The Resolution of English Pronoun by Chinese-speaking Learners: Evidence from Eye Movement

Abstract

With resort to eye-tracking technique, this study investigated English pronoun resolutions of Chinese-speaking learners in picture noun phrase (PNP) contexts. In the eye-tracking experiment, both the effects of the nonlocal antecedent and local antecedent appeared in regression path duration in the pronoun region, suggesting that the nonlocal antecedent might sometimes be retrieved regardless of its gender. The results indicted that the binding-as-initial-filter model is not applicable and binding constraints may not have primacy over semantic cues in the processing of pronoun of Chinese L2 learners.