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How multiple sources of experience influence bilingual syntactic choice: Immediate and cumulative cross-language effects of structural priming, verb bias, and language dominance*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

GERRIT JAN KOOTSTRA  and
WILLEMIJN J. DOEDENS
GERRIT JAN KOOTSTRA*
Affiliation:
Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands Center for Language Science, The Pennsylvania State University, USA
WILLEMIJN J. DOEDENS
Affiliation:
Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands
*
Address for correspondence: Gerrit Jan Kootstra, Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, Division of Human Movement and Education, Campus 2–6, P.O. Box 10090, 8000 GB Zwolle, the Netherlands[email protected]
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Abstract

We investigated trial-by-trial and cumulative cross-language effects of structural priming and verb bias on L1 and L2 dative syntactic choices (e.g., ‘boy-give-ball-to-girl’ [PO structure] vs. ‘boy-give-girl-ball’ [DO structure]). Dutch-dominant Dutch–English bilinguals listened to a prime sentence with a DO or PO structure in one language and then described a picture in the other language, using verbs that varied in their bias towards the PO or DO structure in Dutch and English. We found effects of cross-language structural priming and verb bias on syntactic choice, some of which were influenced by the participants’ language dominance. In addition, we found cumulative forms of structural priming, leading to cross-language priming effects between experimental blocks. We discuss these results in terms of models on the representation of lexical and syntactic information in bilinguals, and point out how the observed effects can be related to experience-based mechanisms of language use and contact-induced language change.

Keywords

structural primingverb biaslanguage dominanceadaptationcumulativitylanguage experiencelanguage changebilingualism
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 19 , Special Issue 4: Cross-language Effects in Bilingual Production and Comprehension , August 2016 , pp. 710 - 732
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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Footnotes

*

We would like to thank three anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier versions of this paper. The research reported in this paper was supported by an ERC-Advanced grant (ERC-2008-AdG, SH5; ‘Traces of Contact: Language contact studies and historical linguistics’), awarded to Pieter Muysken (Radboud University Nijmegen). Parts of the writing of this paper were supported by NSF grant OISE-0968369 to Judith Kroll, Janet van Hell, and Paola Dussias (Pennsylvania State University). Gerrit Jan Kootstra is now at Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, Zwolle, the Netherlands.

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