本論文探討母語者及學習者對子句中顯性代名詞(overt pronoun)及零代名詞(null pronoun)的詮釋是否有所差異，三組受試對象爲(A)臺灣手語爲母語者、(B)臺灣手語之學習者及(C)未學過臺灣手語的中文使用者。本研究之目的分爲兩類：(一）顯性代名詞及零代名詞在句外(extra-sentential)及句內(coreferential)的可能詮釋中有何差異；(二）對臺灣手語爲第二語言的學習者而言，他們較可能將這些代名詞按照其母語抑或是臺灣手語的語序進行翻譯。此研究旨在測試臺灣手語及中文使用者對 Overt Pronoun Constraint (OPC) 的理解，以及子句中的零代名詞所指的對象能否爲句外的某人或某物。
根據OPC規則表示，在顯性代名詞與零代名詞皆可出現之情況下，顯性代名詞無法被句法變量(syntactic variable)所約束(Montalbetti, 1984)。先前有關OPC在第二語言習得中的文獻指出，即使OPC存在於學習者的母語，但只有當學習者達到進階程度時，他們才能展現出相當於母語者對OPC同程度的理解。此外，先前有關零代名詞詮釋的文獻也表示，母語爲中文者不容許零代名詞指句外的對象 (Lust et al., 1999)。爲了測試此兩種代名詞之使用限制，本論文以Truth Value Judgment Task爲實驗方法，以利研究對象熟知篇章文意後，再進行句型之判斷。然而，此研究發現以臺灣手語爲第二語言的學習者能接受顯性代名詞被句法變量約束的句型；而此結果與OPC所預期的情況相反。不過，也因爲中文與臺灣手語的母語者都接受該句型，故筆者認爲OPC在這兩種語言中不一定存在。此外，根據實驗結果顯示，三組受試者皆能接受零代名詞可用來指句外對象，但此詮釋可能只在特定情況中出現。

This study presents an investigation into the interpretations of null and overt pronouns in embedded clauses by native and non-native speakers of Taiwan Sign Language (TSL), as well as monolingual native Mandarin speakers. The goals of this study are two-pronged, investigating: (a) how the two types of pronouns (null vs overt) differ in their possible interpretations (extra-sentential vs coreferential); and (b) whether second language (L2) learners of TSL are more likely to interpret these pronominals along the lines of their native language (Mandarin) or their target language (TSL). In particular, this study aims to test the knowledge of the Overt Pronoun Constraint (OPC) among speakers of TSL and Mandarin, and how accessible extra-sentential referents are for null embedded pronouns.
The OPC states that in cases where both null and overt pronouns may occur, an overt pronoun may not be bound by a syntactic variable (Montalbetti, 1984). Previous research on the OPC in second language (L2) acquisition has found that L2 learners only demonstrate native-like understanding of OPC at advanced stages, even when their native language has the OPC, as found in Matsuoka & Lillo-Martin (2017), where L1-Japanese learners of Japanese Sign Language tended to allow bound variable readings. In the case of null pronouns, experimental research into their interpretation by native speakers of Mandarin has found that extra-sentential readings are strongly dispreferred (Lust et al., 1999). The present study is the second study to look at L2-M2 (second modality) learners, employing the Truth Value Judgment Task, where participants can evaluate the meaning of a sentence against a particular context, as our main test methodology. Overall, we found that L2 learners of TSL did indeed allow bound variable readings, contrary to OPC, though both groups of L1 speakers likewise allowed bound variable readings, casting some doubt on the validity of OPC in these two languages. Extra-sentential antecedents were also available for null pronouns, though often only under certain conditions.

摘要 i
Abstract ii
Acknowledgments iii
Table of Contents v
List of Tables ix
List of Figures x
Chapter 1. Introduction. 1
§1.1 — Overview 1
§1.2 — Terms and concepts 1
§1.2.1 — The Overt Pronoun Constraint 1
§1.2.2 — Truth Value Judgment Task 5
§1.3 — Linguistic background 9
§1.3.1 — Taiwanese Mandarin 9
§1.3.2 — Taiwan Sign Language 10
§1.4 — Organization of the thesis 13
Chapter 2. Literature Review. 14
§2.1 — OPC in the literature 14
§2.1.1 — Cross-linguistic evidence for OPC 14
§2.1.2 — Studies on the distribution of null vs. overt pronouns 17
§2.1.3 — L2 acquisition of OPC 19
§2.1.4 — Cross-modal acquisition of OPC: a case study on JSL 32
§2.1.5 — Summarizing the research so far 35
§2.2 — Reviewing OPC in Mandarin and TSL 36
§2.2.1 — Overview 36
§2.2.2 — Quantifiers in OPC research 40
§2.2.3 — Summarizing OPC research on Mandarin and TSL 46
§2.3 — Concluding remarks 47
Chapter 3. Experiment 1. 49
§3.1 — Goals of this study 49
§3.2 — Methodology 50
§3.2.1 — The participants 50
§3.2.2 — The Truth-Value Judgment Task 51
§3.2.3 — Stimuli 53
§3.3 — Experiment results 69
§3.4 — Discussion 70
§3.4.1 — Overview 70
§3.4.2 — The universal quantifier condition 71
§3.4.3 — Lack of OPC effects 73
§3.4.4 — L1 yes-bias 73
§3.4.5 — Goals for the follow-up experiment 75
§3.5 — Concluding remarks 76
Chapter 4. Experiment 2. 77
§4.1 — Goals 77
§4.2 — Methodology 79
§4.2.1 — Overview 79
§4.2.2 — The task 80
§4.2.3 — Changes to narrative structure 80
§4.2.4 — Miscellaneous changes 84
§4.2.5 — The participants 86
§4.3 — Experiment results 88
§4.3.1 — OPC trial results 88
§4.3.2 — Null pronoun trials 90
§4.3.3 — Within-group analyses 92
§4.4 — Discussion 94
§4.4.1 — Overview 94
§4.4.2 — Lack of OPC effects 94
§4.4.3 — Structural ambiguity in null pronoun stimuli 95
§4.5 — Concluding remarks 99
Chapter 5. General Discussion and Conclusion. 101
§5.1 — Research questions revisited 101
§5.2 — OPC 102
§5.3 — L2 acquisition 104
§5.4 — Conclusion 106
Appendix A: Materials for Experiment 1 107
Overt pronoun narratives 107
Wh-word 107
UQ condition 108
REx condition 109
Null pronoun narratives 110
Wh-word condition 110
UQ condition 111
REx condition 112
Practice narratives 113
Control narratives 113
Appendix B: Materials for Experiment 2. 116
Session 1 (overt embedded pronouns) 116
Wh-word narratives 116
UQ narratives 117
REx narratives 119
Practice narratives 120
Control narratives 121
Session 2 (null embedded pronouns) 123
Wh-word narratives 123
UQ narratives 124
REx narratives 126
Control narratives 127
References 130

AOUN, Joseph, Norbert HORNSTEIN. 1992. Bound and Referential Pronouns. In C.-T. James HUANG, Robert MAY (eds.), Logical structure and linguistic structure: cross-linguistic perspectives. (pp. 1-23). Kluwer Academic Publishers.
AOUN, Joseph, Yen-hui Audrey LI. 1996. Two Cases of Logical Relations: Bound Pronouns and Anaphoric Relations. In Robert FREIDIN (ed.), Current Issues in Comparative Grammar. (pp. 346-373). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
BELLETI, Adriana, Elia BENNATI, Antonella SORACE. (2007). Theoretical and developmental issues in the syntax of subjects: Evidence from near-native Italian. Nat Lang Linguist Theory, 25, 657-689.
CARMINATI, Maria Nella. (2002). The processing of Italian subject pronouns. PhD dissertation, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
CHANG, Jung-hsing, Tsung-yu CHUANG. 2011. 〈台灣手語人名之造詞研究〉 [Personal Name Signs in Taiwan Sign Language]. In Jung-hsing CHANG (ed.), 《語言語認知：戴浩一先生七秩壽慶論文集 》 [Language and Cognition: Festschrift in Honor of James H-Y. Tai on His 70th Birthday]. (pp. 259-276). Taipei: Crane Publishing.
CHEN, Yijun. 2012. Questioning in Taiwan Sign Language Conversation. PhD dissertation, National Chung Cheng University.
CHEN PICHLER, Deborah, Helen KOULIDOBROVA. 2016. Acquisition of sign language as a second language (L2). In Marc MARSCHARK, Patricia Elizabeth SPENCER (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies in Language: Research, Policy, and Practice. (pp. 218-230). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
CRAIN, Stephen, Rosalind THORNTON. 1998. Investigations in Universal Grammar: A Guide to Experiments on the Acquisition of Syntax and Semantics. MIT Press.
DEKYDSTSPOTTER, Laurent, Rex A. SPROUSE, Bruce ANDERSON. 1997. The Interpretive Interface in L2 Acquisition: The Process-Result Distinction in English-French Interlanguage Grammars. Language Acquisition, 6(4), 297-332.
FISCHER, Susan. 2009f. Sign Language Field Methods: Approaches, Techniques, and Concerns. In James H-Y. TAI and Jane TSAY (eds.), Taiwan Sign Language and Beyond. (pp. 1-19). Chia-yi, Taiwan: The Taiwan Institute for the Humanities, National Chung Cheng University.
GELORMINI-LEZAMA, Carlos, David HUEPE, Eduar HERRERA, Margherita MELLONI, Facundo MANES, Adolfo M. GARCÍA, Agustín IBÁÑEZ. 2016. The Overt Pronoun Constraint Across Three Dialects of Spanish. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 45(4), 979-1000.
GÜREL, Ayşe. 2003. Is the Overt Pronoun Constraint Universal? Evidence from Turkish. In Juana M. Liceras et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the 6th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition Conference (GASLA 2002). (pp. 130-139). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
HONG, Sungshim, Mineharu NAKAYAMA. 2017. Kare and bound variable interpretations by Korean speaking learners of Japanese. In Mineharu NAKAYAMA, Yi-ching SU, Aijun HUANG (eds.), Studies in Chinese and Japanese Language Acquisition: In honor of Stephen Crain. (pp. 85-106). John Benjamins Publishing.
HUANG, C.-T. James. 1984. On the Distribution and Reference of Empty Pronouns. Linguistic Inquiry, 15(4), 531-574.
HUANG, C.-T. James. 1987. Remarks on Empty Categories in Chinese. Linguistic Inquiry, 18(2), 321-337.
HUANG, C.-T. James. 1988. 說「是」和「有」 [On ‘Be’ and ‘Have’ in Chinese]. 中央研究院歷史語言研究所集刊 [The Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology], 59(1), 42-64.
HUANG, Jianqiao Caroline. 2014. Is the overt pronoun constraint learnable? M.A. thesis, University of Hong Kong.
HUNG, Yu. 2012. Negation in Naturally Occurring Taiwan Sign Language. M.A. thesis, National Chung Cheng University.
JANNEJAD, Mohsen, Reza BANARI, Anahita BORDBAR, Ali BARDIDE. 2016. The Proper Formulation of the Overt Pronoun Constraint: Evidence from Persian and Azeri. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 7(4), 176-188.
JIA, Li, Robert BAYLEY. 2002. Null pronoun variation in Mandarin Chinese. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics, 8(3), 103-116.
JOHNSTON, Trevor. 2003. BSL, Auslan and NZSL: Three signed languages or one? In Anne BAKER, Beppie VAN DEN BOGAERDE, Onno CRASBORN (eds.), Cross-Linguistic Perspectives in Sign Language Research, Selected Papers from TISLR 2000 (pp. 47-69). Hamburg: Signum Verlag.
KAHRAMAN, Barış, Mineharu NAKAYAMA. 2015. Interpretations of kare/kanojo by Turkish Speaking Learners of Japanese. Ars Linguistica, 21, 18-38.
KANNO, Kazue. 1997. The acquisition of null and overt pronominals in Japanese by English speakers. Second Language Research, 13(3), 265-287.
KOULIDOBROVA, Elena, Diane LILLO-MARTIN. 2016. A ‘point’ of inquiry: The Case of the (non-)pronominal IX in ASL. In Patrick GROSZ, Pritty PATEL-GROSZ (eds.), The Impact of Pronominal Form on Interpretation. (pp. 221-250). De Gruyter Mouton.
LAI, Yu-ting. 2005. Noun Phrases in Taiwan Sign Language. M.A. thesis, National Chung Cheng University.
LIN, Philip T. 2015. Taiwanese Grammar: a concise reference. Greenhorn Media.
LOZANO, Cristóbal. 2002. The interpretation of overt and null pronouns in non-native Spanish. Durham Working Papers in Linguistics, 8, 53-66.
LUST, Barbara, Yu-chin CHIEN, Chi-pang CHIANG, Julie EISELE. 1996. Chinese pronominals in Universal Grammar: a study of linear precedence and command in Chinese and English children’s first language acquisition. Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 5, 1-47.
MASUMOTO, Ayaka. 2008. Overt pronouns and bound variable reading in L2 Japanese. M.A. thesis, Ohio State University.
MATSUOKA, Kazumi, Diane LILLO-MARTIN. 2017. Interpretation of bound pronouns by learners of Japanese Sign Language. In Mineharu NAKAYAMA, Yi-ching SU, Aijun HUANG (eds.), Studies in Chinese and Japanese Language Acquisition: In honor of Stephen Crain. (pp. 107-126). John Benjamins Publishing.
MCKEE, Rachel, Adam SCHEMBRI, David MCKEE, Trevor JOHNSTON. 2011. Variable “subject” presence in Australian Sign Language and New Zealand Sign Language. Language Variation and Change, 23, 375-398.
MONTALBETTI, Mario. 1984. After Binding: On the Interpretation of Pronouns. PhD dissertation, MIT.
MOSLING, Karina. 2010. On the L2 Acquisition of the Overt Pronoun Constraint in Brazilian Portuguese. In Pedro GUIJARRO-FUENTES, Laura DOMÍNGUEZ (eds.), New Directions in Language Acquisition: Romance Languages in the Generative Perspective. (pp. 267-298). Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
MÜLLER DE QUADROS, Ronice, Diane LILLO-MARTIN, Deborah CHEN PICHLER. 2016. Bimodal Bilingualism: Sign Language and Spoken Language. In David QUINTO-POZOS (ed.), Sign Languages in Contact. (pp. 181-196). Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press.
NAGANO, Marisa. 2016. Acquisition of Overt and Null Pronoun Interpretation in L2 Japanese. In The 40th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD 40) Online Proceedings Supplement.
OKUMA, Takiko. 2012. L2 Acquisition of discourse constraints on the use of Japanese pronouns. In The 36th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD 36) Online Proceedings Supplement.
ÖZBEK, Aydin, Barış KAHRAMAN. 2016. Interpretation of Turkish Reflexive pronouns kendi and kendisi. Mersin University Journal of Linguistics and Literature, 13(1), 73-96.
PADDEN, Carrol A. 1988. Interaction of Morphology and Syntax in American Sign Language. Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics. New York: Garland.
PAREDES SILVA, Vera Lúcia. 1993. Subject omission and functional compensation: Evidence from written Brazilian Portguese. Language Variation and Change, 5, 35-49.
PÉREX-LEROUX, Ana T., William R. GLASS. 1999. Null anaphora in Spanish second language acquisition: probabilistic versus generative approaches. Second Language Research, 15(2), 220-249.
PIMENTEL, Carlos L., Mineharu NAKAYAMA. 2012. Pronominal interpretations in L2 Japanese. Journal of Japanese Linguistics, 28, 111-131.
SANDLER, Wendy and Diane LILLO-MARTIN. 2006. Sign Language and Linguistic Universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
SCHLENKER, Philippe. 2013. “Anaphora: Insights from Sign Language (Summary)”. 　 https://sites.google.com/site/philippeschlenkerhome/
SHEEN, Ron. 2000. A response to Kanno’s “The stability of UG principles in second-language acquisition evidence from Japanese”. Linguistics, 38(4), 799-816.
SMITH, Wayne H. 2005. Taiwan Sign Language Research: An Historical Overview. Language and Linguistics, 6(2), 187-215.
SORACE, Antonella, Francesca FILIACI. 2006. Anaphora resolution in near-native speakers of Italian. Second Language Research, 22(3), 339-368.
SU, Shiou-fen. 2011. Modality Effects in Grammar and Discourse in Taiwan Sign Language. PhD dissertation, National Chung Cheng University.
SU, Yi-ching. 2017. L2 Acquisition of Reflexive and Pronoun Resolution: Preliminary Findings from a Mandarin/English Bi-directional Study. Paper presented at the 2017 Round-Table Seminar: Cognition & SLA in the New Era, November 3-4, University of Macau, Macau.
TAI, James H-Y., Shiou-fen SU. 2006. 台灣手語的呼應方式 [Agreement in Taiwan Sign Language]. In Henry Y. CHANG, Lillian M. HUANG, Dah-an HO (eds.), Streams Converging into an Ocean: Festschrift in Honor of Professor Paul Jen-Kuei Li on His 70th Birthday. (pp. 341-363). Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica.
TAI, James H-Y., Jane S. TSAY. 2015. Taiwan Sign Language: History, Structure, and Adaptation. In William S-Y. WANG, Chaofen SUN (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Linguistics. (pp. 729-750). Oxford University Press.
THORNTON, Rosalind, Kenneth WEXLER. 1999. Principle B, Ellipsis, and Interpretation in Child Grammar. MIT Press.
TSAI, Wei-tien Dylan. 2004. 談“有人”“有的人”和“有些人” [On “you ren (有人)”, “you de ren (有的人)” and “you xie ren (有些人)”]. 漢語學報 [Chinese Linguistics], 8(2), 16-25.
TSAY, Jane. 2017. The Role of Markedness in Hearing L2 Users of Taiwan Sign Language. Paper presented at the International Conference on Theoretical East Asian Psycholinguistics, March 10-12, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
TSAY, Jane, James H.-Y. TAI, Yijun CHEN, and Hsin-Hsien LEE. 2017. Taiwan Sign Language Online Dictionary. 3rd ed. Minxiong: Institute of Linguistics, National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan, http://tsl.ccu.edu.tw/web/browser.htm.
WHITE, Lydia, Joyce BRUHN-GARAVITO, Takako KAWASAKI, Joe PATER, Philippe PRÉVOST. 1997. The Researcher Gave the Subject a Test about Himself: Problems of Ambiguity and Preference in the Investigation of Reflexive Binding. Language Learning, 47(1), 145-172.
WU, Peixin. 2014. Quantifiers Each, Every and All in Taiwan Sign Language. M.A. thesis, National Chung Cheng University.
WULF, Alyssa, Paul DUDIS, Robert BAYLEY, Ceil LUCAS. 2002. Variable Subject Presence in ASL Narratives. Sign Language Studies, 3(1), 54-76.
XU, Liejiong. 1986. Free Empty Category. Linguistic Inquiry, 17(1), 75-93.
YAMADA, Kazumi. 2007. English Natives’ Interpretation of Pronominals in Japanese: Evidence from a Pilot Study. The Journal of Osaka Jogakuin College “Kiyo”, 37, 1-18.
ZHANG, Niina Ning. 2007. Universal 20 and Taiwan Sign Language. Sign Language & Linguistics, 10(1), 53-79.
ZHAO, Lucy Xia. 2012. Interpretation of Chinese overt and null embedded arguments by English-speaking learners. Second Language Research, 28(2), 169-190.
ZHAO, Lucy Xia. 2014. Ultimate attainment of anaphora resolution in L2 Chinese. Second Language Research, 30(3), 381-407.
凌美雪. 2018. 行政院通過「國家語言發展法」草案 手語同列保障範疇. Liberty Times Net, http://ent.ltn.com.tw/news/breakingnews/2302467.
潘秋雯. 2013a. 《臺北市手語翻譯培訓教材第一冊（上）》. Taipei: Taipei Foreign and Disabled Labor Office.
潘秋雯. 2013b. 《臺北市手語翻譯培訓教材第一冊（下）》. Taipei: Taipei Foreign and Disabled Labor Office.
潘秋雯. 2015. 《臺北市手語翻譯培訓教材第二冊》. Taipei: Taipei Foreign and Disabled Labor Office.