Chinese complex reflexive ta-ziji as an exempt anaphor

Abstract

This study examines whether the complex reflexive ta-ziji in Mandarin Chinese can be used as an exempt anaphor. To this end, an offline antecedent choice experiment and an online self-paced reading experiment were conducted to explore whether and how discourse-level factors influence the interpretation of ta-ziji. The offline and online experiments provide converging evidence that the logophoric role (source vs. perceiver) of the non-local subject impacts the interpretation of ta-ziji. Crucially, the online experiment shows that when the non-local subject is an empathized source, non-local binding is preferred; when it is an empathized perceiver, there is no clear binding preference. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to linguistic theories of anaphora and logophoricity.