A Study On Chinese EFL Learners’ Backwards Anaphora Resolution

Anaphora resolution has been the central topic in the field of sentence processing.Previous studies on anaphora resolution have focused on forwards anaphora resolution,where an anaphor follows its antecedent.Backwards anaphora resolution,where an anaphor precedes its antecedent,has received far less attention.Moreover,existing research on backwards anaphora resolution revolves around native speakers.Little research has been done to investigate L2 learners’ backwards resolution.In order to bridge the gap,this study carries out a systematic investigation on Chinese EFL learners’ cataphoric pronoun resolution.Previous studies on L1 backwards anaphora resolution consistently find that native speakers make an active search for an antecedent upon encountering a cataphoric pronoun and such active search is constrained by binding Principle C,which regulates that in the Pronoun-Noun sequence,a pronoun cannot corefer with an antecedent that it c-commands.In other words,upon encountering a cataphoric pronoun,native speakers automatically start postulating an antecedent at licit positions,i.e.,at structural positions where the coreference between a cataphoric pronoun and its potential antecedent is allowed by binding Principle C.Based on the findings from L1 backwards anaphora resolution research,this study targets at two major issues,that is,whether Chinese EFL learners make an active search for an antecedent upon encountering a cataphoric pronoun and whether Chinese EFL learners are sensitive to binding Principle C during cataphoric pronoun resolution,with the purpose of not only investigating how L2 learners process cataphoric pronouns in real time,but also testing whether L2 online sentence processing is fundamentally different from L1 online sentence processing as proposed by Shallow Structure Hypothesis(Clahsen&Felser,2006a;Clahsen&Felser,2006b).In order to explore the above issues and achieve the above purposes,this study conducts three experiments,one offline experiment using an antecedent identification task and two online experiments using self-paced reading tasks.The offline experiment aims to investigate whether Chinese EFL learners can reach the interpretation of English cataphoric pronouns and whether they are aware of the constraint of Principle C on English pronouns.The first self-paced reading task aims to investigate whether Chinese EFL learners make an active antecedent search upon encountering a cataphoric pronoun.The second self-paced reading task investigates whether Chinese EFL learners’ cataphoric pronoun resolution is subject to Binding Principle C.The antecedent identification task is administered with paper-and-pencil questionnaire.The self-paced reading tasks are administered by the computer software E-prime 2.0,and the self-paced reading data are analyzed by linear mixed effects model in R using LmerTest package.The results are as follows:Firstly,the antecedent identification task finds that in conditions where the coreference between a cataphoric pronoun and a sentence-internal possible antecedent is impossible according to Principle C,Chinese EFL learners overwhelmingly choose sentence-external referents as antecedents,suggesting that Chinese EFL learners reach the interpretation of cataphoric pronouns in the offline experiment and are aware of binding Principle C.Secondly,the first self-paced reading task finds a significant GMME in the spillover region,such that the adverb in the spillover region takes longer to read in the gender mismatch condition than in the gender match condition and in the control condition,with no difference between the gender match condition and the control condition,indicating Chinese EFL learners make an active search upon encountering a cataphoric pronoun during online backwards anaphora resolution.Thirdly,the second self-paced reading task finds an approaching significance GMME in the conditions where the coreference between a sentence-initial cataphoric pronoun and a possible antecedent in the main clause subject position is not precluded by Principle C,indicating that Chinese EFL learners’ active search for an antecedent upon encountering a cataphoric pronoun displays a tendency to be restricted by binding Principle C.These findings show that rather than fundamentally different,L2 learners’ backwards anaphora resolution is native-like,providing disconfirming evidence against Shallow Structure Hypothesis,which claims that unlike native speakers,L2 learners cannot use grammatical information during online sentence processing.However,as the results of the second self-paced reading are not statistically robust,further research on the application of Principle C in L2 cataphoric pronoun resolution is warranted.