Dynamics of structural priming
This thesis is about how our syntactic choice changes with linguistic experience. Studies on syntactic priming show that our decisions are influenced by sentences that we have recently heard or recently spoken. They also show that not all sentences have an equal amount of influence; that repetition of verbs increases priming (the lexical-boost effect) and that some verbs are more susceptible to priming than others. This thesis explores how and why syntactic decisions change with time and what these observations tell us about the cognitive mechanism of speaking. Specifically, we set out to develop a theoretical account of syntactic priming. Theoretical accounts require mathematical models and this thesis develops a sequence of mathematical models for understanding various aspects of syntactic priming. Cognitive processes are modelled as dynamical systems that can change their behaviour when they process information. We use these dynamical systems to investigate how each episode of language comprehension or production affects syntactic decisions. We also use these systems to investigate how long priming persists, how groups of consecutive sentences affect structural decisions, why repeating words leads to greater
Malhotra, Gaurav
syntactic priming ; dynamics ; memory ; lexical boost
Dynamics of structural priming. This thesis is about how our syntactic choice changes with linguistic experience. Studies on syntactic priming show that our decisions are influenced by sentences that we have recently heard or recently spoken. They also show that not all sentences have an equal amount of influence; that repetition of verbs increases priming (the lexical-boost effect) and that some verbs are more susceptible to priming than others. This thesis explores how and why syntactic decisions change with time and what these observations tell us about the cognitive mechanism of speaking. Specifically, we set out to develop a theoretical account of syntactic priming. Theoretical accounts require mathematical models and this thesis develops a sequence of mathematical models for understanding various aspects of syntactic priming. Cognitive processes are modelled as dynamical systems that can change their behaviour when they process information. We use these dynamical systems to investigate how each episode of language comprehension or production affects syntactic decisions. We also use these systems to investigate how long priming persists, how groups of consecutive sentences affect structural decisions, why repeating words leads to greater
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