Production preferences cannot be understood without reference to communication

Abstract

Comments on an article by M. C. MacDonald et al. (see record [rid]2013-20854-001[/rid]). MacDonald proposes that comprehenders are sensitive to statistical patterns in their language input. These patterns are hypothesized to result from speakers’ preferences in production, aggregated over the population. Production preferences are taken to be primarily determined by biases that serve production ease, thereby improving fluency. This article pursue an alternative hypothesis, that communicative biases affect production preferences through learning and generalization across previous experiences. Researchers have just begun to investigate similar questions for language production beyond articulation. For example, speakers learn to avoid temporary syntactic ambiguities if they receive implicit feedback that communication failed. Further investigations of this type will help clarify the extent to which a bias for robust information transfer affects production. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)