The Interpretation of English Reflexive Pronouns by Non-Native Speakers

Thomas, Margaret

doi:10.1017/s0272263100008147

Cited by 55 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…The available data on second language acquisition of Binding Theory parameters is even more limited than for first language acquisition: We report here results from unpublished studies by Thomas (1985) and Anokye et al (in preparation). Both studies used multiple choice questionnaires to collect coreference judgments from high school and college students study ing English as a second language in the United States at a relatively advanced level.…”

Section: Second Language Acquisition Datamentioning

confidence: 95%

Binding Theory, Bioprogram, And Creolization

Carden

Stewart

1988

JPCL

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Bickerton and others have proposed models of creolization in which a creole with a bioprogram-unmarked grammar appears with the first gener ation of native speakers. When we construct the history of reflexives and anti-reflexives in Haitian Creole, we find instead a gradual development over more than 200 years, starting from a typologically unusual system that seems an unlikely candidate for the unmarked setting of the bioprogram, and passing through one or two intermediate stages to the typologically unmarked present-day system. A comparison with the limited available data on first and second language acquisition suggests that a model of creolization based on functional considerations and inheritance from a pre ceding pidgin will account for this history at least as well as a model based on first language acquisition. The history of Haitian Creole Binding Theory thus shows a classical "deep creole" acting much like Sankoffs analysis of Tok Pisin, and quite unlike the predictions of Bickerton's model or any model that predicts that a stable creole will develop in a single generation. This Haitian Creole data therefore implies a gradualist model of creolization, in which "creolization" is seen as a process extend ing over a number of generations of native speakers.

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Section: Second Language Acquisition Datamentioning

confidence: 95%

Binding Theory, Bioprogram, And Creolization

Carden

Stewart

1988

JPCL

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“…This sometimes takes the form of a multiple-choice task, where the set of choices is supplied as a list of potential antecedents after the test sentence (e.g., Hirakawa, 1990;Thomas, 1989Thomas, , 1991, or the form of a picture-identification task, with 2 or more pictures illustrating potential interpretations of a particular sentence (e.g., Bennett, 1994;Eckman, 1994;Finer, 1991;Finer & Broselow, 1986). However, such tasks may only elicit preferences on the part of those being tested (Hirakawa, 1990;Lakshmanan & Teranishi, 1994;Thomas, 1989Thomas, , 1991Wakabayashi, 1996), even when the researchers attempt to train people about potential ambiguity (Bennett, 1994;Thomas, 1991). In the case of sentences like (1), English NSs usually assume that the sentence's subject is the antecedent of the reflexive; they will recognize the object interpretation if it is pointed out to them or if the context favours it.…”

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confidence: 99%

The Researcher Gave the Subject a Test about Himself: Problems of Ambiguity and Preference in the Investigation of Reflexive Binding

et al. 1997

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White, et al.There are methodological difficulties in investigating second language (L2) learners' knowledge of reflexive binding, particularly in the case of potentially ambiguous sentences where the learner or native speaker may have a preference for one interpretation over the other. In this paper, we compare two truth-value judgment tasks, one involving stories and the other pictures. In both tasks, we provided contexts for different interpretations of potentially ambiguous sentences. We tested a variety of sentence types, including monoclausal sentences with subject or object antecedents (ambiguous in English) and biclausal sentences with local or long-distance antecedents (ambiguous in Japanese). Participants were intermediatelevel Japanese-speaking and French-speaking learners of English as a second language (ESL), as well as native speaker controls. The story task yielded a significantly higher proportion of correct acceptances of object antecedents for reflexives, both in the case of ESL learners and

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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:…”

Section: ) Tom Believed That Mary Was Painting Herselfmentioning

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 Interpretation of English Reflexive Pronouns by Non-Native Speakers

Cited by 55 publications

References 10 publications

Binding Theory, Bioprogram, And Creolization

Binding Theory, Bioprogram, And Creolization

The Researcher Gave the Subject a Test about Himself: Problems of Ambiguity and Preference in the Investigation of Reflexive Binding

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

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