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The role of L1 and L2 frequency in cross-linguistic structural priming: An artificial language learning study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2021

Merel Muylle Open the ORCID record for Merel Muylle [Opens in a new window] ,
Sarah Bernolet  and
Robert J. Hartsuiker Open the ORCID record for Robert J. Hartsuiker [Opens in a new window]
Merel Muylle*
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Sarah Bernolet
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
Robert J. Hartsuiker
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
*
Address for correspondence: Merel Muylle Ghent University, Department of Experimental Psychology, Henri Dunantlaan 2, B-9000Gent. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

We investigated L1 and L2 frequency effects in the sharing of syntax across languages (reflected in cross-linguistic structural priming) using an artificial language (AL) paradigm. Ninety-six Dutch speakers learned an AL with either a prepositional-object (PO) dative bias (PO datives appeared three times as often as double-object [DO] datives) or a DO dative bias (DOs appeared three times as often as POs). Priming was assessed from the AL to Dutch (a strongly PO-biased language). There was weak immediate priming for DOs, but not for POs in both bias conditions. This suggests that L1, but not AL, frequency influenced immediate priming. Furthermore, the DO bias group produced 10% more DOs in Dutch than the PO bias group, showing that cumulative priming was influenced by AL frequency. We discuss the different effects of L1 and AL frequency on cross-linguistic structural priming in terms of lexicalist and implicit learning accounts.

Keywords

artificial language learningsentence productionstructural priming
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 24 , Issue 4 , August 2021 , pp. 767 - 778
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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