Abstract
Previous research in several European languages has shown that the language processing system is sensitive to both structural frequency and structural priming effects. However, it is currently not clear whether these two types of effects interact during online sentence comprehension, especially for languages that do not have morphological markings. To explore this issue, the present study investigated the possible interplay between structural priming and frequency effects for sentences containing the Chinese ambiguous construction V NP1 de NP2 in a self-paced reading experiment. The sentences were disambiguated to either the more frequent/preferred NP structure or the less frequent VP structure. Each target sentence was preceded by a prime sentence of three possible types: NP primes, VP primes, and neutral primes. When the ambiguous construction V NP1 de NP2 was disambiguated to the dispreferred VP structure, participants experienced more processing difficulty following an NP prime relative to following a VP prime or a neutral baseline. When the ambiguity was resolved to the preferred NP structure, prime type had no effect. These results suggest that structural priming in comprehension is modulated by the baseline frequency of alternative structures, with the less frequent structure being more subject to structural priming effects. These results are discussed in the context of the error-based, implicit learning account of structural priming.
Highlights
The resolution of syntactic ambiguities during online sentence comprehension has been heavily scrutinized for it can provide evidence concerning how people draw on various sources of information
When the ambiguity was resolved to the more frequent NP structure, prime type had no effect. These results suggest that structural priming in Chinese sentence comprehension is modulated by frequency-based syntactic preferences, with the less frequent structure being more sensitive to structural priming effects
The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate whether online processing of the ambiguous construction V NP1 de NP2 could be affected by the prior presentation of a single prime sentence, and more crucially, whether the strength of structural priming could be modulated by the baseline frequency of alternative structures
Summary
The resolution of syntactic ambiguities during online sentence comprehension has been heavily scrutinized for it can provide evidence concerning how people draw on various sources of information. Researchers have found that factors such as structural simplicity (Rayner et al, 1983), semantic plausibility (Trueswell et al, 1994), and discourse context (Altmann and Steedman, 1988) affect syntactic ambiguity resolution. Another important source of information appears to be the baseline frequency of alternative analyses (Mitchell et al, 1995). In sentence (1), the relative clause who was outside the house may be attached either to the wife (high in the tree structure) or to the football star (low attachment). Previous studies have shown a preference for high attachment in Spanish, Dutch, and French (Carreiras and Clifton, 1993, 1999; Brysbaert and Mitchell, 1996; Zagar et al, 1997; Traxler et al, 1998), whereas English shows either a weak low-attachment preference or no clear preference (Carreiras and Clifton, 1993, 1999; Traxler et al, 1998). Mitchell et al (1995) argued that the observed cross-linguistic differences in relative clause attachment can be predicted by the relative frequency of high and low attachment in each language
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
