Syntactic Priming Effects During the Comprehension of Passive Voice in Portuguese:Evidence From Adult Native Speakers / Efeitos de priming sintático na compreensão da voz passiva em português: evidência de falantes nativos adultos

Abstract

Syntactic priming refers to the facilitation that occurs in the processing of a given complex syntactic structure when the speaker has been previously exposed to the same structure or to a similar one. Using a self-paced reading task, we investigate the effects of syntactic priming during the comprehension of passive sentences in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Adult native speakers of BP read target passive sentences in primed and unprimed conditions, with verb repetition between prime and target in both conditions. Our results show that participants read target sentences faster in the primed than in the unprimed condition, that is, after having been exposed to the same syntactic structure in a previous sentence. These findings indicate that, at least in part, the processing of passive Caligrama, Belo Horizonte, v. 26, n. 2, p. 47-66, 2021 48 voice was facilitated by repeated exposure to the syntactic structure. We interpret these results as evidence of syntatic persistence and residual activation.