Reflexive Resolution in Nonlogophoric Garden Path Sentences in Japanese

Abstract

This study was done to establish a garden path effect Japanese speakers might experience when resolving the reflexive, jibun, involved in biased (as opposed to unbiased) nonlogophoric sentences. The reflexive in the biased sentences was manipulated to be bound to a subject of a subordinate sentence (subordinate-subject) despite its being ordinarily associated with a subject of a matrix sentence (matrix-subject). Such manipulation was not performed for the unbiased sentences. Thus the speakers given the former sentences were expected to be garden-pathed. 56 students identified quickly and accurately, when given a marker, the antecedent of the reflexive with the marker given to them either immediately after a subordinate verb phrase or immediately after the end of a sentence following a matrix verb. Findings showed a clear interaction between sentence type and marker position. The rate of subordinate-subject as the judged antecedent of the reflexive remained low (19.1% on average) across the two marker positions for the speakers given the unbiased sentences, whereas for those given the biased sentences it increased from 16.7% to 40.5%. This indicates that the speakers actually go down a garden path and need a certain length of time to attain the ultimate interpretation of the sentences.