Evidence for (shared) abstract structure underlying children’s short and full passives

In a syntactic priming paradigm, three- and four-year-old children and adults described transitive events after hearing thematically and lexically unrelated active and short passive prime descriptions. Both groups were more likely to produce full passive descriptions (the king is being scratched by the tiger) following short passive primes (the girls are being shocked) than active primes (the sheep is shocking the girl). These results suggest that by four, children have (shared) abstract syntactic representations for both short and full passives, contrary to previous proposals (e.g., Horgan, 1978).

► Four-year-olds and adults described transitive events in a syntactic priming experiment.
► The experimenter produced short passive and full active prime descriptions.
► Participants produced more full passives after short passives than after actives.
► Shared abstract syntax underlies four-year-olds’ (and adults’) short and full passives.