Phrasal Ordering Constraints in Sentence Production: Phrase Length and Verb Disposition in Heavy-NP Shift

Abstract

Heavy-NP shift is the tendency for speakers to place long or “heavy” noun phrase direct objects at the end of a sentence rather than in the canonical postverbal position. Three experiments using several task variations confirmed that length of the noun phrase influenced the ordering of the noun phrase and prepositional phrase during production. We also found that heavy-NP shift was strongly constrained by the “shifting disposition” of individual verbs. Verbs that do not require their complements (e.g., sentential complements) to appear in an adjacent position yielded more shifting during production than did verbs that more frequently appear adjacent to their complements. Analyses of decision/preparation times suggested that shifted and unshifted structures competed for selection. These findings point to the simultaneous activation of lexically derived syntactic representations and ordering options in sentence planning. A multiple constraints framework provides a means of reconciling the existence of competition among ordering options with incremental sentence construction.