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{
    "pk": 49742,
    "title": "Dense Sentence Sets Induce an Anchor-and-Baseline Strategy in Likert Scale Acceptability Judgments",
    "subtitle": null,
    "abstract": "Research in experimental syntax typically assumes that the five-point Likert scale offers an ordinal probe that maps monotonically onto a latent degree of sentence acceptability. We challenge that assumption by showing that, when the stimulus space is densely populated, speakers repurpose the scale into an anchor-and-baseline device. Two large-N experiments (Russian and Serbo-Croatian; N=237; 120 permutational word-order variants per language) elicited over 28000 sentence acceptability ratings. Plotting Shannon entropy of the response distribution against the mean rating reveals a robust 'entropy arch': uncertainty climbs to a sharp peak at the midpoint and collapses toward both ends. We interpret the arch as the quantitative fingerprint of constraint competition: the scale extremes serve as categorical anchors ('completely acceptable' vs. 'completely unacceptable'), while the center functions as a floating baseline against which speakers register maximally uncertain, cue-balanced configurations for which grammatical, information-structural and frequency-based cues pull in opposite directions. Our findings reframe Likert data as the outcome of dynamic calibration rather than static preference strength and provide a simple diagnostic, entropy profiling, for locating linguistic 'tipping-point' constructions. Beyond sentence acceptability, the approach offers a principled way to map regions of maximal competition in any domain where categorical anchors and graded uncertainty coexist.",
    "language": "eng",
    "license": {
        "name": "",
        "short_name": "",
        "text": null,
        "url": ""
    },
    "keywords": [
        {
            "word": "Linguistics; Language Comprehension; Syntax"
        }
    ],
    "section": "Papers with Poster Presentation",
    "is_remote": true,
    "remote_url": "https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7fr9r71f",
    "frozenauthors": [
        {
            "first_name": "Artem",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Novozhilov",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "University of Nova Gorica",
            "department": ""
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Kirill",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Chuprinko",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "University of Nova Gorica",
            "department": ""
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Artur",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Stepanov",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "University of Nova Gorica",
            "department": ""
        }
    ],
    "date_submitted": null,
    "date_accepted": null,
    "date_published": "2025-01-01T18:00:00Z",
    "render_galley": null,
    "galleys": [
        {
            "label": "PDF",
            "type": "pdf",
            "path": "https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/49742/galley/37704/download/"
        }
    ]
}