摘要
上世纪八十年代生成语法领域对空语类的广泛讨论引发了学界对儿童普遍使用空论元现象的关注。跨语言研究发现,不管儿童习得的目标语言是否允准空论元,他们早期都普遍使用空论元,而且普遍存在空主语多空宾语少的主宾不对称现象。前人基于语法和语言加工的解释都无法对早期空论元现象做出统一的解释。本文通过汉语普通话儿童使用空论元的实验研究发现,儿童空论元的分布受话题连续性条件的制约,指称生命度对汉语空宾语的使用具有调节作用,尽管儿童对宾语指称生命度敏感,但直到5岁对个体生命度的二分归类还不同于成人。本文认为话题连续性是制约空论元使用的话语原则,是儿童普遍掌握的语言知识,而指称生命度是调节汉语空宾语使用的特殊规则,是语言参数化以后儿童掌握的语言知识。
The acquisition study on early null arguments was evoked by the theoretical discussions on the nature of empty categories within the generative framework in early 1980 s. It has been found that all children use null arguments in their early years of language development, regardless of whether their target languages allow the null arguments. Cross-linguistically, null subjects outnumber null objects. Previous grammatical and processing analyses haven't provided a unified account for children's early use of null arguments. This paper presents an experimental study on Mandarin-speaking children's production of null arguments. It is found that the use of null arguments is constrained by the topic continuity principle and the use of null objects is regulated by the animacy properties of the referents. This paper argues that the topic continuity principle is universally available and acquired early in language development. The animacy restriction on the use of null objects in Chinese is languagespecific and acquired as children's cognitive abilities develop.
出处
《外语教学与研究》
CSSCI
北大核心
2017年第2期163-176,共14页
Foreign Language Teaching and Research
基金
天津市哲学社科规划项目"英汉略谓结构的理论与实证研究"(TJWW13-013)
胡建华
顾曰国主持的中国社会科学院登峰战略计划"特殊学科"建设项目"心理语言学--语言的获得与发展"(2016-2021)课题的资助
