Is syntactic priming semantically independent in first and second language?

The study employs syntactic priming to examine whether the prepositional phrase (PP) semantic role contributes to the parsing of PP-attachment syntactic structure in both first and second language. Participants were presented with a list of sentences that all shared both the syntactic attachment and PP semantic role (within-role), or a list where sentences in the last block differed in the PP semantic role (cross-role). Syntactic priming occurred across sentences that had the same and different semantic roles in first language (L1), indicating a semantically independent syntactic processing. Second language (L2) speakers revealed a smaller magnitude of cross-role syntactic priming.

本研究采用句法启动技术，旨在探究介词短语（PP）的语义角色是否对第一语言和第二语言的介词短语附加句法结构的解析产生影响。实验参与者被呈现一系列句子，这些句子要么在句法附着和PP语义角色（角色内）上均保持一致，要么在最后一个区块中的句子在PP语义角色上存在差异（角色间）。在第一语言（L1）中，相同和不同语义角色的句子之间出现了句法启动现象，这表明句法处理与语义处理相互独立。对于第二语言（L2）的说话者而言，角色间句法启动的幅度较小。