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- Title
Probability in the Grammar of German and Dutch: Interfixation in Triconstituent Compounds.
- Authors
Krott, Andrea; Libben, Gary; Jerema, Gonia; Dressler, Wolfgang; Schreuder, Robert; Baayen, Harald
- Abstract
This study addresses the possibility that interfixes in multiconstituent nominal compounds in German and Dutch are functional as markers of immediate constituent structure. We report a lexical statistical survey of interfixation in the lexicons of German and Dutch which shows that all interfixes of German and one interfix of Dutch are significantly more likely to appear at the major constituent boundary than expected under chance conditions. A series of experiments provides evidence that speakers of German and Dutch are sensitive to the probabilistic cues to constituent structure provided by the interfixes. Thus, our data provide evidence that probability is part and parcel of grammatical competence.
- Subjects
LANGUAGE &; languages; GERMAN language; DUTCH language; LINGUISTICS; LEXICOGRAPHY
- Publication
Language & Speech, 2004, Vol 47, Issue 1, p83
- ISSN
0023-8309
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1177/00238309040470010401