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Considering experimental and observational evidence of priming together, syntax doesn't look so autonomous
Nicholas A Lester1, John W Du Bois1, Stefan Th Gries1
1Department of Linguistics,University of California,Santa Barbara,Santa Barbara,CA 93106.nlester@umail.ucsb.edudubois@linguistics.ucsb.edustgries@linguistics.ucsb.edufmoscoso@linguistics.ucsb.eduhttp://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/faculty/dubois/http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/faculty/stgries/http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/people/fermin-moscoso-del-prado-martin.
Abstract:
We agree with Branigan & Pickering (B&P) that structural priming experiments should supplant grammaticality judgments for testing linguistic representation. However, B&P overlook a vast (corpus-)linguistic literature that converges with - but extends - the experimental findings. B&P conclude that syntax is functionally independent of the lexicon. We argue that a broader approach to priming reveals cracks in the façade of syntactic autonomy.