Does Language Production Shape Language Form and Comprehension?

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Editorial

18 July 2013

Overview: does language production shape language form and comprehension?

Charles Clifton

and

Manuel Carreiras

3,986 views

1 citations

Editors

2

Manuel Carreiras

Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language

Charles Jr Clifton

University of Massachusetts Amherst

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MacDonald’s Hypothesis and Theory paper, How language production shapes language form and comprehension, is the core of this Topic. MacDonald proposes that language producers are constrained by the nature of memory retrieval, motor planning, and serial order in action planning when they create utterances. The implicit production choices they make in honoring these constraints shape the distribution of utterance forms in a language. Language perceivers learn the statistical regularities of the utterances that they hear, which then guide their expectations and facilitate comprehension of utterances that meet these expectations. This paper is followed by a collection of replies, in which researchers critically examine the evidence for and implications of MacDonald’s proposal. The Topic concludes with MacDonald’s response to these analyses.

MacDonald’s Hypothesis and Theory paper, How language production shapes language form and comprehension, is the core of this Topic. MacDonald proposes that language producers are constrained by the nature of memory retrieval, motor planning, and serial order in action planning when they create utterances. The implicit production choices they make in honoring these constraints shape the distribution of utterance forms in a language. Language perceivers learn the statistical regularities of the utterances that they hear, which then guide their expectations and facilitate comprehension of utterances that meet these expectations. This paper is followed by a collection of replies, in which researchers critically examine the evidence for and implications of MacDonald’s proposal. The Topic concludes with MacDonald’s response to these analyses.

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Editors

Manuel Carreiras

Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language

Charles Jr Clifton

University of Massachusetts Amherst

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115,411 Total views

90,952 Article views

19,342 Article downloads

5,117 Topic views

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Frontiers in Psychology

Psychology of Language

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Frontiers in Communication

Psychology of Language

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