Navigation auf zora.uzh.ch

Search ZORA

ZORA (Zurich Open Repository and Archive)

Schemas and the frequency/acceptability mismatch: Corpus distribution predicts sentence judgments

Flach, Susanne (2020). Schemas and the frequency/acceptability mismatch: Corpus distribution predicts sentence judgments. Cognitive Linguistics, 31(4):609-645.

Abstract

A tight connection between competence and performance is a central tenet of the usage-based model. Methodologically, however, corpus frequency is a poor predictor of acceptability – a phenomenon known as the “frequency/acceptability mismatch”. This article argues that the mismatch arises from a “methodological mismatch”, when simple frequency measures are mapped onto complex grammatical units. To illustrate, we discuss the results of acceptability judgments of go/come-v. The construction is subject to a formal constraint (Go see the doctor! vs. *He goes sees the doctor), which results from its mandative semantics (directives, commissives). While a formal model makes no prediction with regard to gradient acceptability of bare (“grammatical”) go/come-v, the usage-based view assumes that acceptability is a function of compatibility with an abstract schema. The experimental ratings are compared with a number of corpus-derived measures: while acceptability is largely independent of (raw) frequency, it is not independent of frequency-related usage distribution. The results add to recent suggestions that the frequency/acceptability mismatch is substantially reduced if the syntactic complexity of a unit is appropriately captured in usage data.

Additional indexing

Item Type:Journal Article, refereed, original work
Communities & Collections:06 Faculty of Arts > English Department
Dewey Decimal Classification:820 English & Old English literatures
Scopus Subject Areas:Social Sciences & Humanities > Language and Linguistics
Social Sciences & Humanities > Developmental and Educational Psychology
Social Sciences & Humanities > Linguistics and Language
Uncontrolled Keywords:Linguistics and Language, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Language and Linguistics, frequency/acceptability mismatch, methodological mismatch, acceptability judgment task, formal constraint, constructional semantics, correspondence analysis, association, converging evidence
Language:English
Date:28 October 2020
Deposited On:27 Jan 2021 16:05
Last Modified:24 Oct 2024 01:40
Publisher:De Gruyter
ISSN:0936-5907
OA Status:Hybrid
Publisher DOI:https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2020-2040
Related URLs:https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/cogl/cogl-overview.xml (Publisher)
https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/A293T (Research Data)
Download PDF  'Schemas and the frequency/acceptability mismatch: Corpus distribution predicts sentence judgments'.
Preview
  • Content: Published Version
  • Language: English
  • Publisher License

Metadata Export

Statistics

Citations

Dimensions.ai Metrics
8 citations in Web of Science®
8 citations in Scopus®
Google Scholar™

Altmetrics

Downloads

18 downloads since deposited on 27 Jan 2021
10 downloads since 12 months
Detailed statistics

Authors, Affiliations, Collaborations

Similar Publications