Structural priming in L2 Turkish: A study on possessive noun phrases and noun clauses

Journal article by Gözde Mercan in Second Language Acquisition of Turkish, 2016.

Second Language Acquisition of Turkish front page

Abstract

Structural priming is the facilitation in the processing of a linguistic form due to repetition (Bock 1986). This study investigates structural priming in second language (L2) acquisition of Turkish in relation to the representation of L2 grammar. The linguistic structures investigated are possessive noun phrases (NPs) and noun clauses with nominalized verbs, which share the same external genitive-possessive morpho-syntax in Turkish. Adult L2 learners first read prime sentences, and then completed target fragments. Overall, they produced more possessive NPs than noun clauses. Crucially, they produced more possessive NPs after reading NP primes, and more noun clauses following noun clause primes. This suggests that L2 learners have two distinct mental representations for these structures, rather than a single, unspecified one.

Published Aug. 16, 2017 2:05 PM - Last modified May 2, 2024 10:44 AM