Word Order Acceptability and Word Order Choice

Abstract

Previous work has shown that the relation between acceptability ratings and frequencies in speech production is exponential. The present study examines the relation between preference ratings and frequencies of choice with a maximally controlled design, using the same material with two experimental procedures, namely a split-100 rating and a forced-choice task. The phenomenon examined is the choice between SO and OS order in German clauses with canonical and experiencer-object verbs in different contexts. The acceptability of the alternative orders under these conditions was obtained by the split-100 rating task. We assumed that the candidate that appears in speech production is the winner of the competition between SO and OS order based on their acceptability in a given condition. The results of the forced-choice task show that the relation between ratings and choice is not just linear, but can be better approximated by higher-order polynomials: the greater the distance between the acceptability values of the alternative candidates, the stronger the bias for the winner candidate.