Perceptual and lexical priming of syntactic construction in young children

Two experiments are reported to investigate the roles of perceptual priming and lexical priming in Korean children s production of passive sentences. Experiment 1 examined whether manipulations of focal attention could affect Korean children s linguistic choices regarding subject role assignment, by using so-called fish film (Tomlin, 1997). 5-year-olds and 6-year-olds were not able to produce passives even when a patient was perceptually primed by a flashing arrow. Experiment 2 examined lexical priming effects in children s production of passives. 5-year-olds and 6-yearolds were more likely to use passive sentences if a patient has been verbally primed by the experimenter. These results indicate that young children s production of passive voice is more likely to be affected by linguistic cues than perceptual salience.