Given-New Ordering Effects on the Production of Scrambled Sentences in Japanese.

摘要: Across many languages, speakers tend to produce sentences so that given (previously referred to) arguments are mentioned before new arguments; this is termed given-new ordering. We explored the nature of such effects in Japanese using a procedure following Bock and Irwin (1980). Speakers encoded then recalled canonical (e.g., okusan-ga otetsudaisan-ni purezento-o okutta, “the housewife gave housekeeper present”) or scrambled (okusan-ga okutta) dative targets when prompted by statement-question sequence. The prompting statement established one nonsubject argument target as given, leaving other new. Previous mention was either with lexically identical content otetsudaisan purezento) distinct but nearly synonymous (meidosan, “housemaid” okurimono, “gift”). Results showed produced word orders were new, especially previous occurred (replicating Irwin's English effect). These results show production sensitive versus status (as English), implying ordering arises at stage sentence where scrambling realized.