词汇飞跃:早期语言发展的里程碑──来自五名汉语儿童的跟踪报告

Word-Spurt: A Milestone in Early Language Development──A Longitudinal Study on Five Mandarin-Speaking Children

本文通过对五名汉语儿童的长期跟踪调查,旨在从词汇增长、句法出现和语义发展三方面发掘词汇飞跃时期儿童的语言特征。结果显示:儿童在18个月左右词汇迅猛增长,出现词汇飞跃现象;标志句法出现的词语组合和词汇飞跃在时间上紧密相连;词汇飞跃期儿童语义发展显著,体现为过度延伸词的逐渐减少及下位层次词的逐渐增加。词汇飞跃是汉语儿童早期语言发展的里程碑,表明其在词汇、句法和语义多个语言层面的飞跃。

Word - spurt is characterized by a sudden rise of vocabulary growth toward the end of one - word stage, typically around one and a half years old, when the child has a vocabulary of about 50 words. Many researchers have reported vocabulary spurt in early lexi- cal development according to parental reports as well as longitudinal case studies. Previous studies usually analyze word spurt from a single language or non - language perspective, and there is no systematic investigation of children＇s linguistic feattrres of word - spurt. In the Chinese literature, a few studies focus on the early lexical growth, the distribution of early lexieal categories and the frequency of use of early vocabulary, which, too, fail to provide sufficient information on the characteristics of the early lexical, syntactic and semantic development of word - spurt. Based on the longitudinal data of five Mandarin - speakg children, this paper explores word - spurt in children＇s early lexical, syntactic and semantic development. The data on the early lexieal development showed that for the five chil- dren, a sudden increase in vocabulary was witnessed at 18 months. Children＇s naming insight was the foundation for the achievement of a capability to handle grammatical relations, as these results confirmed a close link between the onset of word combinations and word - spurt in terms of relative chronology. The two - word stage symbolizing the occurrence of early syntax began for the children around 17 months, almost the same time with word- spurt, A longitudinal study on the early semantic development showed that the acquisition of meanings for the five kids was a quick process. The Children＇s first overextension occurred at 9 months, and overextension was highly restrained before 16 months. Then, overextended words reached the highest number around 18 months, petering out gradually ,until the end of the second year. On the whole, less than 7% of the children＇s vocabulary was oerextended. In addition, basic - level words constituted almost all the early common nouns, which displayed the conceptual primacy of basic - level words in early lexical developmert. The elaboration of nun hierarchies consisted mainly in the additiorj of subordinate - level words, with the first appearing at 17 months. The gradual disappearance of over- extensions and the addition of subordinate - tevet words around word - spurt implied a change of word - referent abilities during this pc- fled. After that, there was a great improvernet of children＇s word - referent mapping abilities. In sum, it appeared that 18 months was a lestone for children＇s early lexical, syntactic and semantic development. It was around this time that ehihtren displayed a sehes of great diarges, a r .aojd growth of vocabulary ; an ocurrence of word combinations ; a gradual disappearance of overextended words and a gradail crease of ：subordinate - level words. Word - spurt marks not only a quantitative change of vaetbulary, but also a qualitative chancre ii hildren＇s whole language system.