The second language acquisition of reflexives in Japanese by Chinese and Korean learners

Abstract

Abstract This study investigates the second language processing and interpretation of the Japanese reflexive zibun ‘self’ by Chinese and Korean learners of Japanese. This is motivated by the pragmatic influence on anaphoric resolution in these three languages, allowing insight into positive pragmatic transfer regarding both the processing and interpretation of zibun . Guided by the Emergentist Reflexivity Approach, these pragmatic effects are manipulated to affect the learners’ reading of zibun , using a self-paced reading experiment with antecedent judgements and introspective measures. Results show that learners and native speakers alike are influenced by pragmatic factors, but there appears to be different weighing of cues in the learner groups in their real-time processing. Overall, the data supports the view of positive pragmatic transfer of anaphoric strategies into the learners’ second language, which in turn supports the idea that pragmatics regulates reflexive pronouns in these three languages.