Second Language Acquisition of the Monomorphemic Ziji by Adult English Speakers

Abstract

This study reports a native non-native divergence in the interpretation of monomorphemic ziji between native Chinese speakers and adult English speakers of L2 Chinese. It is found that while monomorphemic ziji can be locally and long-distantly bound in native speakers' grammar, it cannot be locally bound in L2 learners' grammar. The divergence exists at early stages of learning and persists through later stages. It is argued that the divergence may be an effect of inaccessibility of some critical period-associated functional features (Hawkins and Chan 1997) and what appears to be a parameter resetting scenario could be in fact an adjustment of L2 setting to match with the L1 setting; monomorphemic ziji may have been misanalysed as pronouns in English.