Recent studies have shown that sound-symbolic patterns can be modelled using phonological theory. The purpose of the current study is to describe a new Japanese nicknaming pattern, pime-yobi, wherein [h] alternates with [p] to express cuteness, and to model it using Maximum Entropy Harmonic Grammar. The current study, building on the analysis of Alderete & Kochetov (2017), proposes a sound-symbolic constraint, Express[p], which requires output forms to contain [p]. The results of two experiments show that Japanese speakers found names containing [p]s to be cuter than those without them and that pime-yobi nicknaming exhibits intra- and inter-speaker variation in acceptability and cuteness. Based on these results, theoretical analysis shows that the weight of Express[p] varies both across different speakers and within the same speaker.

We investigated trial-by-trial and cumulative cross-language effects of structural priming and verb bias on L1 and L2 dative syntactic choices (e.g., ‘boy-give-ball-to-girl’ [PO structure] vs. ‘boy-give-girl-ball’ [DO structure]). Dutch-dominant Dutch–English bilinguals listened to a prime sentence with a DO or PO structure in one language and then described a picture in the other language, using verbs that varied in their bias towards the PO or DO structure in Dutch and English. We found effects of cross-language structural priming and verb bias on syntactic choice, some of which were influenced by the participants’ language dominance. In addition, we found cumulative forms of structural priming, leading to cross-language priming effects between experimental blocks. We discuss these results in terms of models on the representation of lexical and syntactic information in bilinguals, and point out how the observed effects can be related to experience-based mechanisms of language use and contact-induced language change.