The Acquisition of the Morphosyntax of English Reflexives by Non-Native Speakers

MacLaughlin, Dawn

doi:10.1075/lald.19.09mac

Cited by 24 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…The relativized SUBJECT analysis is adopted as a theoretical framework in several empirical studies of reflexives in the SLA literature (e.g. Bennett, 1994; MacLaughlin, 1998; Wells, 1998). The experimental results adopting these two approaches show the acquisition of binding properties is indeterminate and vulnerable.…”

Section: Review Of Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of the interface categories on the acquisition patterns of English reflexives among learners of English as a foreign language

Zhang

et al. 2019

International Journal of Bilingualism

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Objectives: Binding properties are difficult for learners to fully acquire. This study explored English-as-a-foreign-language learners’ acquisition patterns of the three binding properties of English reflexives and the effectiveness of the Interface Hypothesis. Methodology: One hundred and twenty-two native speakers of Chinese, a language with different binding properties, participated in the study; they were categorized into low, intermediate and advanced groups according to an English proficiency test. They were read 32 stories of 2 to 5 sentences each and were required to provide a comment sentence instantiating the three binding properties; i.e. c-command, subject orientation and locality. Data and analysis: A mixed repeated measures ANOVA was conducted with group and individual results of the experimental task to ascertain whether there were significant differences across different binding properties and among the three proficiency groups. Findings: Results from a truth-value judgment task indicate that the within-groups difficulty order of the three distinct binding properties is that: (a) for the low-proficiency group, c-command was easier than locality and orientation; and (b) for the intermediate-proficiency and the high-proficiency groups, c-command was easier than locality which, in turn, was easier than orientation. Among the three proficiency-groups, four acquisition patterns were found, which standard Binding Theory and its extensions cannot adequately explain. Originality: This is the first study to provide a variable-dependent account. It is argued that success or failure in establishing interface relations in second language grammars is likely to depend on a number of variables, including the involvement of the syntax–lexicon interface, syntax–semantics interface and syntax–discourse interface. Implications: The research suggests that the acquisition of English reflexives is variable-dependent, but not domain-wide. Specifically, the relationship between the binder and anaphoric expression can be established between the anaphors and some of their potential antecedents in second language English grammars, but not others, lending support to the Interface Hypothesis.

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Section: Review Of Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of the interface categories on the acquisition patterns of English reflexives among learners of English as a foreign language

Zhang

et al. 2019

International Journal of Bilingualism

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“…A substantial number of studies (Finer & Broselow, 1986;Thomas, 1989Thomas, , 1995Bennett, 1994;Maclaughlin, 1998;Yip & Tang, 1998;Yuan, 1998;Al Kafri, 2008; among others) considered the interpretation of reflexives by adult L2 learners.…”

Section: Previous Research On the Acquisition Of Reflexivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Different from the views of L1 transfer and L2 access to UG in adult L2 acquisition, some linguists (Finer & Broselow, 1986;Hirakawa, 1990;Maclaughlin, 1998) conducted studies on the adult L2 learners' interpretation of English reflexives. All these studies' results showed that adult L2 learners developed a kind of grammar which was different from mother tongue binding and target binding.…”

Section: Previous Research On the Acquisition Of Reflexivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Similarities and Differences between Child and Adult L2 Learners in the Acquisition of English Reflexives

Kafri¹

2019

OJML

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This paper reports on an experimental study which tested the claims of the Fundamental Difference Hypothesis and the Domain-by-Age-Model by comparing the performances of Arabic-and Chinese-speaking child and adult L2 learners in the acquisition of English reflexives. Whilst English and Arabic allow only local binding of reflexives, Chinese allows local and long-distance binding of reflexives. 60 L2 learners were given a word-based mean length of utterance proficiency test to confirm their proficiency level and, then, they were divided into six groups: Arabic-speaking children (n = 15); Arabicspeaking adults (n = 15); Chinese-speaking children (n = 15); Chinesespeaking adults (n = 15); an L1-English child (mean age 9.60) control group (n = 15); and an L1-English adult control group (n = 15). L2 learners' interpretation of English reflexives was elicited through a 48-item Simon-Saysgame. The results showed significant differences between the performance, of the L2 groups, and that of native speakers; yet, the majority of L2 learners were close to an 83.33% acquisition threshold. Also, by showing no significant difference between the child and adult L2 groups, the results indicated support for the Domain-by-Age-Model. As for the syntactic difference between reflexives and pronouns, L2 learners did not differentiate between them, scoring higher in reflexives.

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“…Ever since the early study of Finer and Broselow (1986), a large number of studies have been conducted to investigate this issue under Principle A of the Binding Theory (e.g. Thomas, 1989;1991;Cook, 1990;Hirakawa, 1990;Finer, 1991;Eckman, 1994;White, 1995;Wakabayashi, 1996;White and Genesee, 1996;White et al, 1997;MacLaughlin, 1998;Wells, 1998;Yip and Tang, 1998;Akiyama, 2002;Ying, 2003;Sequeiros, 2004). Several distinct findings have emerged from these studies: Some learners show local binding in their L2 English.…”

Section: Zhangsan Thinkmentioning

confidence: 99%

A referential/quantified asymmetry in the second language acquisition of English reflexives by Chinese-speaking learners

Lin

2009

Second Language Research

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There has been considerable research that investigates whether reflexives in interlanguage grammars (ILGs) are constrained by Principle A of the Binding Theory. These earlier studies focused on the role of sentence type, including both finite and non-finite test sentences; they did not examine the role of antecedent type, namely distinguishing between quantified antecedents and referential antecedents in the test sentences. This study explores Chinese learners' acquisition of the locality constraints on the binding of English reflexives from a developmental perspective, focusing both on the role of sentence type and the role of antecedent type. A story-based truth-value judgment task was administered to three proficiency levels of Chinese-speaking learners of English. It was found that the finite/non-finite asymmetry in the learners' long-distance (LD) judgments was strongest for the intermediate participants but much weaker for the beginners and advanced participants; the referential/ quantified asymmetry in the learners' LD judgments was strongest for the advanced participants but much weaker for the beginners and intermediate participants. Implications of these findings are discussed.

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The Acquisition of the Morphosyntax of English Reflexives by Non-Native Speakers

Cited by 24 publications

References 0 publications

Effects of the interface categories on the acquisition patterns of English reflexives among learners of English as a foreign language

Effects of the interface categories on the acquisition patterns of English reflexives among learners of English as a foreign language

Similarities and Differences between Child and Adult L2 Learners in the Acquisition of English Reflexives

A referential/quantified asymmetry in the second language acquisition of English reflexives by Chinese-speaking learners

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