An acceptability judgment task, also called acceptability rating task, is a common method in empirical
linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
to gather information about the internal
grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...
of speakers of a language.
Acceptability and grammaticality
The goal of acceptability rating studies is to gather insights into the mental grammars of participants. As the
grammaticality
In linguistics, grammaticality is determined by the conformity to language usage as derived by the grammar of a particular speech variety. The notion of grammaticality rose alongside the theory of generative grammar, the goal of which is to formu ...
of a linguistic construction is an abstract construct that cannot be accessed directly, this type of tasks is usually not called grammaticality, but acceptability judgment. This can be compared to intelligence. Intelligence is an abstract construct that cannot be measured directly. What can be measured are the outcomes of specific test items. The result of one item, however, is not very telling. Instead,
IQ tests
An intelligence quotient (IQ) is a total score derived from a set of standardized tests or subtests designed to assess human intelligence. Originally, IQ was a score obtained by dividing a person's mental age score, obtained by administering ...
consist of several items building a score. Similarly, in acceptability rating studies, grammatical constructions are measured through several items, i.e., sentences to be rated. This is also done to ensure that participants do not rate the meaning of a particular sentence.
The difference between acceptability and grammaticality is linked to the distinction between
performance
A performance is an act or process of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function.
Performance has evolved glo ...
and
competence
Broad concept article:
*Competence (polyseme), capacity or ability to perform effectively
Competence or competency may also refer to:
*Competence (human resources), ability of a person to do a job properly
**Competence-based management, performa ...
in
generative grammar
Generative grammar is a research tradition in linguistics that aims to explain the cognitive basis of language by formulating and testing explicit models of humans' subconscious grammatical knowledge. Generative linguists, or generativists (), ...
.
Types
Several different types of acceptability rating tasks are used in linguistics. The most common tasks use
Likert scales. Forced choice and yes-no rating tasks are also common. Besides more popular test types, there are other methods like thermometer judgments or magnitude estimation (ME); however, it has been argued that ME studies have unproductive variation in their results.
[Weskott, T. & Fanselow, G. (2011):On the informativity of different measures of linguistic acceptability. In: ''Language'', 87(2), 249-273.]
See also
*
Quantitative linguistics
Quantitative linguistics (QL) is a sub-discipline of general linguistics and, more specifically, of mathematical linguistics. Quantitative linguistics deals with language learning, language change, and application as well as structure of natural ...
References
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Further reading
*Bross, F. (2019)
Acceptability Ratings in Linguistics: A Practical Guide to Grammaticality Judgments, Data Collection, and Statistical Analysis. Version 1.0. Mimeo.*Myers, J. (2009): Syntactic Judgment Experiments. In: ''Language and Linguistics Compass'', 3(1), 406-423.
*Podesva, R. J. & Sharma, D. (eds.) (2013): ''Research Methods in Linguistics''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
*Schütze, C. T. (2016): ''The Empirical Base of Linguistics. Grammaticality Judgments and Linguistic Methodology.'' Berlin: Language Science Press.
*Sprouse, J. & Almeida, D. (2017): Design sensitivity and statistical power in acceptability judgment experiments. In: ''Glossa. A Journal of General Linguistics'', 2(1), 1-32.
*Sprouse, J., Schütze, C. T. & Almeida, D. (2013): A comparison of informal and formal acceptability judgments using a random sample from Linguistic Inquiry 2001-2010. In: ''Lingua'', 134, 219-248.
Psycholinguistics
Quantitative linguistics
Linguistic research