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1 results

  • 7 - Acceptability (and Other) Experiments for Studying Comparative Syntax

  • from Part I - General Issues in Acceptability Experiments
  • Edited by Grant Goodall, University of California, San Diego
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Syntax
    Published online:
    16 December 2021
    Print publication:
    09 December 2021, pp 181-208

  • Summary

    In this chapter, I discuss the relationship between acceptability judgments and other experimental techniques and the broader goals of comparative syntax. Acceptability judgment experiments quantify the impact that a small number of factors exert on acceptability across a sample of participants. By contrast, comparative syntax has typically sought to characterize systematic similarities and differences between grammatical systems, on various scales of abstraction (languages, dialects, individual grammars). In this chapter, I argue that acceptability judgment experiments can contribute to comparative syntax by quantifying subtle judgments within a language as a ”check” on intuitive judgments collected from underresourced languages, by establishing reliable trends across languages, and by exploring individual differences within a population. I emphasize that careful factorial designs, appropriate controls, and previously established, theoretically informed hypotheses are crucial to the success of applying experimental approaches to comparative syntax.