The Role of Case Marking and Word Order in Cross‐Linguistic Structural Priming in Late L2 Acquisition

Several studies found cross‐linguistic structural priming with various language combinations. Here, we investigated the role of two important domains of language variation: case marking and word order, for transitive and ditransitive structures. We varied these features in an artificial language lea...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inLanguage learning Vol. 70; no. S2; pp. 194 - 220
Main Authors Muylle, Merel, Bernolet, Sarah, Hartsuiker, Robert J.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Wiley-Blackwell 01.06.2020
Subjects
artificial language learning
Artificial Languages
Bilingualism
Grammar
Indo European Languages
Language Processing
Language Variation
Morphology (Languages)
Natural Language Processing
Priming
sentence production
structural priming
syntactic processing
Verbs
Word Order
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ISSN0023-8333
1467-9922
DOI10.1111/lang.12400

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Summary:Several studies found cross‐linguistic structural priming with various language combinations. Here, we investigated the role of two important domains of language variation: case marking and word order, for transitive and ditransitive structures. We varied these features in an artificial language learning paradigm, using three different artificial language versions in a between‐subjects design. Priming was assessed between Dutch (no overt case marking, SVO word order) and a) an SVO order version, b) a case marking version, and c) an SOV order version. Similar within‐language and cross‐linguistic priming was found in all versions for transitives, indicating that cross‐linguistic structural priming was not hindered. In contrast, for ditransitives we found similar within‐language priming for all versions, but no cross‐linguistic priming. The finding that cross‐linguistic priming is possible between languages that vary in morphological marking or word order, is compatible with studies showing cross‐linguistic priming between natural languages that differ on these dimensions.
Bibliography:We thank Thomas Wegner for help with the development of the artificial language and the creation of the action videos. This research was funded by a grant (G049416N) from the Research Foundation—Flanders (FWO).
ISSN:0023-8333
1467-9922
DOI:10.1111/lang.12400