Syntactic Representations Are Both Abstract and Semantically Constrained: Evidence From Children’s and Adults’ Comprehension and Production/Priming of the English Passive

Bidgood, Amy, Pine, Julian ORCID: 0000-0002-7077-9713, Rowland, Caroline and Ambridge, Ben ORCID: 0000-0003-2389-8477 (2020) Syntactic Representations Are Both Abstract and Semantically Constrained: Evidence From Children’s and Adults’ Comprehension and Production/Priming of the English Passive. Cognitive Science, 44 (9). e12892-.

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Abstract

All accounts of language acquisition agree that, by around age 4, children’s knowledge of grammatical constructions is abstract, rather than tied solely to individual lexical items. The aim of the present research was to investigate, focusing on the passive, whether children’s and adults’ performance is additionally semantically constrained, varying according to the distance between the semantics of the verb and those of the construction. In a forced‐choice pointing study (Experiment 1), both 4‐ to 6‐year olds (N = 60) and adults (N = 60) showed support for the prediction of this semantic construction prototype account of an interaction such that the observed disadvantage for passives as compared to actives (i.e., fewer correct points/longer reaction time) was greater for experiencer‐theme verbs than for agent‐patient and theme‐experiencer verbs (e.g., Bob was seen/hit/frightened by Wendy). Similarly, in a production/priming study (Experiment 2), both 4‐ to 6‐year olds (N = 60) and adults (N = 60) produced fewer passives for experiencer‐theme verbs than for agent‐patient/theme‐experiencer verbs. We conclude that these findings are difficult to explain under accounts based on the notion of A(rgument) movement or of a monostratal, semantics‐free, level of syntax, and instead necessitate some form of semantic construction prototype account.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Passive construction, Comprehension, Syntactic priming, Autonomy of syntax, Shallow syntax, Semantic prototype construction, Prototype model, Exemplar model
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	18 Sep 2020 08:05
Last Modified:	18 Jan 2023 23:32
DOI:	10.1111/cogs.12892
Open Access URL:	https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12892
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3101660

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• Syntactic representations are both abstract and semantically constrained: Evidence from children’s and adults’ comprehension and production/priming of the English passive. (deposited 04 Aug 2020 08:36)
  • Syntactic Representations Are Both Abstract and Semantically Constrained: Evidence From Children’s and Adults’ Comprehension and Production/Priming of the English Passive. (deposited 18 Sep 2020 08:05) [Currently Displayed]