Lexically Independent Structural Priming in Second Language Online Sentence Comprehension

This study examined structural priming during online second language (L2) comprehension. In two self-paced reading experiments, 64 intermediate to advanced Chinese learners of English as a foreign language read coordinated noun phrases where the conjuncts had either the same structure or different structures. Experiment 1 showed that the second conjunct was read faster when it had the same structure as the first. This effect occurred for the structurally marked adjective phrases (e.g., "a simple to grasp problem") but only showed a numerical trend for the less marked relative clauses (e.g., "a problem that was simple to grasp"). Experiment 2 compared unmarked adjective phrases and relative clauses (e.g., "a simple problem" vs. "a problem that was simple") and found significant priming for both. Together, the two experiments showed that L2 comprehension priming could occur without repetition of the lexical head. Moreover, this priming was susceptible to inverse frequency effects, with the less frequent structure exhibiting greater priming.