The nature of interlanguage: SLA of English reflexives

Abstract

This article examines experimental data of SLA of English reflexives. A carefully designed experiment to tap syntactic constraints of interlanguage grammar and the consideration of the consistency of responses of individual subjects reveal the systematicity of interlanguage grammar much more explicitly than previous studies. Of subjects' behaviour, 95% perfectly matches the sanctions of parameter values suggested in Wexler and Manzini's (1987) Governing Category Parameter and Proper Antecedent Parameter. However, re-examined in the light of the alternative hypotheses in the Binding Theory since Wexler and Manzini (1987), interlanguage grammar may violate the sanctions of Universal Grammar (UG) parameters for the variaton of referential properties of anaphors. Taking into account of this new evidence, the author suggests: 1) SLA is systematic; 2) L2 learners' interpretations of English reflexives are attributed to their linguistic knowledge; and 3) UG is available in SLA, and SLA of the referential properties of English reflexives is carried out by (re)setting parameter values.