The Non-Uniqueness of Linguistic Intuitions.

The mental basis of linguistic intuitions is obscure, as regards their relationship both to other aspects of language behavior, such as speaking and listening, and to an hypothesized epistemological structure, such as a 'grammar'. In the present study, we show that experimentally manipulated differences in mental state can systematically alter the linguistic intuitions which speakers render about sentences. These results indicate that the processes underlying intuitions cannot be ignored when they are used as empirical data to test grammatical theories.*