This book asserts that language is a signaling system rather than a
code, based in part on such research as the finding that 5-year-old
English and Dutch children use pronouns correctly in their own
utterances, but often fail to interpret these forms correctly when used
by someone else.
Emphasizing the unique and sometimes competing demands of listener and
speaker, the author examines resulting asymmetries between production
and comprehension. The text offers examples of the interpretation of
word order and pronouns by listeners, and word order freezing and
referential choice by speakers. It is explored why the usual symmetry
breaks down in children but also sometimes in adults.
Gathering contemporary insights from theoretical linguistic research,
psycholinguistic studies and computational modeling, Asymmetries
between Language Production and Comprehension presents a unified
explanation of this phenomenon.
"Through a lucid, comprehensive review of acquisition studies on
reference-related phenomena, Petra Hendriks builds a striking case for
the pervasiveness of asymmetries in comprehension/production. In her
view, listeners systematically misunderstand what they hear, and
speakers systematically fail to prevent such misunderstandings. She
argues that linguistic theory should take stock of current
psycholinguistic and developmental evidence on optionality and
ambiguity, and recognize language as a signaling system. The arguments
are compelling yet controversial: grammar does not specify a one-to-one
correspondence between form and meaning; and the demands of the mapping
task differ for listeners and speakers. Her proposal is formalized
within optimality theory, but researchers working outside this framework
will still find it of great interest. In the language-as-code vs.
language-as-signal debate, Hendriks puts the ball firmly in the other
court." Ana Pérez-Leroux, University of Toronto, Canada
