在空主語語言 (Null Subject Languages)中，根據 Carminati (2002) 提出的先行詞位置策略 (Position of Antecedent Strategy)，隱性代名詞 (null pronouns) 傾向指涉在主語 (subject) 位置的先行詞，而顯性代名詞 (overt pronouns) 則根據分工機制 (division of labor) 而傾向指涉在非主語位置的先行詞。由於過去關於漢語隱性及顯性主與代名詞解讀策略之文獻結果並不一致，本論文透過實驗來研究漢語母語者是否如同印歐空主語語言 (如：義大利語和希臘語) 之母語者，皆使用先行詞位置策略，抑或是如同其他東亞語言 (如：日語和韓語) 母語者，採取主語偏好策略 (Subject Bias Strategy)。本論文主要呈現四個實驗的結果。前兩個實驗為語句解讀實驗，探討漢語隱性與顯性代名詞在先行詞歧義句內之解讀偏好。結果顯示，隱性與顯性代名詞皆偏好指涉主語，代表漢語母語者採用主語偏好策略，而非先行詞位置策略。此外，隱性代名詞對於主語之解讀偏好 (subject bias) 較顯性代名詞強烈，符合可及性理論 (Accessibility Theory, Ariel, 1990) 之預測。著，我們以自主步調閱讀實驗 (self-paced reading experiment) 來探討在語境傾「主語」或「非主語」的情況下，隱性與顯性代名詞之解讀與線上處理策略。實驗結果發現，當語境傾向將「非主語」作為顯性/隱性代名詞之先行詞時，受試者容易產生理解困難，再次驗證了主語偏好策略在漢語的有效性。最後，我們使用眼動追蹤實驗 (eye tracking experiment) 來深入分析顯性與隱性代名詞線上處理策略之差異。實驗結果發現，隱性代名詞在早期處理階段 (early processing stage) 即反映了主語偏好策略之影響，而顯性代名詞則是在晚期處理階段 (late processing stage) 才反映出該策略之影響。綜上所述，本論文證明了漢語母語者和日語及韓語母語者一樣，皆使用主語偏好策略來解讀顯性及隱性主語代名詞。

The Position of Antecedent Strategy (PAS) of Carminati (2002) predicts that for Null Subject languages (NSLs), null pronouns are biased towards an antecedent in the subject position, whereas overt pronouns are biased towards an antecedent in the non-subject position due to a division of labor. Since previous studies examining the validity of the PAS in Mandarin Chinese show conflicting results, we examined whether native Mandarin speakers apply the PAS, replicating the strategy that has been observed in Indo-European NSLs such as Italian and Greek, or demonstrate a consistent subject bias for antecedent assignment, which has been found in other East Asian languages such as Japanese and Korean.
Four experiments were conducted in the present study. The sentence interpretation experiments investigated the offline interpretational preferences of null and overt subject pronouns in globally ambiguous sentences. The findings showed that both types of pronouns displayed a subject preference, incompatible with the prediction of the PAS but favoring the Subject Bias Strategy (SBS). It was also noted that the subject bias was stronger for null pronouns than for overt pronouns, which can be accounted for by the Accessibility Theory (Ariel, 1990). Next, the self-paced reading experiment examined the online processing of the null and overt pronouns in antecedent-biased contexts. The results showed processing penalties when the context was biased toward the non-subject as the antecedent for the null or overt pronouns. Finally, the eye tracking experiment observed more fine-grained differences in the reading patterns. While null pronouns showed effects of the SBS in the early processing stage, overt pronouns demonstrated these effects in the late processing stage. In conclusion, this study supports the SBS instead of the PAS in the anaphora resolution in Mandarin Chinese.

Abstract iv
Acknowledgement vii
List of Tables viii
List of Figures xi
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
1.1 Null Subject Languages and Anaphora Resolution 1
1.2 Position of Antecedent Strategy 2
1.3 Motivation and research questions 5
Chapter 2 Literature Review 8
2.1 Indo-European NSLs 8
2.1.1 Italian 8
2.1.2 Greek 11
2.1.3 Catalan 12
2.1.4 Spanish 13
2.1.5 Summary and Discussion 14
2.2 East Asian languages 17
2.2.1 Korean and Japanese 18
2.2.2 Mandarin Chinese 21
2.2.3 Summary and Discussion 28
2.3 The Present Study 29
Chapter 3 The Sentence Interpretation Experiments 31
3.1 Experiment 1 31
3.1.1 Methodology 32
3.1.2 Results 36
3.1.3 Discussion 39
3.2 Experiment 2 41
3.2.1 Methodology 41
3.2.2 Results 43
3.2.3 Discussion 48
Chapter 4 The Self-Paced Reading Experiment 50
4.1 Methodology 51
4.1.1 Participants 51
4.1.2 Materials 51
4.1.3 Procedures 55
4.1.4 Data Analysis 55
4.2 Results 56
4.2.1 Antecedent choice analysis 56
4.2.2 Reading time analysis 58
4.3 Discussion 61
Chapter 5 The Eye Tracking Experiment 64
5.1 Methodology 66
5.1.1 Participants 66
5.1.2 Materials 66
5.1.3 Procedures 67
5.1.4 Data collection and eye-movement measures 69
5.1.5 Data Analysis 71
5.2 Results 71
5.2.1 The Critical Region 74
5.2.2 The Spillover Region 75
5.2.3 The Pre-final Region 79
5.2.4 NP1 and NP2 regions 80
5.3 Discussion 82
Chapter 6 General Discussion and Conclusion 88
6.1 General Discussion 88
6.1.1 Typological differences 91
6.1.2 Micro-variations and language-specific factors 93
6.1.3 Reviewing the Subject Bias Strategy 94
6.2 Conclusion 95
References 98
Appendix A. Experimental stimuli for the Sentence Interpretation Experiment 1 105
Appendix B. Experimental stimuli for the Sentence Interpretation Experiment 2 106
Appendix C. Experimental stimuli for the Self-paced Reading Experiment and the Eye Tracking Experiment 107

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