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Individual Differences in Anaphora Resolution: Language and cognitive effects
Edited by Georgia Fotiadou and Ianthi Maria Tsimpli
[Language Faculty and Beyond 18] 2023
► pp. 142–164

Measures of anaphoric-reflexive acquisition in Chinese

| Xi'an Jiaotong – Liverpool University

This chapter investigates the second language acquisition of the Chinese reflexive ziji ‘self’ by English and Korean speakers. The aim is to utilize cognitive and behavioural measures in order to investigate the hypothesis that Chinese and Korean reflexives are pragmatically regulated, while English reflexives are syntactically governed. The measures used are reaction timing, confidence levels and knowledge source attribution. The experiment specifically examines how a processing account of reflexives can support a pragmatic/syntactic distinction of reflexive regulation in linguistic theory by observing how long-distance and local binding is achieved in neutral and biased contexts. Results reveal that English and Korean learners of Chinese have differing sources of language transfer affecting their interpretation of Chinese ziji. Overall, the measures obtained shows their power in understanding what underlies traditional antecedent judgements.

Keywords: Chinese, Korean, English, ziji, reflexive pronoun, pragmatics, syntax
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background on ziji
    • 2.1Properties of ziji
    • 2.2Theoretical background on ziji
    • 2.3Experiments with ziji
  • 3.Methodology
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1Antecedent choice
    • 4.2Confidence measures
    • 4.3Timing measures
    • 4.4Knowledge source measures
    • 4.5Summary
    • 4.6Individual variation
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Appendix
  • References
Published online: 2 November 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lfab.18.06spe
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