Wang Tao, Geng Mingyao, Wang Yue, Zhao Min, Zhou Tongquan, Yang Yiming
School of Psychology, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China.
School of Translation Studies, Qufu Normal University, Rizhao, China.
Front Psychol. 2023 Feb 23;14:1126673. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1126673. eCollection 2023.
Previous studies on English natives have shown that encountering an English cataphoric pronoun triggers an active search for its antecedent and this searching process is modulated by syntactic constraints. It remains unknown whether the conclusion is universal to EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners, particularly those with distinct L1 like Chinese in linguistic typology. Therefore, this study used two eye-tracking experiments to investigate how Chinese EFL learners resolve English cataphora. The experiments adopted the gender-mismatch paradigm. Experiment 1 investigated whether Chinese EFL learners with different proficiency would adopt the similar processing pattern to English natives and found that gender congruency elicited longer reading times than gender incongruency between the first potential antecedent and the cataphoric pronoun, the effect early observed in high-proficiency relative to low-proficiency learners. Experiment 2 explored whether the cataphora resolution process was modulated by Binding Principle B and revealed that longer first fixation durations and first pass reading times were observed in gender-mismatch than in gender-match conditions no matter the antecedents are binding-accessible or not while longer regression path durations occurred in gender-mismatch than in gender-match conditions only as the antecedents are binding-accessible. Taken together, these results indicate that Chinese EFL learners also adopt an active search mechanism to resolve cataphoric pronouns, yet along a processing path distinct from English natives'. Specifically, Chinese EFL learners predictively link a cataphoric pronoun to the first potential antecedent in the sentence but only a gender-matching antecedent can prompt them to engage in deep processing of the antecedent. Moreover, the processing time varies with the learners' English proficiency. Furthermore, unlike native English speakers' early application of syntactic constraints in their cataphora resolution, Chinese EFL learners try to establish co-reference relations between cataphoric pronouns and antecedents regardless of following or flouting Binding Principle B in early processing stages whereas they exclusively link the cataphoric pronouns to the binding-accessible antecedents in late processing stages. This study adds evidence to the Shallow Structure Hypothesis whereby L2 learners resort to lexical prior to syntactic cues to process sentences in general, which is just opposite to the fashion adopted by the natives.
先前针对以英语为母语者的研究表明，遇到英语前指代词会引发对其先行词的积极搜索，并且这种搜索过程受到句法限制的调节。该结论对于英语外语（EFL）学习者，尤其是那些在语言类型学上具有不同母语（如中文）的学习者是否普遍适用，仍然未知。因此，本研究使用了两个眼动追踪实验来探究中国英语外语学习者如何解决英语前指问题。实验采用了性别不匹配范式。实验1调查了不同熟练程度的中国英语外语学习者是否会采用与以英语为母语者相似的处理模式，结果发现，在第一个潜在先行词和前指代词之间，性别一致比性别不一致引发了更长的阅读时间，这种效应在高熟练程度学习者中比低熟练程度学习者中更早观察到。实验2探究了前指消解过程是否受约束原则B的调节，结果显示，无论先行词是否具有约束可及性，在性别不匹配条件下比在性别匹配条件下观察到更长的首次注视持续时间和首次通过阅读时间，而仅当先行词具有约束可及性时，在性别不匹配条件下比在性别匹配条件下出现更长的回视路径持续时间。综合来看，这些结果表明，中国英语外语学习者也采用积极搜索机制来解决前指代词问题，但其处理路径与以英语为母语者不同。具体而言，中国英语外语学习者会预测性地将前指代词与句子中的第一个潜在先行词联系起来，但只有性别匹配的先行词才能促使他们对先行词进行深入处理。此外，处理时间因学习者的英语熟练程度而异。此外，与以英语为母语者在解决前指问题时早期应用句法限制不同，中国英语外语学习者在早期处理阶段试图在前指代词和先行词之间建立共指关系，而不管是否遵循或违反约束原则B，而在后期处理阶段，他们仅将前指代词与具有约束可及性的先行词联系起来。本研究为浅层结构假说提供了证据，即二语学习者一般在句法线索之前诉诸词汇来处理句子，这与母语者采用的方式相反。
