<em>Knowledge of Reflexives in a Second Language</em> by Margaret Thomas. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1993. 234 pp.

Abstract

Generally speaking, everyone fully acquires a first language, and most people can learn another language, although in the latter case, the ultimate speed and level of success can vary dramatically from individual to Individ aal. The impressiveness of first language acquisition is marked by its rapidity, uniformity, and lack of expHcit tutoring. Generative linguistic Uieory, its more current version being known as universal grammar (UG), attributes this marvellous achievement to a biologically-based preprogramming in human beings. UG conceptualizes the knowledge of language as a grammar. This core grammar is represented by principles and parameters, with principles to account for the constraints found in all human languages and parameters to account for the cross-hnguistic variation among different languages. SLA researchers using UG as a theoretical model ask such questions as: Does UG operate in L2 acquisition, and if so, what is the L2 grammar like? The book entitled Knowledge of Reflexives in a Second Language by Margaret Thomas (henceforth MT) is essentially a technical report of a series of experiments on the acquisition of reflexives by L2 learners. The book, underpinned by UG theory, is based on MT's (1991) doctoral study which addresses an important theoretical question in SLA concerning the issue of whetherUG principles are accessible to adult L2 learners. Why reflexives? What do they have to do with linguistic knowledge and therefore with UG principles and parameters? In other words, in what ways are reflexives useful in answering the question this study aims to address? MT devotes Chapter 1 to a discussion of the basics of language acquisition and linguistic theory. Chapters 2 and 3 are explications of a set of UG principles collectively known as binding theory which accounts for the referential properties of noun phrases (NPs) by structurally constraining the interpretation of anaphors (e.g., reflexives and reciprocals), pronominals (e.g., pronouns), and R-expressions (e.g., variables). Chapters 4 and 5 describe and discuss the experiments MT carried out to tap L2 learners' knowledge of the reflexives self in English and zibun in Japanese. The subjects in these experiments are Japanese and Spanish learners ofEngUsh (the ESL experiment), and English and Chinese learners of Japanese (the JSL experiment). The discussion and conclusion are found in Chapters 6 and 7. MT concludes that the results support the hypothesis that L2 learners observe constraints on reflexives, in the manner