Syntactic Priming in American Sign Language

Psycholinguistic studies of sign language processing provide valuable opportunities to assess whether language phenomena, which are primarily studied in spoken language, are fundamentally shaped by peripheral biology. For example, we know that when given a choice between two syntactically permissible ways to express the same proposition, speakers tend to choose structures that were recently used, a phenomenon known as syntactic priming. Here, we report two experiments testing syntactic priming of a noun phrase construction in American Sign Language (ASL). Experiment 1 shows that second language (L2) signers with normal hearing exhibit syntactic priming in ASL and that priming is stronger when the head noun is repeated between prime and target (the lexical boost effect). Experiment 2 shows that syntactic priming is equally strong among deaf native L1 signers, deaf late L1 learners, and hearing L2 signers. Experiment 2 also tested for, but did not find evidence of, phonological or semantic boosts to syntactic priming in ASL. These results show that despite the profound differences between spoken and signed languages in terms of how they are produced and perceived, the psychological representation of sentence structure (as assessed by syntactic priming) operates similarly in sign and speech.

针对手语加工的心理语言学研究，为评估原本主要在口语中被探究的语言现象是否从根本上由外周生物学机制塑造提供了宝贵契机。例如，已有研究表明，当面对两种句法合规的方式表达同一命题时，说话者更倾向于选用近期使用过的句法结构，这一现象被称为句法启动（syntactic priming）。本研究报告两项针对美国手语（American Sign Language, ASL）中名词短语结构句法启动效应的实验。实验1结果显示，听力正常的第二语言（L2）手语使用者在美国手语中可表现出句法启动效应，且当启动句与目标句中的中心名词重复时，启动效应会更强，即词汇促进效应（lexical boost effect）。实验2结果表明，聋人母语（L1）手语使用者、迟习得母语的聋人手语学习者以及听力正常的第二语言手语使用者，其句法启动效应强度并无显著差异。此外，实验2还对美国手语中句法启动的语音促进效应与语义促进效应进行了检验，但未发现相关证据。上述研究结果表明，尽管口语与手语在产生与感知方式上存在显著差异，但二者在句子结构的心理表征层面（通过句法启动效应进行评估）的运作逻辑高度相似。