汉语儿童认识型情态动词的早期习得

Early Acquisition of Chinese Epistemic Modal Verbs

本研究收集一个汉语儿童从1岁4个月到3岁3个月的自然语言产出的语料,旨在调查汉语认识型情态动词的早期习得规律并尝试探寻其背后的机制。研究发现:认识型情态动词不仅习得得晚,使用频率也比较低;认识型情态动词习得的早晚与其蕴含的可能性层级有关,认识必然表达比认识或然表达早习得;认识型情态句的句型呈现逐渐多样化的趋势,句法结构则呈现逐渐复杂化的趋势。认识型情态动词的习得受到儿童心理理论发展水平、汉语语言特征和输入等多种因素的制约。

The present study investigates the emergence and early development of Chinese epistemic modal verbs of a single child from 1;4 to 3;3 and tries to probe into the underlying factors constraining early modal acquisition. The results show that： （1） epistemic modal verbs not only emerged later, but also occurred less frequently; （2） modal verbs expressing epistemic necessity were acquired earlier than those expressing epistemic uncertain- ty; （3） the syntactic structures of modal utterances developed from simple to complex gradually; （4） the acquisition process is constrained by children＇s theory of mind development, linguistic features of Chinese as well as caregivers＇ intent.