Verhagen,VéroniqueMos,Maria2025-02-012025-02-012016-07-06Verhagen, V & Mos, M 2016, 'Stability of familiarity judgments : Individual variation and the invariant bigger picture', Cognitive Linguistics, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 307. https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2015-00630936-5907ORCID: /0000-0002-1255-3556/work/51444700ORCID: /0000-0001-5161-2208/work/6530866910.1515/cog-2015-0063https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14602/65404Judgments are often used in linguistic research. Not much is known, however, about the variation of such judgments within and between participants. From a usage-based perspective, variation might be expected: with judgments based in representations, and representations resulting from input and use, both inter- and intra-individual variation are likely. This study investigates the reliability of metalinguistic judgments, more specifically familiarity judgments, for Dutch prepositional phrases (e.g. op de bank, 'on the couch'). Familiarity judgments for 44 PPs offered in isolation and in a sentential context were given by 86 participants in two identical test sessions, using Magnitude Estimation. Aggregated scores (averaged over participants) are remarkably consistent (Pearson’s r = .97), and in part predicted by corpus frequencies. At the same time, there is considerable variation between and within participants. Context does not reduce this variation. We interpret both the stability and instability to be real reflections of language: a relatively stable system in a speech community consisting of speakers who are variable and forever changing. The results suggest that judgment data are informative at different levels of granularity. They call for more attention to individual variation and its underlying dynamics.enginfo:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccessmultiword unitslinguistic representationsmetalinguistic judgmentsindividual variationcontext effectsfrequencyArticleGeneral rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. - Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. - You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain - You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal" Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/8498346412212647709344https://research.tilburguniversity.edu/en/publications/efb4268e-edb7-43a2-93f8-c53c94c2dab1(c) Universiteit van TilburgVerhagen, Véronique§0000-0002-1255-3556Mos, Maria§0000-0001-5161-2208