Syntactic priming in American Sign Language.
Psycholinguistic studies of sign language processing provide valuable opportunities to assess whether language phenomena, which are primarily studied in spoken language, are fundamentally shaped by peripheral biology. For example, we know that when given a choice between two syntactically permissibl...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2015-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4364966?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1818316995280502784 |
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| author | Matthew L Hall Victor S Ferreira Rachel I Mayberry |
| author_facet | Matthew L Hall Victor S Ferreira Rachel I Mayberry |
| author_sort | Matthew L Hall |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Psycholinguistic studies of sign language processing provide valuable opportunities to assess whether language phenomena, which are primarily studied in spoken language, are fundamentally shaped by peripheral biology. For example, we know that when given a choice between two syntactically permissible ways to express the same proposition, speakers tend to choose structures that were recently used, a phenomenon known as syntactic priming. Here, we report two experiments testing syntactic priming of a noun phrase construction in American Sign Language (ASL). Experiment 1 shows that second language (L2) signers with normal hearing exhibit syntactic priming in ASL and that priming is stronger when the head noun is repeated between prime and target (the lexical boost effect). Experiment 2 shows that syntactic priming is equally strong among deaf native L1 signers, deaf late L1 learners, and hearing L2 signers. Experiment 2 also tested for, but did not find evidence of, phonological or semantic boosts to syntactic priming in ASL. These results show that despite the profound differences between spoken and signed languages in terms of how they are produced and perceived, the psychological representation of sentence structure (as assessed by syntactic priming) operates similarly in sign and speech. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T09:30:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5749665bd0a44c43b4f6fe508268f58c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T09:30:17Z |
| publishDate | 2015-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-5749665bd0a44c43b4f6fe508268f58c2022-12-21T23:52:30ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032015-01-01103e011961110.1371/journal.pone.0119611Syntactic priming in American Sign Language.Matthew L HallVictor S FerreiraRachel I MayberryPsycholinguistic studies of sign language processing provide valuable opportunities to assess whether language phenomena, which are primarily studied in spoken language, are fundamentally shaped by peripheral biology. For example, we know that when given a choice between two syntactically permissible ways to express the same proposition, speakers tend to choose structures that were recently used, a phenomenon known as syntactic priming. Here, we report two experiments testing syntactic priming of a noun phrase construction in American Sign Language (ASL). Experiment 1 shows that second language (L2) signers with normal hearing exhibit syntactic priming in ASL and that priming is stronger when the head noun is repeated between prime and target (the lexical boost effect). Experiment 2 shows that syntactic priming is equally strong among deaf native L1 signers, deaf late L1 learners, and hearing L2 signers. Experiment 2 also tested for, but did not find evidence of, phonological or semantic boosts to syntactic priming in ASL. These results show that despite the profound differences between spoken and signed languages in terms of how they are produced and perceived, the psychological representation of sentence structure (as assessed by syntactic priming) operates similarly in sign and speech.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4364966?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Matthew L Hall Victor S Ferreira Rachel I Mayberry Syntactic priming in American Sign Language. PLoS ONE |
| title | Syntactic priming in American Sign Language. |
| title_full | Syntactic priming in American Sign Language. |
| title_fullStr | Syntactic priming in American Sign Language. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Syntactic priming in American Sign Language. |
| title_short | Syntactic priming in American Sign Language. |
| title_sort | syntactic priming in american sign language |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4364966?pdf=render |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT matthewlhall syntacticpriminginamericansignlanguage AT victorsferreira syntacticpriminginamericansignlanguage AT rachelimayberry syntacticpriminginamericansignlanguage |