Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T19:12:05.808Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The on-line processing of binding principles in second language acquisition: Evidence from eye tracking

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2014

EUNAH KIM ,
SILVINA MONTRUL  and
JAMES YOON
EUNAH KIM
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
SILVINA MONTRUL*
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
JAMES YOON
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE Silvina Montrul, Departments of Linguistics and of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, 4080 Foreign Languages Building, MC-176, 707 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study examined how adult L2 learners make use of grammatical and extragrammatical information to interpret reflexives and pronouns. Forty adult English native speakers and 32 intermediate–advanced Korean L2 learners participated in a visual world paradigm eye-tracking experiment. We investigated the interpretation of reflexives (himself) and pronouns (him) in contexts where there is a potential coargument antecedent and in the context of picture noun phrases (a picture of him/himself), where the distribution of reflexives and pronouns can overlap. The results indicated that the learners interpreted reflexives in a nativelike fashion in both contexts, whereas they interpreted pronouns differently from native speakers, even when learners had advanced English proficiency. Adopting the binding theory as developed in the reflexivity/primitives of binding framework (Reinhart & Reuland, 1993; Reuland, 2001, 2011), we interpret these results to mean that while adult L2 learners are able to apply syntactic binding principles to assign an interpretation to anaphoric expressions, they have difficulty in integrating syntactic information with contextual and discourse information.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 36 , Issue 6 , November 2015 , pp. 1317 - 1374
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Badecker, W., & Straub, K. (2002). The processing role of structural constraints on the interpretation of pronouns and anaphors. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 28, 748–769.Google Scholar
Barr, D., Levy, R., Scheepers, C., & Tily, H. (2013). Random effects structure for confirmatory hypothesis testing: Keep it maximal. Journal of Memory and Language, 68, 255–278.Google Scholar
Bley-Vroman, R. (1990). The logical problem of foreign language learning. Linguistic Analysis, 20, 3–49.Google Scholar
Bley-Vroman, R. (2009). The evolving context of the fundamental differences hypothesis. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 31, 175–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burkhardt, P. (2005). The syntax–discourse interface: Representing and interpreting dependency. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Chien, Y., & Wexler, K. (1990). Children's knowledge of locality conditions in binding as evidence for the modularity of syntax and pragmatics. Language Acquisition, 1, 225–295.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1980). Rules and representations. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1981). Lectures in government and binding. Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1986). Knowledge of language. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Christie, K., & Lantolf, J. (1998). Bind me up bind me down: Reflexives in L2. In Flynn, S., Martohardjono, G., & O’Neil, W. (Eds.), The generative study of second language acquisition (pp. 239–260). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Chung, E.-S. (2013). Exploring the degree of native-likeness in bilingual acquisition: Second and heritage language acquisition of Korean case ellipsis. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana−Champaign, Department of Linguistics.Google Scholar
Clackson, K., Felser, C., & Clahsen, H. (2011). Children's processing of reflexives and pronouns in English: Evidence from eye-movements during listening. Journal of Memory and Language, 112, 55–80.Google Scholar
Clahsen, H., & Felser, C. (2006). Grammatical processing in language learners. Applied Psycholinguistics, 27, 3–42.Google Scholar
Clifton, C., Jr., Kennison, S., & Albrecht, J. (1997). Reading the words her, his, him: Implications for parsing principles based on frequency and structure. Journal of Memory and Language, 36, 276–292.Google Scholar
Conroy, A., Takahashi, E., Lidz, J., & Phillips, C. (2009). Equal treatment for all antecedents: How children succeed with Principle B. Linguistic Inquiry, 40, 446–486.Google Scholar
DeKeyser, R. (2000). The robustness of critical period effects in second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 22, 499–534.Google Scholar
Felser, C., & Cunnings, I. (2012). Processing reflexives in English as a second language: The role of structural and discourse-level constraints. Applied Psycholinguistics, 33, 571–603.Google Scholar
Felser, C., Sato, M., & Bertenshaw, N. (2009). The on-line application of Binding Principle A in English as a second language. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12, 485–502.Google Scholar
Finer, D., & Broselow, E. (1986). Second language acquisition of reflexive binding. Paper presented at NELS 16, University of Massachusetts, Graduate Linguistics Students Association.Google Scholar
Hamilton, R. (1998). Understanding binding of reflexives by adult Japanese-speaking learners of English. Second Language Research, 14, 292–320.Google Scholar
Harris, T., Wexler, K., & Holcomb, P. (2000). An ERP investigation of binding and coreference. Brain and Language, 75, 313–346.Google Scholar
Hirakawa, M. (1990). A study of the L2 acquisition of English reflexives. Second Language Research, 6, 60–85.Google Scholar
Huang, Y. (1991). A neo-Gricean pragmatic theory of anaphora. Journal of Linguistics, 27, 301–335.Google Scholar
Huang, Y. (2000). Anaphora: A cross-linguistic study. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, Y. (2004) Anaphora and the pragmatics–syntax interface. In Horn, L. & Ward, G. (Eds.), The handbook of pragmatics (pp. 288–314). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Kaiser, E., Runner, J. T., Sussman, R. S., & Tanenhaus, M. K. (2009). Structural and semantic constraints on the resolution of pronouns and reflexives. Cognition, 112, 55–80.Google Scholar
Kennison, S. (2003). Comprehending the pronouns her, him and his: Implications for theories of referential processing. Journal of Memory and Language, 49, 335–352.Google Scholar
Koornneef, A. (2008). Eye-catching anaphora. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Utrecht University.Google Scholar
Koornneef, A. (2010). Looking at anaphora: The psychological reality of the Primitives of Binding model. In Everaert, M., Lentz, T., de Mulder, H., Nelsen, Ø., & Zondervan, A. (Eds.), The linguistics enterprise: From knowledge of language to knowledge in linguistics (pp. 141–166). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Lee, D., & Schachter, J. (1997). Sensitive period effects in binding theory. Language Acquisition, 6, 333–362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levinson, S. (1987). Pragmatics and the grammar of anaphora: A partial pragmatic reduction of binding and control phenomena. Journal of Linguistics, 23, 379–434.Google Scholar
Levinson, S. (1991). Pragmatic reduction of the binding conditions revisited. Journal of Linguistics, 27, 107–162.Google Scholar
Manzini, R., & Wexler, K. (1987). Parameters, binding theory and learnability. Linguistic Inquiry, 18, 413–444.Google Scholar
McDonald, J. (2006). Beyond the critical period: Processing-based explanations for poor grammaticality judgment performance by late second language learners. Journal of Memory and Language, 55, 381–401.Google Scholar
Nicol, J., & Swinney, D. (1989). The role of structure in coreference assignment during sentence comprehension. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 18, 5–19.Google Scholar
O’Neill, R., Cornelius, E., & Washburn, G. (1981). American kernel lessons: Advanced students’ book. New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Phillips, C. (2012). Grammatical development and parser development. Plenary talk presented at GALANA 2012, University of Kansas.Google Scholar
Piñango, M., & Burkhardt, P. (2005). Pronominal interpretation and the syntax–discourse interface: Real-time comprehension and neurological properties. In Branco, A., McEnery, T., & Mitkov, R. (Eds.), Anaphora processing: Linguistic, cognitive and computational models (pp. 221–238). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Pollard, C., & Sag, I. (1992). Anaphors in English and the scope of binding theory. Linguistic Inquiry, 23, 261–303.Google Scholar
Pollard, C., & Sag, I. (1994). Head-driven sentence structure grammar. Chicago: CSLI/University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
R development core team. (2012). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. ISBN 3–900051–07–0. http://www.R-project.org/ Google Scholar
Reinhart, T., & Reuland, E. (1993). Reflexivity. Linguistic Inquiry, 24, 657–720.Google Scholar
Reuland, E. (2001). Primitives of binding. Linguistic Inquiry, 32, 439–492.Google Scholar
Reuland, E. (2011). Anaphora and language design. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Roberts, L., Gullberg, M., & Indefrey, P. (2008). Online pronoun resolution in L2 discourse: L1 influence and general learner effects. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 30, 333–357.Google Scholar
Runner, J., Sussman, R., & Tanenhaus, M. (2003). Assignment of reference to reflexives and pronouns in picture noun phrases: Evidence from eye movements. Cognition, 89, B1–B13.Google Scholar
Runner, J., Sussman, R., & Tanenhaus, M. (2006). Processing reflexives and pronouns in picture noun phrases. Cognitive Science, 30, 193–241.Google Scholar
Schachter, J. (1988). Second language acquisition and its relationship to Universal Grammar. Applied Linguistics, 9, 219–235.Google Scholar
Schwartz, B., & Sprouse, R. (1996). L2 cognitive states and the full transfer/full access hypothesis. Second Language Research, 12, 40–72.Google Scholar
Sells, P. (1987). Aspects of logophoricity. Linguistic Inquiry, 18, 445–479.Google Scholar
Sorace, A. (2011). Pinning down the concept of “interface” in bilingualism. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 1, 1–33.Google Scholar
Sorace, A., & Filiaci, F. (2006). Anaphora resolution in near-native speakers of Italian. Second Language Research, 22, 339–368.Google Scholar
Sorace, A., & Serratrice, L. (2009). Internal and external interfaces in bilingual language development: Beyond structural overlap. International Journal of Bilingualism, 13, 1–16.Google Scholar
Sturt, P. (2003). The time-course of the application of binding constraints in reference resolution. Journal of Memory and Language, 48, 542–562.Google Scholar
Tanenhaus, M. K., Spivey-Knowlton, M. J., Eberhard, K. M., & Sedivy, J. C. (1995). Integration of visual and linguistic information in spoken language comprehension, Science, 268, 1632–1634.Google Scholar
Thomas, M. (1991). Universal grammar and the interpretation of reflexives in a second language. Language, 67, 211–239.Google Scholar
Thomas, M. (1995). Acquisition of the Japanese reflexive zibun and movement of anaphors in logical form. Second Language Research, 11, 206–234.Google Scholar
Ullman, M. (2001). The neural basis of lexicon and grammar in first and second language: The declarative/procedural model. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 4, 105–122.Google Scholar
White, L. (1998). Second language acquisition of Binding Principle B: Child/adult differences. Second Language Research, 14, 425–439.Google Scholar
White, L. (2003). Second language acquisition and universal grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
White, L., Bruhn-Garavito, J., Kawasaki, T., Pater, J., & Prévost, P. (1997). The researcher gave the subject a test about himself: Problems of ambiguity and preference in the investigation of reflexive binding. Language Learning, 47, 145–172.Google Scholar
White, L., Hirakawa, M., & Kawasaki, T. (1996). Effects of instruction on the second language acquisition of the Japanese long distance reflexive zibun . Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 41, 235–254.Google Scholar
Xiang, M., Dillon, B., & Phillips, C. (2009). Illusory licensing effects across dependency types: ERP evidence. Brain and Language, 108, 40–55.Google Scholar
Yuan, B. (1998). Interpretation of binding and orientation of the Chinese reflexive ziji by English and Japanese speakers. Second Language Research, 14, 324–340.Google Scholar
Zribi-Hertz, A. (1989). Anaphor binding and narrative point of view: English reflexive pronouns in sentence and discourse. Language, 65, 695–727.Google Scholar