A Comparative Study on the Influence of Syntactic Constraints on Cataphora Resolution in Chinese and English
Using self-paced reading and sentence-final antecedent judgment tasks,this study probes the processing of cataphora in Chi-nese complex sentences.The aim is to answer three research questions.First,when a cataphoric pronoun in an adverbial clause is in a syntactically licit position,can it refer to the matrix subject?Second,does the cataphoric pronoun in the syntactically illi-cit position impact the processing of the matrix subject?Third,what are the similarities/differences in the processing of cataphora in Chinese and English?The results suggest that,during incremental real-time processing,cataphoric pronouns in adverbial clau-ses can refer to matrix subjects only when cataphoric binding is licensed by syntax.However,compared to English,cataphora resolution in Chinese is slower and the effect size is smaller.Nevertheless,cataphora resolution patterns in sentence-final ante-cedent judgment are similar in Chinese and English.This study has implications for cataphora resolution theories.
万方数据
维普
