When analyzing language structure, linguists often speak in terms of relative complexity. One language might be said to be more phonologically, morphologically, or syntactically complex than another. What is not known is what effect, if any, this formal complexity has on actual language processing. As there is no direct way to measure the allocation of cognitive resources during speech, an indirect method must be found. Cognitive psychologists have shown that level of task difficulty is positively correlated with error rates. For this reason, errors in speech were chosen as a measure of difficulty. Speakers of five typologically diverse languages (English, Spanish, Hindi, Turkish, and Japanese) will perform a complicated narration task. Speech errors will be analyzed and used to test the claim that structural linguistic complexity correlates with cognitive complexity. In general, this research will contribute to the overall understanding of the speech production mechanisms, and bring a cross-linguistic perspective to a usually English-based area of investigation.
| Wells-Jensen, Sheri (2007) A cross-linguistic speech error investigation of functional complexity. J Psycholinguist Res 36:107-57 |
