John A. Hawkins
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198709848
- eISBN:
- 9780191780158
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198709848.003.0004
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Psycholinguistics / Neurolinguistics / Cognitive Linguistics
This chapter examines empirical patterns in data from language performance and in the distribution of grammatical variants across languages and uses them to shed light on how multiple principles work ...
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This chapter examines empirical patterns in data from language performance and in the distribution of grammatical variants across languages and uses them to shed light on how multiple principles work together. Some data from (second) language acquisition are also briefly considered. Three types of general patterns are observed. The first set illustrate a Degree of Preference generalization for individual principles. The second set illustrate Cooperation, whereby the more principles there are that define a collective preference for a common set of outputs {P}, the greater is the preference for and size of that {P}. The third set involve Competition and they suggest that when there is competition between two principles A and B, the relative strength of their outputs, {A} from A and {B} from B, will be in proportion to the degree of preference for their respective outputs.Less
This chapter examines empirical patterns in data from language performance and in the distribution of grammatical variants across languages and uses them to shed light on how multiple principles work together. Some data from (second) language acquisition are also briefly considered. Three types of general patterns are observed. The first set illustrate a Degree of Preference generalization for individual principles. The second set illustrate Cooperation, whereby the more principles there are that define a collective preference for a common set of outputs {P}, the greater is the preference for and size of that {P}. The third set involve Competition and they suggest that when there is competition between two principles A and B, the relative strength of their outputs, {A} from A and {B} from B, will be in proportion to the degree of preference for their respective outputs.
John A. Hawkins
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199664993
- eISBN:
- 9780191748547
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199664993.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
This book argues that major patterns of variation across languages are structured by general principles of efficiency in language use and communication. Evidence for these comes from languages ...
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This book argues that major patterns of variation across languages are structured by general principles of efficiency in language use and communication. Evidence for these comes from languages permitting structural choices from which selections are made in performance, e.g. between competing word orders and between relative clauses with a resumptive pronoun versus a gap. The preferences and patterns of performance within languages are reflected in the fixed conventions and variation patterns across grammars, leading to a ‘‘Performance–Grammar Correspondence Hypothesis.’’ The general theory that is laid out in Hawkins’s Efficiency and Complexity in Grammars (OUP) is extended and updated. New areas of grammar and of performance are discussed, new research findings are incorporated that test Hawkins’s earlier predictions, and new advances in the contributing fields of language processing, linguistic theory, historical linguistics, and typology are addressed. This efficiency approach to variation has far-reaching theoretical consequences of relevance for many current issues in the language sciences. These include the notion of ease of processing and how to measure it, the role of processing in language change, the nature of language universals and their explanation, the theory of complexity, the relative strength of competing and cooperating principles, and the proper definition of fundamental grammatical notions such as ‘dependency.’ The book also gives a new typology of VO and OV languages and their correlating properties seen from this perspective, and a new typology of the noun phrase and of argument structure.Less
This book argues that major patterns of variation across languages are structured by general principles of efficiency in language use and communication. Evidence for these comes from languages permitting structural choices from which selections are made in performance, e.g. between competing word orders and between relative clauses with a resumptive pronoun versus a gap. The preferences and patterns of performance within languages are reflected in the fixed conventions and variation patterns across grammars, leading to a ‘‘Performance–Grammar Correspondence Hypothesis.’’ The general theory that is laid out in Hawkins’s Efficiency and Complexity in Grammars (OUP) is extended and updated. New areas of grammar and of performance are discussed, new research findings are incorporated that test Hawkins’s earlier predictions, and new advances in the contributing fields of language processing, linguistic theory, historical linguistics, and typology are addressed. This efficiency approach to variation has far-reaching theoretical consequences of relevance for many current issues in the language sciences. These include the notion of ease of processing and how to measure it, the role of processing in language change, the nature of language universals and their explanation, the theory of complexity, the relative strength of competing and cooperating principles, and the proper definition of fundamental grammatical notions such as ‘dependency.’ The book also gives a new typology of VO and OV languages and their correlating properties seen from this perspective, and a new typology of the noun phrase and of argument structure.
John Hawkins
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199664993
- eISBN:
- 9780191748547
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199664993.003.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
This chapter defines the ‘Performance–Grammar Correspondence Hypothesis’ (PGCH). Grammars have conventionalized syntactic structures in proportion to their degree of preference in performance, as ...
More
This chapter defines the ‘Performance–Grammar Correspondence Hypothesis’ (PGCH). Grammars have conventionalized syntactic structures in proportion to their degree of preference in performance, as evidenced by patterns of selection in corpora and by ease of processing in psycholinguistic experiments. The chapter summarizes many performance–grammar correspondences that have been proposed in the research literature hitherto and shows how these provide evidence against Chomsky’s view that grammars have not incorporated performance constraints such as working memory load. The predictions and consequences of the PGCH are defined.Less
This chapter defines the ‘Performance–Grammar Correspondence Hypothesis’ (PGCH). Grammars have conventionalized syntactic structures in proportion to their degree of preference in performance, as evidenced by patterns of selection in corpora and by ease of processing in psycholinguistic experiments. The chapter summarizes many performance–grammar correspondences that have been proposed in the research literature hitherto and shows how these provide evidence against Chomsky’s view that grammars have not incorporated performance constraints such as working memory load. The predictions and consequences of the PGCH are defined.
