Mastering the Grammar of Complex Events: Evidence from Mandarin Resultative Verb Compounds

Autor/inn/en	Hsu, Ning; Rispoli, Matthew; Hadley, Pamela A.
Titel	Mastering the Grammar of Complex Events: Evidence from Mandarin Resultative Verb Compounds
Quelle	In: Language Learning and Development, 15 (2019) 3, S.255-277 (23 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1547-5441
DOI	10.1080/15475441.2019.1590204
Schlagwörter	Verbs; Mandarin Chinese; Language Acquisition; Morphemes; Morphology (Languages); Computational Linguistics; Task Analysis; Parent Child Relationship; Linguistic Input; Preschool Children; Toddlers; Cues; Discourse Analysis; Language Usage; Developmental Stages; Speech Communication + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; Morphem; Morphology; Morphologie; Linguistics; Computerlinguistik; Aufgabenanalyse; Parents-child relationship; Parent-child-relation; Parent-child relationship; Eltern-Kind-Beziehung; Sprachbildung; Pre-school age; Preschool age; Child; Children; Pre-school education; Preschool education; Vorschulalter; Kind; Kinder; Vorschulkind; Vorschulkinder; Vorschulerziehung; Vorschule; Infant; Infants; Toddler; Kleinkind; Stichwort; Diskursanalyse; Sprachgebrauch
Abstract	The Mandarin resultative verb compound (RVC; e.g., "tui dao" "push fall" and "pa shang" "climb ascend") encodes complex events composed of an initiating action and resulting activity or state. This study investigated when Mandarin-speaking children acquired this language-specific device. Specifically, we focused on children's production of RVCs with two infixes, -"bu"- "not able" and -"de"- "be able." Because the infixes intervene between the two verbs of RVC (e.g., "tui -bu- dao" "push -not able- fall" and "tui -de- dao" "push -be able- fall"), being able to produce RVC infixation indicates that children have a morphological separation between the action and the result verbs. Two studies were conducted. Study 1 is a corpus analysis. We examined the use of plain RVCs versus RVCs with infixes in parent input and children's spontaneous speech using a cross-sectional corpus and a longitudinal corpus. RVCs with infixes were found to be very rare in both parent input and child production. Study 2 is an experimental elicitation task targeting RVC infixation. Children between 3;0 and 5;0 performed exceptionally well, producing target responses when primed with structurally related probes in discourse-appropriate contexts. There was no difference in children's performance related to age or the type of infix (i.e., -"bu"- vs -"de"-). Children's early competence with RVC infixation, which is infrequent in input, runs counter to the usage-based approach that emphasizes item-based learning. Rather, by age three, Mandarin-speaking children have developed a representation of the RVC as two distinct morphemes for encoding complex event structure. This representation facilitates acquisition of the infixes with very little input data. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01