Syntactic Priming of Passives in Late Bilinguals
Evidence from Italian L1-Spanish L2 Speakers
Abstract
This study investigates the degree of integration of passive constructions in Italian L1-Spanish L2 late bilinguals using a syntactic priming paradigm. Patient animacy, L2 proficiency, and priming direction were considered. Results revealed a significant syntactic priming effect, stronger within language (Spanish-Spanish) than across languages (Italian-Spanish). Cross-linguistic priming showed a descriptively steeper increase at higher proficiency levels, although the proficiency-by-priming-direction interaction was not statistically significant. These findings support the ‘separate-to-shared syntax’ hypothesis, according to which highly proficient bilinguals progressively integrate syntactic representations across languages.
Submitted: Aug. 3, 2026 | Accepted: Aug. 7, 2026 | Published Oct. 12, 2026 | Language: en
Keywords L2 proficiency • Passive constructions • Italian-Spanish bilinguals • Cross-linguistic priming • Late bilingualism • Syntactic priming
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