THE RUSSIAN REFLEXIVE IN SECOND-LANGUAGE ACQUISITION:
BINDING PREFERENCES AND L1 TRANSFER
Annalisa Czeczulin, PhD
University of Pittsburgh, 2007
This dissertation investigates knowledge of reflexives by adult English-speaking learners of Russian as a second language. The study uses an experimental methodology to ascertain the extent to which a speakers native language (L1) influences his or her acquisition of the second language (L2). The thesis concerns L2 acquisition of the reflexive object pronoun sebja, the reflexive possessive pronoun svoj, and the post-verbal affix sja and investigates the claim that unlike in English, in Russian some anaphors may be bound long-distance (LD) outside non-finite embedded clauses. Twenty non-native and ten native speakers of Russian were tested during the first experiment, and ten non-native and ten native speakers during the second experiment. The experiments were based on Bennett and Progovac (1993) and White et al (1997).
The first experiment found that the more proficient the L2 speakers become, the more their binding pattern reflects that of the L1 informants, suggesting that the L2 subjects depend on their L1 parameters and settings to bind in the L2, but that this dependence wanes as they become more proficient. L2 learners of Russian maintain their L1 AGR parameter in the L2, but transfer their L1 Xmax binding type at first. Following training, L2 subjects showed greater sensitivity to ambiguity of reference for sebja than native Russian speakers or overgeneralized the training. Although no resetting of parameters was observed during the research, the possibility of resetting parameters looks promising. This resetting will vary across reflexive and sentence types.
The second experiment, which evaluated the effects of preferences and pragmatics on binding, suggests that two grammars exist in Russian speakers and that language change may be underway in Russian where LD anaphora are concerned. The L2 subjects were less successful in this experiment and violated the c-command requirement for reflexives. LD binding could be induced through introduction of a verb of power in combination with a LD antecedent deemed to have control over the local antecedent.
The experiments results conclude that Bennett and Progovacs (1993) X0/Xmax addition to Chomskys Binding Theory does not adequately explain the current binding situation in Russian.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-08092007-210838 |
| Date | 20 September 2007 |
| Creators | Czeczulin, Annalisa Olivia |
| Contributors | Dr. Oscar Swan, Dr. Alan Juffs, Dr. David J. Birnbaum, Dr. Robert DeKeyser |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-08092007-210838/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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