Language and structure activation explain cross-linguistic influence in bilingual language production: Evidence from within- and across-language priming
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This study investigates cross-linguistic influence in bilingual children, examining whether activation of a bilingual’s other language or a structure from that language leads to differences in the magnitude of cross-linguistic influence. We triangulate evidence from both across-language and within-language priming experiments conducted with 36 Italian–Greek bilingual children aged 7 to 11. We designed the priming experiments to prime the verb-subject-object (VSO) word-order – an inappropriate structure in Italian but grammatical in Greek – following a VSO in Italian or in Greek. We observed a gradual increase in VSO production in Italian throughout the tasks, particularly in the across-language priming experiment. The results are discussed in terms of implicit learning mechanisms underlying priming and the connectedness of syntactic representations in bilingual grammar, supporting a model of cross-linguistic influence in which both structure and language activation play a role. Effects of age and dominance in Greek varied between the two priming conditions.
Authors: Ioli Baroncini, Jacopo Torregrossa
Institutions: University of Mannheim, Goethe University Frankfurt
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,550
OpenAlex ID: W4410099750