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Offering impressive breadth and depth of coverage, and surveying classic and cutting-edge ap-
proaches and techniques, The Routledge Handbook of Experimental Linguistics uniquely positions
itself as an indispensable resource for the novice and expert linguistics researcher alike. Essential
reading for any methods course, too. Highly recommended.
Panos Athanasopoulos, Lancaster University, UK
The use of experimental methods is no longer something peripheral but lies at the core of language
studies. Yet we lack coherent overviews of the large body of methods and knowledge from experi-
ments on language. This book fills a gap and it is essential for the new generation of linguists.
Valentina Bambini, University School for Advanced Studies IUSS Pavia, Italy
THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF
EXPERIMENTAL LINGUISTICS
The Routledge Handbook of Experimental Linguistics provides an up-to-date and accessible over-
view of various ways in which experiments are used across all domains of linguistics and surveys
the range of state-of-the-art methods that can be applied to analyse the language of populations
with a wide range of linguistic profiles.
Each chapter provides a s tep-by-step introduction to theoretical and methodological challenges
and critically presents a wide range of studies in various domains of experimental linguistics.
This handbook:
• Provides a unified perspective on the data, methods and findings stemming from all experimen-
tal research in linguistics
• Covers many different subfields of linguistics, including argumentation theory, discourse stud-
ies and typology
• Provides an introduction to classical as well as new methods to conduct experiments such as
eye tracking and brain imaging
• Features a range of internationally renowned academics
• Shows how experimental research can be used to study populations with various linguistic
profiles, including young children, people with linguistic impairments, older adults, language
learners and bilingual speakers
Providing readers with a wealth of theoretical and practical information in order to guide them in
designing methodologically sound linguistic experiments, this handbook is essential reading for
scholars and students researching in all areas of linguistics.
Sandrine Zufferey is a Professor of French linguistics at the University of Bern, Switzerland.
Pascal Gygax is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

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Linguistics/book-series/RHIL
THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK
OF EXPERIMENTAL
LINGUISTICS
Edited by
Sandrine Zufferey and Pascal Gygax
Designed cover image: © Getty Images | pressureUA
First published 2024
by Routledge
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© 2024 selection and editorial matter, Sandrine Zufferey and Pascal Gygax;
individual chapters, the contributors
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of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication
Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-032-49287-2
(hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-49289-6
(pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-39297-2
(ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003392972

Typeset in Times New Roman
by codeMantra
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements xi
List of contributors xii
Introduction: the origins and importance of experimental linguistics 1
PART I
Focus on linguistic domains 5
1 Historical perspectives on the use of experimental methods in linguistics 7

Alan Garnham
2 Experimental phonetics and phonology 21

Ivana Didirková and Anne Catherine Simon
3 Experimental morphology 38
Vera Heyer
4 Experimental syntax 51
Yamila Sevilla and María Elina Sánchez
5 Experimental semantics 71
Stephanie Solt
6 Experimental pragmatics 85
Tomoko Matsui
vii
Contents
viii
Contents
19 Analysing language using brain imaging 299

Trisha Thomas, Francesca Pesciarelli, Clara D. Martin and
Sendy Caffarra
20 New directions in statistical analysis for experimental linguistics 313

Shravan Vasishth
21 Assessing adult linguistic competence 330

Lydia White
22 Dealing with participant variability in experimental linguistics 345

Ute Gabriel and Pascal Gygax
23 Testing in the lab and testing through the web 356

Jonathan D. Kim
PART III
Focus on specific populations 373
24 Experimental methods to study child language 375

Titia Benders, Nan Xu Rattanasone, Rosalind Thornton,
Iris Mulders and Loes Koring
25 Experimental methods to study atypical language development 390

Phaedra Royle, Émilie Courteau and Marie Pourquié
26 Experimental methods to study disorders of language production in adults 407

Andrea Marini
27 Experimental methods for studying second language learners 422

Alan Juffs and Shaohua Fang
28 Experimental methods to study bilinguals 440

Ramesh Kumar Mishra and Seema Prasad
29 Experimental methods to study cultural differences in linguistics 458

Evangelia Adamou
ix
Contents
30 Experimental methods to study late-life language learning 473

Merel Keijzer, Jelle Brouwer, Floor van den Berg and
Mara van der Ploeg
Index 486
x
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, our gratitude goes toward Robert Avery, who has done a remarkable job help-
ing us with all the nitty-gritty details of editing this handbook. Robert, we couldn’t have done it
without you, you’re the best editing assistant ever! We would also like to express our gratitude to
Routledge editors, especially Nadia Seemungal Owen for having the idea of this handbook in the
first place, then for trusting us with the editing job and most of all for her great support at the initial
stages of the project. Thanks as well to Eleni Steck and Bex Hume for taking over the editing job
and helping us with the final stages. A big thank you is also in order to all the wonderful contribu-
tors of this handbook, for all the interesting interactions we have had about their chapter and the
important insights and great work they provided for the book. Finally, we also thank the numerous
colleagues who have suggested names of contributors, and more generally provided advice and
support throughout the project. We hope this new resource will be helpful to you all!
xi
CONTRIBUTORS
Evangelia Adamou is a senior researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research.
Her research focuses on language contact and bilingualism based on corpus and experimental data
from endangered languages. She is the author of several books on the subject and has edited with
Yaron Matras the Handbook of Language Contact.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6653-5070
Caroline Andrews holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and
is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich. Her research has a special focus
on populations and linguistic structures which have been historically underrepresented in psycho-
linguistic theory, including in the Peruvian Amazon.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8681-9823
Jennifer Arnold is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the Univer-
sity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research examines language production and comprehen-
sion in discourse contexts, in particular pronoun production and comprehension.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7519-1305
Titia Benders is Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam’s Amsterdam Center for
Language and Communication. She studies children’s language acquisition at the Phonetics-
Phonology interface, with a focus on infant-directed speech and the relationship between percep-
tion and production.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0143-2182
Geert Brône is professor of linguistics and vice dean of research policy at the University of
Leuven. His research focuses on cognitive and interactional approaches to multimodal meaning
construction in language, using a variety of empirical methods. He is the founder and co-manager
of the KU Leuven Mobile Eye-Tracking Lab.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4725-7933
xii
Contributors
Jelle Brouwer is a PhD candidate in the Bilingualism and Aging Lab (BALAB). His research
focuses on the effects of late-life language learning on well-being and cognition in seniors with
depression and mood problems.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5440-8608
Sendy Caffarra is an Assistant Professor at the University of Modena and Reggio Emila (Italy)
and a visiting scholar at Stanford University (USA). She is interested in how experience shapes
our brain language network.
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3667-5061
Peter J. Collins is a Senior Lecturer at the Greenwich University. After studying linguistics and
psychology, he obtained his PhD in Psychological Sciences. Since, he has completed a postdoc-
toral fellowship in Munich and a teaching fellowship at Goldsmiths. His research focuses on the
role of natural-language pragmatics in rational behaviour.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4831-2524
Anne E. Cook is a Professor at the University of Utah. Her current empirical and theoretical
research focuses on memory-based processes involved in text comprehension. She has expertise
in the use of eye-tracking methodology, which she uses to gain a finer-grained analysis into the
processes that underlie comprehension.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0733-6370
Émilie Courteau is a postdoctoral researcher at Dalhousie University and a clinical speech-

language pathologist. Her current research focuses on the neurocognition of language processing
in teenagers with developmental language disorder and in parental support of literacy development
in preschool children.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6264-5080
Ivana Didirková is an Associate Professor of Phonetics and Phonology at the Université Paris 8
Vincennes – Saint-Denis. In her research, she is particularly interested in stuttered speech produc-
tion, articulatory phonetics and disfluency in speech and discourse.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8107-2361
William Dupont currently has a teaching and research assistantship at the UFR STAPS of Dijon.
His research is conducted within the INSERM U1093 Lab (CAPS; University of Bourgogne).
His research employs behavioural and neurophysiological methodologies to study the relationship
between the motor system, action language and motor imagery.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6932-2628
Irina Elgort is an Associate Professor in Higher Education at Victoria University of Wellington.

Her research interests include vocabulary learning and processing, bilingualism and reading. She
xiii
Contributors
uses research paradigms from applied linguistics, cognitive psychology and education to better
understand, predict and influence second language learning.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4568-9951
Shaohua Fang is a PhD candidate in linguistics in the Department of Linguistics, University of

Pittsburgh. His research interest lies in second language acquisition and sentence processing. He
has published on the L2 acquisition of Chinese temporality and L2 predictive processing.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3342-5764
Ute Gabriel is a Professor of Social Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the Norwe-
gian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway. Her research interests
include stereotypes and gender representation in language.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6360-4969
Alan Garnham is Professor of Experimental Psychology in the School of Psychology at the Uni-
versity of Sussex. His research interests are in psycholinguistics and include mental models theory,
anaphor, inference, and stereotypes and emotion, both as they impact on language processing.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0058-403X
Nathalie Giroud is a neuropsychologist and an Assistant Professor at the University of Zurich.

She leads the Computational Neuroscience of Speech & Hearing research group that studies the
neural and cognitive underpinnings of speech and language, focusing on clinical populations who
have difficulties to process and understand spoken language.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9632-5795
Pascal Gygax is a Senior Lecturer of Psycholinguistics at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

His interests include the way readers go beyond text to form coherent mental models. With Ute
Gabriel, they have published papers on the social and cognitive mechanisms that force us to see
the world through androcentric lenses.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4151-8255
Ulrike Hahn is a professor at Birkbeck College, University of London, and director of the Centre
for Cognition, Computation and Modelling. Her focus has been human rationality. Recently, she
has focused on the role of perceived source reliability for human beliefs, especially as parts of
larger communicative social networks.
https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-7744-8589
Vera Heyer is an Associate Professor at TU Braunschweig, Germany. Her current research fo-
cuses on the processing of morphologically complex words in native and non-native speakers as
well as the morphology-orthography interface.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0982-2591

xiv
Contributors
Jet Hoek is an Assistant Professor at Radboud University Nijmegen. Her research focuses on dis-
course coherence, studying both relational and referential coherence from a cognitive perspective,
from both offline and online methodologies. She is especially interested in how discourse expecta-
tions influence processing and shape the linguistic realisation of a discourse.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4430-0430
Alan Juffs is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics, University of Pittsburgh. He was the
Director of the English Language Institute at the University of Pittsburgh from 1998 to 2020. He
has published books on the lexicon, sentence processing and language development in Intensive
English Programs.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4741-6412
Merel Keijzer is a Professor of English Linguistics and English as a second language at the Uni-
versity of Groningen and the head of the Bilingualism and Aging Lab (BALAB). Her research
interests focus on (the effects of) bilingual experiences across the lifespan, with a focus on older
adulthood.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9041-8563
Jonathan D. Kim is a postgraduate research fellow in Psychology at the Norwegian University

of Science and Technology. Their current research focus is on social perception, especially as it
relates to gender ratios and gender stereotypical beliefs, and on testing long-standing methodologi-
cal assumptions found in linguistic and psycholinguistic research.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7926-6834
Loes Koring is a Lecturer at Macquarie University. She focuses on the processing and acquisition
of human language syntax and semantics. Current projects include the syntax and semantics of
posture verbs, children’s acquisition of argument structure, children’s production of negative ques-
tions, scope assignment and children’s understanding of sentences with quantifiers.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8564-7441
Erez Levon is a Professor of Sociolinguistic and Director of the Center for the Study of Language
and Society at the University of Bern. Using quantitative, qualitative and experimental methods,
his work focuses on how people produce and perceive socially meaningful patterns of variation
in language.
https://orcid.org/ 0000-0003-1060-7060
Carol Madden-Lombardi
is currently working at the University of Bourgogne (INSERUM
U1093 Lab). She employs behavioural and neuroscience methodologies to investigate the em-
bodied and modality-specific nature of language representations; showing how we use language
cues to activate appropriate meanings, and how these resulting representations mirror our real
perceptual-motor
experience.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1856-5416
xv
Contributors
Andrea Marini is Associate Professor at the University of Udine where he leads the Language
Lab. His research focuses on the neuropsychology of language in both adults and children, the
analysis of the relationship between language and cognitive functioning, cognitive neuroscience
of bilingualism, phylogenetic evolution and ontogenetic development of language.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6058-3864
Clara D. Martin is an Ikerbasque Research Professor, leader of the ‘Speech & Bilingualism’ re-
search group, at the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain. Her
research interests are on speech and language perception and production, with a specific focus on
bilingualism.
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2701-5045
Tomoko Matsui is a professor at Graduate School of Letters, Chuo University in Tokyo, Japan.
She focuses on psychological mechanisms involved in utterance interpretations. Recently, she
has been researching developmental pragmatics; exploring interactions between language, social
cognition and culture. Her publications include Bridging and Relevance (John Benjamins, 2000;
Ichikawa Prize winner).
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9638-0674
Ramesh Kumar Mishra teaches at the University of Hyderabad (India). His professional exper-
tise are attention, visual processing, bilingualism and language processing, literacy and its influ-
ence on cognition. His book Bilingualism and Cognitive Control was recently published (2018)
and he is the Editor-in-Chief
of International Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8862-7745
Iris Mulders is the Head of the Institute for Language Sciences Labs and an Assistant Professor at
the Department of Languages, Literature and Communication, Utrecht University. In her research,
she uses eye tracking to answer questions about sentence processing and the syntax-semantics
interface.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3695-9059
Elisabeth Norcliffe is a Marie Skɫodowska-Curie senior research fellow at the University of Ox-
ford. Her research lies at the intersection of psycholinguistics and linguistic typology.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8646-6474
Bert Oben is professor at the university of Leuven and currently head of the MIDI research group.
He teaches in the Linguistics and Business Communication programmes and his research is fo-
cused on multimodal analyses of interactional phenomena such as conversational humour, copying
behaviour or foreigner talk.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7022-9367
Edward J. O’Brien is a Professor Emeritus at the University of New Hampshire. His research
focuses on the development and testing of models that capture memory-based processes during
xvi
Contributors
reading comprehension. Such processes involve: (re)activation of information in memory, neces-

sary and elaborative inferences, the interaction of context and general world knowledge.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2502-4418
Francesca Pesciarelli is an Associate Professor in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Modena

and Reggio Emilia, Italy. Her research focuses on the implicit processing of language comprehension.
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3007-4775
Marie Pourquié is a researcher in Applied Psycholinguistics at the IKER-CNRS research Centre,

in Baiona, Basque country (France). Her current research focuses on language assessment tool de-
velopment in Basque and in characterizing (a)typical language processing in Basque-French and
in Basque-Spanish bilingual speakers with and without language disorders.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6159-6106

Seema Prasad is an Alexander von Humboldt research fellow at TU Dresden examining the role
of motivational factors (e.g., curiosity) on attention control. Previous work focused on uncon-
scious attention and the extent to which it can be controlled through goal-driven factors. Recent
interests include bilingualism and language-vision interaction.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7438-1051
Nan Xu Rattanasone is a senior research fellow, Deputy Director of the Child Language Lab, Co-
Director of the Centre for Language Sciences, and member of the Multilingual Research Centre,
at Macquarie University. Her research focuses on language acquisition and early literacy skills in
diverse populations, especially bilinguals and the deaf and hard of hearing.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2916-8435
Phaedra Royle is a Full Professor and the Head of the Speech-language pathology program at the
School of Speech-language pathology and audiology at the University of Montreal. Her current
research focuses on the neurocognition of language in first and second language learners of French
with and without developmental language disorder.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8657-2162
María Elina Sánchez obtained her PhD in Linguistics at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, where
she also teaches neurolinguistics. She is a researcher at the Instituto de Lingüística, Consejo Na-
cional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (Argentina). Her research focuses on morphosyn-
tactic processing in healthy adults and people with aphasia.
https://orcid.org/ 0000-0001-6159-8366
Ted J. M. Sanders is a Full Professor of at Utrecht University. He published widely on discourse

processing, representation and on the (cross-) linguistics of coherence, striving for converging
evidence by combining empirical methods: from corpus annotation to eye-tracking experiments.
He has a strong interest in improving communication through comprehensible texts.
https://orcid.org/ 0000-0001-8212-7336
xvii
Contributors
Sayaka Sato is a postdoctoral researcher in Psychology at the University of Fribourg, Switzer-

land. Her research focuses on bilingual language processing and linguistic relativity, examining
topics relating to grammatical and conceptual gender.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1406-0560
Sebastian Sauppe is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Comparative Language Sci-

ence at the University of Zurich. His research focuses on how grammatical diversity and language
processing interact.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8670-8197
Merel C. J. Scholman is an Assistant Professor at Utrecht University and a researcher at the De-
partment of Language Science and Technology at Saarland University. She is interested in cogni-
tive models of language understanding, focusing on discourse coherence. Using a combination of
on/offline methodologies, she investigates the interpretation and processing of discourse.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0223-8464
Sandra Schwab is a phonetician and Maître d’enseignement et de recherche at the University of

Bern. Her scientific interests are at the juncture of phonetics and experimental psycholinguistics.
Her primary research focus is prosody in L1 and L2 with a specialization on lexical stress percep-
tion and speech rate.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4485-8335
Yamila Sevilla is a Professor of Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics at the Universidad de

Buenos Aires and an independent researcher at the Instituto de Lingüística, Consejo Nacional de
Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (Argentina). She studies structure-building processes in
sentence comprehension and production across the lifespan in healthy people and in aphasia.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4544-6212
Anne Catherine Simon is Full Professor of French Linguistics at the University of Louvain. Her
research interests cover prosody and spoken syntax within the frame of corpus and experimental
linguistics, with a special emphasis on discourse units, regional prosody and speaking styles.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7202-842X
Anna Siyanova-Chanturia
is a Chair Professor in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics at Ocean
University of China, China and Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics at Te Herenga Waka –
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8336-8569
Stephanie Solt is a Senior Researcher at the Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS).

Solt’s research focuses on how natural languages encode scalar meaning, and how speakers choose
to communicate concepts of quantity and degree. She has an ongoing interest in the application of
experimental techniques to questions in theoretical semantics.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3269-8461
xviii
Contributors
Michael K. Tanenhaus is the Beverly Petterson Bishop and Charles W. Bishop Professor of Brain
and Cognitive Sciences (Emeritus) at the University of Rochester. His research field includes psy-
cholinguistics, cognitive psychology and science. His lab pioneered development and use of the
visual world paradigm to explore real-time spoken language comprehension.
Trisha Thomas is a PhD student at the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language and the Uni-
versity of the Basque Country, approaching the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Cognitive Neurosci-
ence. Her research focuses on how interlocutor identity affects information processing and memory.
https://orcid.org/ 0000-0001-8323-1012
Rosalind Thornton is an Honorary Professor at Macquarie University. She has invested in the
methodologies of elicited production and the truth value judgment task as reliable methods to study
children’s acquisition of syntax. Her investigations include wh-questions, sentential constraints on
pronouns and names, VP-ellipsis, negation, morphosyntax, early focus and quantification.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2854-3720
Floor van den Berg is a PhD candidate in the Bilingualism and Aging Lab (BALAB). Her research
investigates how late-life language learning affects cognitive functioning and well-being in healthy
older adults and older adults with subjective cognitive impairment and mild cognitive impairment.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9626-1293
Mara van der Ploeg is a PhD candidate in the Bilingualism and Aging Lab (BALAB). Her work
focuses on late-life language learning and includes classroom interaction, the identification of
language learning needs and the potential for cognitive benefits arising from language learning in
older adulthood.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6303-3449
Norbert Vanek is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Cultures, Languages and Linguistics, Uni-
versity of Auckland, New Zealand. His main research interests are bilingual cognition, linguistic
relativity, event processing and open science.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7805-184X
Shravan Vasishth is a Professor of linguistics at the University of Potsdam, Germany. His re-
search focuses on computational models of sentence comprehension processes.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2027-1994
Yipu Wei is an Assistant Professor at Peking University, School of Chinese as a Second Language.
Her current research interest focuses on discourse processing, perspective-taking and language
comprehension in visual world.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0128-4098
Lydia White (Ph.D. McGill) is James McGill Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at McGill Univer-
sity and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She pioneered applying the generative linguistic
xix
Contributors
framework to L2 acquisition. Her research investigates the effects of universal principles and L1
transfer on L2 linguistic competence.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4694-5950
Sandrine Zufferey is a Professor of French linguistics at the University of Bern (Switzerland).

Her work focuses on psycholinguistics approaches to study the acquisition and processing of dis-
course phenomena, especially discourse connectives. She is interested in analysing the impact of
cross-linguistic differences in linguistic encoding for cognitive processes.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5403-6709
xx
INTRODUCTION
The origins and importance of experimental
linguistics
Over the past decades, the use of experimental methods has become generalised in all domains
of linguistics. Historically, this trend has been sparked by the growing need to examine causal
relationships and by the idea that language users are an inexhaustible source of knowledge to
understand how languages are produced, understood and used during social interactions, and
more generally to evaluate linguistic hypotheses. This idea, as discussed in the first chapter of this
handbook, is different to that of more traditional linguistics, for example, in the tradition of gen-
erative grammar, where linguistic hypotheses were essentially documented, or fed, by individual
linguists or other language specialists whose aim was to assess speakers’ internal language (see
e.g., Smith & Allott, 2016). Once multiple “naïve” informants were recognised as reliable sources
to inform linguistic theories, systematic and rigorous methods of investigation became needed.
These methods evolved twofold. On one hand, linguists, across domains of the study of lan-
guage, such as language acquisition, sociolinguistics and language typology, have always had
to integrate outside sources of evidence because they could neither rely on their own intuitions
to study other languages or varieties from their own, nor could they rely on their own memories to
analyse the processes of language acquisition. Researchers in these disciplines have, therefore,
been pioneers regarding the use of empirical methods in linguistics. Yet, these empirical methods
have not been and are not always experimental. Some of them, like corpus linguistics, rely on data
observation rather than on the manipulation of variables to evaluate their effects on other variables,
as in experimental linguistics. While these observational methods represent valuable sources of
evidence, they rely on different paradigms from those of experimental research, and the underlying
methods are dealt with in dedicated handbooks (for example, O’Keeffe & McCarthy, 2022 for cor-
pus linguistics). On the other hand, experimental methods have a long tradition in psychological
sciences – maybe more specifically in cognitive sciences – and they have been used in the field of
psycholinguistics since the second half of the twentieth century. While psycholinguistics focuses
more specifically on the cognitive processes underlying language production and comprehension
as well as first and second language acquisition (Altmann, 2001), linguists from other disciplines
have come to integrate experimental methods more and more into their research to investigate a
broader range of research questions. Some of which are even rooted in psychological sciences, for
example: determining what attitudes people hold towards different accents in their mother tongue
in sociolinguistics, how people understand implicit (or indirect) language uses such as metaphors,
1 DOI: 10.4324/9781003392972-1
The origins and importance of experimental linguistics
irony and scalar implicatures in pragmatics, or the impact of gestures for linguistic representations
in the field of cognitive linguistics.
In a nutshell, experimental methods currently represent an important foundation for research in
all areas of linguistics and are used to assess linguistic representations on a broad range of different
populations. The incorporation of experimental methods across fields in linguistics has come to be
known as experimental linguistics. Yet, these experimental methods themselves have developed
exponentially over the past decades, ranging from offline studies involving the analysis of speak-
ers’ judgements of linguistic materials to online studies measuring reading comprehension or even
accessing brain activations during language processing. The use of each of these methods, even
the seemingly simplest ones in terms of materials and procedures, require adequate knowledge,
and these skills have become an integrant part of the linguists’ toolkit. These methods have been
introduced in recent textbooks (e.g., Gillioz & Zufferey, 2021), but accessible and more in-depth
resources are still scarce, yet strongly needed. Our aim with this handbook is to contribute to filling
this gap, by providing advanced students and researchers with a wide-ranging resource, containing
chapters written by authoritative scholars in their field, to help them design, conduct and analyse
experimental data that will reliably nourish and develop linguistic theories.
To achieve this goal, the 30 chapters from the handbook have been categorised into three parts.
The first part (Chapters 1–11) contains chapters dedicated to presenting the use of experimental
methods from the perspective of different fields of linguistics, covering a wide array of linguistic
domains where experimental approaches have proven to be particularly well suited, including both
those that have a long(er) tradition of using experimental methods such as phonetics and discourse
comprehension, and those in which the use of experiments is still emerging and quickly evolving,
such as syntax, semantics and pragmatics. This overview takes a broad perspective, covering do-
mains that are not systematically included in linguistic research, such as argumentation and studies
focusing on embodiment phenomena. This unified presentation encourages advanced students and
researchers form an in-depth and wide-encompassing view of the variety of methods and findings
in experimental linguistics. Although the materials presented in this part of the handbook do not
represent an exhaustive view of experimental linguistics, it nonetheless goes beyond the habitual
boundaries imposed by focusing on one or two specific domains, thus enabling cross-references
between related domains. For example, readers interested in experimental typology might also
benefit from reading about the experimental methods that can be used to study populations from
minority languages, as well as the specific practical and ethical concerns related to the inclusion
of these populations.
The second part of the handbook (Chapters 12–23) provides a detailed presentation of the lead-
ing methods used in experimental linguistics, ranging from classical methods examining natural
language productions and language comprehension, such as elicitation and judgment tasks, to
more innovative ones such as eye tracking or brain imaging. These methods are presented along
with a wide range of linguistic questions such as those pertaining to language perception and
comprehension, reading, and social interactions and categorisations. In the handbook chapters,
the main methods in experimental linguistics are critically discussed, and a selection of studies
in which they have been used are presented, with the aim to illustrate their major advantages and
challenges.
Across the chapters in this second part of the handbook, the authors also discuss important
methodological considerations for experimental designs, such as the need to control for individual
and social factors when recruiting participants for linguistics studies, as well as the implications
of testing participants in a laboratory or, as is becoming more and more common, online via the
2
internet. Special attention is also dedicated to appropriately identify the statistical tools that are
most suited for the different types of data gathered in experimental linguistics, and to embrace
the transparency needed for appropriate replication and reproducibility (open science, data and
materials sharing, etc.). These chapters aim to compel readers to think critically about important
methodological and statistical choices that can potentially impact study design, data collection and
data analyses.
Importantly though, most chapters implicitly or explicitly stress a fundamental principle of
experimental linguistics: although there is a large panel of experimental methods available, the
choice of method(s) depends on the questions asked. At times, even if some methods seem very
attractive – for example, because they are associated with modern technology – they may not
be suitable for the questions at hand. And of course, not all research questions can suitably be
addressed with a single experimental approach. For example, reading times during reading com-
prehension can adequately be measured using the simple method of self-paced reading, and the
more complex eye-tracking paradigm is necessary if researchers have hypotheses that cannot be
answered using these global reading times, and if some of the data gathered with the eye-tracker
(regressions, number of fixations, etc.) are truly informative of the cognitive mechanisms un-
der investigation. In other words, a simpler method should always be preferred when it can ad-
equately answer a research question. Methodological complexity for its own sake does not serve
the purpose of experimental research, and researchers often face complex decisions that they did
(unfortunately) not foresee when using over complex designs and research methods.
As extensively discussed across the different chapters, none of the methods are suitable for all
linguistic questions, and special attention always needs to be allocated to correctly interpret what
the data tell us (and what they don’t tell us), and to correctly identify noise factors. Most chapters
offer some hands-on recommendations, and lists of further readings are also provided at the end
for advanced students and researchers who want to develop more hands-on skills with a given
method. At times (i.e., Chapter 20 on new trends in statistical analysis for experimental linguis-
tics), links are even given for free online tutorials.
The third part of the handbook (Chapters 24–30) is dedicated to the use of experimental meth-
ods across a variety of different populations and language contexts. The chapters in this part of
the handbook emphasise the requirements and methodological challenges raised when testing par-
ticular populations such as young children or older learners, participants speaking more than one
language, or people pertaining to different cultural contexts that are not accustomed to be included
in experimental research. Each chapter includes a detailed presentation of the experimental meth-
ods that are most adequate for each population, as well as concrete advice to meet their specific
needs. As it is the case for the choice of an appropriate experimental method, choosing the right
population for one’s research questions is extremely important, as no population is suited for all
questions. Note that in many of the chapters, authors also warn about the now well-known WEIRD
sample bias (i.e., participants that represent the Western, educated, industrialised, rich, democratic
societies) and its impact on the generalisability of the data.
Taken together, the chapters of the Routledge Handbook of Experimental Linguistics provide
theoretical ground, methodological and practical guidance for advanced students and researchers
involved in experimental linguistics and eager to contribute to linguistic theories with new empiri-
cal data.
By presenting examples and applications across many linguistic domains, the handbook aims
at leading them to think critically about design, data collection and data analyses. More gener-
ally, we hope that with the Routledge Handbook of Experimental Linguistics, advanced students
3
and researchers will be led to carefully choose the methods that are best suited for their research
questions, keeping in mind that new methods are also likely to emerge in the next decades in this
rapidly expanding and exciting new field of study.
References
Altmann, G. (2001). The language machine: Psycholinguistics in review. British Journal of Psychology, 92,
129–170.

Gillioz, C., & Zufferey, S. (2021). Introduction of Experimental Linguistics. ISTE-Wiley.

O’Keeffe, A., & McCarthy, M. (2022). The Routledge Handbook of Corpus Linguistics. 2nd edition.
Routledge.
Smith, N., & Allott, N. (2016). Chomsky: Ideas and Ideals. 3rd edition. Cambridge University Press.
4
PART I
Focus on linguistic domains

1
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON
THE USE OF EXPERIMENTAL
METHODS IN LINGUISTICS
Alan Garnham
1.1 Introduction
According to most modern definitions, linguistics is the scientific study of language. It must, there-
fore, use empirical methods with observations that provide data that can be used to test the predic-
tions of linguistic hypotheses. To what extent do these methods include experimental methods, and
what is the history of the use of such methods as applied to language? Relatedly, to what extent can
the study of language be differentiated from the study of how it is processed (psycholinguistics),
how the brain is involved in such processing (neurolinguistics), and how it is acquired (child lan-
guage)? Experimental methods have been extensively used in these fields. And they all involve, at
least in a broad sense – the one adopted in this Handbook – the study of language.
Historically, an interest in describing languages can be traced back several thousand years.
Work on Sumerian cuneiform in Mesopotamia was carried out in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE.
And as the reference to cuneiform indicates, this interest was partly inspired by and partly made
possible by the invention of writing systems. Attempts to standardise writing systems led to con-
sideration of what the symbols of those systems represented. Interest in these matters was driven
by different goals in different contexts. For example, the correct recitation of sacred texts was
important in India. In ancient Greece, by contrast, it was the study of persuasive argument. The
methods were empirical, as far as observations could be used to challenge their conclusions. How-
ever, they were largely observational and seem to have depended, though in a less systematic way
than in 20th-century generative linguistics, on the responses of individual scholars to the lan-
guages they were studying (what generativists would call “linguistic intuitions”). Quantification
was generally absent. Of course, at various times, as in many domains of investigation, supposedly
legitimate empirical methods have been used to support entirely erroneous ideas about language
and languages, for example, that some languages, and by implication their users, are more primi-
tive than others. But such misuse of scientific methods does not invalidate them.
Most of the history of the study of language occurred before the modern notion of scientific
investigation was developed, and, in that sense, it was not applicable. In the Middle Ages, gram-
mar, along with logic and rhetoric, formed the trivium, the lower division of the seven liberal arts.
It was only in the 19th century that scientific developments in medicine and physics were applied
to the analysis of languages; particularly, in the first instance, they were used to answer questions
7 DOI: 10.4324/9781003392972-3
Alan Garnham
in phonetics. Acoustic properties of speech sounds and their methods of articulation proved ame-
nable to experimental investigation, but work in the third branch of phonetics, auditory phonetics,
resisted instrumentation as the human ear was regarded as the best detector of the auditory prop-
erties of speech sounds. It was in the parallel discipline of speech perception, which developed
in psychology and became established much more recently, that experimental approaches to the
auditory properties of speech sounds eventually flourished.
More generally, the use of experimental methods was introduced into Western culture by Fran-
cis Bacon in the 16th century. However, many of his arguments for experimentation, or more
generally for inductive methods and against deductive methods of scientific investigation, were
foreshadowed in the 11th century in the Book of Optics by the Arabic scholar Ibn al-Haytham (also
known as Alhazen). Following Alhazen, experimental methodology was first applied in the physi-
cal sciences, physics, and chemistry, before being imported into studies in biology and medicine.
The study of the physics of light and sound led to an interest in related aspects of language. Spoken
language is the primary form of language and questions about the nature of speech sounds, how
they are articulated and how they are perceived, naturally arose. Visual language is derivative, but
one set of questions that soon came to be asked was about the nature of eye movements in reading.
Many of these studies made use of newly developed scientific instruments that made quantitative
measurement possible.
1.2 Early work on speech sounds

Experimental studies of the physiology of speech production – what is now known as articulatory
phonetics – began in Germany, though (self-)observational studies of the position of the tongue
in articulating vowels date back to at least Robert Robinson’s 1617 “The Art of Pronunciation”
(see Dobson, 1947). In the 19th century, Ernst Wilhelm Brücke (1856) used an instrument called
the labioscope to measure movements of the lips during speaking. A further development was the
laryngoscope for investigating the movement of the glottis, first indirectly, using mirrors (e.g.,
Garcia, 1855, and later in Germany by Czermak, Merkel and others) and then directly by insertion
of the instrument into the mouth (by Alfred Kirstein in 1895, see Hirsch, Smith, and Hirsch, 1986).
Garcia discovered that the vocal cords are the primary source of speech sound and the work in Ger-
many influenced British phoneticians, in particular Henry Sweet, who was the (partial) inspiration
for Henry Higgins in George Bernard Shaw’s play “Pygmalion”.
The study of the properties of speech sounds – acoustic phonetics – was pioneered by Helm-
holtz and others (e.g., Von Helmoltz, 1870). In this domain, an important early piece of apparatus
that could record speech sounds was the phonautograph. The phonautograph was a development
of the kymograph of Carl Ludwig (1847), which was originally used to monitor blood pressure.
The phonautograph itself was designed by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville (1857) and con-
structed in a version with a cylinder for recording sound by Rudolph Koenig. It could provide a
visual record of a speech sound on smoked-blackened paper or glass, but it did not allow playback
(though a method has recently been developed to play sounds from a phonautograph recording –
see firstsounds.org). The phonautograph used an elastic membrane to mimic the tympanic mem-
brane in the ear and transferred the sounds impinging on the membrane to the paper via levers and
a stylus. Sounds were spoken into a horn that directed the vibrations in the air onto the membrane.
Although some aspects of the sounds could be identified from the visual trace, the process proved
more difficult that Scott had anticipated and, indeed, reading sounds by eye from visual records
remains difficult to this day. Following the history of recorded sound, in 1877, Thomas Edison
produced the tinfoil cylinder phonograph, in which the stylus engraved a trace of the recording
8
The use of experimental methods in linguistics
onto the cylinder, which could then be played back by running a stylus through it. Edison’s inven-
tion was quickly followed by the more enduring wax cylinder versions first produced by Alexan-
der Graham Bell and other members of his Volta Laboratory (Chichester Bell, and Charles Sumner
Tainter). Such devices were soon used for the capture and playback of speech, music and other
sounds but did not provide a visual record of the kind that lent itself to the analysis of sounds. In
France, Charles Cros also realised that playback of a phonautograph trace would be possible if
it were made more “substantial”. In 1877, he described a device similar to Edison’s phonograph,
the paleophone, to the French Academy of Sciences, but he does not appear to have had a work-
ing model. This line of work fed, primarily, into the entertainment industry, and by the late 1880s
Emile Berliner had developed flat discs that were the forerunners of the gramophone records
used for many years in the music industry, but which were of limited importance in experimental
linguistics.
A more important development from the phonautograph for that discipline was the Rousselot
cylinder (Rousselot, 1897), which, like the phonautograph, produced a visual record of sounds on
smoked paper. A crucial change was that, as well as a speech signal, the Rousselot cylinder could
produce a record of tongue movements by inserting a rubber bulb between the tongue and the roof
of the speaker’s mouth. The importance of the Rousselot cylinder and of Rousselot’s work with it
is reflected by the fact that Rousselot is regarded as one of the prime candidates for the title of the
founder of experimental phonetics. However, perhaps the most important technical development
for the scientific study of spoken language, the sound spectrograph came much later, in the 1940s
at Bell Labs (Koenig et al., 1946). This machine produces a detailed record of the distribution of
energy in a sound wave in both frequency and time. In recent years, the original part-mechanical
machines of the 1940s and 1950s have largely been replaced by computerised analysis.
As interesting as the early work in Germany and other countries was, it was subject to several
limitations. Many of these derived from the fact that it was mainly carried out by physiologists
and physicists, not linguists. These scientists often had a limited understanding of the niceties of
language. They described their results mainly in physical or anatomical terms and missed interest-
ing linguistic conclusions that could be drawn from the work they had carried out (see, e.g., Sweet,
1877). Sweet, who had many connections with Germany, but also a sound background in language
and linguistics, is another candidate for the founder of experimental phonetics.
1.3 Early work on brain damage and language

Another line of work in the empirical study of language that developed within 19th-century medi-
cal science was the study of language impairments resulting from brain damage of various kinds,
primarily strokes and head injuries. The thrust of this work was to locate areas of brain damage,
via autopsy, in patients who had been identified, while alive, as having language problems. This
work was taken to support ideas about the localisation of brain function for language. Paul Broca
(e.g., 1861) made this idea popular, but it had been presented decades earlier, using the same kind
of evidence, by Paul Dax (1863, 1865), who died shortly after his presentation of his ideas, and
without proper publication. Despite efforts by his son, Gustave (1863) to persuade the French
Academy of Sciences, Dax’s contribution was sidelined and has been largely overlooked until
recently (e.g., Cubelli & Montagna, 1994; Finger & Roe, 1996). Broca provided evidence for left
lateralisation and localisation of language in most adults, but it was left to Karl Wernicke (1874) to
distinguish, anatomically, between the kind of productive aphasia studied by Broca and receptive
aphasia of the kind named after Wernicke himself. Brain damage in these two cases was primarily
located in the first case in the pars opercularis and pars triangularis of the inferior frontal gyrus
9
Alan Garnham
(Brodmann areas 44 and 45) and in the second case in the superior temporal gyrus (Brodmann area
22) of the dominant (usually left) hemisphere. In the aphasia literature, these areas are known as
Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area, respectively. Until the advent of modern brain-imaging tech-
niques, the post-mortem anatomical techniques of Broca, Wernicke and others were widely used
in aphasia research.
1.4 Early work on eye movements in reading

The history of eye movement research, including eye movements in reading, also took off in the
19th century and has been well documented elsewhere (e.g., Wade, 2010). Empirically derived
knowledge of eye functioning and eye anatomy goes back at least as far as Aristotle (4th cen-
tury BCE) and was taken forward considerably by Galen (2nd–3rd century CE). However, the
non-smooth nature of most eye movements did not become a subject of interest until the 18th
century when nystagmus (movement of the eyes that is involuntary, rapid and repetitive, and can
be horizontal, vertical or rotational) associated with vertigo was first studied in detail by François
Boissier de Sauvages de Lacroix, Wells and later Purkinje. Finally, it was recognised (e.g., Crum
Brown, 1895, but based on earlier work) that “jerky” eye movements (“saccades”) were the norm
in looking around the world. Further support for this idea came from a related line of research
(e.g., Hering, 1879) in which sounds observed at the eye during reading and other activities, and
associated with muscular activity, were found to be discontinuous and related to the changing
position of the eye in its socket. Lamare (1892), working in Javal’s lab, used a similar technique,
and demonstrated the basic pattern of eye movements in reading English (and other left-to-right)
texts – mainly left-to-right along a single line of text, and then sweeping back to near the begin-
ning of the next line. Wade (2010) suggests that Javal’s own role in initiating the study of eye
movements in reading has been exaggerated, perhaps on the basis of a statement by Huey in his
‘Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading’ (1908), which fails to mention that the work was carried
out by Lamare and does not mention Hering et al. Wade (2010) also suggests that other methods of
recording eye movements, tried in Javal’s lab and often mentioned in the literature, for example,
fitting a suction cup with a pointer to the eye, did not work. Javal did, however, introduce the now
standard term, “saccade”, for the jerky eye movements referred to above.
Huey and others did have later success with suction cups attached directly to the eyeball, but
the techniques were not only dangerous but also introduced potential distortions to eye move-
ments, for example, because the eye had been anaesthetised and because of the additional weight
of the suction cup to be moved by the eye muscles. Non-contact methods were quickly sought and
devised, using mirrors (e.g., Orschansky, 1899) or photographic techniques by Dodge (see e.g.,
Dodge & Cline, 1901; Erdmann & Dodge, 1898). Such techniques made eye movement research
much safer, and it was soon discovered that the pattern of saccades and fixations (the times where
the eye is still between saccades) are typical of how we look around the world, though not, of
course, the specific horizontal and vertical pattern found in reading.
1.5 Early psychological research on language

While scientific approaches to speech sounds developed throughout the 19th century (and indeed
possibly earlier), it was with the emergence of psychology as a science in the late 19th century,
and with language as an obvious focus of psychological research, that experimental approaches
to many aspects of language first took hold. However, to some extent psychologists ask different
questions from linguists – roughly about language use rather than about language itself – and,
10
indeed, a debate has raged, at times more violently than others, about whether psychological re-
search can reveal anything about language itself. As just noted, psychologists focus on language
use. In the early days of psychology, de Saussure’s distinction between “langue” and “parole”
was seen as relevant to the (restricted) scope of psychology, and the later, related distinction in
generative grammar between competence and performance was (eventually) used by Chomsky to
exclude experimental psychological data from informing linguistic theory.
In other traditions, the distinction between psychological and linguistic approaches has been
less clear-cut. Karl Buhler (1934), one of the founders of experimental work in psychology in
the German laboratories, including in psychology of language, also carried out significant work
on linguistic theory. More recently, cognitive or performance grammars, often presented in the
Anglo-Saxon tradition as an alternative to Chomskyan approaches, blur the distinction between
competence and performance. However, they are not necessarily associated with experimental ap-
proaches to questions about grammar, and rarely if at all with standard psychological approaches.
Finally, work on language acquisition, even when strongly influenced by generative linguistics, is
often conducted via experiments or related empirical techniques, as linguistic intuitions of chil-
dren are unavailable or unreliable.
To return to early experimental work on language, an early development in the 1880s in Wun-
dt’s Leipzig psychology laboratory, was that of the “gravity chronometer” by James Cattell for the
brief presentation of visual stimuli. It was used to study, among other things, aspects of reading.
Wundt himself referred to the gravity chronometer as a “Fall-Tachistoskop”. This name indicated
its relationship to an instrument first introduced in physiology by Volkmann (1859) and known
in the English-speaking world as the tachistoscope. The tachistoscope is used for the study of vi-
sion under conditions of a very brief presentation of the stimulus. Volkmann’s tachistoscope was
intended to replace illumination with a brief electric spark, which was unsatisfactory for various
reasons. Early tachistoscopes differed considerably in appearance from later ones in which lights
and mirrors played an important role. As the name gravity chronometer suggests, the brief presen-
tation in Cattell’s device was produced by a slit in a board falling under gravity. This kind of shut-
tering mechanism continued to be used in some later tachistoscopes. In others, particularly where
more accurate timing was wanted, flashtubes with very precisely known characteristics (very short
rise and fall times) were used in a manner somewhat reminiscent of the electric sparks that tachis-
toscopes had replaced. The early use of tachistoscopes in psychological research provided a link
to experimental techniques used in a more established science, physiology, and was welcomed
as bolstering the scientific status of the psychological work carried out in the Leipzig laboratory.
The tachistoscope was one of several types of apparatus introduced into psychological labora-
tories in the late part of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century (see, e.g., Evans,
2000, for more information). However, the advent of behaviourism, and the increasing focus on
research on animals in psychology, gave rise to a period, at least in the Anglo-Saxon tradition, in
which language was relatively neglected. Bloomfield’s (1933) embrace of behaviourism within
linguistics had little impact in psychology, given the divorce between the two disciplines heralded
by, for example, Delbrück (1901).
1.6 The cognitive revolution

In the Anglo-Saxon world, interest in the psychology of language revived with the cognitive revo-
lution of the 1950s. The approach within psychology was largely experimental, and to some extent
observational in the study of child language. This approach was complemented by computer mod-
elling in the neighbouring discipline that came to be known as artificial intelligence (AI). AI along
11
Alan Garnham
with psychology and linguistics was one of the cognitive sciences of the 1970s and 1980s. The
AI of this period, sometimes referred to as GOFAI (Good Old-Fashioned Artificial intelligence)
should not be confused with its successor, the artificial intelligence of today, based on artificial
neural networks and machine-learning algorithms. In the study of language, some of the main
achievements of GOFAI include Terry Winograd’s (1972) programme for understanding natural
language (also known as SHRDLU) and Ross Quillian’s (1968) Semantic Networks. Quillian’s work
demonstrates the strong interplay between the various cognitive sciences, as it led to experimental
tests of his ideas in collaboration with the psychologist Allan Collins (Collins & Quillian, 1969;
1970). However, as already noted, despite the obvious connection between linguistic theory and the
psychology of language, the predominant linguistic approach of the cognitive period, generative
grammar, with its strong focus on syntax, and to a lesser extent semantics, became cautious, to say
the least, about allowing psychological data to impact on linguistics theory. Psychology was about
the use of language (“performance”) not language itself, or the knowledge of it (“competence”).
1.7 “New” experimental methods

In the 1950s and 1960s, much psychological work, though clearly experimental in nature, used
simple techniques, such as pencil and paper tasks. However, it was clear that psychological theo-
ries should be able to make predictions about how long certain processes should take, at least
relative to one another. Therefore, there was a need for studies that looked at what happened as
language was being used, which came to be known as “on-line” studies. It is possible to study both
language production and language comprehension online, but in many ways, it is easier to study
comprehension, and hence, most psychological studies have been on comprehension.
1.7.1 Online processing

In the 1960s, techniques to study online processing were developed, and from the 1970s on, ex-
periments in which processing times were reported and analysed began to proliferate. Two tech-
niques from the 1960s were “click location” and “phoneme monitoring” (or monitoring for other
linguistic units). In click location (e.g., Fodor & Bever, 1965), a click is heard while a sentence
is being played to participants. Afterwards, participants must indicate where in the sentence the
click occurred. The perceived position of a click may be displaced towards a boundary between
units posited in a linguistic analysis and that displacement provides evidence for the psychological
reality of those units. The phoneme-monitoring task was introduced by Don Foss (Foss & Lynch,
1969) and was considered more versatile than click location. In this task, participants respond to
the occurrence of a specified phoneme, usually at the beginning of a word, in the speech stream
they are listening to. Response time is taken as an indication of the difficulty of processing at that
point in the sentence.
It has already been noted that processing time measurements were possible in the late 19th cen-
tury, in particular using tachistoscopic techniques. Such techniques were reintroduced into the psy-
chology of language after the cognitive revolution. For example, the famous Haviland and Clark
(1974) study on inference-making and the given-new distinction (“We checked the picnic supplies.
The beer was warm”) used a “modified tachistoscope” (Haviland and Clark, 1974, p. 515). Other
researchers started to use computers for presenting stimuli and timing responses. For example,
Rubenstein, Lewis and Rubenstein (1971), in a study famously re-analysed by Clark (1973) in his
paper on the language-as-fixed-effect fallacy, presented stimuli on “the cathode ray tube of an IBM
12
1800 computer” (Rubenstein et al., 1971, p. 646). Another well-known experiment controlled by
a (relatively large) so-called minicomputer was Garrod and Sanford’s (1977) study of anaphoric
reference. In this study, passages were printed by a teletype attached to a NOVA 2/10 computer and
made visible to participants through a slit by presses on the space bar. These presses advanced the
paper roll on the teletype. Response time and reaction time techniques have also been widely used
in the study of lexical and sub-lexical processing.
Haviland and Clark’s (1974) study used pairs of sentences, with the first presented for a fixed
time in the tachistoscope and the second until the participant pressed a button. In Garrod and
Sanford’s (1977) study, the time that each of two sentences and a following question was vis-
ible through the slit was controlled by the participant’s button presses. That is the basis of the
self-paced reading technique, first described in detail (in French) by Joel Pynte (1974, 1975).
The technique was introduced into the English-speaking literature by, in addition to Garrod and
Sanford (1977), Aaronson and Scarborough (1976) and Mitchell and Green (1978). Aaronson and
Scarborough presented sentences one word at a time on a “computer scope” with participants
pressing a “response key” (1976, p. 57). Self-paced reading is not limited to the case where text is
divided into sentences. It also comes in several variants depending on what happens to previous
and upcoming text when the participant presses a button or a key (see, e.g., Mitchell, 2004).
The advent of microcomputers, and related software, revolutionised the running of reaction,
response and reading time (including self-paced reading) experiments. Our own lab acquired an
SWTPC microcomputer with a Motorola 6800 microprocessor in the late 1970s. The experiment
reported in Garnham (1981) was run using this machine with a custom-written programme (by
the author) in RT basic. Within a year we had switched to similar 6809-based systems running
programmes written in C cross-compiled on and downloaded from a DEC PDP11 running Unix
(Norris, 1984). Experiments using this system are reported in Garnham (1984) and several later pa-
pers from our lab. Once microcomputers morphed into everyday desktop machines, software began
to appear for common types of machines. For example, Schneider (1988) produced Micro Experi-
mental Laboratory (MEL), commercial software for PC-type computers, which was the precursor
of the much better-known E-Prime (Schneider, Eschman, & Zuccolotto, 2012), and MacWhinney
and colleagues produced PsyScope, free software for MACs (Cohen et al., 1993). Another impor-
tant piece of free software, in this case for PCs, was Ken Forster’s DMASTR/DMDX, in the devel-
opment of which he was later helped by his son, Jonathan (Forster & Forster, 2003). More recently,
software for running experiments with millisecond timing online has become available. Among
others are the free software systems PsychoPy (Peirce et al., 2019) and PsyToolkit (Stoet, 2017).
1.7.2 Eye movements

Microcomputers also helped to revolutionise the use of eye-movement techniques in psycholin-
guistic research. We have already seen that there was extensive research on the nature of eye
movements in reading in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. More important nowadays is the
use of eye-tracking measures as dependent variables to investigate hypotheses about issues such as
parsing (e.g., Ferreira and Clifton, 1986) or referential processing (e.g., Altmann & Kamide, 1999).
Two papers published in the Journal of the Optical Society in 1960 (Rashbass, 1960; Smith &
Warter, 1960) described techniques for measuring (particularly horizontal) eye movements by
reflecting light from different parts of the eye surface, such as the iris and the sclera, which have
different reflective properties. Typically, infrared light is used, as light in the visible range could
interfere with what is seen. In the 1960s and early 1970s, such systems had to be interfaced with
13
Alan Garnham
cumbersome and relatively expensive minicomputers. Nevertheless, an important development

(Rayner, 1975; Reder, 1973) was the introduction of gaze-contingent techniques, in which the
presented stimulus could be (very rapidly) changed depending on the measured position of the
eye during a fixation. Ideally, the change took place during the following saccade, when vision is
much reduced, and the occurrence of the change would not be noticed by the participant. However,
the fact that the change had occurred might affect subsequent processing, compared with a “no
change” condition. By the 1980s, regular desktop microcomputers could be used to control and
record data from eye-tracking devices.
In language research, video-based techniques, successors to the photographic methods origi-
nally used by Dodge (e.g., Dodge & Cline, 1901; Erdmann & Dodge, 1898), were developed via
the use of motion picture cameras (Fitts et al., 1950). In the 1970s and 1980s, they were used in
some studies, though their temporal resolution was limited by the number of frames per second
recorded by the video device. Other methods had to be devised to produce more accurate spa-
tial information about movements of the eyes in the head and better temporal resolution. These
characteristics were essential when people were reading substantial portions of text in relatively
small fonts. Methods based on Purkinje images were developed at the Stanford Research Institute
(Cornsweet & Crane, 1973, Crane & Steele, 1985). A commercial eye-tracker developed by a spin-
off company, Fourward Technologies, was the most commonly used Purkinje tracker in language
research. Purkinje images are formed when light is reflected from boundaries between different
layers of the transparent part of the eye, which includes the lens. When the eye moves, differential
movement of the Purkinje images can be used to compute changing eye position. Dual Purkinje
trackers, such as the ones made by Fourward Technologies, use two of the Purkinje images. They
were popular in language research for about 20 years, but they are relatively difficult to main-
tain and the Fourward Technologies model required the head to be fixed (e.g., with a relatively
uncomfortable bite bar) to determine accurately the direction of gaze in space. More recently,
techniques using infrared reflection from the surface of the eye have seen a major revival, with
EyeLink machines manufactured by SR Research being the most popular in language research.
These systems track the pupil (and measure its size, which can be used in pupillometry) by using
different reflecting properties of the pupil and the surrounding iris. Initially, these systems were
combined with head-mounted trackers, first introduced by Hartridge and Thompson (1948). Head
mounting means that the direction of gaze relative to the head is directly measured, and not its
direction in space. Hence, they typically require the head to be fixed to allow the computation of
gaze direction in space. More recently, simultaneous measurement of eye and head movements
has become accurate enough to allow the direction of gaze in space to be computed without fixing
the head (though large or rapid movements of the head are not easily compensated for). Free-
head desk-mounted systems are now the norm, except when very accurate information about eye
movements is required, as they are more comfortable for participants. A further development is
that miniaturisation allows portable eye tracking, for monitoring eye movements when people are
moving around carrying out everyday activities. That said, pioneering portable eye trackers were
introduced in the 1990s though their deployment was difficult and data analysis time-consuming
(see, e.g., Land & Tatler, 2009).
Another important development in eye-tracking research on language has been the introduction
of the so-called visual world paradigm, in which people view a set of pictures (or occasionally a
set of real-world objects) as they listen to speech. Shifts of attention from one picture to another
indicate how quickly listeners are processing what they hear. The technique is based on one intro-
duced by Cooper (1974). It was revived in psycholinguistic research, again using microcomputers
and modern software, by Tanenhaus et al. (1995).
14
1.7.3 Brain imaging and related techniques

Further advances in the experimental study of language came from the development of techniques
for registering brain activity, including so-called brain-imaging techniques. Electroencephalog-
raphy (EEG), the recording of electrical activity on the scalp, is not an imaging technique, but
the generation and analysis of event-related potentials within electroencephalograms has become
an important technique in the study of language. Electrical activity on the surface of exposed
animal brains was observed in the 19th century, but it was not until the 1920s that an electroen-
cephalogram was recorded from the human scalp by Hans Berger (1929), who coined the term
“electroencephalogram”. Berger also noted that the waves in an electroencephalogram were af-
fected by external events, which led to the notion of an event-related potential (ERP). ERPs are
often weak and only detectable by averaging electrical activity over many trials of the same kind.
The first ERPs in an awake human were reported by Pauline Davis (1939) with similar effects dur-
ing sleep reported by Davis and colleagues in the same year (H. Davis et al., 1939). In the 1960s,
Grey Walter reported the first cognitive ERPs (Walter et al., 1964). There followed an era of the
discovery and description of ERP components, positive or negative going, and indexed either by
their ordinal position (e.g., P3, the third positive-going component) or their approximate peak time
in milliseconds after the external event (e.g., N400, a negative component around 400 ms after
the event). Microcomputers and comparatively easy-to-use software led to a dramatic growth of
ERP work on language from the 1980s. A key event was the publication of Kutas and Hillyard’s
(1980) paper on the effects of the semantic anomaly on the N400 component, where the N400 was
considerably larger at “socks” than at “butter” in “She spread the bread with socks/butter”.
Related to EEG is MEG (magnetoencephalography), which analyses the magnetic component
of the same electromagnetic activity on the scalp that EEG analyses. MEG typically uses detectors
that operate at very low temperatures (superconducting quantum interference devices – SQUIDs),
and is, therefore, considerably more expensive than EEG. Both EEG and MEG are said to have
a high temporal resolution, meaning that aspects of ERP components (e.g., peaks) can be related
precisely in time to external events. This linking can then shed light on the nature of those events
and their relations to other types of events, on the assumption that similarities in ERPs reflect
similarity in (the processes of responding to) the events themselves.
Of the imaging techniques, the most important in language research is functional Magnetic
Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Other methodologies include Positron Emission Tomography (PET),
NIRS (Near Infra-Red Spectroscopy, including functional NIRS – fNIRS), and SPECT (Single-
Photon Emission Computed Tomography). Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) has been studied
in physics since the 1930s. Its use in medical imaging was developed in the early 1970s by Paul
Lauterbur (1973) and Peter Mansfield (e.g., Mansfield & Grannell, 1975), who were awarded
the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this work. In its initial medical applications, MRI
produced detailed structural images of internal body parts to help with diagnosis. fMRI combines
NMR with what has been known since the late 19th century about blood flow and blood oxygena-
tion during mental activity. The most commonly used measure is the BOLD (Blood-oxygen-level
dependent) contrast (Ogawa et al., 1990). Oxygenated blood flows to active neurons to provide
oxygen to support their activity. The oxygenated and de-oxygenated forms of haemoglobin have
different magnetic properties and hence produce differing image patterns, hence the BOLD con-
trast in the image. Brain-imaging techniques provide relatively accurate information about where
something is happening in the brain, but changes detected by the main techniques – including
fMRI – are fairly sluggish. They cannot provide detailed information about millisecond-to-
millisecond processing, which in linguistic research is often important.
15
Alan Garnham
1.7.4 Dialogue and discourse

Dialogue and discourse are somewhat neglected aspects of language, at least as far as their experi-
mental study is concerned. There have been recent attempts to compare and relate brain activity in
different participants in a discourse, but these remain in their infancy. Earlier work used various
experimental “games” to study coordination, such as the tangram game (Clark & Wilkes-Gibbs,
1986), and the maze game (Garrod & Anderson, 1987). In a different line of research, studies of
syntactic priming and related research led to the notion of alignment between participants in dia-
logue at many linguistic levels (e.g., speech rate, vocabulary, and syntactic structure; Pickering &
Garrod, 2004). Other, broader, questions about contextual effects on language, not necessarily
in dialogue, can be addressed in experimental sociolinguistics (see, e.g., Drager, 2018). Its tech-
niques are mainly relatively non-technical psychological ones.
1.8 ‘Experimental
linguistics’
Syntax and semantics are sometimes regarded, perhaps unfairly, as the core domains of linguis-
tics. In these domains, the notion of experimental approaches has only recently received much
attention, and then in a rather narrow sense (see, e.g., Cowart, 1997; Cummins and Katsos, 2019;
Goodall, 2021; Schütze, 1996). Furthermore, it has been a matter of some controversy (e.g., Jacob-
son, 2018). Traditionally, grammar writers relied on their own knowledge of a language. However
sometimes, particularly when studying unfamiliar languages from different language groups, they
had to elicit judgements from native informants. In the generative tradition that dominated aca-
demic linguistics for most of the second half of the 20th century, Chomsky’s notion of linguistic
intuition was used to justify the production and testing of syntactic hypotheses by individual lin-
guists. Initially, Chomsky appeared to show interest in results from the emerging field of psycho-
linguistics, and ideas such as the derivational theory of complexity. However, he soon took to
using his distinction between competence and performance to exclude psychological data from
informing linguistic theory.
The basic premise of more recent claims about the need for experimental syntax and semantics
is that multiple judgements (“intuitions”) are likely to be more informative than the judgements
of a single person, and that such judgements should be collected systematically in a way that can
be called experimental. Without additional manipulations or participant groups, it is not entirely
clear that the term “experimental” is appropriate for this method of data collection. Furthermore,
as Jacobson (2018) and others have argued, it is not more experimental than “collecting” carefully
elicited judgements from a single participant (often oneself) or a small group of participants. It has
advantages – and may even be essential – where judgements are dubious or variable (and it may
not always be obvious to a single speaker when they are not). However, there have been many
areas of science in which large numbers of data points and associated statistical analyses are not
required. To revert to syntax and semantics, ‘Colourless green ideas sleep furiously’ can clearly be
seen to have no sensible literal meaning by a native speaker of English, but it also clearly can be
assigned a structure that parallels that of sensible sentences such as “Tiny white mice run quickly”.
Judgements from 10 or 100 or 1,000 people are not necessarily useful in this case.
In relation to these considerations, the study of context-dependent aspects of meaning
(pragmatics) is of some interest. As Levinson (1983, 9) points out, “pragmatics” is a rag-bag term
that covers some context-dependent aspects of meaning that are closely tied to linguistic structure
and some that are not. So, for example, the analysis of indexicals (“I”, “you”, “here”, “there”,
“now”, “then”, etc.) often uses methods similar to those of formal semantics, and often, but not
16
always, is able to rely on robust judgements about the use of such terms. In other areas of pragmat-
ics, such as presupposition and implicature, judgements (and developmental trajectories) are less
obvious, and a subdiscipline of experimental pragmatics (Meibauer & Steinbach, 2011; Noveck,
2018a; Noveck & Sperber, 2004) has grown up with methods similar to those used in psycholin-
guistics, even if the relation between the two disciplines is sometimes fraught. Core areas of study
in experimental pragmatics include scalar implicature, speaker perspective and reference-making,
and irony (see Noveck, 2018b).
1.9 Conclusion
Language comprises a complex and varied set of phenomena. Its empirical, and indeed scientific,
study, therefore, has many facets. Some aspects of language, and in particular its sounds, lay them-
selves open to scientific measurement and experimentation of a kind that is familiar to the natural
sciences. In addition, aspects of language acquisition and language use repay study using the
techniques of psychology and related social and cognitive sciences. Even syntax and semantics,
considered as the core areas of language study by particularly generative linguists, and that often
seem less susceptible to experimentation, are now seeing growing interest in the potential use of
experiments for their study.
Further reading
Evans, R. B. (2000). Psychological Instruments at the Turn of the Century, American Psychologist, 55(3),

322–325.

Mitchell, D. C. (2004). On-line Methods in Language Processing: Introduction and Historical Review. In M.
Carreiras & C. E. Clifton (Eds.), The On-Line Study of Sentence Comprehension: Eyetracking, ERP and
Beyond (pp.
15–32).
New York: Routledge.
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20
2
EXPERIMENTAL PHONETICS AND
PHONOLOGY
2.1 Introduction and definitions

Experimental phonetics and phonology aim to understand the processes of speech production and
perception. As stated by Ohala, experimentation is an attitude:
first, a keen awareness that the world is not necessarily as it may seem, i.e., that our sense-
impressions and therefore the opinions and beliefs based on them may be faulty, and, sec-
ond, the willingness to actively do something to compensate for or correct these potential
errors by making observations under carefully controlled conditions.
(Ohala, 1987, p. 207)
The experimental approach is characterised by the effort to control for factors that could poten-
tially confound their effects on the phenomenon one seeks to explain, model, or predict (Xu, 2011,
p. 88). An experimental study is based on a hypothesis (e.g., the higher-pitched a voice is, the more
female-like it is perceived) that can be tested by manipulating variables (e.g., the mean pitch of the
voice, but also intonation contours or the timbre). The testability of the hypothesis depends on the
identification of the variables to be observed and the reliability of the measurements of these vari-
ables. The reliability of the measurements often requires the use of instrumental acoustic analysis
(Hayward, 2000, p. 5). However, accurate acoustic analysis is not sufficient if the hypotheses and
variables are not properly identified.
That is the reason why experimental phonology cannot be reduced to the biophysical aspects of
speech sounds and their computerised analysis. Hypothesis testing crucially relies on related fields
of knowledge, depending on the research questions: the explanation of phonological phenom-
ena of contrast and categorisation requires a cognitive dimension (Demolin, 2012); psychological
models are needed when investigating language acquisition and development; sociolinguistics
allows for studying how we categorise people based on voice features, etc.
21 DOI: 10.4324/9781003392972-4

2.2 Historical perspectives

As in other disciplines, the development of new techniques in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
opened new horizons in speech sciences. The apparition and access to new recording machines
permitted acquisitions and studies of higher amounts of data and were supposed to allow for more
objectivity since a recording can be played back, unlike direct observations made before. Tradi-
tionally, it is considered that experimental phonetics started with Rousselot (1846–1924), who
introduced the term in 1889 (Boë & Vilain, 2011). His Principes de phonétique expérimentale
(1924) provides the basis for the discipline, explaining the necessity of a ‘control’ over subjec-
tive observations made by early descriptive phoneticians. Rousselot’s work describes acoustic
and physiological parameters of human speech and provides valuable information on ‘natural’
and ‘artificial’ (Rousselot, 1924, p. 4) means of observation and experimentation. The author ex-
plains techniques such as sound recording machines (chronographs, phonautographs, phonograph,
gramophone) or devices allowing for the observation of articulatory movements (artificial palate,
kymograph, myograph, pneumograph, labial, lingual, velar, and laryngeal ‘exploration’). Impor-
tantly, Rousselot’s conception of phonetics was multidisciplinary: phonetics included linguistics,
acoustics, and physiology. However, while Rousselot is considered the father of experimental
phonetics (Hayward, 2000, p. 35), the question related to speech studies was raised long before
the 20th century. For instance, in the 18th century, Darwin (1731–1802) led the first instrumental
phonetic study on a live speaker to describe vowels’ place of articulation (Ohala, 2010).
Another seminal text was published three years after Rousselot introduced experimental pho-
netics. Scripture’s Elements of Experimental Phonetics (1902) introduce what will later be consid-
ered as the three main branches of phonetics: speech acoustics (called ‘curves of speech’), speech
perception, and speech production, and provides essential information on them.
Experimental phonology is often seen as later than phonetics: Demolin (2012) mentions a
nearly one-century delay between Rousselot and experimental or laboratory phonology appari-
tion. Nevertheless, as for experimental phonetics, it is important to specify that, as stated by Ohala
(1987), although they probably did not think of themselves as ‘experimental phonologists,’ lin-
guists and anthropologists such as Sapir (1884–1939), Greenberg (1915–2001), or Brown (1925–
1997) did use experimental methods in some of their works. However, it is Ohala and Jaeger
who contributed to the development of the discipline. In their Experimental phonology (Ohala &
Jaeger, 1986, p. 2), they advocate the use of experimental methods in phonology not to create new
knowledge, but instead to refine the existing knowledge and recall that experimental methods do
not necessarily imply heavy equipment. The authors insist on two facts. First, many other sciences
switched to experimental methods that allow for new developments in their discipline, albeit im-
perfect. Second, theories, often opposed to experiments, would benefit from experiments and vice
versa: indeed, an experiment is often based on a theory (or model); otherwise, it would not make
sense. Inversely, theories need experiments to be confirmed – or not – and refined if necessary.
2.3 Critical issues and topics
2.3.1 Variability and complexity

For several decades, experimental phonetics and phonology have pursued the elaboration of a
feature theory and sought generalised and straightforward ways to describe phonemic invariants
in languages through articulatory or acoustic theories (Ladefoged, 2004). Invariance was a central
concern until Labov’s (1972) analysis of sociolinguistic issues highlighted the social variability in
sound production and perception.
22
Experimental phonetics and phonology
Today, researchers value the intrinsic and extrinsic variability of speech, including in experi-
mental settings where variables must be controlled. Intrinsic, or structural, variability is due to
different parameters (e.g., frequency of a phoneme, syllabic, or prosodic structure) that influence
the realisation of phonemes. On the other hand, sources of extrinsic variation are numerous (e.g.,
speaker characteristics, situational context, dialect) and must be considered in production and per-
ception experiments (Thomas, 2002). The result is a complex and multifactorial attempt to model
intrinsic and extrinsic variation that has become central in many experimental studies (Kim &
Tilsen, 2022; Lawson & Stuart-Smith, 2021).
2.3.2 Corpora and stylistic diversity

Corpus studies and experimental studies sometimes seem irreconcilable: the term ‘laboratory
phonology’ evokes the use of elicited speech that can be far from everyday speech. However,
researchers seek to produce explanatory models applicable to speech in everyday life (whether for
automatic recognition, speech synthesis, speech therapy or teaching purposes). Authentic speech
corpora (continuous speech, dialogue) are necessary for the results to have ecological validity.
Corpus data come from natural contexts and make it possible to study issues related to stylistic
diversity (Wagner et al., 2015). Using such data in experimental studies combines the advantages
of both corpus and experimental methods, which are complementary. In some cases, corpus and
experiment are on the same footing and the study is both observational and experimental; most of
the time, corpora serve as databases from which fitting examples are retrieved (Gilquin & Gries,
2009, p. 14).
2.3.3 Multimodality
A last critical topic we briefly dwell on is the need for adopting a multimodal perspective. Mul-
timodality first relates to the mode (spoken, written or gestural) of speech production and the
interaction of auditory, visual, and gestural modes when processing speech. Scholars study the
influence of written stimuli on phoneme categorisation (Dufour et al., 2022), the interplay be-
tween gestures and prosody in speech production and interpretation (de Ruiter et al., 2012; Pri-
eto et al., 2015), or the phonology and prosody in sign languages (Brentari, 2019). A second
meaning, more abstract, relates to the fact that speech can be conceived as multimodal in itself:
the interplay of speech rate, breathing, register and pausing, alongside the production of ac-
centuation, rhythm or intonation patterns, creates a complex system where the different pro-
sodic ‘modes’ are partly autonomous and interplay with each other (Perlman & Benitez, 2008;
Simon & Auchlin, 2001).
2.4 Current contributions and research
2.4.1 From typology to variation

The field of experimental phonetics and phonology is incredibly rich and covers various topics.
Initially, descriptive methods used by the two disciplines were meant to understand the basic func-
tioning of the vocal tract, such as articulatory descriptions of different speech sounds or laryngeal
behaviour, both in typical and in impaired speech. Since then, the topics covered still include
phonological systems descriptions but also focus on other research questions.
23
2.4.1.1 Language typology and description

Despite decades of studies aiming at speech sound description, there still are languages containing
phonetic or phonological structures that are yet to be understood. Recently, a group of research-
ers published a book on laryngeal features in Native American languages (Avelino et al., 2016),
containing phonetic and phonological studies on parameters such as tones, vowel laryngealisation,
temporal coordination of glottalic gestures or consonant-tone interactions. Authors use a large
scale of phonetic analyses, including acoustic or electroglottographic studies. Other researchers
are interested in African languages, investigating their rhythmic patterns (Sedhu, 2015), intona-
tion (Zerbian & Barnard, 2008), articulatory gestures (Demolin & Chabiron, 2013), and others.
South American languages also gave rise to a book published a decade ago (Campbell & Gron-
dona, 2012) and studying, among other parameters, their phonetics, and phonology. Finally, Asian
language specificities are also widely studied, often regarding their tone inventories (Brunelle &
Kirby, 2016; Michaud, 2012). Interestingly, besides these less endowed languages, there is still a
need for a more detailed understanding of occidental languages and some of their phonetic and
phonological features. For instance, Signorello et al. (2017) recently investigated the aerodynamic
characteristics of Belgian French fricative consonants by measuring subglottal and intraoral air
pressure. Rhoticity and its articulatory and acoustic parameters are also a subject of interest in dif-
ferent languages such as English (King & Ferragne, 2020), Greek (Nicolaidis & Baltazani, 2014),
Slovak (Pouplier & Benus, 2009), and others, or in different configurations such as articulation
problems (Van Lieshout et al., 2008).
2.4.1.2 Variation
While we do have detailed information on phonetic properties of many speech sounds, syllables,
coordination, and phonological systems of languages, variation in these parameters is not scarce.
On the contrary, many studies try to disentangle essential phonetic and phonological features of a
sound/structure and features that can vary without preventing the correct identification.
As mentioned in the previous section, variation in speech and language is caused by many fac-
tors and is considered normal. Current research on variation in speech production and perception
focuses on a number of these factors.
One of the active fields is inter-, and intraspeaker variation or, in other words, the way speech
parameters vary not only between two speakers but also how one individual makes different
speech production characteristics vary, depending – or not – on other variables. Several studies
are interested in the variability of articulatory movements over time, depending on the speaker’s
age and other factors (Grigos, 2009; Jacewicz et al., 2010; Tomaschek et al., 2021). One of such
factors, and another important question that is still being addressed, is geographic variation.
For illustration purposes, in English, the wide variety of accents gives rise to studies on speech
production and perception of different English spoken varieties in comparison (or not) with com-
parable speech-related structures in other languages (Cebrian, 2021; Przewozny et al., 2020).
Intraspeaker variation can also be due to differences in the communication setting. It is long
known that formal situations require a more careful speech than casual discussions. However,
many other, more detailed analyses are still led on this topic, studying the relationship between
prepared and spontaneous speech, media or non-media speech, interaction degree, and others
(Brognaux & Drugman, 2014; Goldman et al., 2014), both in speech perception and speech
production.
24
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MACDONALD, ZILLAH K. Eileen’s adventures

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MACDONNELL, JAMES FRANCIS CARLIN

(FRANCIS CARLIN, pseud.). Cairn of stars.
*$1.50 Holt 821
20–9075
A second volume of poems by the author of “My Ireland.” As in the

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town; The seventh son; A Munster marriage; An Irish madonna; For
a god-child; The queen of Kerry; The coming of the fairies; The
herdsman’s son; The beggar’s blessing.
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Reviewed by Mark Van Doren
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MCDOUGALL, WILLIAM. Group mind. *$5
Putnam 301
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“A sketch of the principles of collective psychology with some

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MCDOWALL, ARTHUR SYDNEY. Realism; a

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MCEVILLY, MARY A. Meslom’s messages from

the life beyond. *$1.50 (6c) Brentano’s 134
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MCFADDEN, GERTRUDE VIOLET.

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MCFEE, MRS INEZ NELLIE (CANFIELD).

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+ Booklist 17:117 D ’20

“A tale of strange people, strange places, strange motifs, strange
morals told with brilliant effect and satisfying completeness.” S. M.
R.
+ Bookm 52:370 D ’20 360w
“This well-written novel, broader in its scope than Mr McFee’s

previous books is strong not only in its character portrayal but in the
philosophy interspersed throughout its pages.”
+ Bookm 52:367 Ja ’21 90w
“While ‘Captain Macedoine’s daughter’ is not so good a story as

either ‘Casuals of the sea’ or ‘Aliens,’ it has in it all the original
qualities of unconventional fiction that long ago established Joseph
Conrad and that is placing Mr McFee in the same rank of novelists.”
E. F. E.
+ Boston Transcript p6 N 3 ’20 1200w
“William McFee’s new novel has the same elusive perfume as

Conrad’s ‘Arrow of gold.’” A. W. Welch
+ N Y Call p7 Ja 9 ’21 380w
“‘Captain Macedoine’s daughter’ gladdens the heart of the serious

lover of English prose, for it proves that in Mr McFee we have no
mere casual of the pen, no fortunate adventurer upon ink who
triumphed by chance, but a soberly devoted novelist from whom
many years of fine work may confidently be expected.”
+ N Y Evening Post p5 N 13 ’20 1100w
“‘Captain Macedoine’s daughter’ is, first of all, a masterful

portrayal of two colorful personalities.... But it is far more than that;
it is, too, a contrast between occidental and eastern civilizations and
philosophies, a commentary on human nature, particularly an
analysis of love, and an achievement in beautiful prose.”
+ N Y Times p18 N 7 ’20 1000w
“There is less sea and more siren in this novel than Mr McFee’s
readers would perhaps expect. Few readers will resist the charm of
the style; some will think the dénouement unsatisfying.”
+ − Outlook 126:515 N 17 ’20 80w
“Unmistakably a big, compelling, haunting book.” F: T. Cooper
+ Pub. W 98:1190 O 16 ’20 420w
“The outstanding impression is the sense of atmosphere which the

narrative imparts to the reader. The narrative has many curious
ramifications, but each is an important part of the whole, and the
reader will find himself enthralled from the first to the last scene.”
+ Springf’d Republican p7a N 28 ’20

640w
[2]
MCGIBENY, DONALD. 32 caliber. *$1.75
Bobbs
20–18770
“Although the author is unusually progressive in having his villain

operate with the aid of airplane and machine gun, the general plot
and the situations created are such as might be encountered in every-
day life and modern crime. An attorney and his wife, on the way to
keep an appointment that involves the domestic happiness and
honor of both, are found at a lonely spot, the car wrecked, the man
dead from a bullet wound, the wife unconscious in the tonneau. Was
it another automobile accident, was the man murdered by the wife or
did an outsider have a part in the tragedy? These are questions that
perplexed the authorities and will perplex and mystify the reader.”—
Springf’d Republican
“The basis and material used in the tale is excellent and would
make a capital short story.”
+ − Boston Transcript p9 Ja 26 ’21 150w
“A not too lurid mystery interestingly built up and broken down, in

a rapid, easy narrative style.”
+ Ind 104:383 D 11 ’20 20w
“The only marked defect is the author’s attempt to force the

reader’s suspicions on characters whose guilt, if ultimately proved by
the story, would shock any decent sense of plausibility.”
+ − N Y Evening Post p11 N 27 ’20 70w
“He has written so well, made his people so living and so pleasant,
handled his subject so surely, that it is difficult to think of this book
as a maiden essay.”
+ N Y Times p25 D 19 ’20 580w
“Among the better of the new detective tales, ’32 calibre,’ early
arouses the interest of the reader and holds it through a series of
adventures, with the solution of the mystery not even indicated until
the close.”
+ Springf’d Republican p9a O 31 ’20 150w
MACGILL, PATRICK. Maureen. *$2 (1½c)

McBride
20–13698
Mr MacGill’s new story of Donegal is a mingling of pathos and

humor, hard toil and grim poverty, beauty and stark tragedy.
Maureen, the daughter of Kathleen O’Malley, tastes all the sorrow
and loneliness of an illegitimate child and after her mother’s death
leaves the parish. She has won the love of young Cathal Cassidy and
he would have her stay, but long before her mother had warned her
that her only happiness would lie in marrying a man outside the
parish who would not have to suffer for her shame in the eyes of his
neighbors, and to spare Cathal this she leaves him. She meets
experiences that are bitterly cruel, but after them finds a haven with
kind people and at the end of two years returns. Cathal has been
faithful and it seems that their love is to bring them happiness, but
tragedy overwhelms them. The war and Sinn Fein have a place in the
background of the story.
“The characters in general are well drawn, and have that tragic
intensity which Synge and others have made us believe to be in the
Celtic blood.”
+ Ath p1242 N 21 ’19 120w
“Unmitigated truth and sincerity produce a strong reality of

characters and atmosphere though not a pleasant story.”
+ Booklist 17:72 N ’20
“Such a thing to be done at all must be done exceptionally well,

and Mr MacGill, with a good style at his command, has achieved a
triumph.” G. M. H.
+ Boston Transcript p6 Ag 7 ’20 520w
“The minor characters are admirably drawn; the chief ones are less
vivid and convincing. The weaknesses of the story are glaring: it is
poor both in structure and in motivation. Keeran, in the final
chapters, is drawn on the lines of Dickens at his worst, and the tragic
conclusion brings the reader up with the jolt of an express train
coming to a violent halt.”
− + Cath World 112:547 Ja ’21 220w

“The chief and tragic emphasis falls upon youth, in spite of which
the best of the story lies in the penetrating, vivid, and thoroughly
human presentation of the old people.” E. P.
+ Dial 70:107 Ja ’21 50w
“Much of the power of the story lies in the intermingling of quite

Russian realism, with an idealism which bursts flamelike through the
recital of brutal details. ‘Decent’ is the salutation of the people of
Dungarrow for the strangers they meet, and decent is the epithet
uppermost in the mind of the reader, in spite of Mr MacGill’s frank
exposure of the vices of his own people.” E. L.
+ Grinnell R 15:283 N ’20 240w
“‘Maureen’ is the story of a peasant girl in Donegal, a terrible story

in many ways and a curiously fascinating one. Mr MacGill knows
how to flash a scene so vividly before your mind that it haunts your
visual memory for days afterward.”
+ Ind 104:242 N 13 ’20 120w
“In ‘Maureen’ there is considerable alloy, yet much good metal and
some precious. But the whole thing needs fusing.” J. C. L.
+ − New Repub 23:261 Jl 28 ’20 400w
“‘Maureen’ is not up to ‘Children of the dead end’ or ‘Rat pit,’ but it

is well worth reading, especially to Irish folk and the legion that love
the Irish.” S. C. Daljord
+ N Y Call p11 Ag 1 ’20 600w
“There are very few figures in the story that evoke admiration;
most of them, to be quite frank, suggest the opposite. But their
vitality is amazing, and because of this authentic possession of the
power to make his characters live and breathe, Mr MacGill takes a
prominent place with those other admirable Irish fictioneers, St John
Ervine, Shaw Desmond, James Joyce and James Stephens.”
+ N Y Times 25:279 My 30 ’20 1150w
Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
+ Review 2:679 Je 30 ’20 500w
“Mr MacGill’s story is a stern presentation not only of characters,

but of racial characteristics and psychology. It is always real and
alive. The book unrolls before the reader’s eyes a segment of life from
rural Ireland with all the reality of a picture film.”
+ Springf’d Republican p11a Je 13 ’20

650w
“Nothing farther removed from the individualist English novel

could be imagined. It is not that the characters are in any way lacking
in individuality. They are creatures of flesh and blood right enough,
terrible in their humanity. But it is as social rather than as personal
values that they count. There is little joy in Mr MacGill’s book—one
feels that the sun seldom shines in Donegal—but it has creative
richness and the supreme quality of truth.”

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Experimental Linguistics 1st Edition

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Sandrine Zufferey is a Professor of French linguistics at the University of Bern, Switzerland.

Pascal Gygax is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

Routledge Handbooks in Linguistics provide overviews of a whole subject area or sub-discipline

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF NORTH AMERICAN LANGUAGES

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF LANGUAGE AND SCIENCE

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF LANGUAGE AND EMOTION

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF LANGUAGE CONTACT

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PIDGIN AND CREOLE LANGUAGES

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL SIGN

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF LANGUAGE AND PERSUASION

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF SEMIOSIS AND THE BRAIN

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF LINGUISTIC PRESCRIPTIVISM

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF EXPERIMENTAL LINGUISTICS

Further titles in this series can be found online at www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbooks-in-

Introduction: the origins and importance of experimental linguistics 1

1 Historical perspectives on the use of experimental methods in linguistics 7

2 Experimental phonetics and phonology 21

19 Analysing language using brain imaging 299

20 New directions in statistical analysis for experimental linguistics 313

21 Assessing adult linguistic competence 330

22 Dealing with participant variability in experimental linguistics 345

23 Testing in the lab and testing through the web 356

24 Experimental methods to study child language 375

25 Experimental methods to study atypical language development 390

26 Experimental methods to study disorders of language production in adults 407

27 Experimental methods for studying second language learners 422

28 Experimental methods to study bilinguals 440

29 Experimental methods to study cultural differences in linguistics 458

30 Experimental methods to study late-life language learning 473

Émilie Courteau is a postdoctoral researcher at Dalhousie University and a clinical speech-

Irina Elgort is an Associate Professor in Higher Education at Victoria University of Wellington.

Shaohua Fang is a PhD candidate in linguistics in the Department of Linguistics, University of

Nathalie Giroud is a neuropsychologist and an Assistant Professor at the University of Zurich.

Pascal Gygax is a Senior Lecturer of Psycholinguistics at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

Jonathan D. Kim is a postgraduate research fellow in Psychology at the Norwegian University

reading comprehension. Such processes involve: (re)activation of information in memory, neces-

Francesca Pesciarelli is an Associate Professor in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Modena

Marie Pourquié is a researcher in Applied Psycholinguistics at the IKER-CNRS research Centre,

Ted J. M. Sanders is a Full Professor of at Utrecht University. He published widely on discourse

Sayaka Sato is a postdoctoral researcher in Psychology at the University of Fribourg, Switzer-

Sebastian Sauppe is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Comparative Language Sci-

Sandra Schwab is a phonetician and Maître d’enseignement et de recherche at the University of

Yamila Sevilla is a Professor of Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics at the Universidad de

Stephanie Solt is a Senior Researcher at the Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS).

Sandrine Zufferey is a Professor of French linguistics at the University of Bern (Switzerland).

Focus on linguistic domains

1.2 Early work on speech sounds

21 DOI: 10.4324/9781003392972-4