| The dissertation aims to explore the mechanism of language acquisition Mandarin-speaking children employ to acquire verbs and their argument structures at the initial stage of language development. Based on the assumption that language is a biological endowment, the study attempts to provide a theoretical account of how children's knowledge about verbs and syntactic characteristics takes shape and gradually matures from a syntactic and semantic perspective. In addition, the study also endeavors to present an enlightened understanding of some hotly debated issues from the perspective of child language acquisition, in particular the syntactic distribution and characteristics of verbs as a category. In attempt to achieve a theoretical account of the empirical data, the study inherits some fundamental analyses from the traditional study of Chinese grammar and the core spirits of the current assumptions about language acquisition, primarily those related to syntactic bootstrapping.The study is built on the longitudinal records of 3 Mandarin-speaking children, which were transcribed, lexically tagged and finally syntactically processed in terms of argument structure. Through an elaborate analysis of the data, especially with the focus on the comparative study of input and output, this set of data, consisting of 121 sessions, provides us with a wealth of systematic and intensive information with which a developmental process of verb acquisition in early child grammar can be portrayed thoroughly and clearly.The content in each chapter is arranged as follows:In the first chapter, a group of core terms, used as a basis for further discussion, especially those whose definitions are hotly disputed or unclearly demarcated in previous literature, are defined. The core terms include "early language acquisition", "verb", "argument structure", "syntactic bootstrapping" and so on. The discussion in this chapter also centers around the correlation between child early acquisition of verbs and syntactic, also lexical, development. Due to the close bond lying between these issues, the study goes on with a brief critical review of the previous literature in the context of Chinese and then comments on the research methodology applicable in this field.The second chapter begins with a brief introduction of the naturalistic data in this dissertation from various perspectives, involving data collection, methodology of analysis and statistics, criteria for judging spontaneous speech. Then it focuses on a detailed description of the methodology the study adopts in tagging verbs and processing argument structure in the early child's speech. The study lays great emphasis on a child-grammar-oriented approach to the data from diversified perspectives.Through an exhaustive analysis of input and output and a comparative study of different subjects' performance, Chapter 3 is designed to shed light on the mechanism children operate and the process of development they experience when they acquire the reduplicative forms of verbs. The study exposes a mismatch between the adults' input and the children's output, which elucidates that language input performs a significant, but not a unique, factor in making language acquisition possible. Besides, the data also brings us to the fact that children's learning is rule-based, that is, they can creatively and productively apply abstract rules they genetically inherit. What language input can contribute is to activate children's innate knowledge of certain syntactic characteristics attached to the category of verbs and help children test their hypotheses about the use of verbs.As case-related studies, Chapters 4-8 give detailed account of child's rule-based acquisition of verbs, as well as the role of canonical word order and syntactic frames.Chapter 4 focuses on the overall distribution of the tokens of argument structure in children's speech with the aim to unearth the general characteristics of verb acquisition in early grammar. Using the longitudinal data from SJQ, ZTX and CY, the study proves that canonical word order contributes very greatly to children's mastery of verbs.The core issue in Chapter 5 is how children acquire the argument structure of "you (there-be)" and "zai (exist)". The discussion begins with a study of the verbs denoting the meaning of "existence" in Mandarin and the central syntactic functions "you (there-be)" and "zai (exist)" fulfill. The study of data brings out a clear and stable correspondence between a verb and the syntactic frames it appears in. Such a well-established correspondence makes it possible for children to extract some important syntactic cues from the input, especially those pertinent to canonical word order, syntactic frames, and thus enrich their own knowledge about the syntactic distribution a particular verb is characterized by. Language input has its role in the process of language development. On the other hand, what's more important is that creativity manifests itself in children, whose brains have been laden with basic concepts about the category of verbs. It is a rule-based developmental process that children experience in acquiring verbs, a process starting from the acquisition of the unmarked (verbs/syntactic frames) to the marked (verbs/syntactic frames). The idea is further formalized into a model of radiating growth, which is to be discussed in detail in the following chapters.Chapters 6-8, also as case studies, are devoted to the exploration of the internal mechanism and developmental process of verb acquisition on the basis of the data involving more verbs or verb compounds. Chapter 6 primarily deals with the acquisition of "shi (be)", as an example of a set of verbs associated with the expression of judgment in Mandarin. "Gei (give)" is the subject of study in Chapter 7 and the verb compounds with "lai (come)" and "qu (go)" as directional complements are in Chapter 8. These case studies further explicitly evidence our major findings in Chapter 5: first, there should be a close correlation between a verb and the syntactic frame(s) it corresponds to in its unmarked use; second, supposing there is a set of verbs sharing the same semantic content, we are convinced by our data of the fact that the children will start from the mastery of a unmarked member or members in this set and use it (them) in its (their) unmarked syntactic frame(s). Later on, they will acquire other members in the same set and use them, together with the one that is initially acquired, in more syntactic frames. The observation amounts to the same thing as a model of syntactic development we formulate in Chapter 5, viz, a model of radiating growth.Chapter 9 is a bird's-eye view, incorporating all the empirical findings in a more inclusive and in-depth discussion of some theoretical issues, among which the most important ones are the rule-based and full-of-creativity process of child language acquisition, significant roles of canonical word order and syntactic frames in child acquisition of verbs, marked word orders in early child speech, contribution of language input to children's mastery of the language, relevance of the theta-role scale to word order in early grammar, a model of radiating growth in children's knowledge about verbs and their syntactic characteristics.Chapter 10 is a summary of core findings the study achieves. With regard to first language acquisition, we find:(a) Mandarin children, having already been innately equipped with some fundamental categorical notions of verbs, go through a rule-governed and full-of-creativity learning process when they endeavor to acquire verbs in their mother tongue.(b) Children's exposure to the linguistic input enables them to get access to some syntactic cues, especially those about canonical word order and argument structure, all of which naturally contribute greatly to the growth of their in-depth and intricate knowledge of verbs.(c) The process of children's acquiring verbs presents itself in the form of a model of radiating growth, specifically, gradual development in argument structure, variety of verbs and ordering of arguments in particular syntactic positions. Such a model reflects the feature, "unmarkedness", carries a very significant impact in the process of early language acquisition.(d) Significant though language input is, it is not a unique factor that works actively to make the early acquisition of verbs possible.In addition, the data and discussion in this study certainly provides a large amount of empirically-and theoretically contribution to a more elaborately-defined linguistic theory about verbs and their argument structure in Mandarin. The findings in the first language acquisition, undoubtedly, bring a lot of very meaningful implications for the language teaching and study of the second language. |
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