[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-151832-en":3,"doc-seo-151832-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":92},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":27,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},151832,2336475104736,"วิน","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/22000c4c5e0e5b17e70?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1786591360781797222",8,"Research & Report","Two wrongs make a right - Learnability and word order consistency","Languages often show word-order inconsistencies, which are commonly assumed to make acquisition more difficult. This work presents an integrative account linking learnability to word order by combining syntactic theory, corpus-based analyses, and computational modelling. The study compares English and German, using differences in main vs. subordinate clauses and verb-position patterns to test when inconsistent structures remain learnable. The results suggest inconsistencies can be preserved through interactions among multiple syntactic structures rather than becoming unlearnable.","UC Merced  \nProceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society  \nTitle  \nTwo wrongs make a right: Learnability and word order consistency  \nPermalink  \n[https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5tt20269](https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5tt20269)  \nJournal  \nProceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 25(25)  \nISSN  \n1069-7977  \nAuthors  \nMonaghan, Padraic  \nGonitzke, Markus Chater, Nick  \nPublication Date  \n2003  \nPeer reviewed  \n[eScholarship.org](eScholarship.org) Powered by the California Digital Library  \nUniversity of California  \nTwo wrongs make a right: Learnability and word order consistency  \nPadraic Monaghan ([Padraic.Monaghan@warwick.ac.uk](Padraic.Monaghan@warwick.ac.uk)) Markus Gonitzke ([Markus.Gonitzke@warwick.ac.uk](Markus.Gonitzke@warwick.ac.uk))  \nNick Chater ([N.Chater@warwick.ac.uk](N.Chater@warwick.ac.uk))  \nDepartment of Psychology, University of Warwick  \nCoventry, CV4 7AL, UK  \nAbstract  \nLanguages often demonstrate word order inconsistencies, and such inconsistencies ought to make languages harder to acquire. We present an integrative approach exploring the relationship between learnability and word order, incorporating syntactic theory, corpus analyses and computational modelling. We focus on comparisons between English and German, and conclude that inconsistencies maybe preserved in the language due to the interaction between several syntactic structures.  \nIntroduction  \nInconsistent structures in language are harder to learn than consistent structures by computational systems, whether inconsistencies are at the syntactic level (Christiansen & Devlin, 1997), or at the lexical level, in terms of grapheme to phoneme correspondences (Plaut, et al., 1996), or semantic ambiguities (Cottrell, 1986) . Several languages are entirely consistent in terms of head position (e.g., the position of the verb in verb phrases), such as Japanese or Irish. However, a degree of inconsistency is present among most languages (Kroch, 2000), even if there is still a high degree of consistency (Lupyan & Christiansen, 2002 ; van Everbroeck, 1999) . One possible contributor to learnability is case-marking, which is particularly useful in languages with relatively free word order (Lupyan & Christiansen, 2002), though this appears to be a necessary rather than a sufficient condition (Kiparsky, 1996) for the learnability of such languages.  \nViewed in evolutionary terms, languages that are harder to learn are more likely to die out (Christiansen & Devlin, 1997), and given the high rate of change of languages across time, it is a significant challenge to explain how word order inconsistencies are learned within languages.  \nOur approach to this challenge to account for learnability of inconsistencies was to bring together syntactic theory with analyses of the frequencies of different structures in real language corpora, and combine these with computational modelling. Previous simulations of word order have largely ignored the proportions of different syntactic structures (though with notable exceptions, e.g., MacDonald & Christiansen, 2002) . Through the use of real language corpora in modelling, we can increase the precision of determining the extent to which the processes of sequential learning are engaged in language processing.  \nThis paper presents a series of corpus analyses and simulations that explore the conditions under which  \ninconsistencies in the language are learnable. As a test case, we focus on word order in German and English. German and English are particularly interesting for comparison as they have the same root (Cable & Bough, 1993), however, they differ in several important respects: In main clauses, German has a subject-verb-object (SVO) word order, whereas in subordinate clauses, the order is subject-objectverb (SOV), as shown in Sentence 1. The sentences are subscripted with subject (S), object (O), finite verb (Vf), infinite verb (Vi), and complementiser (C) to indicate t","cbCaifXXFWYCFXdz","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaifXXFWYCFXdz","pdf",955191,1,7,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Learnability challenges from inconsistent language structures\n## Evolutionary perspective on language change\n# Approach\n## Combining syntax, corpus frequencies, and computational modelling\n## Corpus analyses and simulations as test cases\n# Case study: German and English\n## Main vs. subordinate clause word order\n## Verb position differences in infinite verb phrases\n## Persistence of minority-structure word order","[{\"question\":\"Why would word-order inconsistencies be expected to be harder to acquire?\",\"answer\":\"The paper argues that inconsistencies create structures that computational learning systems and learners find more difficult than consistent patterns, so such inconsistencies should increase acquisition difficulty.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the study connect learnability with word order?\",\"answer\":\"It integrates syntactic theory, corpus analyses that estimate frequencies of structures in real language, and computational modelling to test the conditions under which inconsistencies are learnable.\"},{\"question\":\"What makes English and German a key comparison in this work?\",\"answer\":\"They share a root yet differ in word-order patterns: German alternates SVO in main clauses with SOV in subordinate clauses, and also differs in verb-position behavior, allowing the paper to examine how inconsistencies persist despite changes over time.\"}]","Two wrongs make a right - Learnability and word order consistency | PDF",1787851092,18,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":87,"head_meta":89,"extra_data":91,"updated_unix":28},"two-wrongs-make-a-right-learnability-and-word-order-consistency","",{"@graph":36,"@context":86},[37,54,69],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,51],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":50},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":52,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":53},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/two-wrongs-make-a-right-learnability-and-word-order-consistency/151832/",4,{"url":52,"name":13,"@type":55,"author":56,"headline":13,"publisher":58,"fileFormat":61,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":62,"datePublished":63,"encodingFormat":61,"isAccessibleForFree":64,"interactionStatistic":65},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":57},"Person",{"url":41,"name":59,"@type":60},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-04","2026-08-27",true,{"@type":66,"interactionType":67,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":68},"ViewAction",{"@type":70,"mainEntity":71},"FAQPage",[72,78,82],{"name":73,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":75},"Why would word-order inconsistencies be expected to be harder to acquire?","Question",{"text":76,"@type":77},"The paper argues that inconsistencies create structures that computational learning systems and learners find more difficult than consistent patterns, so such inconsistencies should increase acquisition difficulty.","Answer",{"name":79,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":80},"How does the study connect learnability with word order?",{"text":81,"@type":77},"It integrates syntactic theory, corpus analyses that estimate frequencies of structures in real language, and computational modelling to test the conditions under which inconsistencies are learnable.",{"name":83,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":84},"What makes English and German a key comparison in this work?",{"text":85,"@type":77},"They share a root yet differ in word-order patterns: German alternates SVO in main clauses with SOV in subordinate clauses, and also differs in verb-position behavior, allowing the paper to examine how inconsistencies persist despite changes over time.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":52,"og:type":88,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":59,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":90,"canonical":52},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":93},[94,98,102,106,111,116,120,123,128,131,135],{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":95,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":97},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":47,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":99,"show_sort_weight":100,"slug":101},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":53,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":108,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":110},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":112,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":113,"show_sort_weight":114,"slug":115},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":121,"slug":122},30,"research-report",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":127},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":126,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":130},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":132,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":133,"show_sort_weight":132,"slug":134},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":136,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":137,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":138},19,"General","general"]