Underdetermined binding of reflexives by adult Japanese-speaking learners of English

Abstract

In this article I report on an experimental study of the acquisition of English reflexives by adult Japanese-speaking learners of English. I argue that, consonant with a review of previous studies on binding in second language (L2) acquisition, the results of my experiment yield no evidence of an interlanguage grammar that is illicit with respect to Universal Grammar (UG).Moreover, I argue that a particular asymmetry in the nonlocal binding of English reflexives exhibited by the learners in this study is underdetermined with respect to both the L2 English input and learners' L1 Japanese competence in such a way as to suggest that these learners had direct access to Condition A of UG binding theory.