Premium
Syntactic Judgment Experiments
Author(s) -
Myers James
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
language and linguistics compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.619
H-Index - 44
ISSN - 1749-818X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-818x.2008.00113.x
Subject(s) - syntax , grammaticality , psycholinguistics , sentence , linguistics , computer science , psychology , reliability (semiconductor) , sentence processing , natural language processing , grammar , cognition , philosophy , power (physics) , physics , quantum mechanics , neuroscience
Informal judgments of sentence acceptability have long been the primary source of evidence about grammaticality in syntax, and have been controversial just as long. In the past decade, there has been growing interest in collecting and analyzing acceptability judgments according to the formal protocols of experimental psycholinguistics, an approach sometimes called experimental syntax. This article reviews the major issues relevant to this approach, namely, the relative reliability, validity, sensitivity, and convenience of formal vs. informal methods.