Abstract
This paper examines Chinese children's knowledge of long-distance binding of the bare reflexiveziji (self) and their knowledge of other proforms, namely,taziji (himself) andta (him). The experimental results from previous research and the current study, indicate that only very few children consistently allowziji to be long-distance bound. Based on the suggestion thatziji is covertly local in nature and that long-distance binding is caused by the movement ofziji in Logical Form, two hypotheses concerning children's lack of long-distance binding were tested. Hypothesis 1 states that children moveziji to an adjoined non-argument position in Logical Form. However, since they do not have the ability to transfer referential features from a higher NP to a non-argument position, they do not have long-distance binding. Hypothesis 2 states that children do not moveziji in Logical Form. Sinceziji may only receive, its referential features from a local binder, a long-distance binder is not a possible antecedent for young children. The results of the current study do not totally confirm or disconfirm either hypothesis but raise several theoretical and empirical questions which each hypothesis must answer.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Avrutin, Sergey and Kenneth Wexler (in press) “Development of Principle B in Russian: Coindexation at LF and Coreference,” to appear inLanguage Acquisition.
Aoun, Joseph and Y.-H. Audrey Li (1990) “Minimal Disjointness,”Linguistics 28, 189–204.
Aoun, Joseph and Y.-H. Audrey Li (1993)Syntax of Scope, MIT Press, Cambridge.
Battistella, Edwin (1987) “Chinese Reflexivization,” paper presented at the 2nd Harbin Conference on Generative Grammar, Heilongjiang University, Harbin, People's Republic of China, 1990; ms., University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Battistella, Edwin (1989) “Chinese Reflexivization: A Movement to INFL Approach,”Linguistics 27, 987–1012.
Chomsky, Noam (1981)Lectures on Government and Binding, Foris, Dordrecht.
Chien, Yu-Chin (1992) “Theoretical Implications of the Principles and Parameters Model for Language Acquisition in Chinese,” in H. C. Chen and O. J. L. Tzeng (eds.),Language Processing in Chinese, Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., North-Holland, pp. 313–345.
Chien, Yu-Chin and Kenneth Wexler (1987) “A Comparison between Chinese-Speaking and English-Speaking Children's Acquisition of Reflexives and Pronouns,” paper presented in the 12th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, 1987; ms., California State University, San Bernardino.
Cole, Peter, Gabriella Hermon and Li-May Sung (1990) “Principles and Parameters of Long-Distance Reflexives,”Linguistic Inquiry 21(1), 1–22.
Crain, Stephen and Cecile McKee (1985) “Acquisition of Structural Restrictions on Anaphors,” in S. Berman, J. W. Choe, and J. McDonough (eds.),Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the North Eastern Linguistics Society (NELS) McGill University, Montreal, pp. 94–110.
Huang, C.-T. James (1982)Logical Relations in Chinese and the Theory of Grammar, PhD dissertation, MIT.
Huang, C.-T. James and C.-C. Jane Tang (1991) “The Local Nature of the Long-Distance Reflexive in Chinese,” in Jan Koster and Eric Reuland (eds.),Long-Distance Anaphora, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Kapur, Shyam, Barbara Lust, Wayne Harbert, and Gita Martohardjono (in press) “Universal Grammar and Learnability Theory: The Case of Binding Domains and the ‘Subset Principle’,” to appear in E. Reuland and W. Abraham (eds.),In Knowledge and Language: Issues in Representation and Acquisition, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
Lee, Hyeonjin and Kenneth Wexler (1987) “The Acquisition of Reflexives and Pronouns in Korean: From the Cross-Linguistic Perspective,” paper presented in the 12th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, 1987; ms., University of California, Irvine.
Manzini, Riata and Kenneth Wexler (1987) “Parameters, Binding Theory, and Learnability,”Linguistic Inquiry 18, 413–444.
Wexler, Kenneth (1992) “Some Issues, in the Growth of Control,” in R. K. Larson, S. Iatridou, U. Lahiri, and J. Higginbotham (eds.),Control and Grammar, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 253–295.
Wexler, Kenneth and Rita Manzini (1987) “Parameters and Learnability in Binding Theory,” in T. Roeper and E. Williams (eds.),Parameter Setting, Reidel, Dordrecht.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chien, YC., Wexler, K. & Chang, HW. Children's development of long-distance binding in Chinese. J East Asian Linguis 2, 229–259 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01739134
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01739134