汉语复杂名词短语指称性质的儿童习得研究

Mandarin-speaking children's acquisition of referential properties of complex noun phrases

汉语中包含数量词和修饰语的复杂名词短语有两种可能的词序:修饰语位于数量词之后、名词之前("内修饰名词短语");修饰语位于数量词之前("外修饰名词短语")。前者既可定指又可不定指,而后者只能定指。采用诱导产出法和图片验证法分别考察汉语儿童的语言产出和理解,发现5岁以前儿童没有掌握复杂名词短语的指称性质,他们极少使用外修饰名词短语指称定指个体,也未习得该词序不允许不定非实指解读的知识。研究结果总体支持文献中有关表达定指性的句法手段晚于词汇/形态手段习得的观点。儿童因为外修饰名词短语生成机制的复杂性及该类短语在语言输入中较少出现等原因而较晚习得其指称性质。

In Mandarin Chinese, when there are both a numeral-classifier and a modifier in a noun phrase, the modifier may occur either between the numeral-classifier and the head noun, or preceding the numeral-classifier. Whereas noun phrases with the former word order are ambiguous between indefinite and definite readings, those with the latter order can only be definite. Through elicited production and picture verification tasks, the present study reveals that Mandarin-acquiring children have not acquired the correspondence between nominal-internal word order and (in) definiteness before the age of 5. They rarely use outer modifier nominals for definite entities in their language production, nor do they reject the nonspecific indefinite reading of these nominals. The results are consistent with the position that the syntactic devices of (in) definiteness are acquired later than the lexical/morphological devices. It is argued that the late acquisition is due to the complexity of the derivation of outer modifier nominals and their rare occurrence in the input.