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Licence: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Investigating crosslinguistic representations in Polish-English bilingual children
T2 - Evidence from structural priming
AU - Wesierska, Marta
AU - Serratrice, Ludovica
AU - Cieplinska, Vanessa
AU - Messenger, Katherine
PY - 2024/3/26
Y1 - 2024/3/26
N2 - A key question in the study of language representation in bilinguals is whether knowledge is shared across languages. Crosslinguistic syntactic priming has been widely used to test bilingual adults’ shared representations, but studies with child bilinguals are few and have several limitations.We addressed these limitations in two studies with Polish–English bilingual children aged 5–11 years (N=96). We investigated bidirectional priming across languages and within each language for a structural alternation with syntactic overlap (attributive constructions) and one without structural overlap (possessive constructions).Bidirectional crosslinguistic priming was found for possessives but not for attributives. Within-languages, there was priming for possessives and attributives in both languages. Priming was not related to children's age, vocabulary, or language dominance scores.We show that representations can be selectively shared between languages at the construction level. The extent to which young bilinguals have shared representations depends on the frequency and complexity of structures in each language.
AB - A key question in the study of language representation in bilinguals is whether knowledge is shared across languages. Crosslinguistic syntactic priming has been widely used to test bilingual adults’ shared representations, but studies with child bilinguals are few and have several limitations.We addressed these limitations in two studies with Polish–English bilingual children aged 5–11 years (N=96). We investigated bidirectional priming across languages and within each language for a structural alternation with syntactic overlap (attributive constructions) and one without structural overlap (possessive constructions).Bidirectional crosslinguistic priming was found for possessives but not for attributives. Within-languages, there was priming for possessives and attributives in both languages. Priming was not related to children's age, vocabulary, or language dominance scores.We show that representations can be selectively shared between languages at the construction level. The extent to which young bilinguals have shared representations depends on the frequency and complexity of structures in each language.
U2 - 10.1017/S1366728924000099
DO - 10.1017/S1366728924000099
M3 - Journal article
JO - Bilingualism: Language and Cognition
JF - Bilingualism: Language and Cognition
SN - 1366-7289
ER -