Syntactic Representation In Late Uyghur-chinese Bilinguals

Syntactic representation is an important part of language representation, andgradually become one focus of bilingual cognitive domain in recent years. As ageneral phenomenon in language comprehension and production, syntactic primingcan be used to research syntactic representation. To explore the characteristics ofsyntactic representation in bilinguals and how it influenced by second-languageproficiency, we studied within-and between-language syntactic priming fortransitives using sentence recall task in late Uyghur-Chinese bilinguals.First, we investigated with-language syntactic priming of Uyghur and Chinesein Experiment1and2. Then, we studied between-language priming of Uyghur andChinese in Experiment3and4. Lastly, in order to explore how Uyghur-Chinesebilinguals access syntactic representation of two language, a combined analysis wasconducted.Experiment1showed syntactic priming of transitives in Uyghur that was amember of the Altai language family. Experiment2showed within-language primingof Chinese transitives for more proficient late Uyghur-Chinese bilinguals but not forless proficient late Uyghur-Chinese bilinguals. Experiment3and4showedbetween-language priming of transitives for more proficient late Uyghur-Chinesebilinguals but not for less proficient late Uyghur-Chinese bilinguals. A combinedanalysis of the data showed within-language syntactic priming effect is not equallystrong as between-language.Hence, our results indicate:(1) Syntactic priming occured in Uyghur.(2) Moreproficient late Uyghur-Chinese bilinguals have established mature syntacticrepresentation of L2. The level of abstractness in L2syntactic representation is highenough for more proficient bilinguals, but lower for the less proficient.(3) For moreproficient late Uyghur-Chinese bilinguals, the syntactic representation of twolanguage can promote each other even if the syntactic structures of two language aredifferent. The syntactic representation of two language is separate,but therepresentation of the same functional structure in two language is connected witheach other, supporting connected-syntax account.(4)For less proficient lateUyghur-Chinese bilinguals, the syntactic representation of two language can notpromote each other. The syntactic representation of two language is separate,supporting separate-syntax accounts.