Development Of Long-distance Binding Of Reflexives In Mandarin Chinese Children

After the Binding Theory was proposed by Chomsky (1981,1986), Chinese reflexives have been attracting great attention in Linguistics. Mandarin Chinese has two reflexives:the simple reflexive 'ziji'(self) and the complex reflexive'taziji' (himself/herself). Since the classical Binding Theory cannot appropriately explain various linguistic phenomena which appeared in languages such as Mandarin Chinese, theoretical linguists have made modifications to this classical Binding Theory in order to make it broader and stronger in explanatory power. Progovac's (1992,1993) Relativized SUBJECT Approach is one of those approaches with the strongest influence power. Theoretically, this approach has perfectly explained the long-distance binding of 'ziji'. However, there is still little empirical data which test the applicability of this approach-concerning children's L1 acquisition.This study focuses on long-distance and local binding of reflexives and pronouns through an experiment of a Yes/No Judgment Task and a Picture Identification Task conducted with 90 Mandarin Chinese-speaking children aged from 3;1 to 8;1 by studying features of 'ziji'such as long-distance binding, subject orientation, and blocking effects. It also studies whether tensed and infinitival sentences impact children's development of co-referential relationships.Through the analysis of data collected, the major findings are summed up as follows:(1) Mandarin Chinese children's development of long-distance binding is not a sudden snap phenomenon but a gradual process.(2) Our data constitute an empirical support for Progovac's (1992,1993) Relativized SUBJECT Approach.First, at the initial stage of development, children allow both local and long-distance binding for both types of reflexives. At around 6;1, they begin to distinguish between the co-referential relationships of two types of reflexives. At around 8;1, they show very low acceptance level of long-distance binding for the complex reflexive, which is pretty close to the adults'level. Second, an obvious subject orientation is observed in test items of 'ziji'. Children's acceptance levels of a subject and rejection levels of an object as the antecedent for 'ziji'grow with the increase of their ages. Children in all age groups allow both the subject and the object to co-refer with the complex reflexive. Third, when there is a non-third person NP which blocks the binding relationship between 'ziji'and the matrix subject, children in all age groups show very high acceptance levels for a local NP as the antecedent for the simple reflexive.(3) Different results are observed compared with those of Chien and Wexler's (1990) study:the differences between tensed and infinitival sentences have no significant influences on children's responses to the target forms.