Structural priming as a model for testing language change in bilingualism

Abstract This study examined the interplay between cross-linguistic influence, structural priming, and language variation. Specifically, it investigated whether Spanish–Majorcan Catalan bilinguals process expressed and unexpressed object constructions similarly, and whether they show evidence of cross-linguistic influence and synchronic change arising from sustained contact between the two languages. While previous research has examined null-object representations in monolinguals, much less is known about how bilinguals of languages that (dis)allow object omission, process such constructions. To address this gap, forty-three Spanish–Majorcan Catalan bilinguals with varying dominance profiles completed a comprehension-based structural priming task in Spanish. The task included both grammatical and ungrammatical Spanish sentences, the latter incorporating constructions modeled on the prescriptive Catalan partitive clitic en to introduce Catalan-influenced syntax into Spanish. Results revealed differential priming effects for expressed vs. unexpressed objects. Priming effects with ungrammatical constructions further supported an implicit learning account of structural priming. Finally, although not mediated by priming, cross-linguistic influence from Catalan to Spanish indicated ongoing synchronic change in the bilingual grammar of this population. This study underscores the role of individual linguistic experience in shaping bilingual syntactic processing and highlights the need for more experience-sensitive approaches to understanding how contact-induced grammatical convergence develops in bilingual speakers.