Collocation in the Mind: Investigating Collocational Priming in Second Language Speakers of Italian

• Published in: Language learning Vol. 75; no. 1; pp. 179 - 211
• Main Authors: Fioravanti, Irene, Siyanova‐Chanturia, Anna, Lenci, Alessandro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.03.2025
• Subjects: collocation; Collocations; Italian; Italian as a second language; Lexical decision task; mental lexicon; Nouns; phrase frequency; Priming; second language; Second Languages
• ISSN: 0023-8333; 1467-9922
• DOI: 10.1111/lang.12663

Collocational priming is a priming effect induced by collocationally related words; it has been taken to explain the cognitive reality of collocation. Collocational priming has largely been observed in first language (L1) speakers, whereas work on the representation of collocation in a second language (L2) is still limited. In the present study, we sought to investigate this phenomenon in L1 and L2 speakers of Italian. We used a lexical decision task to explore collocational priming in verb–noun and noun–adjective collocations differing in frequency and collocational strength. Both L1 and L2 speakers were found sensitive to the frequency of collocations. Importantly, exposure to L2 Italian was found to play a role. The results suggest that collocational priming occurs both in L1 and L2 speakers, and that the mechanisms associated with collocation processing and representation in L1 and L2 speakers may be comparable. A one‐page Accessible Summary of this article in nontechnical language is freely available in the Supporting Information online and at https://oasis‐database.org