中国英语学习者变量约束加工的眼动研究

An eye-tracking study on Chinese EFL learners’ processing of variable binding

代词解读中的变量约束关系还未受到学界足够重视,特别是在二语句子加工领域。本研究采用句子理解测试和眼动实验考察了中国英语学习者代词变量约束的加工过程。结果显示,中国英语学习者对代词与其先行词之间的性别匹配关系不敏感,但回视路径时间和总停留时间显示他们加工非成分统制句耗时较短,并且句子理解测试显示他们的代词解读受成分统制制约。传统的句法和加工理论难以统一解释以上现象,而根据认知照应理论,这可能是显著性、潜在先行词的竞争、语序、距离、母语迁移等多因素互动的结果。

Previous research on pronoun interpretation has paid little attention to variable binding, especially in second language sentence processing. This study investigates variable binding in Chinese EFL learners’ sentence processing. The methods employed include a sentence comprehension test and an eye-tracking experiment. The results show that Chinese EFL learners are insensitive to gender-match-mismatch effect, but regression path duration and dwell time reveal that they spend less time in retrieving non-c-command quantifier phrases as antecedents, while the sentence comprehension test suggests that pronoun interpretation is subject to c-command restriction. It is difficult to account for the results within traditional structural and processing theories. According to cognitive anaphora theory, the results might be accounted for from the interaction of factors such as prominence, competition of potential antecedents, linear order, distance and mother tongue transfer.