Akiyama M M
Department of Behavioral Sciences, University of Michigan-Dearborn 48128.
J Psycholinguist Res. 1992 Mar;21(2):67-85. doi: 10.1007/BF01067988.
This review article examines how children verify a statement (e.g., You are a child. Right or wrong?) and answer a corresponding question (e.g., Are you a child? Yes or no?) in English, French, Japanese, and Korean. While people verify affirmative statements and answer affirmative questions similarly across the four languages, they answer negative questions differently across the four languages. In English, answering negative questions works in a way opposite to verification (e.g., Are you not a child? Yes; You are not a child. Wrong). In French, si is used in the place of the yes response in English. In Japanese and Korean, answering negative questions works in a way similar to verification (e.g., Are you not a child? No; You are not a child. Wrong). The effects of these linguistic characteristics are examined. Findings are: (1) All children across the four languages appear to start answering negative questions using the English system; (2) English-speaking children find verifying negative statements more difficult than answering the corresponding questions but Japanese-speaking children find it less difficult; and (3) while English-speaking and Korean-speaking children find true negative statements more difficult to verify than false negative statements, Japanese-speaking children find them less difficult. Language-universal and language-specific processes in verification and answering are discussed.
这篇综述文章研究了儿童如何用英语、法语、日语和韩语来核实一个陈述（例如，“你是个孩子。对还是错？”）以及回答相应的问题（例如，“你是个孩子吗？是或否？”）。虽然在这四种语言中，人们核实肯定陈述和回答肯定问题的方式相似，但他们回答否定问题的方式在这四种语言中有所不同。在英语中，回答否定问题的方式与核实的方式相反（例如，“你不是个孩子吗？是的；你不是个孩子。错误”）。在法语中，“si”用来代替英语中的肯定回答。在日语和韩语中，回答否定问题的方式与核实的方式相似（例如，“你不是个孩子吗？不是；你不是个孩子。错误”）。研究了这些语言特征的影响。研究结果如下：（1）所有四种语言的儿童似乎一开始都是用英语的方式来回答否定问题；（2）说英语的儿童发现核实否定陈述比回答相应问题更困难，但说日语的儿童则觉得难度较小；（3）虽然说英语和韩语的儿童发现核实真实的否定陈述比核实虚假的否定陈述更困难，但说日语的儿童觉得难度较小。文中还讨论了核实和回答过程中语言通用和语言特定的过程。
