <francojcwfu.edu>
Subject: Experimental Syntax: Exploring the effect of repeated exposure to anomalous syntactic structure --evidence from rating and reading tasks
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Institution: University of Arizona
Program: Department of Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2009
Author: Jerid Cole Francom
Dissertation Title: Experimental Syntax: Exploring the effect of repeated exposure to anomalous syntactic structure --evidence from rating and reading tasks
Dissertation URL: http://www.wfu.edu/~francojc/publications/pdf/Francom.pdf
Linguistic Field(s):
Psycholinguistics
Syntax
Subject Language(s): English (eng)
Dissertation Director:
Kenneth I. Forster
Michael Hammond
Janet Nicol
Andrew Barss
Simin Karimi
Dissertation Abstract:
This thesis explores the nature of linguistic introspection through thephenomenon known in the literature as the Syntactic Satiation Effect, wherethe perceived unacceptability of some syntactic structures is attenuated onrepeated exposure. Recent findings suggest that rating change inexperimental settings may not reveal the underlying grammatical status ofsyntactic objects by mitigating performance factors related to memorylimitations, as initially proposed, but rather arise as a response biasconditioned by characteristics of some experimental designs, in effectintroducing task-based performance factors. Findings from rating andreading times suggest that there is evidence supporting both accounts ofrating change in experimental designs and highlights areas of developmentfor the Experimental Syntax program.
Exploring anecdotal reports, Snyder (2000) found that in as few as fiveexposures, participants found some types of wh-extraction anomaly ('weakIslands') significantly more acceptable at the end of the session comparedto the beginning whereas others ('strong Islands') did not experience anyrating improvement. Varied success in replicating initial results castsdoubts on the proposal that rating data, experimentally elicited, can teaseapart grammatical from performance sources of unacceptability. Sprouse(2009) suggests an alternative --Satiation arises as an artifact of adisproportionate number of ungrammatical to grammatical sentences in thetesting session. This approach provides an explanation for the apparentmismatch in findings, but also highlights issues regarding the advances ofexperimental syntax: do experimental methods provide better data or doaspects of some designs systematically introduce extraneous influencesthemselves?
Evidence from three rating and two self-paced reading tasks suggests thatalthough robust evidence supporting the memory-based claim is not found,evidence that Satiation is strictly task-based is not substantiated either;sentences that satiate are similar across experiments. A novel observationis made that satiating sentences are also more readily interpretable thannon-satiating sentences --providing some explanation for the apparentmismatch between Satiation studies, and also points to another source ofvariability associated with experimental approaches to linguisticintuition. In sum, evidence here underlines the composite nature ofintrospection, points areas of refinement for experimental techniques andadvocates for the adoption of cross-methodological procedures to enhancesyntactic investigation.
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