Projects per year
Abstract
Although it is generally accepted that syntactic information is processed independently semantic information in languages such as English, there is less agreement about whether the same is true in languages such as Mandarin that have fewer reliable cues to syntactic structure. We report five experiments that used a structural priming paradigm to investigate the independence of syntactic processing in Mandarin. In a recognition memory task, Mandarin native speakers described ditransitive events after repeating prime sentences with a double object (DO) or prepositional object (PO) structure. Participants tended to repeat syntactic structure across prime and target sentences. Critically, this tendency occurred whether or not semantic features (animacy of the recipient) were also repeated across sentences, both when the verb was repeated and when it was not. We conclude that Mandarin speakers compute independent syntactic representations during language processing.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 81-98 |
Journal | Journal of Memory and Language |
Volume | 91 |
Early online date | 22 Mar 2016 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Dec 2016 |
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Dive into the research topics of 'The independence of syntactic processing in Mandarin: Evidence from structural priming'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 2 Finished
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A theoretical model of syntactic processing in children's language production
Branigan, H. (Principal Investigator)
1/09/14 → 31/08/15
Project: Research
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Syntactic and lexical representation and processing in mu
Branigan, H. (Principal Investigator)
1/07/14 → 30/06/17
Project: Research
Profiles
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Holly Branigan
- School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences - Personal Chair in Psychology of Language and Cognition
- Edinburgh Neuroscience
Person: Academic: Research Active