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The logic of syntactic priming and acceptability judgments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2017

Phoebe Gaston
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742. pgaston@umd.eduznhuang@umd.educolin@umd.edu phoebegaston.wordpress.com ling.umd.edu/~znhuang colinphillips.net
Nick Huang
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742. pgaston@umd.eduznhuang@umd.educolin@umd.edu phoebegaston.wordpress.com ling.umd.edu/~znhuang colinphillips.net
Colin Phillips
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742. pgaston@umd.eduznhuang@umd.educolin@umd.edu phoebegaston.wordpress.com ling.umd.edu/~znhuang colinphillips.net

Abstract

A critical flaw in Branigan & Pickering's (B&P's) advocacy of structural priming is the absence of a theory of priming. This undermines their claims about the value of priming as a methodology. In contrast, acceptability judgments enable clearer inferences about structure. It is important to engage thoroughly with the logic behind different structural diagnostics.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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