Abstract

An implication of the shallow structure hypothesis (Clahsen and Felser 2006, 2018) in tandem with that of L1 negative transfer predicts that L2ers are prone to pragmatic cues in reflexive resolution of the target language, especially when their L1 is a discourse-oriented language (Chiou and Huang 2010). This study finds that Greek learners of English do show their sensitivity to pragmatic information in reflexive resolution. Surprisingly, for some Greek L2ers, their sensitivity is strong enough to ignore the c-commanding requirement of reflexive-binding, casting doubt on the traditional categorization of Greek as a structure-oriented language. This study attributes Greek L2ers’ relatively high sensitivity to pragmatic cues to a quite complex lexical entry of Greek anaphors which include o iδ jos, a pragmatically controlled anaphoric expression.

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