Cross-linguistic structural priming in multilinguals: Further evidence for shared syntax

Four cross-linguistic structural priming experiments with multilinguals investigated whether syntactic representations for different languages are shared or separate and whether such representations in the first language are stored in a fundamentally different way from those in later acquired languages. The experiments tested whether structural priming within a language differs from priming between languages and whether priming between a first and second language differs from priming between two different second languages. Experiment 1 tested priming of relative clause attachment from Dutch (the subjects' first language), French, or English (two second languages) to Dutch. Experiments 2 and 3 were similar but had respectively French and English as the target language. Experiment 4 tested dative priming from Dutch, English, and German (another second language) to English. Structural priming was always as strong within- as between-languages and priming between a first and a second language was always as strong as priming between two second languages. These findings support accounts that assume syntax is shared across languages.