Cross-Domain Structural Priming of Action Sequences and Relative Clause Constructions: Tracing the Embodied Bases of Syntactic Structures

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD in Cognitive Science-Linguistics, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

2 Associate Professor of Linguistics, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

One of the controversial questions in neuropsychological investigations of language is whether syntactic mechanisms interact with a domain-general hierarchical processor or they operate independently from other cognitive domains. Following theoretical conjectures on the existence of structural parallels between the syntax of language and action sequences, the present study focuses on the relative correspondence between sentences with extraposed and center-embedded subject relative clauses (RCs) and complex actions with linear and nonlinear sequences, respectively. In a series of cross-domain structural priming experiments, therefore, we examined if the abstract structures of actions can affect participants’ processing speed in the grammaticality judgments of RCs. To this end, 31 native speakers of Persian aged between 18 and 32 years old voluntarily took part in this study. Subsequently, we manipulated participants’ frequency of exposure to complex actions with linear and nonlinear sequences under three experimental conditions, namely the execution, observation, and reading of means-end sentences. The results of pooled data from all experimental conditions revealed a suggestive structural interaction between linguistic and nonlinguistic domains. However, we found no remarkable evidence for priming effects separately within each experimental condition. The overall analysis of the obtained data by linear mixed-effects models also indicated a main effect of the experimental condition.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Journal of Researches in Linguistics

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 15 March 2025

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics