Is it better to give than to donate? Syntactic flexibility in language production

This article compares the predictions of two models of grammatical encoding in language production. The basis of one model is that alternative syntactic structures compete to determine which structure is eventually used. The second model is incremental: Utterances are gradually built up, and the structure emerges from the construction process itself. If grammatical encoding is competitive, syntactic choices should pose difficulties; if incremental, syntactic choices should ease the creation of speech. These predictions were tested in three experiments where speakers created utterances which sometimes required a syntactic decision. When constructing a sentence allowed a syntactic choice, speakers generally constructed that utterance with fewer errors and more quickly. This finding supports the notion that language production operates incrementally. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.