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Short-term and working memory capacity and the language device: Chunking and parsing complexity
Author(s)
Date Issued
2022
Publisher
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Citation
In John Schwieter & Wen, Zhisheng. (eds.) 2022. The Cambridge handbook of working memory and language (pp. 393-417). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Type
Book Chapter
Abstract
Many general linguistic theories and language processing frameworks have assumed that
language processing is largely a chunking procedure and that it is underpinned and
constrained by our memory limitations. Despite this general consensus, the distinction
between short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) limitations as they relate
to language processing has remained elusive. To resolve this issue, we propose an
integrated memory- and chunking-based metric of parsing complexity, in which STM
limitations of 7±2 (Miller, 1956a) are relevant to the Momentary Chunk Number (MCN),
while WM limitations of 4±1 (Cowan, 2001) are relevant to the Mean Momentary Chunk
Number (MMCN). Examples of concrete calculations of our new metric are presented visà-vis Liu’s MDD metric and Hawkins’ IC-to-word Ratio metric. Related methodology
issues are also discussed. We conclude the paper by echoing some recently repeated calls
(O'Grady, 2012 & 2017; Gómez-Rodríguez et al., 2019; Wen, 2019) to include STM and
WM limitations as part and parcel of the language device (LD; cf. Chomsky, 1957) in that
their impacts are ubiquitous and permeating in all essential linguistic domains ranging from
phonology to grammar, discourse comprehension and production.
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