Exploring the Nature of Syntactic Priming of English-Mandarin Bilinguals Comparing with English Monolinguals

Abstract

This study investigates the nature of syntactic priming in English-Mandarin bilinguals. Compared with the English monolinguals, the results show that differences between bilingual and monolingual groups can be attributed to the different syntactic structures and subtle linguistic differences between English and Mandarin, including the impact and potential language interference. The study also emphasizes that there are marginally significant differences between passive and locative conditions among bilingual groups, with passive priming showing a stronger priming effect. Importantly, the study elucidates the sensitivity of English-Mandarin bilinguals to argument structure and the influence of animacy distribution on the generation of passive sentences, as well as the reduced use of passive sentences by bilinguals compared to monolinguals. The research demonstrates that the argument structure priming hypothesis and animacy distribution also exist in English-Mandarin bilingual groups the same as the English monolinguals [1].