Linguistic judgments in 3D: the aesthetic quality, linguistic acceptability, and surface probability of stigmatized and non-stigmatized variation

Abstract Linguistic judgment experiments typically elicit judgments in terms of the acceptability or surface probability a sentence. There is evidence that dimension scale on which sentences are judged influences outcome experiment, but to date this only limited. This not trivial matter, as elicited data increasingly considered basis for inferences about linguistic representation. The present study investigates whether judgments. Sentences one three dimensions: , aesthetics . Two distinct sets experimental items tested; with cases stigmatized variation (violations prescriptive norm) and another non-stigmatized (middle-field scrambling) Dutch. results show participants take into account dimension, both variation. reflect certain degree conscious reflection based scale; effects variation, by contrast, main instruction without changes relative pattern between conditions. These findings corroborate idea result introspection technical sense, automatic, multi-dimensional responses stimulus.