The Interpretation of English Reflexives and Pronouns by Adult Speakers of Chinese An analysis of language transfers

Abstract

The study reports the L2 acquisition of English reflexives and pronouns between native English speakers and adult Chinese speakers of L2 English. It is found that Chinese pronouns are quite similar with English, and Chinese and English pronouns can be either long-distantly binding or referred to others except for the local domain in complex sentences. However, Chinese reflexives are not the same as English reflexives. Chinese reflexives have two types, monomorphemic ziji and polymorphemic ta ziji, and one of the goals on the study is to test whether Chinese speakers of L2 English will domain the local binding in the complex sentences of English reflexives himself/herself. Finally, the results of the interpretation of English pronouns and reflexives show that L1 transfer cannot totally account for the interpretation of sentences. Two theories thus called Full Transfer/Full Access (Schwartz & Sprouse, 1994; 1996) and Partial Access (Tsimpli & Roussou, 1991) probably can account for the results of the present study.