反身代词约束阻断效应的儿童语言获得研究

Children's acquisition of the blocking effect on reflexive binding

本文研究普通话儿童反身代词长距离约束的获得。实验发现,4岁以上儿童对"自己"长距离约束阻断效应的判断与成人相似,但在局部域内选择先行语方面还与成人有差异。本文采用Progova(1992)提出的AGR语链概念来定义局部域,并区分了局部域内和局部域外的长距离约束,以此来揭示汉语儿童的约束知识。本文从局部性和显著性两方面来解释儿童对反身代词的理解。儿童对阻断效应的判断反映他们具有成人的局部性知识,儿童对先行语的选择反映他们还没有完全掌握综合运用成人语法系统中显著性知识的能力。显著性以及显著性与近距性的综合运算能力是一种语法接口能力,其获得需要一个发展过程。

In this paper,an experimental study is conducted to show that Mandarin-speaking children around the age of 4 demonstrate adult-like judgment of the blocking effect on the long-distance(LD) binding of the reflexive ziji(自己) 'self',though they demonstrate non-adult-like preference on the choice of antecedents of ziji within the local domain.Following Progova9(1992),the local domain is defined by the formation of the AGR chain.This paper distinguishes the LD binding within the local domain from that outside it in order to reveal the nature of children's knowledge of the reflexive binding.Following Hu(2002),it accounts for children's interpretation of the reflexives from the perspective of the interaction between locality and prominence.Children's adult-like judgment on the blocking effect manifests their knowledge of locality,while their non-adult-like preference on the choice of the antecedents indicates that they have not fully acquired knowledge of prominence in grammar,which develops over time due to its interface properties as determined by the interaction between syntax,semantics,and discourse(Hu,2002).