Locality Bias Effect and Interpretation of Thai Reflexive Anaphors

Abstract

The two forms of Thai reflexive anaphors, tuaɁeeŋ ‘self’ and tua+pronoun+Ɂeeŋ ‘pronoun-self’, have been claimed to exhibit different referential patterns. While tuaɁeeŋ only co-refers with a local antecedent np within the same clause, tua+pronoun+Ɂeeŋ can refer to both local and distant antecedent np s. In this study, a self-paced reading experiment was used to examine whether and how Locality Bias guided the comprehenders’ online interpretation of tuaɁeeŋ and tua+pronoun+Ɂeeŋ. Our results showed that the reading time was significantly faster when a reflexive anaphor referred to a local np than when it did to a a distant np, regardless of the forms. This suggests that a local antecedent was preferred for both types of reflexives manifesting locality bias effect. Post hoc tests revealed that tua+pronoun+Ɂeeŋ appeared to be more sensitive to the locality bias than tuaɁeeŋ. This may result from the presence of the personal feature in tua+pronoun+Ɂeeŋ, which could restrict reference to local antecedents.