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Structural priming can inform syntactic analyses of partially grammaticalized constructions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2017

Elaine J. Francis
Elaine J. Francis*
Affiliation:
Department of English, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2038. ejfranci@purdue.eduhttp://web.ics.purdue.edu/~ejfranci/ejfrancis.htm
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Abstract

Branigan & Pickering (B&P) argue successfully that structural priming provides valuable information for developing psychologically plausible syntactic and semantic theories. I discuss how their approach can be used to help determine whether partially grammaticalized constructions that have undergone semantic change also have undergone syntactic reanalysis. I then consider cases in which evidence from priming cannot distinguish between competing syntactic analyses.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 40 , 2017 , e288
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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