The Interpretation of Disjunction in VP Ellipsis: The Case of Mandarin Chinese

Autor/inn/en	Gao, Na; Zhou, Peng; Thornton, Rosalind; Crain, Stephen
Titel	The Interpretation of Disjunction in VP Ellipsis: The Case of Mandarin Chinese
Quelle	In: First Language, 41 (2021) 6, S.737-759 (23 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Gao, Na) ORCID (Zhou, Peng) ORCID (Thornton, Rosalind)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0142-7237
DOI	10.1177/01427237211020971
Schlagwörter	Mandarin Chinese; Verbs; Sentence Structure; Age Differences; Adults; Young Children; Foreign Countries; Language Processing; China (Beijing) + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Satzbau; Satzstruktur; Age; Difference; Age difference; Altersunterschied; Frühe Kindheit; Ausland; Sprachverarbeitung
Abstract	It has long been noted that verb phrase (VP) ellipsis cancels the polarity sensitivity of the English Positive Polarity Items (PPIs). In recent work, it has been proposed that words for disjunction are governed by a parameter. On one value of the parameter, disjunction is a PPI for adult speakers of many languages including Mandarin Chinese. On the other value, disjunction is interpreted "in situ." It has also been proposed that child language learners, across languages, initially interpret disjunction "in situ," not as a PPI. Taken together, these proposals predict that child and adult speakers of Mandarin will assign the same interpretation to disjunction in sentences with VP ellipsis, but will assign a different interpretation in sentences without VP ellipsis. This study assessed these predictions. In sentences with a full VP, the adult participants analyzed disjunction as a PPI, but they interpreted disjunction "in situ" in sentences with VP ellipsis. The child participants interpreted disjunction "in situ" in sentences of both kinds. Together, the findings support the recent proposal that disjunction is governed by a lexical parameter, with a default setting. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01