Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-5bvrz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-08T03:01:06.100Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What structural priming can and cannot reveal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2017

Loes Koring  and
Eric Reuland
Loes Koring
Affiliation:
MIT Linguistics and Philosophy, Cambridge, MA 02139. koringloes@gmail.comhttp://linguistics.mit.edu/user/koring/
Eric Reuland
Affiliation:
Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS, 3512JP Utrecht, Netherlands. eric.reuland@gmail.comhttps://www.uu.nl/medewerkers/EJReuland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The nature of mental representations of linguistic expressions in relation to the time course from intention to articulation is a major issue. We discuss Branigan & Pickering's (B&P's) proposal to use structural priming to tap into this process. We show that their interpretation of their findings cannot be maintained. We reinterpret these results and suggest a revision of their conclusions.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 40 , 2017 , e298
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Agnew, Z. K., van de Koot, H., McGettigan, C. & Scott, S. K. (2014) Do sentences with unaccusative verbs involve syntactic movement? Evidence from neuroimaging. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience 29(9):1035–45. doi:10.1080/23273798.2014.887125.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bever, T. G. & Sanz, M. (1997) Empty categories access their antecedents during comprehension: Unaccusatives in Spanish. Linguistic Inquiry 28:69–91.Google Scholar
Brennan, J. & Pylkkänen, L. (2016) MEG evidence for incremental sentence composition in the anterior temporal lobe. Cognitive Science 41(S6):1515–31. doi:10.1111/cogs.12445.Google Scholar
Burzio, L. (1981) Intransitive verbs and Italian auxiliaries. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1955/1975) The logical structure of linguistic theory. Plenum.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1986) Knowledge of language: Its nature, origin, and use. Greenwood Publishing Group/Praeger.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1995) The minimalist program. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (2001) Derivation by phase. In: Ken Hale: A life in language, ed. Kenstowicz, M., pp. 1–52. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Crain, S. & Thornton, R. (1998) Investigations in universal grammar: A guide to experiments on the acquisition of syntax and semantics. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Friedmann, N., Taranto, G. Shapiro, L. P. & Swinney, D. (2008) The leaf fell (the leaf): The online processing of unaccusatives. Linguistic Inquiry 39(3):355–77.Google Scholar
Koornneef, A., Avrutin, S., Wijnen, F. & Reuland, E. (2011) Tracking the preference for bound-variable dependencies in ambiguous ellipses and only-structures. In: Experiments at the interfaces, ed. Runner, J., pp. 67–101. Syntax and Semantics 37. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.Google Scholar
Koornneef, A. & Reuland, E. (2016) On the shallow processing (dis)advantage: Grammar and economy. Frontiers in Psychology 7:82. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00082.Google Scholar
Koring, L., Mak, P. & Reuland, E. (2012) The time course of argument reactivation revealed: Using the visual world paradigm. Cognition 123(3):361–79.Google Scholar
Levelt, W. J. M. (1989) Speaking: From intention to articulation. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Perlmutter, D. M. (1978) Impersonal passives and the unaccusative hypothesis. In: Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, ed. Jaeger, J. J., Woodbury, A. C., Ackerman, F., Chiarello, C., Gensler, O. D., Kingston, J., Sweetser, E. E., Thompson, H. & Whistler, K. W., pp. 157–89. University of California, Berkeley Linguistics Society.Google Scholar
Reuland, E. (2011a) Anaphora and language design. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Reuland, E. (2011b) Syntax and interpretation systems: How is their labor divided? In: The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Minimalism, ed. Boeckx, C., pp. 377–96. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sprouse, J., Caponigro, I., Greco, C. & Cecchetto, C. (2016) Experimental syntax and the variation of island effects in English and Italian. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 34:307–44.Google Scholar