Investigating shared and distinct mechanisms in semantic and syntactic enrichment: a priming study

Aspectual verbs (e.g. begin) and intensional want) can both take entity-denoting NPs as a complement (begin/want the book) acquire an implicit meaning reading). Linguistic theory posits that such enriched meanings be acquired either by semantic enrichment with aspectual or syntactic verbs. To investigate whether share operations, we conducted structural priming study. Experiment 1 repeated verb on prime target trials found evidence for types. 2 crossed type no priming. These results suggest operations are distinct However, 3 without lexical boost within type. Thus, producing structure may not robustly activate structures, leaving open questions concerning shared mechanisms.