Experience and grammatical agreement: Statistical learning shapes number agreement production

• Published in: Cognition Vol. 114; no. 2; pp. 151 - 164
• Main Authors: Haskell, Todd R., Thornton, Robert, MacDonald, Maryellen C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.02.2010; Elsevier
• Subjects: Agreement; Asymmetry; Biological and medical sciences; Computational Linguistics; Corpus Analysis; Cues; Error; Error Analysis; Error Patterns; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Grammar; Human; Humans; Implicit learning; Language; Language Processing; Language production; Language Research; Language use; Learning; Learning - physiology; Learning Processes; Learning. Memory; Male; Miscellaneous; Nouns; Number; Phrase Structure; Priming; Psycholinguistics; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; Sentences; Speech Production; Statistical analysis; Structural Analysis (Linguistics); Subject–verb agreement; Syntactic Features; Syntactic Structures; Verbal Behavior; Verbs; Vocabulary; Young Adult; Subject–verb agreement; Language production; Implicit learning; Human; Acquisition process; Subject-verb agreement; Language; Statistical learning; Cognition; Verbal production; Experimental study; Grammatical agreement
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2009.08.017
• ISSN: 0010-0277; 1873-7838

A robust result in research on the production of grammatical agreement is that speakers are more likely to produce an erroneous verb with phrases such as the key to the cabinets, with a singular noun followed by a plural one, than with phrases such as the keys to the cabinet, where a plural noun is followed by a singular. These asymmetries are thought to reflect core language production processes. Previous accounts have attributed error patterns to a syntactic number feature present on plurals but not singulars. An alternative approach is presented in which a process similar to structural priming contributes to the error asymmetry via speakers’ past experiences with related agreement constructions. A corpus analysis and two agreement production studies test this account. The results suggest that agreement production is shaped by statistical learning from past language experience. Implications for accounts of agreement are discussed.