The on-line application of binding Principle A in English as a second language*

By Claudia Felser, Mikako Sato, Nicholas Bertenshaw. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2009

98 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We report the results from two experiments investigating proficient Japanese-speaking learners' processing of reflexive object pronouns in English as a second language (L2). Experiment 1 used a timed grammaticality judgement task to assess learners' sensitivity to binding Principle A under processing pressure, and Experiment 2 investigated the time-course of reflexive anaphor resolution during L2 reading using the eye-movement monitoring technique. Taken together, our results show that despite having demonstrated native-like knowledge of reflexive binding in corresponding untimed tasks, the learners processed English reflexives differently from native speakers in that they took into consideration a matching discourse-prominent but binding-theoretically inappropriate antecedent when first encountering a reflexive. This suggests that unlike what has been reported in corresponding monolingual processing research (Sturt, 2003), initial antecedent search in L2 English is not constrained by binding Principle A.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3ec2d09f5f7cf0405813e37630cedfe2c30b918e

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Citations in the corpus

The role of working memory in the processing of reflexives (2013, methodology): “Furthermore, in another recent eye-movement experiment using similar materials, Felser, Sato, and Bertenshaw (2009) found no reliable effects of the inaccessible antecedent during either earlier or later stages of processing in monolingual English speakers.1 Sturt (2003) also failed to find any…”
The construct of language proficiency in the study of bilingualism from a cognitive perspective* (2012, background): “…by Antón-Méndez (2011), Athanasopoulos (2006), Chen, Shu, Liu, Zhao and Li (2007), Cole and Pickering (2010), Dong, Gui and MacWhinney (2005), Felser, Sato and Bertenshaw (2009), Kormos and Sáfár (2008), Salamoura and Williams (2006, 2007), Silva and Clahsen (2008), Snape (2008), Trenkic…”
Parsing and Working Memory in Bilingual Sentence Processing (2016, background): “Increased competition during anaphora resolution when local and distant antecedents match the gender properties of a pronoun have also been reported during L2 processing (Felser et al., 2009; Roberts et al., 2008).”
Similarity-based interference in sentence comprehension: Literature review and Bayesian meta-analysis (2017, background): “…1; Badecker & Straub, 2002, Experiments 5 and 6; Cunnings & Felser, 2013, Experiment 1, Experiment 2, high capacity readers; Cunnings & Sturt, 2014; Felser et al., 2009, gender cue; King et al., 2012; Nicol, 1988; Sturt, 2003, Experiment 2; Dillon et al., 2013, Experiment 1; Parker & Phillips,…”
Processing reflexives in a second language: The timing of structural and discourse-level constraints (2011, background): “In addition, Felser et al. (2009) manipulated the critical sentences’ syntactic form so that the inaccessible antecedent either c-commanded (6a) or failed to c-command (6b) the reflexive. Note that in sentences of type (6b), the inaccessible antecedent’s relative discourse-salience is also reduced c”