Language learners’ unacceptability judgments improve with repeated exposure to acceptable sentences

Recent work has raised a question about whether adult language learners take advantage of indirect negative evidence (here, statistical preemption) while learning a new language. Statistical preemption predicts that exposure to conventional formulations results in better recognition that unconventional formulations are unacceptable. In a preregistered study, 61 undergraduates enrolled in Spanish classes were exposed to instances of conventional constructions in Spanish for 3 days to determine whether the exposure would bring their responses to unconventional formulations into closer alignment with those of native Spanish speakers. Judgment data confirms an effect of statistical preemption: students showed an increased recognition of the fact that unconventional (unwitnessed) formulations were unacceptable. These results are consistent with the idea that learning a new language is, in large part, learning which formulations to avoid: learning what not to say