Data convergence in syntactic theory and the role of sentence pairs
| Autor: | Jana Häussler, Tom S. Juzek |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
050101 languages & linguistics
Linguistics and Language media_common.quotation_subject data convergence computer.software_genre experimental syntax 050105 experimental psychology Language and Linguistics 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences media_common Language. Linguistic theory. Comparative grammar P101-410 introspection business.industry 05 social sciences grammaticality judgments Introspection Convergence (relationship) Artificial intelligence Psychology business computer acceptability judgments tasks Natural language processing Sentence |
| Zdroj: | Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft, Vol 39, Iss 2, Pp 109-147 (2020) |
| ISSN: | 1613-3706 0721-9067 |
| DOI: | 10.1515/zfs-2020-2008 |
| Popis: | Most acceptability judgments reported in the syntactic literature are obtained by linguists being their own informants. For well-represented languages like English, this method of data collection is best described as a process of community agreement, given that linguists typically discuss their judgments with colleagues. However, the process itself is comparably opaque, and the reliability of its output has been questioned. Recent studies looking into this criticism have shown that judgments reported in the literature for English can be replicated in quantitative experiments to a near-perfect degree. However, the focus of those studies has been on testing sentence pairs. We argue that replication of only contrasts is not sufficient, because theory building necessarily includes comparison across pairs and across papers. Thus, we test items at large, i. e. independent of counterparts. We created a corpus of grammaticality judgments on sequences of American English reported in articles published in Linguistic Inquiry and then collected experimental ratings for a random subset of them. Overall, expert ratings and experimental ratings converge to a good degree, but there are numerous instances in which ratings do not converge. Based on this, we argue that for theory-critical data, the process of community agreement should be accompanied by quantitative methods whenever possible. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|