This experiment is code named the red experiment. You may only take the red experiment once per day for payment. If you take this experiment twice in one day, your second one will be rejected. We may have other color experiments up at the same time as this experiment. You may take each color only once per day.

This is an experiment about English sentences. It will take about 5-8 minutes to complete, and you will be paid $1.50 for your time. This experiment is being conducted by Dr. Jon Sprouse at the University of Connecticut, and has been approved by the UConn Institutional Review Board. Please click here to download a study information sheet (pdf) that contains the UConn IRB's seal of approval.

Basic Info

What is your biological sex? Female Male
What is your age?
1. Did you live in the United States from birth until (at least) age 13? Yes No
2. Did both of your parents speak English to you at home? Yes No
Which state did you grow up in (two letter abbreviation)?

Instructions

In this experiment you will read pairs of English sentences, and determine which sentence in each pair sounds the most grammatical to you. By grammatical, we mean whether you think a native speaker of English could say this sentence in a conversation. In other words, do you think it would sound odd for your friends to say this to you, as if they don’t speak English natively?

We are not concerned with whether the sentence would be graded highly by a writing teacher: we do not care about points of style or clarity, and we do not care about the grammar rules that you learned in school (who versus whom, ending a sentence with a preposition, etc). Instead, we are interested in whether these sentences could be said by a native speaker of English in normal daily speech.

Each pair of sentences of sentences is preceded by a short context to let you know what the sentences are supposed to mean. Please read this context​, and then simply click the radio button next to the sentence that you think sounds the most grammatical. You can only choose one sentence for each pair.

There are 10 pairs of sentences for you to judge.

 

Pairs of sentences:
${surveycode}
   
Context: ${1}
   
${2}
${3}
   
   
Context: ${4}
   
${5}
${6}
   
   
Context: ${7}
   
${8}
${9}
   
   
Context: ${10}
   
${11}
${12}
   
   
Context: ${13}
   
${14}
${15}
   
   
Context: ${16}
   
${17}
${18}
   
   
Context: ${19}
   
${20}
${21}
   
   
Context: ${22}
   
${23}
${24}
   
   
Context: ${25}
   
${26}
${27}
   
   
Context: ${28}
   
${29}
${30}
   
   

You are now finished. Please take a moment to make sure that you answered all of the questions. You will only be paid if you rated all of the sentences.