Judgments of grammaticalness: A partial replication and extension

This study is a partial replication and extension of a study by Maclay and Sleator (1961) involving judgments of grammaticalness. In an effort to overcome various methodological shortcomings in the earlier study, 152 male subjects were asked to judge a series of 36 word sequences on the dimensions of grammaticalness, meaningfulness, and ordinariness under five different modes of stimulus presentation. Results of the present study failed to confirm the findings reported earlier by Maclay and Sleator. The significance of the results is discussed in relation to several basic issues in the scaling of judgments of grammaticalness.