Communicative efficiency in language production: Optional case-marking in Japanese

Publication date: August 2015 Source:Journal of Memory and Language, Volume 83 Author(s): Chigusa Kurumada , T. Florian Jaeger Grammatical encoding is one of the earliest stages in linguistic encoding. One broadly accepted view holds that grammatical encoding is primarily or exclusively affected by production ease, rather than communicative considerations. This contrasts with proposals that speakers’ preferences during grammatical encoding reflect a trade-off between production ease and communicative goals. In three recall sentence production experiments, we investigate Japanese speakers’ production of optional object case-marking. Case-marking conveys information about the intended sentence interpretation, facilitating comprehension, but it also increases production effort. We find that Japanese speakers are more likely to produce case-marking when the properties of the sentence would otherwise bias comprehenders against the intended interpretation. Experiment 1 observes this effect based on the animacy of the object. Experiments 2 and 3 find the same effect based on the plausibility of the intended grammatical function assignment, even when animacy is held constant. We discuss how speakers might achieve this type of trade-off. In addition to evidencing the role of communicative pressures during even the earliest stages of language production, the results inform linguistic typology, where similar patterns have been observed in obligatory (differential) case-marking...

Source: Journal of Memory and Language - May 17, 2015 Category: Speech Therapy Source Type: research