Do Not Call It an Error if Linguistics Has Called It Variation

Processing Linguistic Variation and Ungrammaticality in the Scope of Variable Subject-Verb

Abstract

In an articulation between psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics, and from a formalist-like approach of language, this paper discusses possible adaptative effects caused by operant priming effects in language variation processing, and how these effects impact processing costs associated with third-person plural variable subject-verb agreement. To do so, we ran a self-paced reading experiment that included not only constructions attested for variable verb agreement but also ungrammatical instances, aiming to check for differences in cost proportionality between variable (then grammatical) and ungrammatical instances. The experiment also included the manipulation of long stimuli, which allowed adaptive effects to be verified as a result of an operant priming effect. This type of manipulation, as far as we know, is unprecedented in studies of the psycho-sociolinguistic interface in Brazil. The results suggested different costs and adaptative effects associated with grammatical conditions (redundant and non-redundant agreements) that were not attested in the ungrammatical condition. In other words: processing variable grammatical instances is different from processing ungrammatical ones. This study, therefore, shed light on questions concerning the online processing of linguistic variation, an increasingly productive topic in linguistics.