The Anaphoric Processing Of Chinese Bare And Compound Reflexives:Evidence From Eye-Tracking

Chinese reflexives are composed of Chinese bare reflexive ziji and Chinese compound reflexive taziji(tamenziji in plural form).In the anaphoric processing of Chinese reflexives,ambiguity may occur if the reflexive in question exhibits the grammatical characteristic of long-distance binding.However,it violates Binding Principle A proposed by Chomsky,i.e.,the priority of syntax.Currently,the priority of syntax in the processing of Chinese reflexives,especially the compound reflexive,is controversial.This thesis focuses on the anaphoric processing mechanism of Chinese reflexives to provide more evidence for related research.In order to illustrate the processing mechanism of Chinese reflexives,three research questions were proposed:(1)What are the differences between the anaphoric processing mechanism of Chinese bare reflexive and that of Chinese compound reflexive?(2)What role does syntax play in the anaphoric processing of Chinese bare reflexive and Chinese compound reflexive?(3)How does the semantic information of occupation affect the anaphoric processing of Chinese bare reflexive and Chinese compound reflexive?To answer the three research questions,this thesis employed questionnaires and eye-tracking experiments to explore the anaphoric processing mechanism of Chinese reflexives.One hundred twenty undergraduates were recruited as the subjects of questionnaires to evaluate the naturalness of the materials and identify the antecedent of Chinese reflexives.The eye-tracking experiments were divided into two parts,in which experiment 1 focused on object clauses with two candidate antecedents.The subjects were typical Chinese names.The variable was the reflexive type.In experiment 2,one of the subjects was substituted by an occupation title in order to eliminate ambiguity.Sentences in experiment 2 were under four conditions.The experimental design was 2(bare/compound reflexive)*2(local-match/local-mismatch antecedent).Eye movement data were processed with Data Viewer and analyzed with SPSS.Conclusions are presented as follows.First of all,there were significant differences between the anaphoric processing mechanism of Chinese bare reflexive and that of Chinese compound reflexive,which were mainly manifested by the response time and the preference for antecedents.Secondly,syntax did not take priority in the anaphoric processing of Chinese reflexives.The oculomotor and behavior data supported the standard cue-based retrieval account,indicating that the syntactic rules weighed equal to other cues such as semantic information.Last but not least,semantic information of occupation in antecedents influenced the anaphoric processing of reflexives since the early processing.Semantic information facilitated the anaphoric processing of bare reflexive while causing difficulty for compound reflexive processing.In summary,this thesis provides more evidence for the standard cue-based retrieval account through data analysis and discussion,and provides a basis for subsequent research on Chinese reflexives,especially the compound reflexive.Also,by revealing the processing mechanism of Chinese reflexives,this thesis could help Chinese teachers to improve teaching strategies and help Chinese learners to improve the accuracy of language performance.