The role of pragmatics in reflexive interpretation by Turkish learners of English

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of pragmatic principles on the acquisition of the binding of English reflexives by adult Turkish second language (L2) learners. The study compares pragmatically biased and pragmatically neutral sentences to determine whether pragmatic bias towards a non-local antecedent overrides the parameter setting of English and causes learners to choose as possible antecedents NPs outside the binding domain. Both group and individual results indicate that pragmatically biased sentences compel the subjects to consider pragmatic information to the extent that it can affect their choice of local antecedent. Acquisition theories should account for the role that pragmatic information might play in the assignment of possible antecedents for reflexives.This study incorporates Huang's (1994) ‘pragmatic theory of anaphora’ in which the interpretation of a reflexive is subject to the I-principle, a pragmatic strategy which finds an antecedent for the reflexive that gives the most informative, stereotypical interpretation in keeping with our knowledge about the world.