Salience dynamics and unnaturalness in sentence production

pp. 185-210

in: Charles E. Osgood, Lectures on language performance, Berlin, Springer, 1980

Abstract

In Lecture IV we took up Naturalness as it relates to the functional notions of this APG governing the lexicon (F I – F III) and in Lecture V as it applies to the functional notions relating to the OPERATOR in the processing of simplexes and complexes via interactions with the lexicon (F IV – F VI). In the next two lectures we will review these notions and add notions F VII and F VIII, under two major topics: in this lecture, we take up Salience Dynamics in Cognizing (where a brief review of F IV – VI is most relevant) and how such dynamics produce Unnaturalness in Sentence Production by speakers; here, in a detailed review of F VII and F VIII, we finally come to interactions between OPERATOR and buffer—and come to grips with (probably) the most complicated aspects of language, Man's most complex cognitive achievement. In my last lecture, we will see how (in this APG) Unnaturalness in Sentencing is Processed in Comprehending by listeners; and we will come finally to detailed APG predictions of processing difficulty and a proposal for systematic research on sentence comprehending.