Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
: 4
Error: Resumptive pronouns
L1-related factor:
Unlikely to be the result of L1 interference because relative pronouns are not required for
constructing relative clauses in Chinese.
L2-related factors:
1. Lack of awareness of the correct usage and function of relative pronouns.
2. Lax Monitoring (a performance factor): This anomaly occurs often when the relative
pronoun functions as the object/prepositional object of a clause (especially a long one).
The writer may have forgotten the presence of the relative pronoun by the time he/she
reaches the original position of the object/prepositional object.
Correction procedure
To correct erroneous sentences like examples (1) to (3) above with explicit relative pronouns,
teacher (T) can go through the following procedure with students (Ss):
1. Ss underline the relative pronoun and circle the pronoun that appears in the rest of the
sentence.
e.g. There is one thing that I can remember it clearly.
2. Ss identify what the two pronouns refer to.
3. When Ss become aware that the two pronouns refer to the same thing/person (e.g.
one thing in the above sentence), T tells Ss that the second pronoun is
unnecessary/redundant.
4. Ss correct the erroneous sentence by crossing out the second pronoun.
i.e. There is one thing that I can remember clearly.
To correct erroneous sentences like examples (4) and (5) above without an explicit relative
pronoun, teacher (T) can go through the following procedure with students (Ss):
1. Ss underline the pronoun in the post-modifying clause.
e.g. There is one thing I can remember it clearly.
2. Ss identify what the pronoun refers to.
3. Ss replace the pronoun with the noun phrase it refers to.
e.g. There is one thing I can remember one thing clearly.
4. Ss rewrite the complex sentence into two simple ones by separating the post-
modifying clause from the head noun.
e.g. There is one thing. I can remember one thing clearly.
5. T introduces the use of relative pronouns in a complex sentence.
6. Ss combine the pair of sentences using a suitable relative pronoun and cross out the
redundant element in the sentence (i.e. the repeated noun phrase)
e.g. There is one thing which I can remember one thing clearly.
There is one thing which I can remember clearly.
Follow-up exercise
Correct the following sentences.