A Study Of Syntactic Choices And Response Latencies In L2 Priming Effect

Syntactic priming has been proved to be a robust phenomenon with empirical and theoretical value.However,most studies on syntactic priming only focus on the results of syntactic selection,but pay little attention to the timing of sentence production.Segaert et al.(2011,2014,2016)observed that the same priming variables had different influences on syntactic choices and response onset latencies,and they proposed the two-stage competition model based on the experimental results.They deemed that syntactic choices and response latencies were caused by different mechanisms.It is assumed that syntactic encoding consists of two stages: the selection stage and the planning stage,and syntactic preference is a crucial factor in the two-stage competition model.Syntactic selection only occurs in the selection stage and the magnitude of priming depends on the amount of residual activation of alternative structures,which is prone to an inverse preference effect.On the contrary,response latency is the sum of the time taken in the selection stage and the planning stage,of which the selection time is negatively correlated with the difference in activation levels of alternative structures and the planning time is reduced due to the practice effect,which is prone to a positive preference effect.Simultaneously,cumulativity and verb repetition can change the activation levels,affecting the competition in the selection stage and the priming effect on the syntactic choices and response latencies.So far,the number of studies on the two-stage competition model is scarce.Furthermore,there are divergences in the results.At the same time,the research objects are only limited to native speakers.Based on the two-stage competition model,this study attempts to explore the mechanisms underlying syntactic priming by comparing the influences of syntactic preference,cumulativity and verb repetition on the priming of syntactic choices and response onset latencies with Chinese ESL learners as participants.Research questions:1.How does syntactic preference influence the priming of syntactic choices and response latencies for active structure and passive structure? Does verb repetition/non-verb repetition affect the results?2.How does cumulativity influence the priming of syntactic choices and response latencies for active structure and passive structure? Does verb repetition/non-verb repetition affect the results?120 freshmen from a university in Wuxi participated the experiment and they were randomly divided into four groups,of which Active 1 group(30 persons): the prime sentences were active structures and the number of prime sentences in each trial was 1;Active 3 group(30 persons): the prime sentences were active structures and the number of prime sentences in each trial was 3;Passive 1 group(30 persons): the prime sentences were passive structures and the number of prime sentences in each trial was 1;Passive 3 group(30 persons): the prime sentences were passive structures and the number of prime sentences in each trial was 3.There were a total of 20 trials in the priming experiment.Verbs in prime and target sentences were repeated in 10 trials and the other 10 trials were not repeated.The subjects first participated in baseline experiment and one week later participated in priming experiment.The picture description paradigm was used in baseline experiment and priming experiment.A pre-programmed software realized by Typescript language recorded the content of subjects’ picture descriptions and the response latencies.Filler pictures were inserted in the experiment to cover the target structures and the experimental purpose.The experiment results showed that:1.There was the inverse preference effect in syntactic choices.The passive structure which was less preferred exhibited greater priming effect than active structure which was more preferred.Furthermore,it manifested the lexical enhancement effect both for the active and passive groups.In contrast,there was significant priming effect in response onset latencies both for active and passive groups.The response latencies with syntactic persistence were significantly faster than that without syntactic persistence.Verb repetition decreased the response latencies with syntactic persistence for the active groups,increased the response latencies for the passive groups.2.In terms of syntactic choices,cumulative effect also exhibited the characteristic of inverse preference.Because the baseline activation level of active structure was close to the ceiling,there was little space to rise,and no cumulative effect was observed even with verb repetition.For passive structure,the priming rate with three prime sentences and the priming rate with one prime sentence was marginally significant.With the help of verb repetition,the cumulative effect was significant.On the contrary,cumulativity could speed up the response latencies for active and passive groups.Besides,verb repetition accelerated the sentence production.The experimental results basically conformed to the two-stage competition model,confirming the different influences of syntactic preference,cumulativity and verb repetition on syntactic choices and response onset latencies.However,due to the different characteristics of L1 and L2 and the frequency of occurrence of the alternative structures,these influences were somewhat different from the previous research results and the presupposition of the two-stage competition model.It can be seen that the influence of priming on syntactic choices and response latencies is dynamic.At the same time,the two-stage competition model needs combining with more factors to be further verified and improved.The results of this study also bring new enlightenment to the application of L2 priming effect in teaching.