The production of SE and SELF anaphors in Spanish and Dutch children

Both Dutch zich and Spanish se are considered Simple Expression or SE anaphors. The present study shows that, in spite of this classification, Spanish children perform much more adultlike on se than Dutch children do on zich. We argue that this developmental difference supports a different analysis of zich as a pronominal element, as opposed to se, which is best analyzed as a reflexive-marker.We also found that Spanish children perform highly non-adultlike on the complex anaphor sí mismo and other strong reflexives, unlike Dutch children who performed highly adultlike on zichzelf. We claimthat Spanish children’s difficulties with strong reflexives are for the most part the result of their limited ability to construct integrated discourses.