Psycholinguistics part 5

Question 1

Greenberg’s universals

Answer 1

Universal tendencies across languages
Ex.
* It is more common for languages to preserve the position of the noun with respect to the modifier (harmonious patterns are preferred)
* It is more likely for nouns to precede adjectives (‘unmarked’ patterns are preferred)

Question 2

Learning biases, Culbertson et al. (2012)

Answer 2

Artificial learning task to investigate if Greenberg’s modifier-noun language universals are more common because they are more ‘learnable’

Question 3

Cognitive word order biases, Goldin-Meadow et al. (2008)

Answer 3

Gesture task to investigate why SOV is the most common word order.

Results: When asked to describe the event using speech, speakers followed the word orders of their native languages. When asked to use gestures, speakers gestured in the SOV order in at least 80% of the trials.

Question 4

Noisy channel hypothesis, Gibson et al. (2013)

Answer 4

Communication operates in a noisy channel – SVO sentences are easier to understand the gist of when some elements are blocked out, i.e. easy identification (or recoverability) of grammatical function using the verb as an orientation point in the sentence