A parallel interface for language and cognition in sentence production: Theory, method, and experimental evidence

Abstract

The debate about the place of linguistic theory in cognitive science encouraged by The Linguistic Review is a good example of communication between different research communities. In this follow-up paper we (1) clarify our theoretical and methodological positions, (2) propose a theoretical model for language production similar to Jackendoff's Parallel Architecture, and (2) discuss emerging empirical evidence for this model. Our data suggest that perceptual, semantic, and syntactic information becomes available to the speaker in parallel providing competing production cues. Main architectural parameters of the proposed model are similar to Parallel Architecture, but we put a greater focus on the interface between language-specific and general cognitive domains. We view such interface as a regular mapping mechanism between the grammatical constraints imposed by the language system and the perceptual, semantic, and grammatical priming parameters available in the communicative environment.