中文雙賓動詞的母語習得

Abstract

本研究旨在探討以中文為母語的學齡前兒童雙賓動詞的第一語言習得。中文雙賓動詞可細分為三類：必加「給」的動詞、不能加「給」動詞、以及可隨意加「給」動詞。主要的研究議題包含以下五種：各類動詞的困難度、句型的標記性、非雙賓句型之句子分析、年齡因素、以及題型效應。本研究共設計兩個測驗：句子選擇以及引導造句。研究對象為四十五位學齡前兒童及十五位大學生。受試兒童再分為三組：第一組（三歲）、第二組（四歲）、和第三組（約五歲）。 研究結果顯示：第一，不能加「給」的動詞對小朋友困難度最高，而另外兩類動詞困難度差異不大。第二，必加「給」的動詞中，[V-gei-IO-DO]比[V-DO-gei-IO]更具有標記性。對於可隨意加「給」的動詞而言，[V-gei-IO-DO] 最具有標記性，[V-IO-DO]居於第二，而[V-DO-gei-IO]最無標記性。第三，從小朋友的非雙賓動詞句型使用分析得知，他們傾向於先把這些動詞當作一般及物動詞使用，，接著加入第二個賓語，最後他們說出越來越多的複雜句子。第四，在此研究中，兒童的年齡證實在語言習得中扮演著重要的角色。年齡較大的兒童表現普遍比較小的兒童來得好。 此外，在他們說出的句子中也可得知，年齡越大，句子的複雜度也越高。例如，較常加入第二個賓語以及一個句子會常有兩個動詞出現。最後，在題型效應方面，兒童在理解性測驗中的表現普遍比口說表現好，證實了先前文獻中之看法：理解語言優先於使用語言。The present study aims to investigate Chinese children’s acquisition of double object verbs with gei. These verbs were classified into three types, gei-required, gei-forbidden, and gei-optional. The following issues were examined, i.e. the difficulty levels, unmarked/marked patterns, development of untargeted patterns, age effects, and task effects. Two tasks were employed, a grammaticality task, i.e. Sticker Giving Task (SG Task), and a sentence elicitation task, i.e. Picture Description Task (PD Task). Forty-five children aged from three to five and fifteen adults participated in the experiment, who were further divided into four groups, i.e. Group 1 (three-year-olds), Group 2(four-year-olds), Group 3 (five-year-olds), and Group 4 (native controls). The results are as follows: Firstly, among the three types, gei-forbidden verbs posed the most difficulty for the children, while the other two were relatively easier. Secondly, with regard to gei-required verbs, [V-DO-gei-IO] was the unmarked pattern while [V-gei-IO-DO] was marked. Similarly, for gei-optional verbs, the most unmarked pattern was [V-DO-gei-IO], followed by [V-IO-DO], and [V-gei-IO-DO] the most marked. Thirdly, a steady development was found in the children’s untargeted sentences. The children began with mono-transitive use of these verbs, then added a second object, and finally generated more complex sentences. Fourthly, age, as expected, turned out to be a crucial factor affecting our children’s performances. It was confirmed that the older they were, the better they performed. Finally, a task effect was found: the SG Task was significantly easier than the PD Task, a result consistent with the previous studies that comprehension was easier and earlier than production.